After years of wars and strife, the Earth is on the verge of collapsing. Before it completely breaks down, however, a mysteryous race of robotic beings descends from the sky and manages to save mankind. They then retreat in a floating fortress, never to be seen again.Until about 100 years later, when an unnamed female Mechanian falls down on Earth. With the help of another metal-clad robot she meets down there, she starts searching for a way to make it back to her home.
Celestial Mechanica is a short PC Platform Game with some puzzle and Metroidvania features thrown in for good measure. It was created by Roger Hicks and Paul Veer, and was released in 2011 through Desura: it has since been made freeware and can be downloaded here
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This game provides examples of:
- Absurdly-Spacious Sewer: The Water Shrine is basically this. It even comes with his stock switch puzzle.
- And the Adventure Continues: Once you've defeated the Big Bad, the characters go back to Earth and start helping humans again.
- Apocalypse How: Technically stopped by the Mechanians, but you really have to wonder why there are so many dangerous ruins on Earth or why you don't see any any human being (with the exception of the authors).
- Backtracking: For such a short game, the amount of this is pretty high. You'll see the Forest Shrine 3 or 4 times minimum.
- Big Bad: The king of Mechanica.
- Block Puzzle: A few of them, and you need a specific ability to push blocks.
- Collision Damage: Touching pretty much anything damages you. Water , spikes, electricity and lava kill you instantly.
- Creator Cameo: You can find both creators in the game. They're mostly there to encourage you to buy the soundtrack.
- Death Is a Slap on the Wrist: If you die you just respawn at the start of the current screen.
- Deflector Shield: One of the power-ups allows you to create a shield for a few instants. It reflects any kind of bullet, but requires good timing to be effective.
- Determinator: Both Mechanian protagonists may arguably count.
- Equipment-Based Progression: Certain power-ups are necessary to progress through the various areas. This is combined with Metroidvania-style exploration, as you often have to go back to old areas to open up or access new ones.
- Flip-Screen Scrolling
- Game-Breaking Bug: It's perfectly possible to get stuck into a wall or a crate when changing screen. Worse, since the game automatically overwrites your only save every time you enter a new room, this will inevitably force you to start a new game.
- Guide Dang It!: Wait, you mean I can get that floating power-up late in the game?
- Half-Human Hybrid: The protagonist. In fact, this is the exact reason the king banished her from Mechanica.
- Heroic Mime: Your main character.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Subverted. Your companion remains behind to stop the guards from chasing you. He's outnumbered and defeated, but they just capture him and he gets freed at the end of the game.
- Homing Projectile: One of the main types of enemy you'll find shoots homing missiles. You can catch them, but if you throw them they just fly in a straight line.
- Informed Attribute: There's really no way of telling which genders the characters are, other than official or in-story information.
- Lethal Lava Land: The Fire Shrine.
- Mooks, but no Bosses: There's only a single boss battle, against the King, and he behaves pretty much like any other mob. However, he has much more health and becomes much faster as you hurt him.
- No Name Given: All the characters go unnamed. The Mechanian protagonist's name is later revealed to be Marina.
- Jump Physics
- Double Jump: The first power up you get lets you do this.
- Not Quite Flight: Another power up gives you the ability to hover, increasing the distance you can traverse jumping.
- Wall Jump: Another power up.
- King Incognito: Your grey Mechanian friend? He's the prince of the fortress, and he's trying to start a rebellion.
- Ominous Floating Castle: The fortress of Mechanica.
- Regenerating Health: Getting hit once make your character flash red. If you get hit again while in this state, you lose. About five seconds are enough to recover.
- Respawning Enemies: If you die or change screen, expect every single enemy (including the turrets) to reappear.
- Retraux
- Ridiculously Human Robots: The Mechanians, of course. They even age and grow, apparently. May overlap with Organic Technlogy, as this is the only possible explanation as to how can Mechanian reproduce, and most specifically reproduce with humans.
- The Reveal: A couple of plot twists are revealed at climatic points. Namely your ally is the prince and your character is half-human.
- Run, Don't Walk: And how. The player character is so fast you'll often crash right into obstacles before you manage to stop her.
- Soundtrack Dissonance: That relaxing song that plays during the intro is heard again during the final fight.
- Teleport Spam: The King can do this if you get too far from him, but there's no point in doing so. Also, he has no way to reach or hit you if you climb the small floating cage on the right.
- Tennis Boss: The first and only boss fight is this. You have to catch the fireballs the King throws at you and then shoot them back at him.
- You Shall Not Pass!: Your companion pulls this to stop the royal guards from catching the main character.
