Astebros

I have immense respect for the developers, I really do. Creating a detailed roguelite platformer on nearly 40-year-old hardware is no small feat. Getting a game like this to run on the Genesis is impressive enough, and it’s clear a lot of love went into it. Visually, it’s beautiful for a Genesis game, with well-animated characters and a strong aesthetic. The soundtrack doesn’t stand out, but it doesn’t get in the way either. That said, I can’t help but feel that the decision to develop this for the Genesis held it back. If this had been a native PC title, it could’ve looked better, sounded better, and most importantly, played better. During the first boss fight, the game stutters when the boss uses a big attack, making it harder to dodge. Not impossible, just frustrating. Performance dips whenever multiple enemies appear on screen, which is charming at first (reminded me of Mega Man) but becomes annoying fast. This could’ve been something truly special with fewer technical compromises. As a Genesis game, I’d give it an 8/10. As a PC game, it’s a 4/10. That’s why my review leans negative. Still, if you’re someone who appreciates the novelty and charm of a new game made for retro hardware, I do recommend checking it out.

Great game, great price when it's on sale. This is a Sega Genesis homebrew, packaged in a simple emulator (which displays in 4:3 by default, with a toggleable CRT filter, contrary to what the store page screenshots show). The ROM is also in the game files so you can play it in a different emulator or put it on a flashcart if you'd like (EDIT: Seems it's not quite a normal ROM so doing this is more difficult than it should be), but I've been enjoying just playing it through Steam. Normally I wouldn't buy a console homebrew game through Steam, but the prices for purchasing directly from their website, both the physical and ROM only versions, are a bit steep for me. Still though, the quality of this game, both in it's art and gameplay, is undeniable. I like playing as the Mage.

SEEEGAAAA plays perfectly with M30

I just finished the game and I come here to say that it was a great experience! It's definitely a game that the kid version of myself would go crazy with ecstasy playing on the Mega Drive with my brother. How I miss those times! And I believe that this is really the developers' intention. Astebros is part of the same mythology as Demons of Asteborg and both were made with extreme care! Despite being similar, they are different in some aspects. Demons is better when it comes to music and story, but I liked Astebros more in terms of gameplay, replayability, diversity and everything else. Special emphasis on the design of the Bosses, which is simply PHENOMENAL. Only the final boss left a little to be desired. But that's it, I was very happy playing this game. I would love to be able to play the physical cartridge version on my Mega Drive, but unfortunately these things are very expensive here in Brazil. Therefore, I thank the developers for releasing this version for STEAM, just as I thank them for keeping the Mega Drive alive! Thank you very much!

5時間ほどプレイした上での感想 初めて見たはずなのに実家で遊んだ記憶があるような、古くて新しいゲームだ。往年の16ビットスタイルとしては見た目通りの出来栄え。ドット絵は緻密で、よく動く。サウンドはメガドラ的ザラザラした耳心地で懐かしさを覚える。 とはいえ、単に昔のアクションゲームをコピーするだけでは単調なので、システムは現代的な味付けがされている。ローグライク式が取り入れられてマップやアイテムの配置がランダム、強くなれるかは運しだい。何度も同じダンジョンに潜ってアイテム堀りをすることも。これら要素も本格的なそれに比べると浅めではあるが、少なくとも1週クリアまでの間は飽きを感じさせないようにしてくれている。 ゲーム自体は正直なところ短い。なんといってもクラシックを目指したアクションゲームだ。コツを掴むとあっという間にクリアまで一直線、良くも悪くも昔のアクションゲームは大抵こういうものだったな……と思い出させてくれる。そういう事情に理解がある方は、買って遊んでみてほしい。

When I bought this game during sales, I played for a little while and then dismissed it because I didn't really get it and seemed too difficult. Then I started it again, it finally clicked and I really enjoyed it! It's a roguelite platformer starring three characters that control in the same way but have different abilities and kinds of weapons. Seems quite hard at first, but once you master the dodge, double jump, understand how things work, and that you can unlock more enhancements the more bosses you beat, it becomes much more manageable. The only slightly annoying thing is to repeat levels over and over again to gain materials in order to craft new weapons, but it's not necessary to craft all the weapons you come across, unless you want to get 100% completion, and some weapons are much better than others anyway. It also takes me back to a time when you had to experiment, since nothing is explained besides a few comments from the NPC: there's no manual or guides and you'll have to learn what the various treasures, curses and weapon abilities do (I still don't know what the various spells of the Oracle do). My suggestion is to save money to buy permanent energy upgrades at the fairies and the perfume in the main hub to avoid having your money stolen when you die (the antidotes against poison and stun are costly and useless btw). Technically it's very well made, with great pixel art and some quite detailed sprites (especially some of the more grotesque bosses), great use of color, of various parallax levels and other effects that give an impression of a 1990s computer game. Very few slowdowns and other bugs as well. I also quite liked the chiptunes and some of the grainy vocal samples! In general I really recommend it to fans of old style platformers that don't hold your hand but aren't too hard either. P.S. the Italian translation is absolutely terrible (and some parts are just lifted from the French one), I don't know who made it but I could volunteer to improve it.

A 2023 Genesis / Megadrive game... a roguelite, with gorgeous pixelart, randomized dungeon layouts, 3 classes to choose from, bossfights and a sweet progression system. Likely one of the best entries for SEGA's 16 bit machine that you will find. Do I recommend it... hell yeah! It has polish, it has style and is alot of fun to play. The game comes with the rom file, so you can simply play it on any emu or device you fancy. Hidden Gem for sure. Hope to see more from Neofid.

This is the most bare bones, shovelware game I've played in a while. Really? Seventeen dollars for this garbage? This is worth no more than five at the max. They couldn't even proof read the first 10 minutes of the game. They called the range character a he and she in the same sentence. I don't know how you can take the formula for a side scrolling action game and make it this clunky, but here we are. Trying this was not worth the seventeen dollar refund hold on my money for the next week.