Bacon Man: An Adventure

Bacon Man is a classic platformer in the style of Earthworm Jim. It gets frustrating at times, but it's not too difficult that I would give up. The combat plays a bit like Guacamelee and is really easy to adapt to. The story is hilarious with a lot of relevant references to cling to. All in all, for the price, I think you would have a blast with this title.

Disclaimer: I backed Bacon Man on Kickstarter and got the game that way. Didn't have much time to play before release, though, so I'm mostly going in fresh. So far, I have only gotten through a couple of levels while dying and respawning a lot. The game is challenging, though I think part of it is my not being used to playing sidescrolling platformers with an analog stick. I had similar experiences with the recent Metroid game on 3DS and with one or two other games that did sidescrolling movement on analog controls, so it's by no means unique to this game. YMMV The punching and starting weapon both seem neat and enemies have been quite varied thus far. I like how you can pick up knocked down enemies and either throw them in water to make platforms or throw them into other enemies as a weapon of sorts. The game is very colorful and looks good, though a few of the UI elements sometime look a bit too flat for my taste. Music has been very good so far. The storytelling in the beginning drags on a bit and is not quite my cup of tea, but then I don't play platformers for story, so it does not matter all that much to me. Overall, it's fun and seems worth the asking price to me.

I really want to like this game. It's got a great soundtrack, a clear idea for art direction, and some gorgeous 2D work in the menu backgrounds and especially achievements. But man, the controls are just so floaty and rough, the animations look awkward, and the general look and feel is just half-baked. I have no idea what it wants to be, and it plays that way; part MegaMan, part Mario, part lots of other indie games- but never quite good enough at any of it to stand out. It just feels off to play, and while I intend to keep going- these are my thoughts as it stands. I feel like it bit off more than it could chew, and a smaller, more intimate pure platformer- with that gorgeous 2D art they tease us with- could be a real winner. Oh, and Lard Lass is bae- please, give us more of her and her loveliness.

[h1]HIGHLY RECOMMEND![/h1] [b]Bacon Man[/b] is truly a wonderful game, and I must admit I've been in love with it since the moment I first saw it demo'd in December 2015. Since then tons of content has been added, the gameplay has been perfected further, and I haven't been more excited for a game in years. This game successfully challenges the players - it's not stupid difficult a la Cuphead, but it [i]is[/i] challenging. The level design is intuitive, explorative, challenging, and fun. The co-op mode is all types of fun and there's a wholesome enjoyment about having a good quality game you can sit on your couch and play with a friend. Furthermore, while the gameplay is astounding, intuitive, enjoyable, and excellent in all ways, the graphics aren't given justice in the trailers posted, and the music is something extra special. The compuers have done a wonderful job capturing the essence of this game and setting a phenomenal tone and deserve sincere kudos - it's worth purchasing the soundtrack if you haven't already! Overall this is a highly recommended title that will provide many hours (over ten, perhaps up to 16) of top-notch gameplay. [u]Stop reading and play![/u]

Bacon Man is a pretty wacky game with a lot of heart. I'm not the best at tough platformers (I only got to the final world in Super Meat Boy), and boy does this game get tough. There's plenty of parts where you might get frustrated for a while, but I always seemed to be making progress gradually. The beat-em-up and boss sections were a lot easier for me, and those can even be made easier by leveling up a bit if you get stuck. The platforming is mostly all insta-death, so skill is the only thing that'll help you there. Gameplay aside, what really kept me going was the goofy storyline and funny characters. There's a lot of humor to be found beyond just food puns, and it's done pretty well. The characters I encountered all had their fair share of jokes (both original and tongue-in-cheek references). Excaliboar was a favorite of mine - the grumpy rival/sidekick who's always trying to show you up. I did a mini-review with a bonus recipe/cooking segment based on the game. If you want to hear more of my opinions or learn a little bit about making "Bacon Man Bacon" then check it out. ;) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FTpYS4V3sQ

Actually pretty sweet so far, graphics are gorgeous. don't have much to say yet. Just want to get another positive review up. *it is really good, I played more :) platforming is so fun and the levels are really well done. fantastic game, has me smiling like crazy as I play.

