It is no surprise to see that the Knytt series of games have been so popular over the last year and a bit. From the first game, Within a Deep Forest, to Knytt, fans have been clamoring for another game. Excitement has been building ever since Nifflas announced that a sequel to Knytt would be coming soon, and finally the wait is over with Knytt Stories. It is not a sequel to Knytt, but it does incorporate many of the elements that made Knytt so enjoyable to play, the large world to explore, great ambient music and much more activity to experience than the different pace that Knytt offered. Nifflas has done a lot with Knytt Stories and added much more, that will make fans of these types of games, quite happy.

When you first load up Knytt Stories, take a quick moment to play the tutorial mode. Trust me, its good to familiarize yourself, with some of the new abilities your character Juni will use in her quest. When you are finally ready to play, select the play option and you will be presented with the main story for the game and the tutorial mode I mentioned earlier, which you can select here as well. The story essentially goes that there was a beautiful land, which suddenly became desolate and dark. Juni receives a letter from her friend Henna, who describes the situation to her, about the land being dark and dangerous. Who has also learned about a machine that may be draining the land of its energy. Henna asks if perhaps Juni could find out about this, as she would like to go herself but there is a deadly monster blocking the way to the cave, where the machine is located.

So Juni sets off on her quest, to find this machine and shut it down, but while this is the main story that you receive when you first download the game, this is where Knytt Stories takes off. The game comes complete with a level editor, for any would be design, hoping to make their own story, using the games engine and from what I have seen, it looks straightforward to accomplish. As well, Nifflas has already provided an official expansion pack on his site, including four more stories that you can try, right away or after you finish the first one, it is entirely up to you. It will be intriguing to see the stories and ideas that will be created within the community, with the tools available.

Knytt Stories, is just such a breathtaking game with its different environments that are jus so unique looking. They all have their own unique charm to them, once you see them for the first time. If you have played Knytt, or Within a Deep Forest, you will know what to expect. Nevertheless all the environments look really good. The exploration element of this game, is what makes this game different from others in the genre. The fact that Juni, not only has to explore the different environments to get new power ups, she also has to avoid the enemies that are also around. Juni cannot touch any of these enemies, for there is no attack powerups, or anything Juni can do to defeat them. The good thing as well is that, if you accidentally touch an enemy or fall in a body of water, you will restart back from the last save point. You have infinite lives luckily, so the game is quite generous and eliminates that frustration level of having to watch your lives, as you have to do with some platforming games.

As well, there are two difficulty modes to test your skills. The game automatically starts on easy mode, but you will encounter a switch in the game somewhere that allows you to change to hard mode. Make sure to play both modes, because the hard mode is much different and offers some nice surprises that you won't see in easy mode.

Another highlight of the game I must mention is the great ambient like music that you will hear as you explore the different environments. Each track is done quite excellently and is quite subtle as you are playing. It does not stand out like most music tracks do, but you will still notice it, as you are playing. As the games prior to Knytt Stories, the music is top notch once again; it just blends perfectly with the action on screen and fits the atmosphere perfectly.

There is not much more to say about this game, other than to try out the level editor if you fancy making your own levels and keep checking back at the homepage for any user created missions that will be coming down the pipeline. You can also access the official expansion download/3rd party missions, in the menu as a shortcut, to searching for the website.

The anticipation for Knytt Stories has been building for quite some time and the game has not failed to live up to those expectations. If you are a fan of Nifflas work, you must check out Knytt Stories, to see the hard work and effort that was put into this game, and enjoy a great gaming experience that Knytt Stories offers.

Note: Version 1.10 has recently been released, below are some of the changes.

Knytt Stories - 1.1.0

* Added Flags
* Added ShiftDenyHologram option, which ignores shifts with ShiftTouch=True when the hologram is placed
* Added invisible slope objects
* Added Overwrite button when installing levels
* Latest version of Knytt Stories Manager included

A little note: Levels made with this version can not be opened with previous versions..