Ayo the Clown

Ayo the Clown is so close at being the perfect platformer. It has the style, charm, content, well designed levels, upgrades, collectibles, plenty of fast travel points, different difficulty modes, bosses having varied attack patterns, stats being tracked properly, cute story etc. But it has some issues with the controls and hitbox of enemies, it doesn’t always flow satisfyingly in terms of gameplay and it’s a shame. I also had issues with the camera getting stuck, not fast enough to show you what’s underneath you. It was such a big problem that I was ready to give up. Then I found out that this problem is caused on high fps, capping the fps to 60 fixes it. I paid over €4 for the game on steam and I think it’s worth that price. It’s definitely a game that can still be enjoyed by fans of the genre, but there is a bit of a missed opportunity when it could have easily been better with small tweaks. I hope the devs are planning another platformer. They’re certainly talented, they just need another attempt to polish their craft. It took me around 10 hours to complete the story and get all the achievements. The achievements are mostly related to defeating the bosses, unlocking moves, finding all the collectibles and completing side quests for NPC.

Note: entire game was played on the Steam Deck. I've had my eye on Ayo the Clown for a while. The gameplay videos looked like a good time, and reminded me of the Yoshi's Island games. The game recently went on sale (for the first time ever), so I figured why not. So what stands out that's good? -The game is a side-scroller built in 3D, and it actually uses that 3D space, with hazards, enemies, and platforms moving in from the background/foreground. -The level layouts for the most part tend to be pretty good. -NPCs have optional quests. -The ideas and designs around some of the bosses. That all sounds well and good, but the game has several issues, and these are too much to overlook. The controls too often feel unresponsive and unreliable. This is evident from the game's opening menus, when I have to press the A button at least twice to get anywhere. This doesn't get much better in game, as I entered a "farm" level and found that I could not immediately jump out of the truck the game spawned me in; Ayo wouldn't move at all. With some moves, the wall jump in particular, I never had confidence that I would be able to pull off the move before running out of wall, as for whatever reason Ayo has to slide down the wall some distance before the game allows for the wall jump. For yet another example, grabbing onto "mesh backgrounds" requires a button press (RB on the Steam Deck), but too often Ayo would not grab onto the mesh and instead fall into pits. These unresponsive controls make the game more frustrating than it needs to be. Making it even more frustrating is the inconsistent hitboxes/collision. I can jump on an enemy without issue, but then jump on the same enemy at the same angle but get hurt. I can bounce on an enemy several times in a row one moment, but then get hurt the next. Maybe that laser will register a hit, maybe it won't. Maybe that section of wall has collision, maybe it doesn't. Maybe I'll fall through a section of floor when I'm trying to explore these levels. Speaking of levels, while I maintain the layouts are generally good, the levels themselves are often far too long. Many of them could have been split in half and still feel fairly substantial. The camera also doesn't help. It will sometimes get stuck leaving Ayo at an odd (and usually unadvantageous) place on the screen. It's positioning also leads to more than a few deaths, because I knew there was ground beneath where Ayo was, but the game decided the ground was gone, and it was now a pit. I can think of one level in particular, where I had to jump up from the ground and grab onto a mesh above me, and navigate a maze of sorts using those mesh backgrounds. If I missed a jump while navigating that maze, Ayo did not fall back to the ground to let me try again; he screamed as he fell into a pit, and the game started back at the checkpoint. I could make other criticisms, but those seem like nitpicks compared to unreliable controls, inconsistent collision, and a camera that works against the player. These ultimately are why I cannot recommend this game.

Me say boom boom boom, now everybody say Ayo (AY-OOHHHH). Right? I backed this on Kickstarter because it looked delightfully joyful and I as a joyless man in a joyless world need to get a fix where I can. I will say that it provided plenty of levity but was I to find deep emotional resonance at the end of my experience? Read on to find out... As a side scrolling platformer, there are obvious comparisons to be made to all kinds of gaming legends and system mascots. None of these much matter as there are only four things (IMO) that really make or break such a game. 1) [b]CONTROLS.[/b] Mario is kinda the de facto king of movement when it comes to the whole genre of PLATFORMER. Whether in second or third dimension, few other characters control quite like Mario. The immediacy, the fluidity, the convention defining pedigree. Ayo is NOT Mario. He controls perfectly fine though. He moves in the directions, he jumps, he crouches and he does all the things you'd expect. He'll maybe just travel a little further than you planned, or maybe he'll pull off an unstoppable butt slam while you're trying to jump over a chasm and plummet to his death. He's a little fiddly at times, but that's fine. This is not a major studio release, this has some old fashioned and totally forgivable Indie Janky Goodness. 2) [b]CAMERA.[/b] Camera is so critical to the overall user experience. I read some reviews complaining about the camera in Ayo. I will admit that on a handful of instances I was a little perplexed by the choices made by the camera, but one could favourably look at this as raising the skill ceiling for those able to make it so far in the game as to reach those moments. There are definitely some irritating sections, but overall I thought the camera was perfectly workable. Again, see the Janky Indie Goodness. 3) [b]VARIETY.[/b] A very basic description of any platformer might be "character [i] n [/i] moves from THE LEFT [i] 0 [/i] to THE RIGHT [i] x [/i]." Unsurprisingly this will get dull quite quickly, so games in the genre become really good at distracting the player from the limited nature of the task at hand. Ayo is incredibly good at throwing new mechanics, new gameplay, new moves, new challenges and new puzzles at the player all the way to the very last few levels. While following the general beats of the genre, Ayo does enough to stand above many lesser imitation platform heroes. 4) [b]FUN.[/b] [u]AYO IS LOTS OF FUN.[/u] Deep emotional resonance? Sure, why not.

this game is so adorable! it reminds me a lot of little big planet and yoshi's woolly/crafted world. i love the art in every single world. the worlds aren't too long but the levels can take almost 20 minutes sometimes. it's a perfect little mix. it's a platforming game. we need more cute clowns!!!!!

🖖👽 [h1] Saudações Jovens Astros![/h1] 👉 [b] Por Hora, enquanto vou produzindo minha análise... espero que o video fale um pouco por mim sobre esse jogo Fantástico! Pra quem Gosta de New Super Mario Bros Séries, é praticamente compra obrigatória! [/b]😜 https://youtu.be/0XkNIaofbhs - x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x - [h1][u] ANÁLISE EM ANDAMENTO... [/u] [/h1]

TOPZERA! Igual a versão de SWITCH... Um excelente jogo de plataforma OLDSCHOOL... Gráficos sensacionais e preço melhor ainda... Diversão garantida!

The camera ruins any chance this game had of being good. It's way too high and there's no way to move it so every jump is a leap of faith. The trailer on the store page shows the character in the centre of the screen, so why is he near the bottom in-game? Also notice how most of the reviews were free gift copies from the developer. The Switch version averages 6/10, so why on earth is the Steam version sat at 90% recommended? Paid reviews. Get Marsupilami or Yooka Laylee Impossible Lair instead - they're much better and cost around the same.

If a clown that rides a tank, a helicopter and wears a boot that breathes fire won't get you to play this game I don't know what will.