Image: Rain Games

Sometimes a great-looking game from a critically praised studio just completely flies under the radar - Even my radar. It wasn't until yesterday that I knew that Knuckle Jet (out now!) even existed. It took me even longer to realize that it's the latest game in the stylish and long-running Teslagrad series from Norwegian indie outfit Rain Games. This is a charming high-mobility platformer with a beautiful stop-motion, hand-crafted aesthetic and a cast of characters that look like poseable action figures. Plus, there's a demo!

While not a direct sequel to Teslagrad, Knuckle Jet is set in the same electro-punk fantasy universe and follows on from 2017's World to the West. But you don't need to know any of that. Merely that you play as Anastasia, a rebel superhero armed with a giant rocket-powered gauntlet, off on a quest to rescue kidnapped kids from an industrialist tycoon who casually rides around on a tank. It's pure Saturday morning cartoon stuff, reflected in the game's opening level hitting you with her very punk theme song, enthusiastically singing about (literally) smashing the system, which you can hear in the trailer below.

Having a jet engine to propel you around (and through things) means that you can move pretty fast, and Knuckle Jet pulls the camera waaaaay back so that you can see exactly where you're going and flying to, as you ricochet off walls and enemies alike. While I found that there's a lot of stuff shooting at me in the demo, the main threat was enemies with saw blades, teeth, or other pointy obstacles on one side, requiring me to actually think for a second and zip around to their far side to pummel them safely.

The hand-crafted look of the game also gives me some LittleBigPlanet vibes, and that's echoed in the action too. There are a lot of obstacles to punch through, with some materials just crumbling and tumbling around the screen rather than being cleanly obliterated. Satisfying, in a game where you're punching your way through a lot of walls. I've yet to play the full game, but yeah, this one launched high into my to-play list for the next few days.

It's a bit frustrating to see a studio with such a long track record not getting much time in the spotlight with a release like this. Hopefully that'll change as word of mouth on this one spreads. Fingers crossed.

Knuckle Jet is out now for £13.75/$15, with a 10% launch discount running until September 22nd. And there's a lengthy demo, too.