Shrubnaut is a mini-Metroidvania by indie dev Andrew Gleeson. The game was made in six days for a Game-a-Week challenge he set himself.

You can find Shrubnaut on Itch.io. It’s free to download (or you can pay a fee—up to you!) and it’s a short, sharp, super cute platformer with about 15 minutes of platforming fun (and many shrubberies).

For Shrubberies in Shrubnaut

Itch.io is an indie game haven supporting global indie devs. The games you find here tend to be short, sharp, but always interesting. Shrubnaut is another example of this creative opportunity modern technology affords us!

The game actually launched in May 2016, but came to our attention on an Itch.io hunt the other day. It looks cute and so… why the bloody hell not?!

You star as a green haired space dude and you’re in a space garden.

Once you start (and you can play this game with a keyboard or controller) you get a hookshot. And you can use the aforementioned hookshot to hookshoot your way out of the space garden. As you go along you need to find some secrets.

And, yes, this is a super short game. A mini-Metroidvania and probably a fine introduction to the platforming genre if you’ve never played one before. As this is a fine little example! Clever with its use of a shrubbery-based map and quite the surprising challenge.

Shrubnaut has also become a gaming speedrunning dream and there are some impressive fastest time efforts from gamers to watch.

Away from that, and considering the game was created in just six days, it all looks great. The 16-bit era SNES graphics work a treat thanks to tall that green.

The little sprite is also cute and has hair like Lemmings dudes.

And it more than helps you pass 30 minutes if you fancy a challenging platforming experience that’ll test your brain, all while not draining your spare time.