Dandara Reviews
Dandara has a firm foundation, but suffers from inherent design flaws and a lack of direction. Despite its imperfections, I mostly enjoyed my time with it. It treads a lot of familiar ground with its gameplay mechanics, but those were the portions of the game I found myself having the most fun with.
The sense of mastery never quite comes, resulting in a game that flashes its potential in one scene only to undermine that thrill soon afterward. Even with its occasional stumbles, though, Dandara offers enough excitement and beauty to push you onward.
A prickly 2D Metroidvania with a curious twist, Dandara admirably finds something new to do with the genre, but it's tough work to get onboard.
Dandara is truly one of a kind: there was nothing quite like it before hitting Nintendo Switch and I don’t suspect there will be anything like it again. Players take control of the game’s titular character, Dandara, as she seeks to free the Salt and its children from oppression; the central themes in Dandara deal with shaping a world that prioritizes art, knowledge, and discovery over militarism and capital. Dandara blew me away from start to finish.
Dandara is an artistic pixel art metroidvania with ideas of his own, like an original control scheme and a little Dark Souls touch. The problem is that, as a game designed to be played on smartphones without physic controls, the gameplay mechanics and power ups tend to be a little simple. But if you love the metroidvania genre, you'll enjoy it.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Dandara is a game built out of passion and a strong identity. This shines throughout and its a great example of touchscreen use on the Switch and a fantastic game.
Dandara is an ispired metroidvania with no gravity gameplay that maybe can confuse someone, but is definitively a brilliant one.
Review in Italian | Read full review
While a few consistent problems weigh it down, Dandara is still an engrossing adventure. As many times as the in-game map bugged me or the difficulty got me down, I kept at it, working my way through the peculiar world, seeking out new items and upgrades and figuring out how to move around delicately to attack or avoid foes. It might not be for the faint of heart, but Dandara is a wonderfully idiosyncratic game.
Dandara is a 2D Metroidvania platformer that's admirably intent on doing things differently, from its Brazilian folklore-infused narrative to its unorthodox and touchscreen-friendly controls. It can be a little awkward to play as a result, and it's got its fair share of structural niggles, but Dandara provides a genuinely fascinating world to spend some time in.
Even so, Dandara‘s seemingly-impossible feat at combining elements of platforming, combat and strategy within its explorative template takes some doing and is almost an accomplishment in of itself.