Blue Fire is like DANG!’s Boomerang X meets Nintendo’s Zelda: Twilight Princess. And that’s a good thing, really.

It’s also basically parkour meets video games. You fly, leap, and wall run all over the place on your way to glory. And much enjoyment is had by all!

Blue Fire and the Need to Kick Butt

From Robi Studios in Córdoba, Argentina, Blue Fire is the type of action-platformer that’ll appeal to people who like action-platformers.

Stating the obvious, eh? We like it!

Anyway, in this outing you take control of a ninja dude. Upon awakening, you set off on a massive quest through the undead world of Penumbra. Along the way there are lots of temples and Void stages to indulge in for 3D platforming fun.

Yeah, so it’s basically a ninja version of various Legend of Zelda Games. The graphical styling is heavily inspired by Twilight Princess, it seems.

And the Void stages are basically like those F.L.U.D.D-less bits from Super Mario Sunshine on the GameCube. But with ninjas. And they will test your platforming skills!

As you can see there, Blue Fire does get bloody difficult. And its difficulty kicks in early on, which may put some players off.

But stick with it and you’ve got a frantic platformer that’ll give you a lot of kicks.

As you gain new skills, your ninja dude can traverse the environment in fancy fashion. Wall running is one of the most fun, but you can soar up and about the place as well with super jumps.

That’s all great. On the downside, the combat system isn’t up to much.

Additionally, there’s a lot of backtracking required. You can recognise fantastic game design when you, say, complete a dungeon in Bethesda’s Skyrim and at the end there’s a canny exit that puts you right back at the entrance. No backtracking!

Blue Fire doesn’t do that. It does the ’90s thing when 3D platformers first started emerging, forcing you to plod back to wherever you need to go through an already cleared area.

Not so much fun there. But the pretty graphics will often make you swoon. Plus, there’s a nice soundtrack by Ariel Contreras-Esquivel.

And there’s more of that along the way! A Warrior Awakens and Shrine Depths are probably are favourites from the soundtrack.

It can get a bit samey in places, but it does add the atmospherics you’d hope for from a game like this.

So, yes, the backtracking and combat aside there isn’t too much to complain about.

As where Blue Fire excels is with its acrobatics. It’s got a Metroidvania approach in that respect, as you skill up and get your ninja fancy moves.

Then it’s really down to you to get about the place and look like a total dude doing wall runs and stuff.

The control system is solid enough to let you do what you need to do. And as a whole package we’ve got to say… bon!

It’s available on Steam, Switch, PlayStation 4 and 5, and Xbox One. If you like the look of this thing, then you know what to do.