BADLAND

BADLAND stands out because it turns side-scrolling action into a physics puzzle full of traps, moving machinery, and awkwardly timed flight. By our assessment, its strongest point is the tactile feel of pushing, fluttering, and bouncing through levels that keep throwing new hazards into the path. The downside is that the same tight design can become punishing, since a single mistake often sends the run back to the start of a section. In practice it is a game of timing and repetition, with short bursts of trial-and-error that can feel sharp rather than relaxing. Compared with plain runner games, BADLAND is much stranger and more deliberate, and it asks for more attention. It is not trying to be a broad adventure; its ceiling is the carefully built obstacle course, and that is enough for what it wants to be.