Ultros is one of those games that's born to stick in the memory. Not only is it one of the most visually vibrant games of the year so far with its neon colour palette that's an instant-KO-to-my-eyeballs, but the way it twists and rewires core tenets of the Metroidvania rulebook also make it one of the boldest and most daring examples of its genre. I'll say it now: it doesn't always stick the landing. But if there's one thing Ultros does constantly throughout its 15-odd hour runtime, it's that it's always, always interesting. And for that, it has my respect - even if by the time the (first) end credits rolled, I was ready to never touch it ever again.

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When playing any character-driven videogame I sometimes experience a sensation akin to my eyes unfocussing, and remember that I'm not, strictly speaking, controlling a body in a world, but interacting with a simulation that includes representations of a body and a world. The character is just an interfacial node in a vast tangle of visible and invisible elements; by moving the character, I cause objects, surfaces, creatures to load or unload, spring into motion or change colour and a million things besides.

Some games foreground these interdependencies by fictionalising the simulation as a giant organism or ecosystem, a more intriguing kind of "living, breathing" environment which is aware of your presence within it. Amongst these games is Ultros, a side-scrolling, psychedelic metroidvania - or as developers Hadoque might prefer, "gardenvania" - which launches next week.

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