“Mio: Memories in Orbit” is a metroidvania platforming game from French indie studio Douze Dixièmes and Focus Entertainment. 

When an abandoned spaceship is on the verge of shutdown, Mio has to navigate malfunctioning machinery and uncontrolled growth to save the ship’s remaining robot population. 

Mio has unique skills and abilities that are fun to figure out while exploring the decaying spaceship. Mio can glide up walls and across ceilings and slingshot their body across chasms at high speeds. It makes every new room a very satisfying navigation puzzle. The world looks like a hand-drawn sketch in an artist’s notebook. It’s beautiful to look at and engaging to explore. The music complements the design of each area perfectly, giving each individual an identity while making every space in the ship a part of a cohesive whole. 

Perhaps the most important part of a metroidvania is the exploration. You’re constantly connecting paths, circling back to progress further with new abilities, and discovering new secrets and items along the way. Uncovering a metroidvania map creates a tangible sense of progression. But the world does not live up to this expectation. There is a shocking lack of checkpoints and fast travel, making backtracking much longer and more boring than it should be. The exploration of the spaceship is almost entirely unrewarding. 

Combat doesn’t flow very well in this game. It’s littered with challenging boss fights, some fair and some ridiculous, but all with the same issues. Some basic metroidvania abilities are either missing or take too long to acquire during the game, like a dash (which consequently makes moving and exploration even slower) and a heal. Often there’s no chance to regain health before entering a fight, making the lack of healing even more confusing. 

The game also has messy and confusing menus. The map has no area labels, so if an NPC tells me to revisit a place I’ve been, I have to wander around until I find it again. Upgrades don’t tell you everything they do and they’re difficult to sort through, which made me unsure of my abilities and loadout. 

“Mio: Memories in Orbit” did not live up to the hype. It feels like a game in beta testing — a promising start with a lot of work to be done. If it added some basic things, it could be great.