Simple mechanics meet devious puzzles
By Paul Hunter
From the outside, Bionic Bay might look like another side-scrolling platformer, but spend a few minutes with it and you’ll see it’s a completely fresh take on the genre. Developed by Mureena and Psychoflow Studio, and published by Kepler Interactive, this indie release wastes no time showing you what it’s made of. Its world is strange, its humour is subtle, and its physics feel as sharp as the pixel edges that define its industrial playground. You’ll jump, roll, grab, and launch yourself through rooms filled with deadly machines and peculiar devices that seem to exist just to ruin your day. Yet somehow, none of it feels cruel. And surprisingly, deaths were often so silly you can't help but chuckle inside.
There’s a surprising charm to its chaos, and a steady confidence that never feels showy. You get the sense the team knew exactly what they were building—and had fun doing it. Bionic Bay doesn’t need to shout to grab your attention; it simply hands you its tools and lets the rest unfold naturally. Let's take a closer look!
Bionic Bay starts with a bang. After a catastrophic workplace accident, you're dropped into a nightmarish industrial platforming maze with no map, no guide, and no explanation. There's no spoken dialogue or text logs to comb through—just you, a strange machine-ridden environment, and a quiet sense of urgency.
That silence is powerful. Without narration or cutscenes, the game trusts you to piece things together. You wake up alone, surrounded by grim machinery and hostile contraptions. From there, you move forward. Every mechanical trap and twisted corridor raises new questions. What is this place? Who built it? And more importantly—why does it seem determined to tear you apart?
It’s easy to overlook story in a platformer, but here, the narrative creeps in naturally. The spaces you explore feel intentional. Each new area tells its own visual story through background elements and absurd, oversized devices. One level resembles a rejected sci-fi factory, while another feels like a scrapyard designed by a sadistic engineer. You get the sense that whatever purpose these places once had, it’s long gone.
That environmental storytelling made a real impression on me while navigating a series of towering lifts and piston-powered hallways. Without a single word, the scene felt like a metaphor for escape—climb high, move fast, and stay out of the machine’s way. It was simple, but it stuck with me.
This isn't a game about plot twists or grand reveals. It's about survival, curiosity, and momentum. You’re not here to play hero or uncover ancient secrets. You just want out. That raw motivation fits perfectly with the quiet, determined scientist you control.
Is it a prison, a dream, or something else entirely? The game never says. But it’s that sense of mystery, delivered through design instead of dialogue, that gives your escape just enough weight to make every leap feel important.
Jumping through danger is only half the fun in Bionic Bay—the real hook is how you manipulate the world around you. While you start with just a jump and a roll, things escalate quickly. New movement powers drop in at just the right pace, giving you clever tools that never feel overwhelming. One minute you’re teleport swapping with a metal barrel mid-air to dodge a laser grid, the next you’re rotating the entire game world to shift gravity and fall through a hole in the roof.
This isn’t about memorizing complex button combos or juggling ten mechanics. Each ability is easy to pick up and immediately useful, whether it’s freezing time to dash through a gravity field or punching a crate across the room to make a path forward. The design stays tight by keeping each new element focused. The teleport mechanic, for instance, doesn’t branch into wild variations—it just stays clean, consistent, and fun to mess with.
A gameplay moment that stood out came in a gauntlet of spinning bombs and gravity wells. I expected frustration. Instead, I found myself smiling as I used metal barrels to carefully teleport hop across, mapping a path through the chaos in real time. It clicked in a way that few platforming games can. That sort of clarity shows up again and again, even during tougher moments.
You’ll fail plenty, but the game never punishes you unfairly. Generous checkpoints and fast load times make sure you’re always jumping back into the action without losing momentum. Whether you're navigating conveyor belts of doom or navigating a deathtrap corridor, you rarely feel like you’ve hit a wall. The challenge is real, but it's fair.
Even better, Bionic Bay respects your time. Each section feels handcrafted to test specific skills without dragging things out. Some levels turn into short obstacle courses with no room to breathe, while others let you poke around and try different approaches. That mix keeps things fresh without leaning on filler.
While Bionic Bay initially focuses on its tight, solo platforming experience, after completing 10 levels its Online mode unlocks, providing a refreshing twist to the gameplay. In this competitive mode, you race against the ghost runs of other gamers in obstacle courses, testing your speed, agility and timing. This mode brings a fun layer of challenge, as you can compare your finish time against others players. Success here isn’t just about skill but also about adapting to the chaos of the level and outsmarting your opponents.
If you like the idea of skill-based platforming mixed with slapstick physics and just enough weirdness to keep you guessing, Bionic Bay is likely your jam.
