Headlander Reviews
Double Fine's head-spinning sci-fi puzzler has plenty of style but not enough substance to sustain its lengthy adventure.
Not as unique as you’d perhaps expect given the premise, but still a very stylish, characterful and funny adventure.
Headlander has a few rough spots, but its 70s retro/sci-fi aesthetic and head-swapping gameplay are out of this world.
What starts as a fine homage to Super Metroid and ‘70s style sci-fi ends as a disappointing waste of both story and gameplay potential.
The game is loaded with Double Fine’s signature humor, from snappy dialogue to turrets that apologize while firing at you
Headlander's weird world overflows with color, power-ups, and personality.
Headlander isn't Double Fine's funniest game, but it's one of its most consistently fun
Headlander also has an extensive upgrade system for your helmet, but I found myself only making use of a small percentage of them, but this might act as the perfect example for the game itself: a ton of great ideas without fully making use of all of them.
Without those lackluster diversions, it would be an amicable trifle. Even at its best, the game feels like an idea gestating in real-time, like a sponge dinosaur filling up with water. So much of Headlander teases you with the idea of what could have been; a shame, because the game we actually got is kind of a bummer.
For a certain nostalgic generation of gamer, it’s hard not to fall in love with Headlander’s retro futuristic stylings and the kind of “what if…” set up that wouldn’t feel out of place in a Terry Nation TV show or a film like Logan’s Run. The combat and and boss fights let it down, but this is an eminently enjoyable twist on the Metroidvania genre.
Headlander proves to be a nice distraction in the midst of the Summer drought season as I enjoyed its humor from start to finish. While its humor helped carry me to the end, the literal disconnect of the character's head from his body turned into a figurative disconnect as its story wasn’t engaging enough. It has some nice Metroidvania moments, although it sputters towards the end to only rely on its color-coded components to keep me out of certain areas, which felt like a cheap way to finish the game.
Headlander is quite challenging, packed with an effective gameplay, but unfortunately never really addictive or so memorable.
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Double Fine was able to take a classic gaming genre and imbue new life into it with their trademark humor, and the resulting experience is solid. It could use some tweaks here and there, but fans of metroidvanias are sure to have a great time floating through the ridiculous world of Headlander.
An excellent side-scrolling Metroidvania game, with nostalgic undertones and great gameplay, helping it thrive in its science fiction paradise.
Headlander is entertaining, looks and sounds excellent, and gives off a cool vibe, but this isn't quite a classic.
Headlander’s hugely charming, basically, and though it doesn’t run too far with the humour of its concept, it absolutely makes the gimmick work from a play point of view. It’s got more steam in its engine than other recent, similarly high-concept Double Fine endeavours too, working hard to stay vibrant throughout.
Headlander from Double Fine Productions is a fun, quirky science-fiction Metroidvania game with engaging puzzles, strong exploration elements, and flying heads.
Headlander is an okay game made much better by a suitably daft concept, and the way it’s presented. It’s an amusing take on the Metroidvania-style genre that adds little new mechanically.
Headlander is an enjoyable experience that shouldn’t be overlooked, especially if you like the Metroidvania style of games.
It's a testament to the excellence of Headlander that it can only be faulted for its slight technical flaws. Everything about it is so finely tuned, from its gunplay to its platforming to its puzzles, and it doesn't just stay true to classic Metroidvanias – it also builds upon the foundations that they laid. The story is well told, the characters are entertaining, the environments are fleshed out, and the humour is as brilliant as always. Headlander's one of the best games that Double Fine has ever produced.