New Metroidvania Animal Well launches in May

Animal Well, a Metroidvania platformer published by new kid around the block, Bigmode, arrives on PlayStation 5, Switch, and PC in May. The publisher was founded by YouTuber videogamedunkey back in late 2022 and this will mark its first debut.

Over on the Bigmode YouTube channel, you can find the release date trailer. Created by solo developer Billy Basso under his Shared Memory studio, Animal Well has been in development for the last seven years. The platformer leans heavily into psychedelia, features a soundtrack full of synth songs, and difficult platforming sections. Based on what we see from the trailer, it looks super charming if you’re into Metroidvania platformers.

This will mark Basso’s first solo project, though, people may know him from his work on Octodad: Dadliest Catch and Bugsnax, so at least he has some dev work under his belt, giving us hope this game can turn out great.

We can all jump down the well when the game launches on May 9, 2024.

Gabriel Stanford-Reisinger Editor-in-Chief

Gabe has been a gamer since he was young, playing games like Pajama Sam, Freddi Fish, Guitar Hero, and whatever looked cool on GameFly. Ever since 2018, he's been infatuated with the inner workings of the gaming and entertainment industries, covering a wide range of topics from video games to TV and film. Starting as a contributor for PSX Extreme, he's worked his way up to its Managing Editor. Using what's he learned over the years, he founded Smash Jump to remind everyone to smash jump.