Josh Speer's Reviews
I really wanted to like Demoniaca: Everlasting Night. I fought hard to let the game prove itself to me. But it needs a lot more balancing and retooling before I can recommend it to anybody other than the most diehard Metroidvania fan. If you can somehow look past the game’s many flaws, it might be worth buying on a sale. Otherwise, I’d just pass on this disappointing Gothic adventure.
Chain Blaster was a good attempt by G-Style at a portable SHMUP experience. If anything, I hope this isn’t their last foray into the genre, because a larger, more comprehensive and varied experience would be outstanding. If they decided to publish a game for more money with a larger experience, I would be all over it. Ultimately, the game doesn’t quite merit the $6.99 asking price. If they ever decide to discount this game, however, I would highly recommend that any SHMUP fan with an itchy trigger finger pick Chain Blaster up.
Overall, while I enjoyed aspects of Cryptark, the unbalanced nature of the game and perplexing difficulty spikes made it a unfortunately frustrating experience. Though I did spend a couple hours with the game, I was unable to beat Campaign mode once, and had zero chance in Rogue mode. While I admire Alientrap Games for their art and sound design, the gameplay needs much more balancing before I can recommend it to any other than the most hardcore of fans, at least without massive future updates. Here’s hoping Alientrap learns some lessons from Cryptark and manages to make a more enjoyable and approachable roguelike game in the future.
There’s a beautiful game in Regalia, but it’s sadly hidden behind a massively cumbersome and counter-intuitive interface. While I’ve been told that there’s an update in the works with numerous fixes planned, and even several for issues I mentioned, I’m not entirely sure though it will fix all of my complaints. Frankly, I’m a bit shocked the game got through Nintendo’s testers in this state. The game costs $24.99 on Switch and provided me at least 30 hours of playtime, and while I can see the good here, it’s currently outweighed by all the bad. I will note that if Pixelated Milk is able to fix the majority of the problems I mentioned, my score would likely be double what it is currently. I can respect the effort here, but it’s hard to recommend Regalia: Royal Edition in it’s current form. Here’s hoping it gets the loving care it needs soon.
Much as I wanted to love Woven, I left the experience quite disappointed. There was promise here, but for whatever reason it wasn’t met. If you don’t mind clumsy physics and very complex and vague puzzles, you might enjoy what’s here. Even then, it’s a hard pill to swallow at $19.99. Though you can beat the game in less than 5 hours, it took me around 9 due to getting lost repeatedly. So at least you’ll get some bang for your buck. This is one of those games I recommend you pick up on a sale. Hopefully Alterego Games has more ideas they can breathe life into in the future, cause I’d honestly like to see them succeed. In the meantime, I’ll lament this tale of an elephant and his firefly buddy.
I really tried to enjoy Depths of Sanity. It’s a unique take on the Metroidvania genre, and it introduces some neat ideas. Sadly the execution of those ideas were held back by the awkward and consistently problematic controls themselves. As a result, even though the game has really great atmosphere and interesting concepts, most fans of the genre will likely lose patience incredibly quickly.
I was hoping for something special with Undungeon, but sadly was utterly disappointed.
Hell Pages is hardly a groundbreaking game, but it’s also not all bad. Though decidedly old school and occasionally primitive, it still has a solid core loop, outstanding tunes and hideous demonic boss battles. If you can get past the lack of weapon variety and the ho hum upgrades, you might find something to enjoy in this festival of monsters. For everybody else, get your Evil Dead fix from the source material.
I really wanted to love Kao the Kangaroo. And while I did enjoy parts of it, the severe glitch I encountered kept me from progressing like I had expected to and effectively kept me from actually beating the game. Once Nintendo gets around to implementing the patch, I could potentially recommend the experience. But until version 1.2 goes live, I cannot recommend it to other platformer fans in good conscience.
I was hoping Queeny Army would be a fun retro run and gun adventure. But sloppy design and amateurish storytelling kept it from being anything other than mediocre. What’s painfully ironic is a lot of problems could have potentially been solved if this retro game had some form of in-game instruction booklet to explain things. Without that, though, it’s just a game that I can’t recommend, even for the low price point.
If you don’t mind an excessive challenge partially contributed to by awkward controls, you may still find something to love here. For everyone else, though, you’ll want to shoo this raccoon away.
I really wanted to gush about Cardaclysm: Shards of the Four. But it’s just far too poorly optimized for Nintendo Switch. Hopefully, it runs better on PC, but I can’t confirm that. All I can say is it was a great premise held back by poor balance and mixed execution. I truly hope Elder Games learns from this release and makes an unstoppable card game in the future. As it is, I can’t really recommend this one, even to hardcore fans of the genre.
