Very pretty game, it looks great. And we don't get too many games which seem to pick up mesoamerican flavour. Though the game is laid out a bit like a metroidvania, it is mostly a straightforward affair with very little reason to explore, and some backtracking which mostly consists of running through an area you've already passed. The combat is a bit uninspired, and there's a bit too much just running from A to B. The platforming doesn't pose too much of a challenge either, but at least seems to work quite okay. The story is fair enough, told in drips here and there. In all, it's a slow burn low-difficulty stroll through a gorgeous world. If you crave intense platforming, gripping narrative and rock solid combat. Then you should look elsewhere. But if you just want pretty visuals, mellow background music and some lightweight platforming/combat gaming, this is quite good. It was what I needed at the time I played. Not something I'd return to in a year though.
Game took me a bit under 2.5 hours to get to the end of. The gameplay itself is not bad, but nothing wholly unique either. What this game does do quite well though, is the atmosphere, and those light and shadow effects look quite nice. I quite liked how a major mechanic of the game is to light torches to drive back the darkness. Sadly not too much variation. But for what time it takes to finish, it does bring up variations on the mechanic until near the end. For some reason this game really gave me a Sands of Time vibe, in a good way. So if you're up for a short, quite nice looking and serviceable platformer with slightly too simple combat, this is quite nice. If you hunger for a mechanically deep platformer with demanding combat or a sense of wonder at always new areas, this is not for you.
Nice simple platformer with great pixel art and nice music going for it. The controls are tight, I never felt like I died because of dropped inputs or anything like that. The game does get rather tricky with it's one hit and you restart difficulty, and a few levels near the end got a bit long for that to be enjoyable. Lengthwise, I beat the main game in around two and a half hour, having replayed several levels to get all bolts and a couple going for the time challenge as well. This does offer some replayability, but also a caveat: The trophy times are really tight, and there are plenty of extra levels after the story locked behind getting flawless runs (all bolts AND under par time). Though I enjoyed my time with the game, I'm not sure I want to go back through it to perfect enough levels to see all those.
This game really wants to be Banjo Kazooie, but also wants things to move a lot faster. The environments are quite diverse, lots of little quirky details. So even if the presentation may be rough and janky (Oh yes it is), it also carries a lot of love with it. If you are looking for an ultra-polished platformer, maybe go look at Yooka-Laylee. But where this shines over the lizard and bat is in the sheer speed. Momentum doesn't seem to have much to say here, you can run fast from a standing start, and stop at a moment's notice. Though janky it feels entertaining to move around. The combat can go take a flying leap out the window though, there's hardly any good feeling with what hit you and when. Thankfully it's a non-issue except in some boss fights. The sound and music are, at best, a mixed bag. I would not recommend you play this for those. And the story is.....there I guess. There are a couple of boss battles where you don't actually have to fight the boss. It's clear that the developer went with doing something funny and occasionally unexpected. And I am here for it. if you can handle jank and are just hankering for scampering around a silly world, I think you may like this. I know I did.
You probably already heard this. This is a cozy farming/life sim game, in which you settle down in a small town to tend a farm inherited from your uncle. Apart from farming, there's fishing, getting to know the townspeople, cave delving and likely a lot of other things to while away your days. Just, relax, take it one day at a time and enjoy the serenity. Beautiful pixel art. Tranquil music and a generally laid back atmosphere with a couple of mysteries to pursue, should you wish to do so. This is a great little time sink for when your life is too hectic, just unwind a bit and relax.
First off, as a museum with interviews, scans and such, this is awesome! Good timeline of how things evolved and moved along. The emulation of the various systems is good and it's nice to have them all ordered in the timeline along with relevant scans and snippets and occasional video clips. However, as a game collection this shines a light on the fact that most atari games just don't really hold up. Sure Pong and Crystal Castles and so on made history, and the arcade versions still play fairly well. But a large part of this collection contains Atari 2600, 5200, 7800 etc. games. And apart from the early 2600 titles, all games featured makes Atari feel like a cheap knock-off system to play games which are done better on their competetion at the time. It's interesting as a curiosity and from a history perspective, but as a collection it's a bit of a letdown. Add on top of that, that the keyboard control for games are all over the place. Even games on the same system may have completely different keys bound, meaning you have to hit the menus to even check out how you're expected to control the game this time around. Sad to say, this is a masterful preservation effort, of games which rarely feel competetive for their time.
