Steam Deck compatibility: I beat the game but sometimes the game starts glitching out visually to a point you can barely make out what's going on. To fix the issue I had to re adjust the resolution in game. The game even crashed once or twice because of this odd visual bug. Not that bad of an issue but worth noting. Game review: I don't like metriod vanias or Zelda or any game that makes me find stuff for the most part, but this game's different. There was only two times I really got lost, and one of those times it was because something pretty obvious slipped my mind. This game is an A tier game at least. Good story telling, good fights, good discovery. I could get really in the weeds about what makes this game great but I think you just need to discover it yourself.
Great game. This game's story actually helped me figure out myself a bit. would add more but I don't want to spoil anything :)
So i never bought any of these games before this collection, and strayed away from it during the 3ds era since it was "fun for all skill levels" or something like that, which to me sounds like a game which would not appeal to my "hard core gamer side" and would be ultimately boring and unsatisfying, so i stayed away. much to my surprise i think they actually did make it fun for all skill levels, and is definitely worth considering a purchase, with a caveat [SPOILERS I GUESS]. basically all these games are the same game with small variations to one another, with the story surprisingly being the most distinguishing part about them. ya the characters play differently but they ultimately are basically just rom hacks. now this is all fine and dandy to me, and i played through all of them with exception to "king of cards" as i just haven't beaten it yet (getting there!), and the story and game play are great! ✓and a ✓. the one thing that i makes me bat an eye is the $40 usd price tag. for how short these games are it seems rather steep especially compared to other indie games today that, shall i say it, has put a lot more labor/skill into the game making then the shovel knight game(s) for way cheaper price points. i would never buy this game full priced full stop, as they almost ctrl+c ctrl+v'd for most of the other games. that being said this is one of my fav's and have put 15+ hours into this game. TLDR: great game ✓ simple but great story✓ buy on sale
The story? As far as i've gotten, the story is just "look, it's a game, IN A GAME!", really makes me self conscious about how i don't like this story. The controls? they feel nice and would love them in a different game, as this game just feels open, but ultimately uninspired gameplay wise. Obviously imo they put mass amounts of work in the pixel art and it looks great. controls ✓, pixel art ✓, you'd think it'd be a home-run hitter, even with the questionable story. well... maybe it says more about me then it does about the game but man do i just feel lost all the time, and when i continue after a puzzle it does not feel satisfying. the battles are alright, but they all feel the same. i've got 10 hours on this game and it kinda still doesn't make any sense. why cant i find any material? i feel like im killing enemies enough so i dont understand? im i just supposed to grind my life away or im i not keeping my eyes peeled enough or what? The menus are imo super un-intuitive so that doesn't not help, even after what can seem like forever of useless talk about how things work in the world and bad story writing, of which i probably skipped a bunch as it starting feeling like doing paperwork before starting your actual job. ngl if this game had actual online multiplayer it would've potentially been a freak'n good game imo, but alas, just a story plot. if you're even a bit curious about this game, it seemingly goes on sale for rather steep so i still think it's worth the few bucks just to fill your wonder, other words, id pass.
It's just kinda boring. iirc there's some kind of rouge like element to this game, but the game just feels so unchanged and boring and repetitive it's problematic for fun. isn't yars' revenge supposed to be like a hard core arcade like or something? the difficulty is nonexistent, until it is, sorta. once you get so far you'll get to harder levels, but they're not really harder, they're more like if instead of doing one simple math question you're doing 200,000 simple math questions, not fun. it just goes on and on and then you die not because the game is hard but because the game has so little actual engagement needed you become brain dead and die of boredom. If you're interested it seemingly goes on sale rather often and is rather cheap so just to fill your curiosity it may be worth purchasing, or to take note how not to reboot an old and loved, but ultimately niche game.
Most these games... If you're not a Crystalis fan this collection isn't worth it. also don't ever buy this game full priced, wait for a sale. i bought this collection so i could have Crystalis, as i enjoyed it on the switch nso service back then, but nowadays i really only play on the deck so this is great in that regard. the reason i give four stars is it's worth $6 usd for Crystalis alone imo, even though it's still kinda pricey for a single NES rom to enjoy. on another note: iirc they have strange/restrictive custom controls so i have to use steam's controller options to make it how i like. very annoying. also if you are wondering, as far as i can tell this collection is not like snk's other titles that just have the roms laying about in the files, so that's unfortunate.
