by Simple GameReviews | May 3, 2019 | Indie, Nintendo Switch, PS4, Xbox
Daggerhood from Ratalaika Games S.L.
A Pixel art, side-scrolling, platformer. During the level you will be collecting treasures and fairies before they disappear, killing enemies and trying to complete the level under the levels par time. The faster you complete the level the higher chance you have to earn a 3 star rating.
You traverse the levels by jumping, double jumping, wall jumping, and by throwing a magic dagger to teleport to the location the dagger was thrown. During the later stages temporary power ups are required to complete the levels; from a hammer to break blocks to a feather that gives you a floating ability for a few seconds, shields to keep you from taking damage, and gravity reversing magic bean.
The game has little to no story outside of the intro cinematic.
The audio is simple and fits the art style but has issues where is cuts outs at times.
Daggerhood is fun to play and becomes challenging during the later stages due to adding more difficult traps, more enemies, and narrower areas to platform and maneuver between.
Each of the 5 worlds has a unique boss challenge. Replaying the levels trying to get all 5 treasures, the fairy, and earn 3 stars can become addicting.
by Simple GameReviews | Apr 26, 2019 | Indie, Nintendo Switch, PS4, Xbox
Super Weekend Mode from Pixelteriyaki
An interesting looking game with very simple and clean controls. Most of the game is played with just 2-3 buttons. Bumpers control left and right shiny shooty shuttle positions and another button fires both simultaneously. There is also and auto-fire option that I highly recommend.
Your goal is to destroy the boss before you get killed. You destroy the boss by shooting it with one of your two shiny shooty shuttles. While trying to shoot the boss you also need to dodge insta-death falling skulls, bump off the dust bunnies, and catch all the hearts. Missing a bunny or heart will shrink the field of battle and bring you closer to being crushed. Catching a bunny will cause insta-death like a skull.
The game nails the retro feel with the colorful pixel artstyle. The 8-bit soundtrack and effects all capture that old school feeling.
You can select which outfit your princess will wear. The outfit you pick determines which bonus you’re awarded after beating a boss. The bonuses could be more lives, more speed, or a barrier for your shiny shooty shuttles that lets you take one hit before insta-death. You can’t change your outfit mid game so choose wisely.
The game is fast paced, simple, fun, and easy to pick up and play.
by Simple GameReviews | Apr 25, 2019 | Indie, Nintendo Switch, PS4, Steam, Xbox
Crashbots from Sometimes You
An Auto-runner were you make your way through the levels as a robot collecting stars and coins, finding power to keep your robot alive, and picking up robot parts to build/unlock another robot.
As the robot you can jump, slide, and shoot. Each action consumes energy as does taking damage.
There are traps all over the levels to damage you. Some can trigger chain reactions causing you to get hit more than once. Once your power is depleted you die.
You need to collect the stars scattered on the levels to gain access to the other worlds.
You also collect coins by finding them during the race and by earning them by completing challenges during the levels. They are used to upgrade your robot to reduce the amount of energy consumed per movement or reduce energy drained by damage taken.
It has 2 modes; a World mode and an Endless mode. The endless mode allows you to keep playing and trying to increase your distance.
The controls need some work as they aren’t always responsive and can end up getting you damaged or dead and become very frustrating.
The artstyle is clean, simple, and colorful.
The audio could use some work as it seems to use the same music on every level.
I found the game to be good in short sessions but too frustrating to play for longer periods. If the controls were better it would’ve been more fun and less aggravating.
by Simple GameReviews | Apr 17, 2019 | Xbox
Vaporum from Fatbot Games
Single player, First Person, Steampunk style, grid-based, RPG, dungeon crawler.
You start at the base of a tower in an Exoskeleton Rig and work your way up to the top, floor by floor. Each level of the tower and has its own challenges, puzzles, secrets, and enemies. As you advance through the game and gain xp by killing enemies you get to level up your Rig with different powers and abilities.
You gain your weapons, ammo, and abilities by looting while exploring the maps and killing the enemies. Each floor introduces new enemy types and variations of previously known enemy types scaling the difficulty up as you progress and become stronger yourself.
The puzzles are challenging and sometimes frustrating and become very satisfying to solve.
The controls are good but have a few issues that take a little bit of time to get used to. The atmosphere and audio are great and really capture that Steampunk feel.
Overall, the game is both frustrating and enjoyable. You may want to use a guide to help with the secrets and puzzles.
by Simple GameReviews | Apr 10, 2019 | Indie, Nintendo Switch, PS4, Xbox
Metagal from Retro Revolution
16-bit sidescrolling platformer with a Megaman feel. You make your way thru the levels as a female cyborg traversing platforms, hitting a sporadic check point or 2, defeating enemies, and end up in a boss battle. Once you defeat the boss you gain their powers/weapons and use them against the other enemies and bosses.
The controls and mechanics are simple and they work as intended, the soundtrack fits nicely and adds to the enjoyment of the game. The story/campaign is a little short but has level time and letter rank which adds replayability to the levels as you can compete with yourself to beat your best score. The levels have their own unique environments and are nicely designed.
by Simple GameReviews | Apr 10, 2019 | PS4, Windows, Xbox
Generation Zero from Avalanche Studios
An open world FPS set in a 1980’s Sweden that’s ruled by robots. You explore the world looting cars, trucks, backpacks, toolboxes, houses, and all types of building looking for items and weapons to help you survive and fight the robots. The story is told through reading notes and listening to recording on answering machines.
It has a decent amount of character customization right off the bat as well as a lot of clothing items to make your character look the way you want; some even provide perks. It has a hint of an RPG element with skill trees to unlock and help level up your play style.
The controls are decent and the atmosphere is great as you explore the Swedish Countryside and everything that comes with it.The game does have some bugs from getting stuck in/under the map as well as quest items sometimes being missing. The navigation system needs work as well as there were mission objectives with no indication of where to find them.
The online co-op is a game changer taking the player from defensively avoiding the robots to proactively hunting them down. The co-op option is needed when coming up to the larger robots on the more difficult later stages.
