Developed across the globe by a handful of different teams working under the banner of MOON Studios, Ori & the Blind Forest is testament to the fact that a string of varying cultures and people can come together to produce a true work of art. Visually, Ori is the most beautiful thing running on Xbox One, and once you delve into how the immaculately presented world unfolds, it starts mixing the age-old Metroidvania setup with platforming mechanics and difficulty reminiscent of Super Meat Boy. Seriously, Ori might look like it just stepped out a Studio Ghibli/Guillermo del Toro mash-up, but some of the platforming runs you'll have to pull off to proceed require brutally efficient mastering of the controls. Luckily, its unique mechanic is banking energy you could use to attack enemies, to create custom checkpoints. This way you can dictate your own difficulty curve to some degree, as although the boss encounters are universal tests of gaming mettle, exploring the world and coming across any arduous-looking section affords you the luxury of creating an instant-respawn point right there and then. It all factors into the harsh beauty of the world itself, ironically making this blind forest quite the immortal eye-catcher.
