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Halloween may be over, but that isn’t going to stop me from writing about this clever and fun little platformer from the 2016 Horror Pixel Jam. Endless Rain is a game which is all about the traps. Pits, pressure plates, and evil eye monsters which disguise themselves as bloodstains near the ceiling are scattered around the protagonist’s path. You can actually survive a single hit from the eyes and a few hits from the projectiles the pressure plates usually trigger, but damage can add up fast and most hazards are instantly lethal. As a result, this is a game where players will need to proceed with caution, not just looking out for pressure plates, but also jumping upward to check the ceiling for eyes and interpreting bloodstains to determine which areas are safe. The game definitely has some rough spots likely related to the contest’s time limit, namely that the hitboxes for the eye enemies don’t quite line up with their sprites, which makes hitting them with your axe more difficult than it needs to be, and the crypt which the game takes place in doesn’t really look much like a crypt or any sort of building in particular outside of the few tombs scattered around it.
While I enjoyed the trap-oriented platforming, it is the final stretch which really won me over. For this final segment, players are chased back through the crypt by an invincible enemy and must think quickly and move precisely in order to avoid hazards while solving some clever platforming puzzles. I also greatly enjoyed the ending cutscene, which is worth playing through the game for on its own. Endless Rain could stand to benefit from a bit more polish in some areas if its developer one day decides to make a post-contest patch, but the current version holds up well enough and the few bumps along the way are a small price to pay for a clever short story and fun platforming.