Sabotage Studio is making The Messenger.
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The Messenger is the ninja Metroidvania that leaps from 8-bit to 16-bit art

  • Posted byby Dean Takahashi
  • Updated
  • 2 min

Canadian indie developer Sabotage Studio has announced The Messenger, a new ninja-themed platform game coming in 2018. It’s the debut for this Quebec-based company.

The Messenger is a “Metroidvania,” or a cross of Metroid and Castlevania that emphasizes side-scrolling nonlinear play with a mix of role-playing game elements. It also features an interesting twist: Midway through, the hero moves forward in time, and the art style switches to 16-bit graphics, where the gameplay becomes deeper. That gives the game an interesting take in the increasingly popular and crowded retro sector.

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Written by

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.