General Gaming Snap judging pixel art indies

[crispy4000]

 

Time Spent: 30 minutes

Rating: ***½

 

I thought I'd revisit the Konami Rebirth series for fun, to see how they compare to modern pixel art games.  Other than the aspect ratio, this game holds up quite nicely.  I've never been much of a fan of traditional Castlevania, with its stiff movement and frequent enemy spawning, but I can't deny how polished this game looks.  Its a pixel art game fully aware that it may be played off CRTs, and the visual style is constructed accordingly.  More modern games could stand to learn a thing or two.  There's also multiple pathways through levels, which helps it not feel too much like a regression from Metroidvania.  It's still pretty great, such a shame it can't be bought anymore.

[crispy4000]

 

Time Spent: 30 minutes

Rating: **½

 

It's a slightly better version of Virgo and the Zodiac. Graphics are similarly simplistic, which works out better in battles scenes than walking around.  There's a grid based system in battles that have a timing component, but I can already see how much of a pain battles will be lengthwise.  Timing isn't strict, but you're judged under a 3-tier timing window system, which ends up making you feel bad for not being quite perfect.  Music is okay, but sounds too low stakes in battles.  Then there's the semi-randomized movements of enemies in battle, which gets kind of dumb when bosses spawn exploding minions.

[crispy4000]

 

Time Spent: 30 minutes

Rating: ****

 

It can't still be this good, can it?  Oh yes it is.  Better than Blazing Chrome.  Quite possibly the best Contra game ever made, surely the one that leaves the strongest first impression.  There's subtle bloom on shots, crazy rotation effects everywhere, Gunstar Hero level explosions, homing missile barrages that fill the screen, physics-based particle effects, a similar smooth pixel art style as Castlevania Rebirth ... this game feels sooo far ahead of its time, and  beyond most other pixel art games today, it's wild.  Even the checkpointing is a lot more fair than you'd expect from Contra.

 

What a travesty that this still hasn't left the Wii.  And that M2 hasn't made more games like it.

[crispy4000]

 

Time Spent: 20 minutes

Rating: **

 

By far the weakest of the Konami Rebirth series.  All Gradius games seem to start similarly with the opening level, but there's a midboss part way through that seems to demand pixel perfect precision of your ship.  No thanks, I noped out after give it a few tries.  Watching videos of later levels makes me think I made the right decision.  This looks stupidly difficult, even for a SHUMP.

[crispy4000]

 

Time Spent: 20 minutes

Rating: **½

 

This is pretty much the definition of what a 2.5 star game is to me by the metrics I set.  You go through linear levels shooting enemies, leveling up your guns, stopping at shops, and can warp back levels if you need to farm some XP or money.  Gameplay is kinda fun, in an odd way, more than Broforce was to me, though certianly not a Metal Slug.  The art ranges from kinda bad to excellent.  But the big detractor here is the level design.  It feels amateur hour in the worst way.  At least the levels are short.  Music kind of stinks too.  30FPS locked, but Lossless Framegen takes care of that now for me.

[crispy4000]

 

Time Spent: 30 minutes

Rating: **

 

I only made it through season 2 of the show by my memory, and this spoils the third season.  But it's such a bland representation of the show, I don't think I've ruined anything for myself.  This reminds me of that old Jurassic Park game on SNES.  Perfectly fine little game, but does almost nothing remarkably.  It feels smoother as a modern little, but begins much worse, with fetch quests from the onset.   By the time I got to actually kill some goons, I couldn't really care enough to keep going. 

 

Animations can be a bit suspect, such as a bat swing that doesn't show interstitial animations.  There's a character swapping system, and a way to issue commands, but its just too cumbersome for me to be bothered with, in what should be a simple license tie-in game.  Leaning harder into retro game design could have really helped it.

[crispy4000]

* Not-E3 Edition *

Taking a brief break from the stuff I own to try the stuff not out yet. 

 

 

Time Spent: ~30 min

Rating: ***

Demo

 

It's like a platform fighter crossed with a character action game.  As some who dug Guacamelee a lot, this is even more up to my speed.  Unfortunately the polish just isn't there yet, especially with the platforming and run speed.  Also with the boss at the end, who is a blown up pixelated mess.  I question how well its systems will gel outside of the standard combat mechanics.  Overall, great potential, but it needs to cook a bit.

