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Dracamar Review
- Taylor Rioux
- Apr 30
- 6 min read
A hop, skip, and a fall through the floor away.
I have a certain fondness for platformers, even if they’ve mostly fallen out of favor in the general gaming landscape. I suppose that can be attributed to nostalgia, at least in part. Platformers made up a huge portion of my gaming diet as a child, with titles like DuckTales and the various Super Mario games being counted among the most played. Still, by the time I got my first PlayStation, I had largely moved on to RPGs and fighting games as my primary gaming focus, leaving platformers behind.
Dracamar is intended to capture the spirit of the 90’s era platformers more than any other period, drawing inspiration from the likes of Spyro and Crash Bandicoot—games I have little affinity for but have played. It's an aim that Dracamar seems to meet, with a similar aesthetic and a level of quality that is at least comparable to those early PS1 platformers.
Publisher: Petoons Studio Developer: Petoons Studio, 3Cat Platform: Played on PC Availability: Released April 30, 2026 for PC, PlayStation 4 (PS4), PlayStation 5 (PS5), Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch. |
There’s not much in the way of exposition or backstory to be concerned about when starting Dracamar; King Crad, a dragon-like guy flying around on a throne, has captured a flower named Coroki and is using her power to change the cute little Okis into Mokis, which are just Okis with a frown and a slightly purple tinting. That is the extent of the story we’re given at the start, with no explanation of who any of the playable characters are outside of their names.
After a brief introductory scene, players are thrown into a menu to select their character and then thrust right onto the world map to start the first level, which does a great job of tutorializing the mechanics through play. It doesn’t stop you every five seconds to explain the mechanics through text; instead, it guides you through each marking and indication as you go, easing you into the ever-so-slightly more advanced combinations and concepts that will appear later on.
I did wonder if having more of a cohesive story and world would make the game a bit more enticing from the outset, but NPC interactions had me second-guessing. Frankly, the translation could use some work, as the dialogue is quite stilted and devoid of any real personality; every line is a simple declarative sentence or short question, and they often don't flow naturally together. This awkwardness is compounded by the suspect voice work, which frequently does not perfectly align with the written text.
The story itself and all character dialogue, motivations, etc., are one-note, with no real stakes or drive to engage other than the simple fact that you want to play the game. NPCs have nothing valuable or noteworthy to say or do—they may as well not exist. If you need a story or interesting characters to liven up a game, the ones here won’t cut it.
Straightforward levels and clean, simple character designs lend Dracamar charm.
On the flip side, navigating the worlds and completing the extremely simplistic puzzles works well in most instances. All of the platforms and interactable objects are clearly visible, with indicators or markings that help denote what a player should do to interact with them.
For example, if you see a wall with a giant yellow “X” on it, you know that you must punch it to break through. This simplistic design eliminates any need for experimentation or thinking in completing its platforming, but the upside is that the game is simple enough on the whole for very young children.
In fact, as I was playing, my four-year-old son asked to play the game because he really liked the way it looked, and he had very few problems getting through the first level and even some of the second. I have no doubt that most of this game is playable by children of a young age, and I think that is commendable and valuable.
We really do need more quality games for children to dive into; games that are good and that children can meaningfully interact with, not just games for kids that they need to suffer through because there are no good options.
There's more to the game than jumping; there are plenty of on-rails segments and other unique mechanics throughout.
To that end, Dracamar’s design is well-constructed. Even the numerous collectible items are all quite easy to spot and gather in most cases, with the majority visible from the main path or just off to the side on a small road or platforming segment that loops back around to the main route.
As a sort of introductory platformer, it nails all of the basics you’d want to showcase: jumping on platforms, hitting enemies, avoiding danger zones, timing your actions, and gathering collectibles. The game’s description on all platforms notes that it is a “cozy” 3D platformer — an apt description for the generally breezy jaunt that the game amounts to. There are very few moments of friction at all, especially for an adult player, but the colorful world and cute artstyle at least keep things pleasant to look at.
Dracamar doesn't overstay its welcome, either — at least not in totality. There are only 15 levels, and playing through them all and getting every collectible will likely land you under 10 hours of play, but some of the levels do feel like they drag on a bit, especially if you have to replay them for any reason.
As a sort of introductory platformer, it nails all of the basics you’d want to showcase: jumping on platforms, hitting enemies, avoiding danger zones, timing your actions, and gathering collectibles.
Unfortunately, I did have to replay levels a few times due to technical issues and menu selections. While the occasional glitch through a floor or platform is mostly a minor annoyance, there were more damaging glitches, like getting trapped out of bounds and entire levels disappearing from view.
The only way to correct these is to restart the level, and doing so brings you back to the very beginning, with no way to warp between checkpoints. Given that each level can run upwards of 30 minutes or more if you’re doing a completionist run, this is hugely detrimental.
Compounding on this are the menu options for starting over. First is “Restart” level, which brings you back to the beginning of a level, with the second being “Exit Level”, bringing you back to the world map. Seems simple enough, but clicking “Restart” completely erases your level progress, removing all collectibles you’ve gathered thus far. Exit level will retain your progress, but you’ll still need to start over.
I’m really uncertain as to why the restart option exists if it does not retain your progress. It theoretically allows you to jump back into the level quicker than the other option, but seeing as you lose progress, it actually makes things take much longer since you’ll need to gather all collectibles once more. It's the type of mistake you only make once, but it should not be possible to do.
When the game works, it is simple, charming, smooth — the type of platforming experience you’d love to show your kid or play yourself absentmindedly if you just need a way to unwind. Unfortunately, those persistent bugs drag things down quite a bit. I would say that at least 50% of the levels I played required a hard restart due to getting stuck somewhere or because of broken interactions. And while the game can be completed, it does amount to a massive frustration.
In that sense, Dracamar is quite like 90s-era platformers, though not in the way they had hoped. It was an era filled with genuinely great conceits, but many of the games suffer from one or two major hiccups that separate them from the great platformers of the era. You’ll find Dracamar in comparable waters, with good ideas dragged down to the bottom of the sea by its technical ills more than any other individual aspect.
Verdict Dracamar is an exceedingly simple platformer, with mostly straightforward platforming and level design that holds very few surprises. This simple design is an excellent starting point for children, as the mechanics are not needlessly complex or obtuse, but offers little for adult players beyond mindless time-passing. That said, despite all of its charm and overwhelming cuteness, Dracamar suffers from some egregious bugs and becomes a tedious task to fully complete in the face of them. I can see an earnest effort has been made here, and there are shades of something neat, but the technical hurdles are a bridge too far.  |
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Disclosure: We received a free copy of this game from the publisher.
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