Maybe Dust is meant for kids but it's so simple I could feel my mind frying from lack of any meaningful challenge. If you invest all your gems into strength early on you can easily one shot most enemies and bosses just melt. It's the kind of design where they fill the screen with enemies but all of them are completely useless so combat just ends up feeling button mashey.

The only thing that even comes close to a challenge are some of the environmental hazards that are more a test of patience than anything else. The floaty feel of the physics doesn't do the game any favors either.

As bad as the combat is what's worse is that Dust is meant to be a metroidvania but it takes too long to start finding abilities to open up exploration. The way navigation is designed doesn't help. Level layout isn't represented well by the map making the onscreen map practically useless and diving into the options menu to check the map can be a chore in a game like this.

Must play

Fantastic game! I loved the art style, the game play was a lot of fun, though I wish there were more combos. The story and characters were pitch perfect, and it hit all the right emotional notes. Easy 9/10, would recommend even at full price. ^_^