[crispy4000]

 

Time Spent: 20 minutes

Rating: ***½

Demo

 

Yep, I had a good eye for this one.  Plays fantastic, just as you would hope a DKC-like would.  The bird has the ability to flap its wings and throw the turtle, the turtle can set you up for a team up jump and a ground pound.  Vibes are super jolly as well, music is on point.  I just wish the colors weren't so plain at times, but regardless, the animation work is fantastic.  If they keep that up for the full game, I could see good things coming from this.

[crispy4000]

 

Time Spent: 40 minutes

Rating: ****

Demo

 

Holy cow, this game could be amazing.  Stunning art that mixes 2D and 3D elements.  Sense of dread Hollow Knight evokes at the end within the first 10 minutes.  Good controls and combat that gives you juggle options when fighting.  The ability to make platforms anywhere off walls and the ground with your staff.  Sanity effect that changes difficulty and level layout (!?) if you can't find a map location to reset it. 

The only few blemishes:  your standard combo drives you backwards a tiny bit in the air.  Odd, but it still works.  Metroidvania design might not be the strongest either?  Hard to tell from a demo.  Oh, and the story is kind of ho-hum, they need to up the text size.  But otherwise, wow.

[crispy4000]

 

Time Spent: 15 minutes

Rating: **

Demo

 

I was very curious about this after seeing some snippets of gameplay.  The animations do look insane.  But there's something very wrong here.  I think it's the discontinuity between those great animations, and the choppy motions of your hands and the single frame hit reactions.  The way it animates when you punch almost makes me confuse which hand actually swung, and there's too much hitlag regardless to react to anything.  It should focus on what it needs to actually play well.

[crispy4000]

 

Time Spent: 30 minutes

Rating: ***

 

Neat little game that tries to be a GBA version of Link's Awakening in spirit, with puzzles and jumping challenges.  The key difference is your yoyo, which can extend its length when hit on corner pieces, or that can be thrown off corners to bounce around like a pinball.  It's a neat concept, but especially against bosses, it kind of fails in its execution.  It's too random to plan anything, you just let bounce it like crazy and dodge.  Also, I think the controls feel kind of iffy with the pad, there's a slight sense of drift that makes analog the way to go.  And the characters try to go for a stylized look that doesn't succeed IMO.

 

Good potential here, but they should definitely tighten up the movement.  Maybe even downsize your character sprite a bit.

[crispy4000]

 

Time Spent: 30 minutes

Rating: ***

 

It's fun, has great 16-bit style, plus has a unique look with its perspective.  But something's missing?  I think it's the Metroidvania map design feeling pretty pedestrian and closed in, or the dull music.  But on the positive, you get new gun upgrades and pickups every few minutes that always keep things fresh.  That's probably the best thing about it, all the different ways to modify your basic shots.  I was hoping for Metal Slug in my Metroidvania, this could potentially stick the landing.

[Moa]

Do Fear and Hunter.

[crispy4000]

10 minutes ago, Moa said:

Do Fear and Hunter.

 

Can't find it?  I'm only doing the stuff I already own or Next Fest demos for now.

[Moa]

Could be that it's technically called Fear & Hunger but more likely you haven't enabled steam to show 'adult' content. The suggestion is mostly a troll since it's not a spoiler to characterize the game as a despair simulator.

[crispy4000]

10 minutes ago, Moa said:

Could be that it's technically called Fear & Hunger but more likely you haven't enabled steam to show 'adult' content. The suggestion is mostly a troll since it's not a spoiler to characterize the game as a despair simulator.

 

It's what google auto corrected to.  Since I didn't like Lisa I don't think I would dig it.

[crispy4000]

 

Time Spent: 20 minutes

Rating: **½

 

Presentation and style is all there, and I know some people would really love this.  But to me, it feels like one of the stiffest arcade racers I've played since San Fran Rush.  It's all about drifting and Mario Kart-like boosts, but the drift is hard to control, to the point where I struggled not hiting cones in the training mode.  The game is also oddly forgiving, pulling me back on the track for edges I swear I drifted off of.  The rumble makes me feel like I'm hitting walls when I gain another notch of boost.

[stepee]

Damn I love how it looks but that sounds like what I would fear

[crispy4000]

10 minutes ago, stepee said:

Damn I love how it looks but that sounds like what I would fear

 

Its still one I'd encourage people to try for themselves.  It just didn't jive for me.

[stepee]

2 hours ago, crispy4000 said:

 

Its still one I'd encourage people to try for themselves.  It just didn't jive for me.

 

I don’t think it’s just you

 

It looks amazing of course but yeah there is like no tension? There was no rumble and I feel like that would at least help a little. But I think it’s mostly like there aren’t real physics as you turn a corner and drift it’s like it’s just slotting you on a curved path depending on when you started the drift. 
 

