Submachine: Legacy, Destructoid review
October 20, 2023
This Flash puzzle games collection is holding a strong 99% positive review on Steam.
Adobe Flash is, of course, dead. It was deprecated back in 2021, putting a scruffy little bow on this particular niche of PC gaming. Line Rider, Happy Wheels, and Bloons all started their careers via Flash, and while some of these games do make a return every so often, as the upcoming Alien Hominid remaster, they’ve certainly fallen out of favour with the younger crowd.
Now, even though Newgrounds continues to exist, the legendary Adobe Flash content repository is not nearly as culturally relevant today as it once used to be. That is not to say, however, that Flash games have been totally taken out of the equation. Notably, Flash developer Mateusz Skutnik – whose name may ring a bell for the older folks – has just released an all-new entry in his Submachine puzzle series. This is, of course, a big deal for Flash fans all on its own, but even more interesting is the fact that Submachine: Legacy has already got a 99% positive rating on Steam.
Submachine: Legacy enjoys a remarkably high review score.
Skutnik’s Submachine titles weren’t quite as incredibly popular as some of the games mentioned in the previous section. They were, however, a mainstay for point ‘n’ click fans due to their satisfying puzzles and a mysterious vibe. All of that seems to have made the transition into Submachine: Legacy, which is basically a collection of 12 previous Submachine releases.
Now fully updated and tied into a single experience, all of Skutnik’s previous work on the Submachine series has been enjoying praise on Steam, with fans being positively thrilled with this new release. “Thank you Mr. Skutnik,” said one reviewer. “Been playing your games since 2005.”
Another compared Submachine: Legacy to Dwarf Fortress in an unexpectedly wholesome way: “You remember when Dwarf Fortress hit Steam and there was a post saying “have you people all been waiting 20 years to give the devs money?” This is a little bit like that. Cheers, M, this is superlative.”
Good stuff all around, then. Submachine: Legacy seems to be a must-have for Adobe Flash veterans, and may even be a sign of things to come for Skutnik himself. Fans may remember, after all, that the mysterious Submachine: The Engine was a thing.