I love me indie games, platformers and platformers that are made by indie developers!

Lunistice is a pretty short and sweet 3D platformer game that I got gifted by a friend, which I knew nothing about before playing it; but sometimes, that's the magic of videogames. The internet is full of people that want to share their thoughts about what they like, like me, and those include videogames!
I always have a soft spot for indie games because they really don't have a big budget, team and usually they tend to get less popularity than games made by bigger companies, sometimes that's just how it is, but indie games can be much more than just games.
For developers, they may not be games to be taken seriously, or they may not be made to make profit of it; sometimes they are passionate projects.

Indie games are, to me, really difficult to rank due to the things said above, and while I am aware that some people don't really care about the intention of the developers with a game, I think it does matter in order to talk deeply about a game. The more you are aware of it's intentions, the more you can connect with the developer and talk about it's best and worst things. That's at least how I see it.
This game really isn't anything spectacular, and by playing you will notice it isn't comparable by games made by big companies, which isn't necessarily a bad thing because again, the intention is important here.
To every single indie developer, you are awesome for taking your time on making these awesome games.

Lunistice, is a 3D platformer made by a single developer, with the artstyle being this cartoony 32-bit heavy inspired artstyle based on games that may have been released on older consoles. Which works really well on it's own and makes the game have it's own identity, I really like the vibe of it.
It is interesting seeing a game like this because I grew up a bit with the PS1 and the games did look similar to how Lunistice looks, it is pretty successful in that department and definitely one of the highlights!
The music also is a real bop and very fun to listen to even when you aren't directly playing the game, but it does the job at setting up a colorful dream-like world. Only nitpick is I wish the tracks themselves didn't loop so quick, because you end up hearing the same bits over and over.

Gameplay is as important as always in a platformer and Lunistice provides some interesting mechanics such as music blocks, Sonic-ish rails, bouncing mushrooms and a lot more, all of them pretty straight forward as far as platformers go, but again does the job for the vibe of the game and gameplay-wise.
There are also a decent amount of things that add simple replayability to a pretty short game.
You can collect DK-styled letters that spell the name Hana, the name of the protagonist, for unlocking a few secrets in a few stages. The challenges these provide are fun and a bit challenging, although I do wish they were better integraded because they are a bit too separated from the main level.
Grading systems also exist, going from S to D, and while the grade doesn't provide any reward for your hard work, is more like a personal achievement for the player to accomplish.
These include dying the least amount of times and getting collectibles scattered around the level. Nothing outstanding but for those who are interested is more fun and things to do!
You can control up to 3 characters trying to get through a few stages and reach the end, and while I do wish they made more interesting stuff with every character and the level design, it works fine, although all playable characters also have their distinct moveset, and you can get super creative with their mobility and attacks.
While I don't think this game makes replayability perfectly, it is done in a way that can make the player challenge themselves to 1-up how they did in a level, and there isn't anything that is objectively wrong with it.
I did have fun, and if I did have fun, me likes!

Lunistice is just simple fun, and a good short and sweet platformer that isn't perfect but isn't try to be! Has a simple story, doesn't throw you a lot and gives you very decent bite-sized levels and alright ways of making sure the players make the most out of it, maintaining it interesting. Sometimes games can be that and be great, and this game does that!
The short lenght and it not being too interesting or creative on some departments drag it down a bit for me, but this game is really good at presentation and keeping you engaged.
Check it out!