Nindie Spotlight
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The controls in Spectrum are incredibly simple, you’ll be able to move your black glob left and right, and then using the buttons thrust it up and down...
What story there is over the handful of hours you’ll play tends to be odd as well, but the strange characters and the ever-present narrator commentating on what you’re doing (complete with celebratory hashtags for mundane achievements like taking a leak) do a good job of rewarding your continued efforts. If you can see the amusement of nearly killing yourself while simply trying to drink some water or narrowly avoiding running over little old ladies while struggling to control your car (of course complete with a manual transmission) the experience has its silly rewards. Given the likely polarizing nature of the game’s controls Manual Samuel gets a highly conditional recommendation. If you’re willing to roll with the punches, there’s definitely a unique good time to be had here, just be very aware of its intent to make controlling just about anything more challenging than you’d ever imagine.
With the ability to play solo or with a friend, you’ll play as Robb and Otto...
While there are some variant mode choices that will let you play against a friend, get right into a fight against the computer, or work to hold back waves of enemies focusing on strategy or action, the meat of the game is its Campaign mode...
While I have no doubts that the right crowd could be attracted to the theoretical endless potential for variation and the unexpected when put up against a long list of very strong roguelikes on the system it’s hard to find enthusiasm for UnExplored. It may not even be the hardest of the bunch so much as it is the most aggravatingly vague, and between the load times and the struggle with simple things like managing your inventory efficiently there was consistent time being lost that never seemed to pay off with compelling play to justify it. Only likely for the most hardcore roguelike fans who are looking for something with a different feel.
Overall there’s quite a bit to like about Sleep Tight, which manages to take a great core idea and do some interesting things with it. That said, it can be a slow burn getting to the point where it can be a serious challenge but then sort of jumps into being too hard too quickly once it decides to step things up. With a sustained campaign easily lasting more than an hour this can make for a bit more dead time getting going than I’d prefer, and the fact that there’s only one bedroom layout then contributes to things feeling too similar too often after a while. With some tweaks I think the experience could be quite a bit better, and I’d love to see a more refined sequel that places greater emphasis on changing things up, with kids all having different bedrooms to help make things a bit more interesting and an improved method of laying out your defenses.
The impetus for the journey is the disappearance of your former friend Hayden Webber...
Discovery is really the driving force and fun in the game as you try to initially see everything around you and then race against the limited clock to make something meaningful happen in each run. The adventure it holds is an unusual mix of the familiar, but with some twists in places that can toy with your expectations and add nicely to the fun. Throw in an added Game+ mode that cranks things up another level and it ends up being a refreshingly different and satisfying package for people who thought they’ve seen everything action adventures have to offer.
On any given stage you’ll have a number of little blocky characters to work with...
The rules are actually pretty simple...
Overall, Flipping Death is an outstanding title that is among the most outright entertaining games I’ve played. Rather than use its humor as a crutch to prop up some convoluted puzzles and messy gameplay elements it instead tackles those issues with care and what I think is a great new direction others should look to emulate. If you like a good laugh, even if Adventure games typically don’t work for you, you owe it to yourself to check it out.
With viable options to play alone, with friends locally, or with people online this version of Overcooked is ripe with opportunities for fun. Better yet, the feeling of the experience and the challenge in each case tends to be wildly different, even when replaying the same levels. While the result may still be a bit too overwhelming for people looking to games more to de-stress rather than inspire even more, it can be a ton of chaotic fun if you’re willing to embrace the challenge.
Bottom line, Dead Cells is absolutely the new gold standard of how to make an amazing roguelike that’s brutally tough but also generally fair. Slowly but surely persistence and success will unlock new items and enhancements that will then lead to deeper and generally more rewarding runs. Rarely is the game solely to blame for your deaths, you always need to make smart use of the choices your given, even if they may not suit your ideal style. Explore, exploit your traps to their fullest, always know where you’ll be able to safely escape to when things go south, and be prepared with the right gear for fighting bosses and you will make progress. If you’ve been looking for that game that always feels good to play that you can look forward to returning to and will always deliver a challenge and excitement Dead Cells absolutely fits that bill.
There’s always a bit of a challenge when reviewing games that are distinct in their release but that are obviously related...
All said Flat Heroes is a complete and deep package whose unassuming appearance belies a wide variety of challenges and opportunities for fun. Even if you’re unable to get some friends together the massive 300 levels of the single-player campaign, Survival levels, and pretty competent bot support for Versus mode could keep you occupied for quite some time. If you’ve been looking for something that’s satisfyingly different and impeccably crafted you’d be making a mistake by overlooking this indie gem.
In an effort to go beyond the mere shooting it’s apparent that there’s a bit of a Groundhog Day-esque mystery going on, with your character caught in a perpetual cycle on the same day after each death...
While it boasts online play, which certainly could have been a substantial win, there’s simply not much to it and too often there aren’t very many people playing...
Aside from noting that the story revolving around the anthropomorphic BunnyLord, who is serving up your missions, is absolutely bizarre there’s not much more to say...
All in all Salt and Sacrifice delivers what it set out to do admirably, and for myself the comparisons to the Souls series are a positive since they mostly overlap what I appreciate in roguelikes...
Nobody would comment on the game without mentioning the outstanding pixel art and top shelf soundtrack...