Tunic review – recaptures the lost magic and mystery of video games

This long-awaited indie game stars an adorable little fox, and his green apparel leaves no doubt as to where the game's affections lie. Aesthetically and structurally, this is a Zelda tribute, with cute-yet-menacing baddies to bash with a sword and repel with a shield as you gradually uncover more and more of a sprawling world that stretches far underground and up into snowy mountain reaches, through gloomy dungeons illuminated by mysteriously glowing pools. But it is not a pale imitation. Tunic displays not only a deep love for Nintendo's adventure classic and games like it, but a deep and even subversive understanding of what makes them tick. Tunic is surprisingly tough, taking just as much inspiration from Dark Souls. The world fits together like a clockwork model, full of pleasing shortcuts and hidden paths, and so pleasing to walk around that I felt compelled to draw it out in a notebook to see how it connected.