Some games innovate, others refine. Humble Hearts’ 2D action-RPG Dust: An Elysian Tail falls in the latter camp, but don’t interpret that as any sort of slight: from beginning to end, this adventure manages to capture the constant thrill of discovery (a trademark of beloved classics like the Castlevania and Metroid series) so well that it fills every step of your journey with an exhilarating dose of wide-eyed wonder.

As an amnesiac named Dust, your 10- to 15-hour tale (or more, depending on your meticulousness) unfolds as you travel from village to village, across breathtakingly illustrated maps that harbor all manner of secrets, treasure, and challenges. The backdrop is a brewing genocidal conflict between a warmongering military force and the more gentle-natured Moonblood race; this gritty theme is in stark contrast to the cast of chatty, perhaps overly twee, fully voiced animal-like creatures — whether you cotton to them or not is entirely subjective. (We found them endearing; others may find them cloying.) Regardless, the push to regain your memories and to understand your role in this struggle is the main narrative reason you’re hacking, slashing, and chain-combo-ing your way through waves of imaginative beasts and bosses. Yet despite an increasingly involving plot, most likely your real motivation to keep exploring, upgrading your equipment, and tackling monsters is to uncover all the clever touches Dust has squirrelled up its teasingly deep sleeves.

Remember those "unclimbable" vines that taunted you early in the game? Eventually, you'll be able to explore higher heights!

From your very first steps into the game world (Dust’s world map is split into 12 locations, each composed of multi-path screens), you’ll spot areas you can’t access. Either you don’t have the right ability in your progressively packed arsenal of moves and skills, or you need to get further into your adventure to recognize how the game’s map and world-navigation work. Is that squat tunnel traversable with the right ability unlocked? How do you access that achingly glittery key lying just out of reach? And do those colorful vines going up, up, up lead anywhere special?

Dust’s onscreen map — backed by your sidekick Fidget’s treasure-sniffing alerts — does a fantastic job of signposting places holding unseen chests and pathways. As you gather new skills, the temptation to make return trips is liable to transform any observant gamer with a penchant for map-filling into a treasure-hunting obsessive. And there’s no lull in Dust’s goodie-packed allure: new abilities unlock at an incredibly well-measured pace, allowing a near-constant sense of discovery as you explore. Better yet, your curiosity is always rewarded in some form, big or small. Even some of the best and biggest blockbusters never quite get that feeling right; Dust nails it right out of the gate.

Each new area presents cool new environmental quirks. The Blackmoor Mountains harbor harsh blizzards and avalanches.

Indie developers like to cross-pollinate their games with characters from other indie-developed titles (see Meat Boy’s appearance in Southend’s ilomilo), and Dust uses this trick to gleeful effect: a dozen iconic XBLA characters are trapped in unlockable cages scattered throughout the game world. The way in which each meeting is handled is wonderfully clever, and we won’t spoil them here. Just know that it’s no easy feat to find them all.

Much of your journey keeps you knee-deep in chasing treasure chests, trying to wrap up side-quests for villagers, or crafting items for Dust to don. (The game’s an RPG at its heart, after all, so leveling and equipment are also on your to-do list.) When you’re not doing those, you’ll be swinging your sword to best an onslaught of nicely varied goons that set about mucking up the game’s lovely locations. With the right buffs, basic strikes are powerful enough to dispatch most creatures, but when you add in Dust’s spinning Dust Storm attack for combos — which increases the amount of XP you earn as you build your hit chain into the hundreds (or thousands, even!) — it all just feels ridiculously fun and responsive. Sure, we wish the dash move wasn’t dictated by which trigger button you push (left for left, right for right — not the direction you’re facing), and it can get a little chaotic when you lose sight of your character in a giant skirmish, but these minor complaints only emphasize how confidently executed combat is otherwise.

While Dust: An Elysian Tail doesn’t try to hide its retro influences, the game’s much more whimsical take on old-school gameplay tenets isn’t an attempt to simply recycle the cerebral gymnastics of XBLA’s other 2D history lessons (Fez, Braid). What’s here is an entirely different, though no less surefooted, thrill. Crafted with painstaking attention to inventive detail and charm, Dust is never less than an outright joy to experience.

Challenge arenas — specific areas that grade you on time, score, and full completion — abound in the darker recesses of Dust's maps.

PUBLISHER: Microsoft Studios  •  DEVELOPER: Humble Hearts  •  ESRB: Everyone 10+  •  MULTIPLAYER: None  •  ACHIEVEMENTS: Story- and skill-based  •  COST: 1,200 Microsoft Points ($15)  •  RELEASE DATE: August 15, 2012

On Xbox Live Arcade

+ Fantastic pacing; feels incredibly good to control; lovely soundtrack; big maps with lots of secret goodies.

+ Leveling, item management, crafting; hugely imaginative, enjoyable world to learn and explore.

– Dust can get lost in the visual cacophony of big scuffles; cutesy character designs and interactions can feel a bit precious.

? Why so many game characters with wacky accents?

9.5