Crypt of the NecroDancer

I've had this for a while now, and honestly don't get captured by it for hours on end. I play this game every once in a while and get a little bit further. Why? Because I get frustrated when I die a lot... and I die a lot in this game. However, that's the fun part about it. In Rogue-Like fashion you start a new dungeon decent, collect as many gems as you can during a single run, maybe survive long enough to kill a boss. Whether you die or kill a boss you end up back in the crypt/hub area and can spend your gems on upgrades. (Chest item upgrades, or permanent upgrades for your character.) Your next run could be better because of these enhancements... or it might not be. Either way, you're doing all this to the beat of techno/dance music, which is amazing. (You also have the option to add your own personal music library into the mix!) Most characters are forced to move with the beat, and each beat counts as a turn you are taking. Even if you don't move on a beat, beware, your enemies won't stand still. Miss too many beats and they'll kill you instead. Thankfully there is one character to moves in true turn-based fashion, without being tied down to the music! I use this character the most, because I suck at keeping the time. But, my hope is that I will get better, and eventually move on to test myself with keeping tune to the beats. (There are benefits to keeping with the beats... usually coin multipliers, but sometimes damage or defense multipliers too.) This isn't my favorite game, but I still give it 5 stars because it excels at it's mission, which is to give you a truly unique and entertaining experience, while sometimes driving you mad in the process. Lots of characters, enemies, and bosses will give this game tons and tons of replay value. Worth every penny of the full price, exceptional if you can get it on sale.

The game really is good. It's original (as far as I know) and the mechanics work really well. At first you get annoyed as going in the rythm isn't as easy as it might seem. However after a while you learn it and it brings satisfaction. I have played not for very long (doesn't mean it's boring, I'm sure I will play alot more time) but already I can see it's pretty good. The progression also is nice. However, the game is harder than I thought - fortunately the level design is quasi random so it's not boring. I give it five stars cause it's hard to point any problem with it. It's not an AAA title obviously, but as a smaller game to play for fun it really does deliver. Plus the music is quite nice.

Though this game is simple, it is quite fun. There is actual strategy in gameplay, and the soundtrack is fantastic. I don't usually buy game soundtracks, but this one was a must buy. There's fun options for alternate characters to play (like a pacifist!) and cool weapons you can get. I like that there's local co-op, but wish it was lan instead. Playing on the same keyboard is hard.

I see this game as a brilliant mix of nethack and Patapon, which are two of my favorite games of all time. If that doesn't tell you much, then I would describe it as a music-centered roguelike. In this game, you go around a randomly generated dungeon, moving at the beat of the music, killing monsters and collecting diamonds. When you die, you go to a special room where you can buy permanent power-ups (and play mini-games, etc.) with your diamonds, which will allow you to get further in the game each time. Monsters also move at the beat of the music and in predictable patterns, making the game a nice middle point between real-time action and turn-based strategy I'm having a lot of fun playing this game. The music is excellent and the graphics are really nice. I only have one complaint: it doesn't support a USB controller even though the description says it does (I'm using Linux). I'm using antimicro to map my controllers' buttons to the keyboard's arrows, and it works great. The game is _much_ better with a controller, in my opinion, so it's a shame there's no direct support. That said, setting up antimicro was painless, so in practice it's not a problem.

Probably the best game of these last years, the gameplay is tight and challenging, the difficulty level go from easy to absolutely insane... But even though you think you'll never make it, by training you progressively get better and better, up to the point where you finally manage to beat the game ! The soundtrack is just amazing, and every little music reference get better and better with the numerous plays !