Goodjob Multimedia, Pixel Perfex, and Blowfish Studios recently released Krut: The Mythic Wings, a 2D side-scrolling action platformer that's based on a 2018 film titled Krut: The Himmaphan Warriors, as well as mythology originating in Southeast Asia. There are six stages to complete with dialogue in between that enriches the story. However, it feels like there is much more exposition than there is actual gameplay.
Krut: The Mythic Wings follows the story of a warrior Krut that's attempting to reclaim their homeland from the rock ogres. In order to become powerful enough to defeat the boss of the rock ogres, the warrior must collect six elemental powers that can restore the magic to their Mythic Wings. As the Krut journeys through each land, they must prove themselves in combat to show they're worthy of receiving the powers.
There are six stages to complete and different enemies to fight in each one. Every stage has a boss fight at the end that leads to obtaining one of the six powers needed to fight the rock ogres. The Krut has a light and heavy attacks, and they can roll and double jump. A charged attack can be performed by holding down the heavy attack button. When enough enemies are defeated and the blue meter is full, the Krut can use their Mythic Wings power to fly and attack from above. Although there are different enemies and attacks, most of the combat encounters can be won by staying behind the enemy and hitting them before they turn around. This makes the combat encounters feel very repetitive after one or two stages.
The main focus of Krut: The Mythic Wings is combat, but there are a few opportunities to explore and find treasure chests. Unfortunately, there's not much to gain by finding and opening chests unless healing is needed. The chests also contain blue orbs that fill up the Wings Power. Defeating enemies also heals and powers up the Krut warrior, so the chests aren't very useful. There are upgrades available throughout the game, but they can only be purchased with the green orbs obtained from fallen enemies.
The upgrades that can be purchased include more health points, increased attack power, extra lives, and a few other enhanced abilities. However, any purchased upgrades disappear if the last life is lost, which also causes the stage to reset. The other downside is that upgrades can only be purchased at checkpoints, and it costs 1,000 points just to unlock one. A mini-boss or boss battle always follows a checkpoint, and there are two for every stage.
A little more than halfway through each stage, the first checkpoint can be unlocked before fighting a mini-boss. Each mini-boss has a set number of attacks and a pattern that they follow. After learning the boss' behavior, the fights are easy to win. Most of the combat throughout Krut: The Mythic Wings is exactly the same. Even though there are different enemies with varying attacks, the Krut just needs to get behind them, land a few hits, then jump or roll behind them when they turn around. The only exception is with flying enemies, but they generally take fewer hits to defeat and can easily be reached by jumping.
As a game full of predictable combat and only six stages, there's not a lot to Krut: The Mythic Wings. Depending on the difficulty setting, beating the game will likely only take an hour or two. The story is interesting, but it takes up more of the content than the actual gameplay. The flaws are only somewhat made up for by the unique and visually appealing environments for each stage. Overall, Krut: The Mythic Wings offers some casual fun, but it's very short and lacks combat variety.
Krut: The Mythic Wings is available for Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, and PC. Screen Rant was given a PlayStation 5 digital download code for the purpose of this review.