It’s become increasingly difficult to stand out in the crowded field of platforming titles, even with a pretty face. On one hand, you have retro fever, with new games that recall 8- or 16-bit classics, if not refitted versions of the games we played 20+ years ago. On the other hand, you have an explosion of interesting approaches to platforming, everything from time travel to roguelikes to augmented reality.
Munin does carve out a unique spot for itself, while drawing on some mechanics you’ll find familiar. The story definitely lends itself to the genre, since Munin and Hugin both were known in Norse mythology as continually wandering on behalf of Odin. The twist here is that
Munin has been transformed by Loki into a human girl and must now reclaim her raven form by gathering feathers scattered through the nine realms.
Steeped in source material, each realm has a unique design style and set of challenges. The first three you’ll encounter range from the rock-rolling physics obstacles of Jötunheimr to the liquid physics of Niflheimr. The third land, Helgardr, features machines powered by souls in a land somewhat like a Western vision of Hell. These worlds and others contain the 77 playable levels in Munin that publisher Daedalic estimates will weigh in at about seven hours of gameplay. The central theme is always physics-based manipulation of elements in each level, but the variation across worlds is refreshing, especially since you can move between unlocked levels at any time. This might be the best feature of the entire game since it’s usually the case in this genre that you move linearly from level to level.