Slayblade
Critic Reviews for Slayblade
If you want something simple that you can sink more than a few hours into, then Slayblade is for you.
After several hours with Slayblade, I’m not entirely sure what to make of it. Lovingly crafted, with electric music and killer designs, Slayblade works well toward its goals: a simple roguelite built around whipping tops at other tops. But the lack of full explanation for its mechanics, frustrating difficulty, and minimal graphical options make Slayblade an experience that’s hard to recommend. Slayblade opens with a fake Nintendo Wii caution screen and fake DS start screen, harking back to those Nintendo consoles. And every time, I found myself wondering: Would Slayblade be a more enjoyable experience if it were launched on those consoles? There is joy and fun to be found in the pixelated city, and for $6, you can do a lot worse. But perhaps that fun’s not meant for a long time.
Slayblade proves to be a genuine love letter to early-2000s pop culture and the timeless legend of battle tops. Although it suffers from a certain underlying repetitiveness—the result of a narrative progression lacking major surprises and a formula that starts to show its weaknesses after the first few hours—Henry’s House’s game delivers fun, fast-paced, and stylish hit-and-run sessions. It’s certainly an imperfect experiment, but one animated by a nostalgic spark capable of bringing more than a few smiles to those who lived through that golden age.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Although the game is simple by design, you will have a blast with swapping modifiers and creating your ideal spinner. The mouse-only control makes it a lot easier, and once you’ve played a couple of runs, you get used to it rather quickly. Battles are fast and enjoyable, and the flow of the game never left me bored, adding even more fun to the classic Beyblade-style. I’d highly suggest picking up Slayblade for how good of a time killer it is. So I’m going to be giving it the Thumb Culture Gold Award.
Theoretically, I'm the target audience for this game. I get all of the anime references – I think the names are stupid, but some of the puns land really well like the fantastic Lana Del Rayblade – and I would have loved to try Beyblades as a kid, but the execution just feels off here. The control scheme is really simple, but somehow doesn't feel like it's up to the task, the roguelike elements are unbalanced and unsatisfying, and fights are just way too samey. There's fun here, sure, but it didn't last long for me.