Bionic Bay might look chaotic in screenshots, but once you’re in motion, it’s surprisingly clear. The pixel art leans into detail and density, but never at the cost of readability. Even in cluttered scenes filled with pipes, sparks, or background noise, your lanky scientist is always easy to spot. That’s thanks to smart use of contrast and scale, which ensures you can quickly identify what’s solid ground and what’s a death trap.
Lighting plays a big role too. Hazard zones glow in a way that signals danger without spelling it out, while safe paths often stand out just enough to guide your eye. This kind of visual design keeps things flowing. You’re not guessing—you’re reacting.
What stood out most to me was how the game handled distance. There’s a moment where the camera pulls way back, and your character becomes a tiny speck navigating a massive machine. Even then, the movement stays smooth, the path forward remains clear, and the scale adds a bit of awe to the action. You feel small, but not lost.
Performance on PS5 was flawless. Load times were fast, checkpoints activated instantly, and I didn’t run into any stutters or visual hiccups. The controls responded cleanly even during fast-paced sequences, which is key for a game that thrives on precision. Whether I was rolling under swinging blades or swapping places with a crate mid-jump, it all felt sharp and snappy.
Sound design goes heavy on the mechanical side. You’re constantly surrounded by hissing valves, buzzing panels, and the thud of malfunctioning machinery. It gives the space a cold, dangerous personality without needing music to do the heavy lifting. When music does appear, it’s sparse and timed well—often kicking in right when tension peaks or a risky move pays off.
Even small sound cues pull their weight. A subtle pop when using your swap power, or the crunch of a successful landing, gives everything a tactile feel. It’s a quiet game overall, but not a silent one.
Bionic Bay is a game with no flashy cutscenes, no lengthy tutorials—just crisp visuals, tight sound, and stable performance. That’s all it needs.
Final Score: 9/10 - Amazing
Developer: Psychoflow Studio, Mureena
Publisher: Kepler Interactive
Genre: Puzzle, Platformer
Modes: Single-player
A key was provided by the publisher.
By Paul Hunter
From the outside, Bionic Bay might look like another side-scrolling platformer, but spend a few minutes with it and you’ll see it’s a completely fresh take on the genre. Developed by Mureena and Psychoflow Studio, and published by Kepler Interactive, this indie release wastes no time showing you what it’s made of. Its world is strange, its humour is subtle, and its physics feel as sharp as the pixel edges that define its industrial playground. You’ll jump, roll, grab, and launch yourself through rooms filled with deadly machines and peculiar devices that seem to exist just to ruin your day. Yet somehow, none of it feels cruel. And surprisingly, deaths were often so silly you can't help but chuckle inside.
There’s a surprising charm to its chaos, and a steady confidence that never feels showy. You get the sense the team knew exactly what they were building—and had fun doing it. Bionic Bay doesn’t need to shout to grab your attention; it simply hands you its tools and lets the rest unfold naturally. Let's take a closer look!
Bionic Bay starts with a bang. After a catastrophic workplace accident, you're dropped into a nightmarish industrial platforming maze with no map, no guide, and no explanation. There's no spoken dialogue or text logs to comb through—just you, a strange machine-ridden environment, and a quiet sense of urgency.
That silence is powerful. Without narration or cutscenes, the game trusts you to piece things together. You wake up alone, surrounded by grim machinery and hostile contraptions. From there, you move forward. Every mechanical trap and twisted corridor raises new questions. What is this place? Who built it? And more importantly—why does it seem determined to tear you apart?
It’s easy to overlook story in a platformer, but here, the narrative creeps in naturally. The spaces you explore feel intentional. Each new area tells its own visual story through background elements and absurd, oversized devices. One level resembles a rejected sci-fi factory, while another feels like a scrapyard designed by a sadistic engineer. You get the sense that whatever purpose these places once had, it’s long gone.
That environmental storytelling made a real impression on me while navigating a series of towering lifts and piston-powered hallways. Without a single word, the scene felt like a metaphor for escape—climb high, move fast, and stay out of the machine’s way. It was simple, but it stuck with me.
This isn't a game about plot twists or grand reveals. It's about survival, curiosity, and momentum. You’re not here to play hero or uncover ancient secrets. You just want out. That raw motivation fits perfectly with the quiet, determined scientist you control.
Is it a prison, a dream, or something else entirely? The game never says. But it’s that sense of mystery, delivered through design instead of dialogue, that gives your escape just enough weight to make every leap feel important.