I don’t hate Green Hell, but I do lament what it could have been. I went into the game with an open mind and a willingness to try things out. Sadly, the lack of coherent direction and awkward controls made the game overly difficult. While I’m not adverse to challenge, it is a nitpick of mine to get lost due to sloppy design. I honestly hope Creepy Jar takes my notes constructively and uses them to make their next game a masterpiece. Sadly, this particular entry is quite hard to recommend.
Which brings me to my biggest complaint – the lack of variety. Unlike Rogue Legacy, there is only one class in Bard’s Gold, and that’s the titular Bard. This wasn’t actually that bad, since I grew to enjoy the simplistic yet hardcore gameplay. What was more frustrating was realizing that the 4th World was the last one. I felt the game was starting to hit its stride towards the end, and even thought I would unlock more worlds after the boss. Unfortunately, all you get by beating the game is the Contract of Reaper, which randomizes traps more yet gives you more money. That’s it. No real incentive to keep playing, other than unlocking and maximizing all the upgrades. Which is too bad, because despite all the things holding it back, Bard’s Gold is not half bad. The problem is that for anyone except serious fans of roguelikes, it’s not going to hold any real appeal. It’s definitely a bargain to get 3-5 hours of gameplay at $8.99, but I find it hard to recommend to anyone outside that small crowd. That said, I did actually end up enjoying my time with Bard’s Gold, and hope to see a more robust game next time from Pixel Lantern. If they can build upon what they have here and add a lot more content, their next game might be a legendary quest instead of a small diversion.
I’m glad that Bomberman isn’t dead yet, I truly am. I just wish the game that brought it back to Nintendo consoles wasn’t this one. While Super Bomberman R isn’t utterly horrible, it is such a mixed bag that at best it just feels average. That’s not great, especially when you consider it costs $49.99 and only gave me around three hours of gameplay. While it’s true you can replay Story mode levels and the multiplayer isn’t bad, there’s just not a lot to recommend the game. If you’re an old fan of Bomberman like myself, then I recommend you pick Super Bomberman R up on sale. For everyone else, it’s probably best to wait for the next game in the series and hope Konami gets things right the second time around.
I really wish JackQuest: The Tale of the Sword could have lived up to my initial expectations, but sadly it just kept finding ways to frustrate me. While it’s not technically unplayable or broken, it’s also derivative and unsatisfying. It’d be one thing if this was an early concept or even a free demo, but asking $9.99 for a game this basic is ludicrous. My only hope is that the developer will learn from his mistakes with this game and future projects can benefit from a lot more polish. It’s fine for a game to be simple, but that’s not an excuse for a rushed mess. Unless you really love basic games, I can’t recommend JackQuest, unless it’s dramatically on sale. As it is now, this Tale is more of a cautionary one.
I honestly feel that Furwind had all the elements it needed to be a great game, it just put them together in the wrong configuration. Had this been a metroidvania like I thought, one with well translated text and more diversity of challenges, it would have been fantastic. Instead, we get a throwback to games of the past that felt awkward and disappointing. While it’s pretty affordable at $9.99, and I did get about 6 hours of gameplay out of it, it’s really hard to justify buying it at full price. I respect what I think JanduSoft was trying to do here, but it missed the mark. Here’s hoping they take this constructive criticism in the spirit it’s intended and make their next game a masterpiece.
Put simply, Cyber Citizen Shockman is a peculiarity of a retro game. Though I appreciate it being brought to new audiences some 30 years later, I can’t say it holds up very well. My hope is that the series grew over time and got much improved, since I know Ratalaika is bringing other games from the franchise to the West. But if you’re looking for an amazing retro experience, you’ll probably be disappointed with it.
I really wanted to rave about how great Nadir: A Grimdark Deckbuilder was. Unfortunately, while there are some genuinely noteworthy elements in the game, such as the unique combat and striking visual style, it’s ultimately held back by some problematic issues. The game is quite unbalanced in its current state, and the developers desperately need to fix some pretty glaring glitches. Until that happens, it’s hard to fully recommend.
I had really high hopes for Lone Ruin. And while it’s not a horrible game by any stretch, I felt it was really underwhelming. Not only does it lack any replay value, but the core loop features nearly identical stage layouts and a frustrating lack of clear audio cues for enemy attacks. While some may find something to enjoy in the survival mode, I think fans of the rogue genre will be left wanting much more.