Dracamar

My first instinct when I booted Dracamar was to check whether I'd accidentally launched something from a 2003 PS2 bargain shelf, and I mean that as a genuine compliment. Petoons Studio, a Barcelona-based indie known for licensed kids games, has built something that captures the specific unhurried warmth of early collectathon platformers. The Mediterranean island setting isn't just window dressing. Sunny beaches, rolling hills, and vibrant colour palettes all carry a distinct Catalan cultural texture that you don't see in the usual fantasy-castle or sci-fi palette of the genre. There's something quietly rare about a platformer that has a real sense of place. The structure is classic to the bone. You pick one of three characters, Caliu, Foc, or Espurna, and it's worth knowing upfront that their gameplay is essentially identical, so don't agonise over the choice. From there, you move across 15 main levels and 5 bonus stages, running, jumping, and batting enemies called Mokis to knock loose the Crokies that free the corrupted Okis underneath. Moki-balls you collect along the way feed into rebuilding bridges between islands, which gives the collectible loop a satisfying sense of material purpose rather than just padding a percentage counter. Your companion Iko, a magical Oki who tags along, adds contextual powers via a single trigger button: turning clouds into platforms, screwing springs out of the ground, zipping you to a magnet point. It's elegant and unobtrusive. Seven boss fights punctuate the campaign, and while none of them will test you, they do provide a welcome change of tempo. Honesty corner: Dracamar is easy. Genuinely easy. Checkpoints are generous, friction is minimal, and the level design telegraphs every interaction with bold visual markers. A giant yellow X on a wall means punch it. That kind of clarity is a design choice, not a flaw, and it reads as intentional. The game sits comfortably in ESRB E10+ territory and was clearly built with younger players and platformer newcomers in mind. Adult players who want a challenge, or any meaningful difference between the three characters, will be left wanting. The progression system also drew some criticism from reviewers: areas of the overworld are locked behind item-count thresholds, which can feel at odds with how frictionless everything else is. Where Dracamar earns its quiet advocates is in the atmosphere and polish. The levels are large and reward a completionist instinct, with stars acting as currency for cosmetic unlocks from a vendor and hidden medals tucked off the main path. Performance is clean across platforms. The whole thing doesn't overstay its welcome. For a parent looking for something to hand to a seven-year-old for the first time, or a player who just wants two gentle weekend hours with a game that asks nothing stressful of them, there is genuine craft here. It isn't reinventing anything, but it knows exactly what it is, and that kind of self-awareness in a small indie production is worth appreciating.

Kai · Scout Team

Indie & narrative

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