Jumping through danger is only half the fun in Bionic Bay—the real hook is how you manipulate the world around you. While you start with just a jump and a roll, things escalate quickly. New movement powers drop in at just the right pace, giving you clever tools that never feel overwhelming. One minute you’re teleport swapping with a metal barrel mid-air to dodge a laser grid, the next you’re rotating the entire game world to shift gravity and fall through a hole in the roof.
This isn’t about memorizing complex button combos or juggling ten mechanics. Each ability is easy to pick up and immediately useful, whether it’s freezing time to dash through a gravity field or punching a crate across the room to make a path forward. The design stays tight by keeping each new element focused. The teleport mechanic, for instance, doesn’t branch into wild variations—it just stays clean, consistent, and fun to mess with.
A gameplay moment that stood out came in a gauntlet of spinning bombs and gravity wells. I expected frustration. Instead, I found myself smiling as I used metal barrels to carefully teleport hop across, mapping a path through the chaos in real time. It clicked in a way that few platforming games can. That sort of clarity shows up again and again, even during tougher moments.
You’ll fail plenty, but the game never punishes you unfairly. Generous checkpoints and fast load times make sure you’re always jumping back into the action without losing momentum. Whether you're navigating conveyor belts of doom or navigating a deathtrap corridor, you rarely feel like you’ve hit a wall. The challenge is real, but it's fair.
Even better, Bionic Bay respects your time. Each section feels handcrafted to test specific skills without dragging things out. Some levels turn into short obstacle courses with no room to breathe, while others let you poke around and try different approaches. That mix keeps things fresh without leaning on filler.
While Bionic Bay initially focuses on its tight, solo platforming experience, after completing 10 levels its Online mode unlocks, providing a refreshing twist to the gameplay. In this competitive mode, you race against the ghost runs of other gamers in obstacle courses, testing your speed, agility and timing. This mode brings a fun layer of challenge, as you can compare your finish time against others players. Success here isn’t just about skill but also about adapting to the chaos of the level and outsmarting your opponents.
If you like the idea of skill-based platforming mixed with slapstick physics and just enough weirdness to keep you guessing, Bionic Bay is likely your jam.
Bionic Bay might look chaotic in screenshots, but once you’re in motion, it’s surprisingly clear. The pixel art leans into detail and density, but never at the cost of readability. Even in cluttered scenes filled with pipes, sparks, or background noise, your lanky scientist is always easy to spot. That’s thanks to smart use of contrast and scale, which ensures you can quickly identify what’s solid ground and what’s a death trap.
Lighting plays a big role too. Hazard zones glow in a way that signals danger without spelling it out, while safe paths often stand out just enough to guide your eye. This kind of visual design keeps things flowing. You’re not guessing—you’re reacting.
What stood out most to me was how the game handled distance. There’s a moment where the camera pulls way back, and your character becomes a tiny speck navigating a massive machine. Even then, the movement stays smooth, the path forward remains clear, and the scale adds a bit of awe to the action. You feel small, but not lost.
Performance on PS5 was flawless. Load times were fast, checkpoints activated instantly, and I didn’t run into any stutters or visual hiccups. The controls responded cleanly even during fast-paced sequences, which is key for a game that thrives on precision. Whether I was rolling under swinging blades or swapping places with a crate mid-jump, it all felt sharp and snappy.
Sound design goes heavy on the mechanical side. You’re constantly surrounded by hissing valves, buzzing panels, and the thud of malfunctioning machinery. It gives the space a cold, dangerous personality without needing music to do the heavy lifting. When music does appear, it’s sparse and timed well—often kicking in right when tension peaks or a risky move pays off.
Even small sound cues pull their weight. A subtle pop when using your swap power, or the crunch of a successful landing, gives everything a tactile feel. It’s a quiet game overall, but not a silent one.
Bionic Bay is a game with no flashy cutscenes, no lengthy tutorials—just crisp visuals, tight sound, and stable performance. That’s all it needs.
The Verdict
Bionic Bay delivers an easy-to-pick-up and thrilling platforming experience, blending simple mechanics with inventive power-ups and clever level design. The game excels in creating an atmosphere of tension, with its industrial labyrinth setting and ominous soundscape. Its accessible gameplay ensures both challenge and enjoyment, while online modes add a fun layer of competitive play with nice rewards. Confident in its design, Bionic Bay knows exactly what it wants to be and does it well—offering a satisfying, fast-paced adventure that’s easy to recommend.Final Score: 9/10 - Amazing
Bionic Bay details
Platform: PS5, PCDeveloper: Psychoflow Studio, Mureena
Publisher: Kepler Interactive
Genre: Puzzle, Platformer
Modes: Single-player
A key was provided by the publisher.