Iconoclasts

 Switch
User Score
7.7

Generally favorable reviews- based on 76 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 48 out of 76
  2. Mixed: 20 out of 76
  3. Negative: 8 out of 76
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  1. bl1rt
    Jan 3, 2019
    3
    The game does not live up to the praise (and price). Ultimately, there is a lot to like, but too little to enjoy.
    Most of the time is spent solving puzzles, like how to kill a certain enemy type, pushing platforms around, or find where to go next. Unfortunately, those puzzles are usually easy to figure out, yet hard to pull off because the controls frequently get in the way. This makes    The game does not live up to the praise (and price). Ultimately, there is a lot to like, but too little to enjoy.
    Most of the time is spent solving puzzles, like how to kill a certain enemy type, pushing platforms around, or find where to go next. Unfortunately, those puzzles are usually easy to figure out, yet hard to pull off because the controls frequently get in the way. This makes the game feel slow and artificially hard, and deeply unsatisfying to me.
    The art style is neat, but I found the music noticeable annoying at times, and quickly began skipping the story, as the characters constantly talk beyond where it is interesting.
    I stopped playing about three hours in. Kids might enjoy it more, but I think the bosses will be too hard for them.    … Expand
  2. matt1184
    Oct 12, 2021
    0
    The dev really tried his hardest with this game, but it is just plain awful. It is a very poor quality Metroid clone that simply doesn't stand up to scrutiny. The gameplay is arduous and the rewards are few.
  3. kirrwed
    May 28, 2022
    4
    The single best feature of this game is that there are a number of quality puzzles to be solved with the arsenal of tools at your disposal. The controls and movement are also relatively tight. But after a few short hours of amusing gameplay, the game steadily got more tedious and unintuitive.

    So many of the enemies, especially at the end, just follow the same unintuitive pattern. You    The single best feature of this game is that there are a number of quality puzzles to be solved with the arsenal of tools at your disposal. The controls and movement are also relatively tight. But after a few short hours of amusing gameplay, the game steadily got more tedious and unintuitive.

    So many of the enemies, especially at the end, just follow the same unintuitive pattern. You don’t know which one of your weapons will do damage to them and at what point in the fight those weapons will do damage to them. So it’s like use weapon A when the boss is in position Z and then you can stun the boss, at which time you have to use charged up weapon B, etc…. It’s all random and tedious trial and error.

    SOME BOSS SPOILERS IN FOLLOWING PARAGRAPH:
    Like one fight has robot worm attacking you and you can only hurt it if you electric charge into it and when it isn’t shooting its bombs and you have to have grabbed this random sword that’s there for some reason. Another fight that looks like some aztec clown you have to hit a button, then swittch to another character to move a slider, then switch to the other and hit a lever and the clown moves over and only then is it vulnerable. There’s one place in the tower where a large electric sphere can’t be charged even though you are plenty close to it - they want to make you wait to get the shooting electric upgrade so it apparently doesn’t work earlier for that reason even though all the other same size spheres would have from that distance. The “mother” fight was ludicrous. She has at least 6 different attacks including jump, bullet hell of 3 projectiles, small boulder attack, medium boulder attack from Royal (which can only be stopped by rapid mashing of your original gun attack because you’ll find out through trial that hitting royal while he controls the boulder does nothing, no matter what weapon), large boulder attack, tail attack. Different tactics counter these. You can only damage her during the 3 projectile attack and THEN only after you first hit her “cat” twice in the mouth with bombs, and THEN you have to do a teleport switch with her, and THEN you have to run back to where she landed and get in a few hits. The fight is simply ridiculous. All of this takes tons of trial and error to figure out not only dodge timing, but which weapon will have any affect at which time, etc.. In the impact zone at the end, the ghosts can float out of the playing area where you can’t finish them off with the wrench spin. So you sit there waiting for them to float back into the field of play.

    END OF SPOILERS

    There is also way too much interruption with long sequences of dialogue. And finally, the villains are all religious fanatics foolishly thinking they are divine or whatever according to the game. The religious fanatic villain must be the most overused villain trope in gaming.    … Expand
  4. TheLinkgirl
    Jul 26, 2022
    1
    Disappointment. That's my experience of Iconoclasts in a single word. While the visual style of Iconoclasts is enough to suck you into buying it, everything else has no merit what so ever. The game is easy, the combat and puzzles are tiresome, the environments are uninteresting, the music is completely forgettable, and the characters are just there. There are tons of great MetroidvaniasDisappointment. That's my experience of Iconoclasts in a single word. While the visual style of Iconoclasts is enough to suck you into buying it, everything else has no merit what so ever. The game is easy, the combat and puzzles are tiresome, the environments are uninteresting, the music is completely forgettable, and the characters are just there. There are tons of great Metroidvanias out there like the Ori games, Rabi-Ribi, Hollow Knight and Momodora RutM. Iconoclasts is not one of them.… Expand

Awards & Rankings

21
#21 Best Switch Game of 2018
59
#59 Most Discussed Switch Game of 2018

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
87

Generally favorable reviews - based on 9 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 8 out of 9
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 9
  3. Negative: 0 out of 9
  1. Nintendo Force Magazine
    Oct 29, 2018
    85
    I went into Iconoclasts completely blind and came out at the other end of the tunnel smiling. [Issue #36 – November/December 2018, p. 23]
  2. Switch Player
    Sep 4, 2018
    60
    Iconoclasts is a fun, but difficult platformer with a great cast of characters, brilliant controls and a fantastic soundtrack that is let down by a story with little direction.
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  3. ZTGD
    Aug 22, 2018
    90
    Iconoclasts is a brilliant game that permeates from the amount of care and time put into it. It is by far one of the best of 2018, and I recommend everyone give it a go. It is now available on almost everything (still waiting on my XB1 version guys!) and even if you are as sick of the tried and true formula of so many other games in this genre, this one stands out. Yes it is worth noting that we are affiliated with the publisher, but I promise that has no bearing on my feelings for this game. It stands out above the crowd and deserves so much more attention than it is currently getting.
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