Burning Instinct

I have a soft spot for the kind of game that arrives on Steam with almost no fanfare, one review, and a developer whose name doubles as the publisher. Burning Instinct is exactly that thing, and it earns more attention than it gets. Built by a single developer under the handle Merlin Beer, this is a hard sidescrolling platformer with Metroidvania bones: a connected world, a levelling system, powerups, boss fights, and hidden secrets tucked into corners that punish button-mashers and reward the patient. The hook is genuinely charming in concept and execution. You begin as a hatchling, literally cracking out of an egg, and the whole structure of the game mirrors that growth arc. Your dragon picks up new abilities and attacks as you level up, and the level cap sits at 30, meaning there is real room for the creature to transform from something fragile and awkward into something that can handle what the later screens throw at it. Mouse-aiming for your attacks adds a layer of precision that feels deliberate rather than clunky once you settle into it, and the chiptune soundtrack lands with the kind of warmth that the genre does so well when a developer genuinely cares about the sound rather than treating it as an afterthought. One early community note described it as "nostalgia done right," and that reads as honest rather than hyperbolic. The difficulty is real. Community feedback from the small but present player base notes the game is genuinely punishing, and the sandbox mode that exists in later builds is locked behind completion rather than available from the start, which means newcomers hit walls without a practice space to soften them. If you come in expecting Cave Story levels of accessibility, recalibrate. The game asks something of you. That is not a dealbreaker for players who like methodical progression and exploration, but if precision platforming frustration sends you to the refund screen within the first hour, be warned. What Burning Instinct has going for it quietly and consistently is craft. Over 90 screens of hand-built world, a level editor with Steam Workshop integration so the community can extend the experience, Steam achievements, and a thematic ambition the developer describes as heavy symbolism, which in a small game of this type usually means the mood has weight even if the story delivery is lean. It sits in a strange gap between retro chiptune nostalgia and genuine Metroidvania structure, and for the right player that gap is exactly where interesting things happen. It is not a polished blockbuster. It is a one-person passion project with rough edges that knows what it wants to be.

Kai · Scout Team

Indie & narrative

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