Most mobile platformers are bright, overly cheerful, and incredibly forgettable. When you spend half your week curating and testing out new mobile games, you get totally numb to the endless, candy colored cash grabs. Nihilumbra completely flips that script. It is a dark, atmospheric, and genuinely heartbreaking adventure that actually respects your intelligence. Whether you are commuting on the Tube in London, riding a streetcar in Toronto, or just relaxing on a rainy afternoon in Auckland, this is exactly the kind of moody, beautiful masterpiece that demands a spot on your device.

RUNNING FROM ABSOLUTE NOTHINGNESS

You play as Born, a little entity that literally ripped itself out of absolute emptiness a terrifying force known simply as The Void.

But this is definitely not a happy escape story. The Void wants you back, and it is relentlessly hunting you down. Every single beautiful landscape you run through gets systematically obliterated by this massive, creeping darkness right on your heels. It is a crazy, heavy burden. You are essentially condemning this gorgeous earth to complete destruction just by trying to survive in it.

PAINTING YOUR ESCAPE ROUTE

The actual gameplay is where this app really sinks its hooks in.

This isn’t just a basic run and jump arcade clone. Across five distinct worlds, you learn how to use five different colors to completely alter the ground physics. You literally paint the environment to make Born slide faster, bounce higher, or stick to vertical walls. It gives you this incredibly fluid, old school platforming vibe that has been brilliantly rebuilt from the ground up for modern touchscreens. If you absolutely hate classic virtual buttons, you can easily swap to a tilt sensor control scheme and guide Born by physically tilting your phone.

TEN HOURS OF CINEMATIC SURVIVAL

A massive chunk of the heavy atmosphere comes straight from the original soundtrack by Álvaro Lafuente. Do not play this game on mute. Seriously, put on a solid pair of headphones. It completely transforms the ten plus hours of gameplay into an intense, cinematic experience.

The developers also handle the monetization perfectly. You get to play the first two worlds a total of twelve full levels completely for free. It is a great way to test the waters and make sure your phone has the graphical power to actually run it smoothly. Once you are inevitably hooked, a single in app purchase unlocks the rest of the nightmare. Plus, there is a massive unlockable surprise waiting for you once you finally beat the campaign, guaranteeing you will be replaying the entire thing.

Stop wasting your storage on brain dead arcade games. Download this one, put your headphones on, and see if you can outrun The Void.