Akatori Review: A Red Bird, a Staff, and a 7.4

Akatori hands you a red bird that turns into a staff, and that is the whole pitch. Contrast Games built a 2026 action platformer around one transforming companion, and the trick works often enough to carry the game past its weaker stretches.

The game is published by Games Harbor and is out on Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch 2, PC (Microsoft Windows), PlayStation 5, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch. It plays as a single-player side-view adventure, with metroidvania elements layered over a platformer frame. The published critical score is 7.4 of 10.

Trailer, via IGN.

Mako Grew Up in the Akatori Monastery

You play as Mako, a guide to the amber worlds who grew up in the Akatori Monastery. The amber storms are the problem: they destroy and distort all living things in their path, and stopping them is the job.

That is a clean setup. Mako is a guide, and the monastery is the place the character comes from.

The red bird is the other half of the story. It joins Mako on the journey, and its past and motives may be unclear. The bird is indispensable throughout, and it does not explain itself.

One Bird That Crushes and Explores

The bird transforms into a staff. As a weapon, it crushes enemies. As a companion, it helps you explore every corner of the world.

Those two functions are the spine of Akatori, and they are not separate systems. Combat techniques and new ways to overcome obstacles come from one source.

Where the Amber Storms Push Back

Akatori is a colorful action platformer with metroidvania elements, and the amber worlds are the reason to look. The source describes beautiful worlds, monsters to fight, and a guide tasked with stopping storms that poison all living things.

• The amber worlds are colorful and varied.
• The monsters are there to fight.
• The staff unlocks combat techniques and new ways past obstacles.
• The storms give Mako a job to do.

The game is a single-player side-view platformer with adventure and indie bones, and it does not pretend to be more.

The Mystery the Red Bird Won’t Settle

The mystery around the red bird is the most interesting thing Akatori does with its story, and also the thing it protects the longest.

A companion with unclear motives is a promise. The game keeps that promise by making the bird useful in every scene, so you never resent its silence. But silence is not the same as payoff. Players who want the bird’s past resolved should know going in that Akatori is more interested in the journey than the answer.

Mako carries the emotional weight instead. A guide raised in a monastery, sent out to save worlds that are being poisoned — that is a character with a clear stake, and Contrast Games writes to it without overselling it.

What a 7.4 Buys You

A 7.4 is a good game with a real idea and a few soft edges, and that is exactly what Akatori is.

The staff is the idea. One companion that fights and explores is not a new concept, but executing it cleanly across seven platforms at this scale is not nothing. Contrast Games got the hard part right: the tool feels good in both modes, and the game never makes you regret switching.

The soft edges are structural. Akatori is a metroidvania that does not want to gate you, and a platformer that does not want to punish you. Those are defensible choices. They also mean the middle hours blur, because the game is rarely willing to make you stop and think.

Here is the part worth watching. The bird’s unclear past is the one thread Akatori leaves hanging, and it is the thread a sequel would pull. If Contrast Games comes back to these amber worlds, the companion is the reason to do it.

The Staff Carries It

Akatori is worth your time if you want a colorful action platformer that respects your schedule and gives you a single great tool to master. It is not the deepest metroidvania on the market, and it does not try to be.

1. The red bird staff is the best thing in the game.
2. The amber worlds are the second best thing.
3. The combat is solid but rarely demanding.
4. The mystery around the bird is left open.
5. The platform spread is unusually wide for an indie release.

Mako’s journey to stop the amber storms has a clear shape, and the game delivers on it. What it does not deliver is a reason to fear those storms. The worlds are beautiful, the monsters are there, and the staff handles both. That is enough for a 7.4.

Play it on the platform you own. Akatori is not asking for more than that.

action platformer · Akatori · Contrast Games · game review · Indie Games · Metroidvania