Crypt of the NecroDancer

For me the game was very chaotic and hard to play. I hate doing the same lvls on and on with only a little progress, its frustrating. Definitely not a game for me, although concept seemed cool and innovative. My worst purchase so far.

An 'impossible', yet perfectly working blend of a rhythm game (you can even use your own music) and RPGs from the early '80s. You dance (solo or local co-op) through a cave, kill monsters and collect equipment, seeking an exit to a deeper dungeon. After three dungeons, a boss follows. Reviewed after 53 hours. The good: 1) The idea actually works, and the game is fun and addictive. 2) Style. Even though I hate games with big pixels (retro shouldn't stand for big pixels but for hand-drawn feel of graphics), here they work. The style is perfectly chosen and set. The levels also kinda feel like dance clubs. All of your enemies - and there are lots of them! - dance! And if you make it to the end credits, they all also have nice music-related names. Another pro is the four completely different bosses. --- The bad: 1) Lack of content. There are only 4 zones, each of them consisting of 3 levels. The game tries to make up for it by unlocking more characters with different play styles, but most of them don't feel organic but rather like a desperate try to add more variety. 2) Too much randomness. Each level is generated randomly, and so are the power-ups and monsters. This generator could use some tweaking, as sometimes all the loot you get is junk and you arrive to the boss practically naked, and sometimes you get equipped so well that you toast him. 3) The bugs. The characters you unlock get tougher and tougher gameplay, including one for whom a missed beat, as well as a single hit, equals death. There aren't many bugs in the game, but if you get killed because of a bug after a long game session, you're not particularly happy. --- Verdict: Crypt of the Necrodancer is a totally unique game. First you're distrustful (this can't work!), then you fall in love with it (wow, it works, and beautifully!), but ultimately, you'll start suffering from the lack of the final polish. I sincerely hope the game will spawn either a sequel or a 'spiritual successor' that will do it right.

Though the upbeat music concept has wide appeal, this is no casual game. You have only 3 hit points, which are easily knocked off, and once you die you restart at the very beginning of the game. Your character's fragility eventually compels you to restart the level whenever you lose 0.5—1 HP early on, and over time this causes frustration.

This is a combo that works surpisingly well, though I was expecting the rhythm aspect to be a bit more fleshed out. It's also just too luck-based and random to be truly great and ditches most of its systems if you play the all zones mode, which ends up being a huge leap in difficulty (and would be a big one even if it let you keep the permanent upgrades). To me a better version of all zones mode would let me do corpse runs and/or use the diamond dealer (who sells three random items for diamonds collected in the previous run). Easy mode should've also covered all zones and let you save in-between zones. This instead of an alternate character that simply removes the rhythm aspect of the game, which I don't see the point in doing. You can either not find any of the good weapons or spells for an entire zone and not find the shop in some levels before time runs out, OR you can find an upgraded ranged weapon, a life leeching crown and a healing spell and revival potion which lets you easily make it to the boss. The former is more likely however. There's a weird bug that makes me wait 20+ seconds each time I boot up the game or it'll crash on the loading screen. Controller support is also half-assed, causing double inputs if you use joytokey and not letting you map anything to confirm/enter if you don't. On the plus side, variety is quite good, the visuals are charming and the music is excellent. I was also surprised by the great final bosses, which are creative and really intense. Most of the other bosses are kind of easy, besides king conga which is also the only one that messes around with time signatures. Do I recommend the game for the average player? I really want to, but no, I can only do so provided you are really good at both genres that it pulls from and don't mind any of the negatives I already pointed out. If you are happy with just playing (part of) the main game (one zone at a time) and looking up the rest of the story online, I would say go for it.

TLDR: A very unique Entry in the flood of Rogue-likes in recent Years. Seldom do i actually sit down and write a review for ANY game no matter how good but this little gem just made me. I played with a dancemat and had more fun than any other Title in the last year playing it. The music is on point and quite nice, the Graphics are pixely and vibrant, the gameplay is sharp and fun.