Super Rude Bear Resurrection personifies one thing – that if you do something, you need to do it well. In games, execution is what matters, not simply having a good idea. Super Rude Bear turning deaths into a way to move forwards is something I’ve not seen in many games, and here it plays into the ultra hard difficult of the hardcore platformer.

Where the game falls down for me, though, is holding up that difficulty. Dying sticks your corpse to whatever killed you, and so the trap can no longer reach your body. This leads to traps no longer having any danger, as eventually everything is covered in bear-proofing bodies. Each death makes the game easier, as you’re able to die on a spike and then use your corpse to walk over said spikes, and death doesn’t really feel like you’re losing anything. Death becomes more of an inconvenience than a loss, and feels like part of the game that you have to do to continue. This leads to the platforming being less than satisfying as a result, because it’s only a matter of time until you do it. Blocking arrows with corpses, and filling in pits does work to your advantage in places, and it does feel rewarding to do so, but it becomes more of a puzzle game at that point than a platformer.

You don’t have to use the corpses to make levels easier for yourself, mind you, as you’re joined by a ghostly companion with the ability to remove those corpses, and while that’s an acceptable solution to the problem, it’s a weakness to have to not use the tools that the game gives you. This is a frustration, but it’s not so bad that the game isn’t interesting as a platformer. The level design is tight, and each challenge feels like one that you need to be skilled at to get past.

There is one fatal flaw to Super Rude Bear Resurrection, however, and one that makes it very difficult for me to go back to the game. There is a rather drastic screen shake whenever you jump, and this causes, for only the second time in my life, a level of motion sickness that meant I couldn’t play the game for longer than half an hour, leading to this review taking a lot longer than had originally been intended. Things like screen shake are hard enough to deal with on static screens, and I feel like screen shake in this is a misstep for accessibility.

Coupled with abrasive humour and a unmemorable soundtrack, I feel like Super Rude Bear Resurrection is a great platformer that lets itself down through presentation. Recommended if you’re looking for something to challenge your ability to move quickly, but be prepared to turn sound down and feel a little bit queasy.