Crashed on a desolate but mysterious planet
you find yourself eye to eye with an ancient civilization. Explore the planet, find powerful upgrades and fulfill your destiny.
Ascent DX is a tiny metroidvania brought to life in glorious 64 x 64 pixel art and soothing chiptune music. Crashed on an unknown planet you have to explore lush jungles, lifeless deserts, and luminescent caves in search of anything that can help you understand what has happened to the planet and how to get off it.
While the game is a bigger version of the original Ascent, with almost twice as many locations to explore, it is still quite a short game. With the same celebrated gameplay and atmosphere, the DX versions also brings more items to find, more platforming puzzles, and more lore to uncover.
GAME FACTS
Release Date: 8/20/2026
MSRP: $2.99
Publisher: Sleepy Grove Games
Developer: Apskeppet AB
Platforms: Switch 1/2, PC/Steam
Played on: Switch 1
DEVELOPER HISTORY
Ascent DX is an enhanced version of Ascent for the PICO-8, a virtual game console you can either play online for free or purchase and play on your desktop.
Its developer, Johan Peitz, originally created it for LowResJam 2022, and has created a bunch of other PICO-8 games over the years (most of which range from good to really good).
Eventually he decided to create an enhanced version for PC and consoles that added additional content and slightly improved gameplay.
GAMEPLAY EXPERIENCE
Screenshots do not do Ascent DX justice. While all PICO-8 games look blocky, in motion Ascent DX looks really good with smooth animation and modern looking environmental animation and particle effects. It really does have to be seen to be appreciated.
The gameplay experience is rather basic compared to fully developed console games, but is very well developed for a game that started on the PICO-8. It’s a simplistic metroidvania, where you find and unlock powers to access new parts of the world, but there is an additional story building element to the items you find that makes it rather unique.
It probably won’t take long for most people to finish, but in order to 100% it and get the true ending, it could take a few tries.
REVIEW SCORE: 8/10
Overall, Ascent DX is a great enhancement of a really good PICO-8 game, adding additional content, collectibles and endings. Screenshots really do not do the game any justice, as it looks great in motion and animates much more smoothly than you would probably imagine. The added story elements to the power-ups you get are a really great idea and I’m surprised, with all the metroidvania’s released over time, no one else has incorporated something similar. The game plays great, looks great, and is an overall wonderful experience. It’s only flaw? It’s just too short and the experience is over way too quick. At least its priced right at $2.99, but I would prefer to pay more for a much longer experience.
GAMEPLAY
You can watch my playthrough on Switch in the video below.
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