Furwind is a platformer adventure game in which you play as Furwind, a fox. Darhun, an ancestor who was caged away eons ago after a war, has been released. Now Furwind must fight to keep the darkness and evil out of Moontail.

When first turning on the game, the story of Moontail and the war is told through a voice-acted narration and pictures resembling ancient times. The voice acting and intro isn’t too long, though it did get to a point where I skipped the last couple of scenes just so I could start playing the game. Then you enter the first level as Furwind.

The beginning of the first level acts as a tutorial of sorts as the game explains the controls to you. Furwind has been granted some powers by the ancestors to ward off the darkness and defeat the enemies that lie deep within the forest. Once you get through the tutorial part, the rest of the level is up to you.

The controls run smooth and Furwind is easy to handle as there aren’t too many buttons in play. You move left and right with the analog stick, jump with A and double jump with A again in mid-air, and you can attack by swishing your tail with B. Attacking takes stamina, though, so if you spam your attacks, Furwind will get tired and he will get hit by an enemy. He doesn’t have a lot of health either and the enemies really pack a wallop. I died quite a bit rushing too many enemies. The health doesn’t come back unless you find a heart somewhere, which I rarely found.

The main levels don’t go from point A to point B. There are different directions to go in, though some are blocked until you’re able to beat a certain section of the level. In the first level, for example, there are a couple of boss battles. Once you defeat one, you can go further into the level and find the second boss and the end from there. This can be tricky with the lack of health, though there are checkpoints scattered about the level, so if you die, you just respawn at your last checkpoint. There are no lives or consequences if you die too many times, which is nice.

In addition to the main levels, there are also captured villagers you can save. Those levels are short and sweet where you need to defeat a certain number of enemies. There are also challenge levels which are quick too but are, well, a challenge. Those two kinds of levels break up the game a bit if you don’t feel like committing to a longer main level. It’s also great practice to get to know Furwind a bit more as well.

The graphics and music in Furwind are charming all around. The pixel art style resembles old school games though it’s bright and colorful. It looks great whether you play with the Switch docked or in handheld mode. The music is an original soundtrack which is upbeat and fun to listen to as you play through the game. I never found the music to be repetitive at all and enjoyed it all from the moment I turn on the game until I stop playing for the day.