We first reported on The Prisoning: Fletcher’s Quest last month, and have since had a go for ourselves. We’ve played through the first couple of hours of the game and give our initial impressions. The Prisoning: Fletcher’s Quest is out on Steam and Nintendo Switch on February 10th, 2026. It has been developed by Elden Pixels, which has a good track record with titles such as Alwa’s Awakening and A Void Hope. It’s also notable as being published by comeback retro icons Acclaim.
The game plays like many other Metroidvania titles by slowly introducing new moves or abilities as you explore back and forth searching for the way forward. However, The Prisoning does have a slightly higher degree of difficulty than some in the genre released over the last few years. This one has some tough arcade-style single screens that require trial and error to get right. The story behind the game is intriguing and involves a dodgy doctor who puts Fletcher under hypnosis. Once in the brain, Fletcher finds himself trapped in his own nightmare prison, where anything can happen.
The most interesting feature of this game is the procedurally generated rooms, which have a different layout every new game that is started. It means there is definitely replay value in The Prisoning and that it could keep fans of the gameplay loop hooked for a while. During our playthrough, we saw a lot of different types of rooms. Some of the best were cannon rooms that almost became puzzle-like in how you need to take them out to get through to the next screen. Other rooms were straight-out action platforming that took all our arcade skills.
As you progress through the rooms, you’ll open up checkpoints that save progress and act as warp stations. The waypoints are shown as a food stand with a worker who sometimes doesn’t know what day of the week it is, but you feel relieved when he appears. There are also some interesting upgrades as you progress that give you another way to play through the rooms as you backtrack. The Prisoning has lots of varied gameplay throughout, but always maintains that harder difficulty. This is certainly a game for anyone who wants a real challenge.
The pixel art on show has a high-quality feel, as does the well-composed soundtrack. The overall presentation in The Prisoning is impressive, and there is a signature style that stands out. The bosses also feel the screen and create a lot of tension as they thrash about. In fact, most of the standout features are the boss battles, as well as the shooter sections that pop up occasionally. The only negative thought that cropped up during our playthrough was that a few rooms were less compelling than most of the others. However, this didn’t spoil our enjoyment, and in fact, sometimes these rooms give you a breather you need once in a while.
Overall, The Prisoning is a well-made Metroidvania that fits in lots of the genre’s tropes to a high standard. Fans of the genre will appreciate how tough this one is, as will those who seek an 80s-style level of difficulty in places. It also has a quirky style with humour and fun aesthetics alongside a decent soundtrack. Couple these attributes to a clean, tight control scheme, and The Prisoning has many positive reasons that make it easy to recommend to veterans, while newcomers and casual Metroidvania players should heed the warning over the difficulty. Finally, although we didn’t play this one on the Switch, we could imagine this being a great fit due to the single-screen gameplay.