I’ve had it on my wishlist forever and won’t remove it and hope they tighten it up by release (no date yet) but yeah wasn’t what I hoped it would play like. Also I feel like maybe they aren’t going to get that interesting visually on the tracks and the demo shows you pretty much the main cool trick and maybe that’s all that I need.

[stepee]

On 6/6/2024 at 8:28 PM, crispy4000 said:

 

Time Spent: 20 minutes

Rating: ***½

Demo

 

Yep, I had a good eye for this one.  Plays fantastic, just as you would hope a DKC-like would.  The bird has the ability to flap its wings and throw the turtle, the turtle can set you up for a team up jump and a ground pound.  Vibes are super jolly as well, music is on point.  I just wish the colors weren't so plain at times, but regardless, the animation work is fantastic.  If they keep that up for the full game, I could see good things coming from this.

 

This one is also an instabuy for me. I really like how it looks like it will be a little puzzley in how you use your abilities between the two sometimes. I know what you mean about the colors but I do still think it’s quite lovely. and yeah I love ducks.

[crispy4000]

@stepee

 

There's also that neat looking Yoshi's Island clone with ducks.  No demo unfortunatley.

 

 

Wing flapping with repeated button presses is an A-tier mechanic.  I want a 3D paltformer that does it.  Maybe there's one that has, but I can't remember.

[crispy4000]

Back to the list:

 

 

Time Spent: 40 minutes

Rating: ***½

 

Sky pirate open-world game with two main components, ship and ground battles.  Ground combat actually feels best, with you darting around maps using a grapple hook you can shoot at any angle.  You can also use it to make it back onto the terrain if you fall out.  It's a nice little twist that separates it from all the bullet hell games I've played for this thread lately.  Ship combat has a bit of an issue of hitting smaller foes, you have a basic canon that fires forward and side cannons that shoot out a barrage you can sort of aim.  There's lots of resource collection, weapon upgrade and base building mechanics here too.  Lastly, the game uses this 3d effect from a top down perspective, it's unique and gives it a bit of flair that may not be apparent in simple screenshots.  Plot is well presented, though the music isn't a strong point.

[crispy4000]

 

Time Spent: 40 minutes

Rating: ***½

 

This one completely took me by surprise.  Surprisingly fun rogue-like that feels like some kind of Megaman Zero and beat'em up mash up.  The controls are great, exactly what I would have wanted.  Supposedly the developers didn't support it as much as they promised in a Kickstarter.  So maybe it's unfinished and unbalanced?  It also repeats bosses and stages, and so could probably use some variety, but there are other characters to unlock.  I'm super impressed with what I played regardless, it's fun and feels polished, and to me, that's most of what matters.  You immediately start with a spinning slash jump that clears almost a full screen of space, and it has Hades-like room choices for powerups.  It looks stunning too with its subtle bloom and great animations.

 

One small quirk, the Amazon version I played didn't recognize my Dual Shock 4 set to Xbox controller mode.  I had to flip it back to DS4.  Heard that people using standard Xbox controllers might only get the game to see it after turning it on at the start screen.  That's a shame.

[crispy4000]

 

Time Spent: 45 minutes

Rating: ****

 

What's with these random rogue-likes being suprisingly good?  I'm not a superfan of the genre, but this one is definitely intriguing.  It has a similar mechanic as Returnal, where not taking hits lets you upgrade your max health as opposed to using stored up things for healing.  It also borrows from Hollow Knight, letting you recharge your health for killing enemies.  But the most intriguing part is that health is also your only currency, meaning everything becomes a weighty choice in your run.

 

It also animates beautifully, with flying sparks and some neat effects as you transition between floors.  I'm not such a big fan of how zoomed in everything is, but its rooms are almost Wario Ware bite-sized, so I can see how the loop gets very addictive compared to some others on here.

[crispy4000]

 

Time Spent: 25 minutes

Rating: ***

 

Comparison really is the thief of joy.  Not as wacky as Voidogo, not as cool as Blade Assault, not as consequential as Revita.  It looks and plays nice, so being down on it s more just me thinking about which of these I'd prefer to play.  Again, I'm not a fan of twin stick games where hitting things feels a bit too difficult to hit with your standard blaster.  I think the default control scheme works better than Revita's, but I ended up changing the button bindings and jump options there closer to this, and booting that back up instead.  There's a ton of weapon variety here though, which is probably the best thing going for it outside of the visuals.  Collecting creatures that float along and aid you is also a neat little twist, I could see it getting nuts by the end of runs.

