Headlander

Headlander turns a strange sci-fi joke into a Metroid-style platformer about moving a disembodied head through robots, corridors, and locked areas. By our assessment, its strongest idea is the possession mechanic, because jumping between bodies gives the game a neat puzzle-and-exploration rhythm that feels different from a straight run-and-gun. The downside is that the odd premise only goes so far; once the novelty settles, the game still has to live on level design and backtracking like the rest of the genre. In practice it is about floating, swapping hosts, and using each shell to solve the next obstacle. Compared with other retro-flavoured action platformers, it stands out more for concept and tone than for raw challenge. Headlander is for players who like idea-driven platforming, and it is less convincing if someone mainly wants speed and combat pressure.