Downwell starts with a treasure-hunting boy hopping into a nearby well. Inadvisable normally, but his daring quest sure makes for a memorable roguelike arcade game.
Down, down you fall—and you’re not alone. Glide past a menagerie of 8-bit foes: turtles, bats, oversize snails, and even Lovecraftian eyeballs with tentacles. Yuck.
Luckily you can do more than fall. Your boots spray bullets that will cut through the monstrous hordes. Using the gunboots also slows your descent, letting you navigate enemy-clogged stages with a series of mini-jumps.
The action never lets up, except when you duck inside secret caves to trade red gems for boot upgrades (shotgun blasts, laser sights) and cool gadgets such as an exploding balloon. Or simply to take a quick breather. Downwell is a riveting exercise in controlled chaos—and the better you are at controlling it, the farther you’ll fall.
Dying takes you back to the beginning, but you’ll slowly gain new abilities, plus the caverns and catacombs change every time. What lies at the bottom of Downwell? Jump in and find out.