 

[crispy4000]

 

Time Spent: 45 minutes

Rating: ***½

 

Oddly not quite as hot on this as I thought I would be.  The introduction sequence is gorgeous, and the art is still very inspired.  I'm sure the mostly textless presentation also inspired many games that came after it.  But it seems like a pretty basic Zelda-like with the presentation not factored in, with dash based combat that probably went on to inspire a few of the other games on this list.  It's the pixel art that does the heavy lifting, at least at the start.

[stepee]

1 minute ago, crispy4000 said:

 

Time Spent: 45 minutes

Rating: ***½

 

Oddly not quite as hot on this as I thought I would be.  The introduction sequence is gorgeous, and the art is still very inspired.  I'm sure the mostly textless presentation also inspired many games that came after it.  But it seems like a pretty basic Zelda-like with the presentation not factored in, with dash based combat that probably went on to inspire a few of the other games on this list.  It's the pixel art that does the heavy lifting, at least at the start.

 

My impression was it plays fine but I wasn’t interested in exploring the world on offer.

[crispy4000]

Just now, stepee said:

 

My impression was it plays fine but I wasn’t interested in exploring the world on offer.

 

I think it's the repetitive enemies plus the go-in-cave-next kind of design.  It's not bad, just more cliche than the art trappings would suggest.

[stepee]

Just now, crispy4000 said:

 

I think it's the repetitive enemies plus the go-in-cave-next kind of design.  It's not bad, just more cliche than the art trappings would suggest.

 

Yeah, definitely agreed. Also agreed on Blade Assault. I beat that one and really enjoyed it.

[crispy4000]

10 minutes ago, stepee said:

 

Yeah, definitely agreed. Also agreed on Blade Assault. I beat that one and really enjoyed it.

 

Nice, cool to hear someone else here tried it.  And good to know it's still good enough to finish.

 

Definitely keep an eye out for Revita for cheap if you think you'd like it.  I got it in a Humble Choice for Life is Strange 2 and Rollerdrome.  I think it was also free on Amazon at some point.  I'm guessing it'll make the rounds in other places eventually.  It's the one I keep coming back to.

[stepee]

5 minutes ago, crispy4000 said:

 

Nice, cool to hear someone else here tried it.  And good to know it's still good enough to finish.

 

Definitely keep an eye out for Revita for cheap if you think you'd like it.  I got it in a Humble Choice for Life is Strange 2 and Rollerdrome.  I think it was also free on Amazon at some point.  I'm guessing it'll make the rounds in other places eventually.  It's the one I keep coming back to.

 

Have you mentioned that before? I must have missed it because I just looked at the page and it looks awesome! 

 

Revita on Steam

STORE.STEAMPOWERED.COM

---

In this fast paced twin-stick roguelite platformer, you play as an unnamed child ascending an ominous clocktower in pursuit of their lost memories. Harvest and sacrifice souls to grow your power in...

 

I went to cdkeys and it’s $9 there so I got it, I’ll probably check it tomorrow but it looks right up my alley.

 

[stepee]

Especially  looks like it will pop on oled deck too 

[crispy4000]

16 minutes ago, stepee said:

 

Have you mentioned that before? I must have missed it because I just looked at the page and it looks awesome! 

 

Revita on Steam

STORE.STEAMPOWERED.COM

---

In this fast paced twin-stick roguelite platformer, you play as an unnamed child ascending an ominous clocktower in pursuit of their lost memories. Harvest and sacrifice souls to grow your power in...

 

I went to cdkeys and it’s $9 there so I got it, I’ll probably check it tomorrow but it looks right up my alley.

 

 

A few posts up.  It's good, apparently a lot of people on the roguelike subreddit swear by it.

[crispy4000]

 

Time Spent: 30 minutes

Rating: ***½

 

Okay this really isn't a pixel art game proper in most ways, in spite of its appearance in screenshots.  It's more like Mario Kart 8 than meets the eye, including fully 3D tracks that loop around with anti-grativity and generally fun feeling controls. It might be a little loose on the drift, and isn't quite as good as the genre's best, but it's still way better than you'd expect.  The stages are mostly well designed, probably the most interesting being the Runbow stage, where parts of ground give out according to the color of the sky backdrop.  And I never thought I'd play a Teslagrad level in a racer, but here we are, so that's pretty cool.

 

It's early access?  Doesn't seem to be abandoned, though I did pick it up in a Fanatical bundle for under $2.  It'd make a great Deck game.