Announced at E3 just last year, Ori and the Blind Forest, a beautiful, stylized action platformer game that wowed the crowds (and made our jaws drop, at least), has at last been given a release date. Better yet, it's fairly soon - and it'll come complete with a budget price tag.
Set to launch on the 11th March for Xbox One and PC, for a wallet pleasing $19.99 (which translates as less than £15 in real money), there's not too long to wait before get to explore its gorgeous world - and a nice Spring release date for a game all about the preservation of nature and natural life makes sense to us, too.
Ori and the Blind Forest sees the player take on the role of the eponymous hero, Ori, the very last spirit guardian of the ancient blind forest. It's Ori's duty to protect the blind forest from anything that would do it harm - in this case, the dark owl Kuro. When Kuro snatches away Ori's mother, a great, fuzzy creature you really can't help but love (kind of like a cross between Baymax and Totoro), Ori is left alone and scared, with no choice but to explore the beautiful realms of the forest, on a quest to track down his lost parent and save the forest from the dark owl's cruelty.
Although a platform game at heart, there's a lot more to Ori than just jumping over some spiky pits, and defeating a few enemies. A "metroidvania" style game, not all of the forest is initially accessible - but the more you play, and the more you level Ori up, the more abilities you'll unlock, and the more of the forest you'll be able to explore. With a gentle pace, and an emphasis on puzzle solving, this is right up our street - and had us excited when we first went hands-on with it back at gamescom.
With a chilling yet inviting atmosphere, a great soundtrack, and an entire forest waiting to be explored, this was high on our most wanted list before. Now we know it's just a few short weeks away - and will come with a budget price - we're counting down the days, although we are a bit confused that the Xbox 360 version seems to have vanished. Hopefully it hasn't been cancelled while we weren't looking.
With mere weeks to go, why not pass the time with a brief clip of some gameplay below:
