Every so often a game comes along that does something wholly different than many others that flood the indie market every week. Stonefly is one of those games, which coming from the developer, Flight School Studio, who made Creature in the Well is not fully surprising. I had seen it a couple times in some indie game videos leading up to its release. I was intrigued by it’s fantastic look but cautious about the gameplay. Unfortunately, that led to it being forgotten about until I saw it pop back up on sale earlier this year. After my 5 and a half hours with the game I regretted not starting it sooner.
It’s not only the look of Stonefly that sets itself apart from other games but the gameplay is not like anything else I have personally played before. In short, you pilot a bug-sized mech through different biomes while looking for your father’s mech that was stolen. During your journey you will gather resources to enhance the stand-in mech that you acquired. These upgrades assist you in getting said resources and also combat. You will encounter bugs on your adventure that you must take out to move on, some for story reasons and some because they have the items needed to upgrade your mech. These combat situations are played out in a king of the hill fashion. You slam on bugs and then blow them off the platform, usually a leaf or a branch, until you are the last one standing. It sounds simple but at times it can be overwhelming and tense. A couple times, I wish the controls were a little less clumsy and the checkpointing was better. For the most part though I didn’t have a lot of issues as 90% of the game is a pretty chill experience. As you are leaping from leaf to leaf while some great music accompanies you, while you occasionally are thrown into battles that are not too difficult.
Overall, I really enjoyed my time with Stonefly and feel like it’s a game that went under the radar. I, myself, was guilty of overlooking the game and hope that other people find time to try it out. Due to the unique nature of the game, if you are on the fence I recommend watching a couple videos to see if it’s for you or not. With so many indie games coming out all the time Stonefly did what it needed to stand out. Sadly, I don’t think it got the attention that it deserves.
7.5/10
Played on the Nintendo Switch. I noticed a couple hitches in framerate but otherwise ran butter smooth.