Mago feels like a long-lost ‘hidden gem’ platformer from the SNES days

destructoid.com:

If you’ve run out of retro games to satisfy your nostalgia cravings, then chances are pretty good that you’ve looked around for “hidden gems” for your old-school platform of choice. After tearing through the cream of the crop and the cult classics, it’s natural to start lowering your standards a smidge for flawed, interesting, memorable oddities — the kind of games that get lovingly lumped together in “underrated” or “overlooked” lists.

Mago, an upcoming action-platformer for PC, doesn’t qualify exactly. It’s new! But to me, it captures some of that “wow, how have I never heard of this?” factor. It’s pretty dang neat.

I haven’t played Mago yet, technically — but an extensive free prologue called Mago: The Villain’s Burger just dropped on Steam this week, and it was half an hour well spent.

After seeing a wide-ranging trailer that featured spell-slinging, mech punch-outs, and plenty of out-there boss battles, I knew it’d be a good fit. Mago calls back to the time when we had loads of games with cavemen protagonists, because hey, we’re allowed to do that. There’s a lot going on with this game. In a good way! I’m not sure how “cohesive” everything is, but that also doesn’t necessarily work against it. I appreciate the variety.

I also have to shout out the explorable overworld map, as pictured above — it’s nice to just walk around in between levels and catch your breath. It’s a choice, and I respect that.

During Mago‘s bread-and-butter levels, you’ll fire a spell to stun enemies or unfurl vine walkways and also dash, swim, bounce, and collect orbs scattered along the way for eventual character upgrades. There’s a snappy sense of momentum, and the sprites — including our nimble sorcerer protagonist — are pretty beefy. Think