I quite enjoyed Steamworld Heist 1 back then, so I were stoked to play the sequel. And what does the sequel deliver? More of the same nice side-on tactics turn based gameplay. Taking a leaf from the modern X-Com, you guide your squad through various encounters with 2-action point turns. Inspired by the likes of Future Tactics and Valkyria Chronicles, whether you actually hit something is based on how well you yourself do at aiming. So far, so great. That goes for both games. Where my experience with the sequel feels like a slight letdown is the new overworld map. It's nice they try to include new gameplay with a sub and naval battles, but it makes re-visiting levels and keeping track of where there are levels more time consuming. Furthermore, when the levels start filling up with enemies, it quickly becomes tedious to wait for all of them, or skip their move/action one at a time. A "2x/3x" speed option for when you're not really too interested in their turn would have been preferred over the rapid repeated hitting of the C key. Gameplay wise, this is still a good, unique and fun turn based tactics game which is revised from the first entry. There's just a bit too much tedium and too little actually changed to make this a clear recommendation over the former game.
In all I'd give this 3.5 (Good->Great) for the gameplay, but the absolutely awesome soundtrack moves it up to 4 stars. The game is vibrant, colourful and has a sense of whimsy to it. But don't let the graphics fool you, it becomes very demanding, often to the point of frustration. The puzzle part is trying to figure out "How" you're expected to make it through tricky sections. But unlike many puzzle platformers, knowing the trick is not an automatic win. Especially in the later parts, the game demands something near perfect execution and good feel for how your abilities chained and timed will give you the most air time to clear a tricky gap. In all, I quite enjoyed my 11 hours with the game, though I was ready to see the end about 2 hours before that, out of frustration. Great parts: • Movement is responsive and flows well, apart from your downward slam which has an unpleasant animation delay. • The music is great. Awesome work • Puzzle platformer which requires both, no automatic win because you now know what to do. Negative points: • Some of the puzzles you have hardly any chance to solve on the first go, as it relies on information you don't see until half a second before you die. • No mid-level saves. When a level can take you up to 40 minutes to work out and get through, taking a break means starting over. • Some encounters where there are too many enemies to keep track of and fight, can seem too random to be pleasant.
I bought this, hoping this would scratch the same itch as Zachtronics' games like Opus Magnum, or Molek-Syntez, or other zach likes like Signal State or Prime Mover. What I found was a pretty easy experience, so this may be a good place to start if you're new to such logic like games. Most levels are completed by wiring things together to power something or other, or to join data together etc. The game certainly has a breadth of ways to go about things. It took me 6½ hours to complete the campaign, and it regularly mixed up the experience and gave you something else to do. What I was mostly missing, was that many levels seemed more about just disconnecting, reconnecting and flipping buttons to sort of "push the solution" along until the end. Far from the expected gameplay of setting up everything, then hitting the play button and hoping you planned it out well ahead. Some levels do require that, but they are fairly limited in the campaign. The last levels didn't require it, but with panels opening up gradually, sending power between views, it felt like a great tight escape room like puzzle experience. Whether the game will be worth playing beyond the first playthrough comes down to the community. There's things in place to showcase puzzle of the week, and the editor should have enough pieces to make fiendish levels. If you get the Gog version, you'll have to create an account and enter your credentials every launch, though the website states you only need to login if you wish to publish your puzzles. All in all, I enjoyed my time. Wished it was longer, and that the puzzles were more elaborate.
The game looks quite pretty, the storyline is fine, and it's nice when you go by boat, to get small tales of the nordic pantheon as something to do while you move between places. The combat has some heft to it. It is still a case of spamming your attacks, especially when you go up against tough enemies, but also requires you to be ready to dodge, parry or interrupt enemy attacks, unless you want a bad time. All in all, a great action adventure brought a bit down by the game drawing a bit out forcing you to go back and forth over the same ground a few times. Gear is nice but is on the verge of tedium trying to determine if you want to change, and if it actually really makes that much difference. The side-encounters provide a high degree of challenge if you're not levelled up properly, to the point of feeling unfair at times, when an enemy can 2-hit you from full health, and has an attack which you might not even be able to avoid, it becomes a case of hoping the enemy doesn't press the "I win" button. All in all, a nice looking fairly well playing action adventure, marred by the mandatory gear score system, slightly repetetive side-activities and combat which may or may not yield something great at the end.
