Game Review: Aidan in Danger (Nintendo Switch)

Fun, surprisingly addictive, intuitive, and with awesome retro visuals and music, Aidan in Danger is 2D platform game from indie developer and publisher Brainium Games.

In it, players step into the shoes of the young elf Aidan, who is the guardian of the last dragon. Drakor. Alas, a great inter-dimensional evil arrives and captures Drakor, forcing Aidan to give chase across the land to save his friend.

It’s an epic journey, delivered in bitesize retro style, that takes place across 30 varied levels and with varying degrees of platforming challenge. Which, to some, may not sound particularly appealing. After all, there are no shortage of these types of games even in modern times and on first glance, Aidan in Danger doesn’t appear to be anything special.

On second glance though, its quality begins to show and what looks to be fairly run of the mill ends up being a thoroughly enjoyable experience. One that is heartily recommended for all who enjoy some retro gaming (albeit modernised).

Enjoyable because there has been a lot of love and care put into perfecting every aspect of Aidan in Danger. The level designs and how they change as the game progresses, the enemy types and how the challenge slowly, but surely increases, the smoothness of the controls, and the ‘one more go’ vibe it constantly gives off.

A temptation made all the easier to give in to thanks to a smart checkpoint system and a constant sense that any failure is your own fault and not poor game design. Be it a mistimed jump over a pit, misjudging the attack of an enemy, failing to notice the spikes coming out of the ground, or getting battered by a tricky boss, Aidan in Danger will have you coming back for more time and time again.

Sure, there’s not a lot of ‘meat to the bones’ from a story or character perspective, but Aidan in Danger makes up for that by just being a fun and addictive 2D platformer. As far as paying homage to the golden age of classic 8-bit gaming goes, it delivers, and is particularly well suited to the Switch. Playing just as well docked or in handheld mode.

Aidan in Danger is now available on PC, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4.