GAME CLEAR No. 128 -- Harold Reborn

Harold Reborn (2021, New 3DS)

Developer: Luke Vincent
Publisher: Luke Vincent
Clear Date: 3/28/23

It’s Harold.

For a primer on Harold, please see GAME CLEAR No. 126 about Harold’s Walk. This is a sequel and very much a straight expansion on the concepts from the first game.

Harold Reborn is a much bigger game than its predecessor. You start out in a hub world similar to many of the 3D platformers that dominated the late ’90s. Your goal is to gather 70 of the game’s 100 crowns scattered throughout the world so you can enter the stage with the final boss. Crowns can be found in both the hub and the levels that can be accessed throughout the hub, and their locations are more varied and interesting than in Harold’s Walk. The general vibe of the game is even more bizarre than Harold’s Walk as well, and is really something that must be seen to be believed. I apologized for this in the Walk post as well, but due to the difficulty of capturing 3DS footage/screenshots, I was unable to do so, but YouTube surely can help you out.

The gameplay is where things take a surprising step up, even with only minor tweaks. First, Harold’s mid-air roll can now help him jump dramatically higher than before if used after his second jump in quick succession. Second, he now has a high-speed sprint ability (complete with a fire/smoke effect) that helps him cover great distances at blistering speeds. These combine to make for a tougher platforming game with more interesting challenges, and getting the hang of the super jump is particularly fun.

Other than that, it’s the same shit. I won’t ramble on and on about how weird this game is. Again, I did most of that table setting in the post linked above. But if you do try Harold’s Walk and like it, there is basically a 100% chance you will like this. Keep an eye out for these to release on Steam sometime this year.