Are we witnessing the origins of an all-new genre? Knightin’+ started life on itch.io and bills itself as a Zelda-lite. The gameplay is easy to describe: it’s Zelda in dungeon form only. This means that there’s no hub-world to explore, just a maze of rooms with keys to find, puzzles to solve, and bosses to beat. You’ll also happen upon various weapons, such as a magic staff that fires projectiles and a sword that can be charged up and swung for devastating damage.

It’s entertaining enough, with chunky pixel art visuals, but the combat can feel fluffy and despite the best efforts of the developers, the stages rarely feel particularly large. There are different environments to explore, each with unique interpretations of the same general enemy types, while unlocks such as teleportation add some interest to the level design. The audio is repetitive, but the writing has a sharp sense of humour, which we enjoyed.

Unfortunately, there’s just very little to get excited about. Minor collision detection niggles aside, this is a well-executed adventure, it’s just not especially interesting from the outset. Some may find a few hours of fleeting entertainment here, but it’s not going to live long in the memory once you eventually close the application down.