GAME: OneBit Adventure by Galactic Slice, LLC

GENRE: Adventure

PLATFORMS: Android, iOS

The extent to which OneBit Adventure compresses the core design of an entire RPG into a pocket-sized experience is quite fascinating to me. And like the many GameBoy Advance games this quirky cute game is clearly influenced by, it hit the right notes on keeping me entertained.

OneBit Adventure is a turn-based roguelite RPG where you go on an endless journey of discovery, fantasy and sheer peril. It plays similarly to Frogger in that there’s only one way to go: up. Its one-hand controls make gameplay a breeze, covering everything — from the movement, down to performing an action such as attacking enemies or unlocking doors. The turn-based element works in the sense that each time you move (or perform an action), everything else does too.

On death, the player can either start at the beginning or start from a checkpoint, which is easier said than done. But you’ll retain all the weapons, upgrades, armour and coins you’ve collected after death. So it gets easier run after run. In my first run, I scored a total of 358 and 590-ish by the second.

The scoring is interesting; the ultimate goal is to stack up as many “stepsforward” as possible. Collecting coins, upgrading abilities, using armour and items — it’s all meant to help you survive longer in the wilderness and build up that score. The high score is then registered in the rankings, pitting you against your old score, your friends and even players worldwide.

On the other hand, the daily quests and achievements offer you a secondary incentive to take your ventures further and explore new challenges. The biggest challenge of the game comes when you get the opportunity to enter a dark cave, where a boss awaits you at the end. They are no joke.

The game does come with its own set of oddities, of course. I largely point to the UX of the UI, which could use a bit more polish in three areas: the buttons, the visuals and the font.

For someone with huge fingers like mine, it’s difficult to tapon certain buttons. Especially if the control scheme is that of adigital joystick, which motivates players to swipe all over the screen.

And although there are various colour palettes to change the game’s visual theme with, I found no colour-blindness support as such. With games that use one-bit pixel art, the visuals get hard to read quickly, especially for those who can’t tell what colour is what.

This is further aggravated by the lack of font options; it would’ve been nice to have a sans serif font that isn’t tied down to the visual theme too much.

VERDICT: OneBit Adventure is a throwback to the GameBoy gaming years, with some slight adjustments to the “game feel” for audiences today. I give it a solid nine out of 10.