Ian Howarth's Reviews
If only there was more to it. Currently it feels like a tacked-on bonus mode for a real driving game. The only progress to be made is in the form of aesthetic unlocks and they are all rewarded by accomplishing the same task over and over – have four near-misses with obstacles in a single life as the driver, or by catching the car as it falls off the track as the builder (although this may also cause the car to become glitched into the floor, ending the run). There aren’t even any other maps to mix things up, it’s all the same skybox. The lack of content is deeply disappointing, but the worst part of all is how interesting the idea is.
In all, Golden Force was unfortunately pretty disappointing.
I'm afraid that whilst The Deer God was boasted as "a breathtaking 3d pixel art game that will challenge your religion and your platforming skills", the only thing that it really challenged was my patience. It did look pretty nice though.
It's unfortunate then that whilst it does start off as a gruesome bit of fun to play from the other side, the experience hurriedly becomes monotonous and somehow manages to outstay its welcome in spite of the already brief ninety-minute playtime.
I think I've made it clear that the whole experience is a bumpy ride.
With the disappointing narrative being sacrificed for bad jokes instead of teaching us anything about our protagonist or informing us why he made the terrible decisions he did, a couple of hard crashes and awkward bugs when trying to play through the DLC, and mediocre boss fights that the original game would have frowned upon, I can't really recommend the expansion.
TowerMancer leaves a lot to be desired, which is just so annoying because it feels like they almost had something great, something you wouldn't be able to pull yourself away from.
If Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl came out twenty years ago it would have been a smashing success, ignoring that many of the characters within didn't exist back then.
Generally, unless you're incredibly interested in the spectacular visuals, I can't recommend Trüberbrook.
Underneath it all there's genuinely something interesting here – it just needed to be more focussed, polished, moulded into a vision instead of left as a loose idea. The gameplay and story need working on heavily in their own way. I'd definitely come back to check on a sequel but it would be out of wary curiosity, not excitement
As mentioned above the game is only about 3 hours long and unless you want to get an S rank on all 9 stages on all difficulties there’s really no reason to replay it at all.
Ultimately, I believe that the Hatred team simply tried to make something controversial in the hopes that nobody would notice how forgettable their title is.
Though the developer himself has expressed disappointment in its reception, they should still be incredibly proud of what they've accomplished largely by themselves.
I still say it’s worth giving a shot if you’re into this style of retro horror, more so because of how exceptionally cheap it is, as long as you’re aware of the few clumsy design choices that all too often get in the way of the experience.
At first I felt like Wonhon was a revenge fantasy built on the outrage of the atrocities committed during the Korean War (a time when Japan annexed Korea and worked to entirely wipe out their culture and history), but it's not.
I suppose fans of the franchise might still enjoy this latest addition but it's mostly a nostalgia trip now.
There are parts of Neversong that hit the right notes, if you will, but they are too few and far between for the unique visuals and music to carry one’s enjoyment, and patience, through to the end.
It just feels so unnecessary and obnoxious to, in my opinion, ruin a mechanic that has been used time and time again in combat-based games as a test of skill and timing, as well as a nice way to reset the battle from a distance.
A basic platformer with the same old clichéd mobility tools and a pretty underwhelming world to be a part of just isn't enough to make its mark these days, making Shu feel a little played out. It's by no means a bad game, but hardly a good one too; it falls quite neatly into the comfortable, average middle-ground.
In all, the expansion does exactly what you’d expect from a cheap or perhaps even free update but unfortunately this one currently comes at half the price of the original FORCED SHOWDOWN and I’m afraid I simply can’t recommend it at that price.