World cinema fans might be familiar with the story of Krut: The Mythic Wings.
Based on the 2018 Thai animated feature film, Krut: The Himmaphan Warriors, if finds a Garuda warrior fighting to free his home from the ruthless Ogre army. To do that he’s following in the footsteps of one of his ancestors, seeking to acquire Mythic Wings that can give him the power he needs to achieve his goal. But it’s not going to be easy, especially when the forces that give the wings power are spread across the enchanted island of Himmaphan.
Ultimately, it’s a simple setup for what is a simple game. A side-scrolling hack-and-slash adventure, Krut: The Mythic Wings does absolutely nothing to impress. As the plucky Garuda warrior, you have access to both light and strong attacks, and can jump and dodge. But everything here feels functional and nothing more.
Combat is merely a case of getting some hits in then diving through or away from your opponent to avoid their retaliation. Though it’s often better to just assume they’re going to attack as there’s little time to react to tells. Strong attacks are pointless in most cases as they simply take too long to perform. You can at least charge a ranged attack which is handy.
The gauge that is used to perform strong attacks, however, is best left to be filled. When at max capacity, you can activate a powered-up mode that enables your Garuda to fly and quickly fire projectiles for a short while. Your health even replenishes while you’re doing so. It’s a get-out-of-jail-free card, basically, making many encounters trivial when activated.
Though that’s not to say that Krut: The Mythic Wings is an easy game. The slapdash nature of the combat means it’s very easy to take damage when fighting enemies, and with a limited ability to restore your health, it all adds up. You have limited lives, so death does matter, and checkpoints where you can restore your health for a fee are few and far between. You also need to pay to activate checkpoints, which is a bit harsh.
It’s also at checkpoints where you can buy a variety of upgrades for your warrior, but to really make a dent in them you need to grind, backtracking through levels to fight more enemies. Even then, some of the upgrades aren’t really worth it. Laughably, after fighting your way to a boss, they tend to be a lot easier than the journey you made to them. Still, at least they’re relatively fun to fight.
There are six levels for you to battle your way through overall, but chances are you’ll be tired of with Krut: The Mythic Wings‘ gameplay after just one or two. Aside from the gameplay being woefully repetitive and basic, there’s also the fact that it looks a generation or two old, and the soundtrack isn’t all that listenable. If you do somehow end up liking Krut: The Mythic Wings, however, there are multiple difficulty levels for you to tackle.
Krut: The Mythic Wings isn’t a terrible game – there’s nothing outright awful about it – but it’s sub-par in every single way. So, unless you’ve seen the animated film that it’s based on and really want to immerse yourself in its world a little more, it’s best to give it a wide berth. Though even then, we can’t imagine anyone genuinely having fun with it.
Krut: The Mythic Wings Review – GameSpew’s Score
