Ever had a dream where you’re falling down into a seemingly endless abyss? Picture that, except the abyss is filled with monsters and bits of rock you can land on, and when you jump bullets fly out of your shoes. Congratulations, you’ve just imagined Downwell.

As you may have already gathered, Downwell is an effortlessly cool little indie game, published by Devolver Digital and created by Moppin, about a little man falling down a well. It’s a simple premise which serves the game’s mechanics perfectly.

The game scrolls vertically, meaning as you tumble down the key aim is to avoid being hit by the various enemies dotting the chasm before you reach the end of the level.

There are two types of enemies: the first of which can be vanquished by stomping on them Mario-style and the second are spiky customers who deal damage when touched. The difficulty lies in reacting quickly enough to bounce on the right enemies whilst avoiding the ones that do damage.

And of course, you have the aforementioned gun-boots in your arsenal. When the little man jumps, bullets fly out of his boots below. This has the double advantage of killing enemies caught in their path and temporarily slowing the player’s decent.

Whilst being delightfully simple to control (press one button to jump, and left and right to move side to side) Downwell is an intense game that tests the player’s reactions. You can tumble down the level at full-speed hoping not to bump into any pixelated monsters on your merry way, or you can attempt to move slowly and purposefully, killing whatever enemies you can to minimise the damage you take.

It’s a difficult game, but in the best way possible. It’s becoming a bit of a cliché to make this kind of statement in the post-Dark Souls world we live in, but you’ll find yourself dying a lot. The little man can only take four hits, and whilst he gets a health point with every upgrade he collects, it’s still a tall order to keep him alive across multiple levels. However, Moppin’s design choices compliment the constant deaths perfectly.

Firstly, Downwell has the Super Meat Boy aspect of not allowing the player to stew on death by allowing them to get back into the action quickly. This alleviates any frustration that might otherwise have encroached on the player’s enjoyment of the game.

Secondly and most importantly, death means progress. The point of the game isn’t just to get through each level, but to collect gems along the way. Each enemy gives out gems when killed, and the caverns have several caves that often contain bountiful piles of gems. When you collect enough gems in quick succession, you are given a ‘gem high’, which increases the amount of gems gain which each kill.

When you die, the gems you gathered on that particular run are collected and added to your total, which unlocks more content the more you collect. It’s the perfect system for Rogue-like games, as it means that death isn’t much of a failure state at all, as you are rewarded for playing by seeing your gem hoard steadily increase.

From the mechanics to the retro visuals, everything about Downwell is so damn cool. The little man moves so smoothly as he tumbles, and the colour-coded enemies (red means danger!) stand-out against the monochrome background.

Since the game was released on iOS and Android as well as PC, I’ve heard complaints that it doesn’t work as well on mobiles. However, I completely disagree. I played Downwell on my iPhone 5, and whilst the controls took some getting used to, it works well enough not to detract from the otherwise superb game. In the mobile version the controls are on screen, but it’s optimised well enough that they don’t get in the way of the visuals.

It is admittedly quite an intense game, so for some people it might not be the kind of experience they want to have whilst waiting for the train, but personally, I love blasting through a quick run of it when I snatch a few minutes, and the knowledge that I’ll probably die in approximately the amount of time it takes to boil an egg means it suits dipping in and out of it.

The icing on the cake is that it’s a surprisingly in-depth game. As you play, you’ll unlock different styles and different visual modes. There’s even a Game Boy mode which takes away the colour-palette.

The last game of its kind that I enjoyed as much as Downwell was the excellent Binding of Isaac, and it shares a lot of the same DNA. It’s enigmatic, addictive, and like an eager sexual partner, it constantly invites you for another tumble. It’s an attractive proposition, to say the least.

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