Decline’s Drops Review

If you have ever wondered what it would look like if you smashed Super Smash Bros’ combat into a beautifully vibrant, Yoshi’s Island-style side-scroller, Decline’s Drops is your answer. Developed by Moulin aux Bulles (a solo effort by creator Marc Chartron) and published by 2BAD Games for Xbox, this indie darling delivers an experience that is as heavy-hitting as it is visually breath-taking.

Taking on the role of Globule—a sentient wooden puppet sporting bright blue boxing gloves—you are sent on a quest to avenge your destroyed garden and fight back against an environmental catastrophe known as “The Decline.”

Decline’s Drops sets itself apart by refusing to be a passive, run-of-the-mill platformer. Instead, it is a fully realised platform-brawler. Globule’s moveset is deeply reminiscent of a platform fighter:

• Smash Fighter DNA: You have standard combo strings, air-launchers, directional tilt attacks, and special moves.

• High-Octane Traversal: The game utilizes a brilliant “Drop” mechanic where slamming into the environment builds momentum that easily chains into dashes, wall jumps, and devastating strikes.

• Risk & Reward Defenses: On the Xbox controller, the defense mechanics feel incredibly satisfying. You can block, dodge, and execute a tight neutral parry that rewards split-second timing with devastating counter-windows.

The levels offer massive verticality and a refreshing layout that pushes you to explore every nook and cranny. There are plenty of clever environmental puzzles and brilliantly hidden secrets, such as five Heart Fragments tucked away in each stage. Finding all fragments in a world unlocks the grueling “Vanitas” levels—punishing, checkpoint-free gauntlets designed to test the limits of your precision platforming.

Visually, the game is a masterclass in hand-drawn kinetic energy. Running on the Xbox Series X, the frame rate is buttery smooth, making the thousands of hand-drawn animation frames pop with incredible fluidity. Globule stretches, snaps, and moves with the expressive weight of a classic Saturday morning cartoon character.

The level aesthetics tell a poignant, melancholy story about environmental anxiety without ever feeling overly preachy. You’ll transition from cotton-candy-coloured fields to suffocating industrial landscapes groaning under mechanical waste and petroleum waterfalls.

Complementing this gorgeous aesthetic is a breathtaking, quirky soundtrack composed by ModalModule. It moves effortlessly from gentle, French-inspired acoustic guitar and ambient piano to heavy rock and rhythmic accordions that kick into overdrive right when a boss fight turns up the heat.

While Decline’s Drops punches well above its weight class, it does have a few minor eccentricities, one of which is input delay. The game uses an old-school attack queue system. Button-mashing can easily lock you into a lengthy combo animation, leaving you momentarily vulnerable to incoming attacks. It forces you to be deliberate, but it can feel a bit rigid until you get the timing down.

At times, navigating tight platforms with Globule’s high-speed momentum can feel slightly floaty, leading to a few accidental plunges. Levels are also sprawling and full of backtracking potential, making the lack of an in-game map a bit of a hurdle for completionists.

Decline’s Drops is an incredibly charming, surprisingly deep, and meaty 7 to 10-hour adventure. Minor UI static-ness and finicky combo registrations aside, its stellar hand-drawn presentation, punchy brawler combat, and excellent stage design make it a must-play for platformer fans on Xbox.