The prettiest platformer I've played since Rayman Legends is Ducktales coded, and has a free Steam Next Fest demo right now

The Eternal Life of Goldman opens with an absolutely stunning animated sequence following the embers of a fire springing to life on a tropical island before a plane swoops in to airdrop in our platforming hero: an aging, white-bearded adventurer with a cane slung over his shoulder who only goes by the name Goldman. Enraptured throughout this free Steam Next Fest demo, this hefty couple of hours is more than enough to get me hooked (yes, like Goldman's cane) on trying more.

Developer Weappy Studio has cracked blending Tintin-like animation throughout The Eternal Life of Goldman's vibrant world with maintaining platforming clarity. If you want to try it yourself, our Steam Next Fest guide will help you get started. Blasting through the fiery first level, I joyously bounce on enemies with my cane – right out of DuckTales – use it to hook onto ledges, and stylishly dispatch a horde of some kind of ghost monkeys. Also, I find out that the disaster, happening during a festival, has resulted in a terrible death toll. Ah, perhaps not so joyous after all?

Bouncing, sadly

There's a thread of melancholy running through even the opening hours of The Eternal Life of Goldman that, so far, is tonally judged well. The archipelago Goldman has been called to is in turmoil due to strange, supernatural occurrences, and the untimely death of their community leader – many meeting Goldman's aid with an amount of deserved cynicism. But that's not going to stop him hopping and bopping enemies with abandon in order to track down the necessary items to restore a train that'll take him face-to-face with a mysterious deity.

Even outside of the dark fairytale energy of Goldman's adventure proper, the whole thing takes place as a story being told to a sick, bedbound child – including one cheeky moment when the mother telling the tale pretends Goldman falls to his death (echoing the stylings of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time). More than a charming, Princess Bride-like framing, even this has a touch of darkness to it – the child seems seriously sick, and uncomfortable topics mirroring the themes of Goldman's adventure are brought up at times.

At least this far into The Eternal Life of Goldman, this platformer hasn't revealed itself to be a full Metroidvania, but there are echoes of that progression style there. Tracking down cane upgrades, Goldman can access new mobility powers. The hook, for instance, is one you get during the tutorial, alongside an upgradeable metal pole to replace the wooden one which allows for higher bounces. Except, at times, you'll want to bounce lower. All three parts of the cane – grip, body, and base – can be hotswapped out with a touch of the d-pad at any time.

Bouncing on enemies isn't just a means of attack, but Goldman's main method of traversal across plenty of perilous pitfalls too. Working my way deep within Fort Elephant – part military base, part luxurious manor, part strange scientific laboratory – I end up having to time bounces on enemies and levers between spurts of fire and dripping goo, avoiding flaming foes and occasionally swapping to jumping using hooks. Side routes containing gold pickups, healing items, and collectibles tempt me from the critical path with tricky jumps of their own.

With levels littered with fast travel points, The Eternal Life of Goldman's Metroidvania-like aspects seem to come through by having you swap between levels, using upgrades obtained in each to push a little further past points you couldn't before – like a sequence of high wires with fiery vents of their own in an icy level I don't manage to get that far into yet. But I'll definitely be back. The Eternal Life of Goldman's story has surprisingly intrigued me so far, the art across every screen is simply gorgeous to look at, and it brings the goods when it comes to the platforming action as well. I'm still curious how it'll all slot together in the full game, but it's off to an excellent start, and this generous demo is well worth getting lost in for yourself. The Eternal Life of Goldman launches on PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch soon.

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