Bacon Man: A Recipe For Success I just completed my first blind playthrough of this game solely as Bacon Man. This review is based on those first impressions. Gameplay I played with an Xbox 360 controller. Controls were tight. Other reviews had said as much, but I felt entirely in control of Bacon Man at all times. This means that any failure I may have encountered stemmed from my own mechanical inability, impatience, and the occasional generous hit detection, which means that success is all the more satisfying. From a mechanical standpoint, imagine that Mega Man X, Donkey Kong Country and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night had a threesome and birthed a delicious, greasy baby. The inspiration of other platformers is rampant and glorious. As a longtime fan of the Donkey Kong Country series, I was pleased to see mechanics like throwing enemies and hanging from ceilings present. There is also a co-op mode, but because I am sad and friendless I haven't been able to make use of it, so I can't judge it. Difficulty and Level Design The game includes an organic and inobtrusive tutorial a la Donkey Kong Country where the player is taught the controls for an action and then left to overcome a challenge that allows you to utilize your new skill. This is a HUGE oversight in many games these days, and I appreciate the developers putting it in. I was never left scratching my head about controls. Levels are generally cleverly designed and entertaining to play. The difficulty scales as the game goes on and as Bacon Man unlocks more skills and movement abilities. Starting off at maybe a Donkey Kong Country level of difficulty, the later levels are more reminiscent of Super Meat Boy or I Wanna Be The Guy. Needless to say, at my current skill level I think it's highly unlikely that I'll ever get the achievement for beating this game without dying. Levels are full of branching paths and hidden caches, some of which seem to only be reachable with one of the other playable characters, or so I imagine, leaving room for replayability. Aesthetics and Graphics The game is built on the Unreal 4 Engine, so naturally it's pretty to look at, but the developers have gone above and beyond to produce quality backdrops and environments. Each zone is quickly and easily distinguishable from others and they all lend themselves well to the food group aesthetic the design team seems to be going for. The character models, while on the smaller side, are pretty good though with a little more budget could have been A+ material. Obstacles are usually clearly defined. Whether you'll like the camera view distance is a matter of personal preference; Skymap seems to have been going for a Super Meat Boy era camera, and while I understand that such a distant view almost entirely negates the concept of a "leap of faith", a platforming taboo, such distance makes it much more difficult to fully appreciate all the effort that went into producing the compelling and detailed character models and decent animations. Soundtrack Excellent with some very memorable tunes. Each song lends itself well thematically to the zone it belongs to. If I'd know it was going to be so good, I'd've thrown another 8 bucks at the total/complete edition and saved myself two dollars. Game sounds are clear, and both soundtrack and sound effects are individually adjustable in the options. Story Goofy and campy; if you don't play platformers for their story then there's a convenient skip feature, but for those of us who enjoy a good yarn the woeful tale of Bacon Man's quest for redemption is inspired by the humor of Earthworm Jim and goes full No More Heroes closer to the end in terms of zaniness. There were times I caught myself actually laughing out loud. In the same vein as a Suda51 game there seem to be several purposefully laid plot holes that I can hopefully conclude will be resolved by future playthroughs as the other characters. In short, I personally was entertained, but tastes will vary. Overall Highly, highly recommended. Bacon Man is a tasty treat, and I appreciate my friend for serving him up to me. The developers seem highly active, there is a patch for some bug or change nearly every day since I've bought it, so it's nice to see that they're not content with their current receipe and will and continue to improve this title. Quite frankly, one of the few things I'm disappointed about is that my plate's empty. I can only hope the crew will cook up some DLC maps or storylines soon!

Bacon Man: An Adventure in good and bad upsets The "too lazy to read the rest of this summary" summary: The gameplay is generally good and challenge is frustrating but rewarding, but you will encounter numerous mostly minor bugs. Bacon Man is a platformer that feels like it's got some heart behind parts of it's construction, but it's missing a very much needed polish and an extra run from the Q&A department. It's clearly harkening back to the strange world and hubris of Earthworm Jim, where you have a comical world of cartoonish characters with some generally light hearted writing behind it that I'm sure younger players would enjoy, slapstick a common occurance during most cutscenes. The humour however is slanted slightly by the fact that the main characters don't really emote outside of body gestures, faces are plastered on, yet you have a character in the form of "The Pork King" who despite being a way simpler design than the protagonists comes off as a much more expressive character in his animations. This tends to apply to many of the side-characters that I have seen so far, who are put on screen next to the protagonist group and tend to be more interesting to watch. Gameplay is the game's true strong point however, offering up well designed levels that actually offer up a challenge to what is advertised on the store page. Death can come swiftly and sometimes you need to plan out how to actually proceed ahead through an area. Using enemies as kicking posts to guide yourself through the air, dashing off walls into double jumps into air dashes to navigate around to a safe patch not covered in spikes, firing off shots to lure out charging crushing/spiked sentient blocks, the environment is the meat of this game. While most levels are mainly linear, there are some levels with branching pathways that tend for you to go down one to unlock another. Treasure Chests tend to be scattered across levels, with money (YUMS), equipment and art to be looted. While there is combat, it is rather basic with a melee and ranged attacks (also guarding), while ranged attacks can be customized rather heavily with equipment, your melee is going to be a rather short spammable beatdown of sorts. While all enemies can be beaten till they explode, most smaller enemies can be beaten to near death and then picked up, to be used as a thrown weapon or to be sacrificed into the nearest water hazard to create a platform upon it. You earn experience and YUMS to be spent at shops to upgrade yourself. As entertaining as the core game is, it is held back by some mildly irritating bugs. So far I've experienced audio glitches, strange blurry textures on certain objects in the environment as if they didn't load in properlry, died to random floor geometry on a forced scrolling level, had one boss that got stuck in an attack animation loop and another just suddenly die before I ever landed the last necessary hit. Nothing I've seen has stopped my playthrough outright, but when it unfortunately happens in tandem it really does lower the enjoyment of everything. I really hope this game gets some much needed patching, there's a diamond in the rough here and it's just needs to be cleaned up a bit.

This review is split into my first and final impressions, reviewed at different times. First Impressions (at game launch) I still have a long way to go on this game, I have been following it for 6 years or so and the level of polish I've seen in my first hour of play is astounding. There's humor around every corner and if you live on the Internet like most of us you will find plenty of references! The gameplay feels smooth and there are multiple ways around the different obstacles. I'd desribe the difficulty in the first world at least to be around what you'd expect out of Super Meat Boy. You need strong reflexes but progress is rewarding and save stations are generous so once you overcome something you don't need to do it again usually. The tutorial for the game is one of the best I've ever seen and the hints when you die are just perfect. So many Indie games nowadays just skip the tutorials because they assume their playerbase to be experts. The music, oh man the music... Just listen for yourself, these musicians are absolute top of the line and it shows! ^ Sadly - this is the only part it shines. Post first impressions... (written months after my first impression positive review): The game starts to lose it's polish after the first world. I can't stand the dialogue and even though it tries to be trendy, it seems like it's trying too hard. The temples in the game are my least favorite part and that's kind of a bummer. Each one consists of completing half a puzzle at a time with a punishing number of checkpoints. I'm a regular player of difficult games and don't usually have a problem with this, but this game just feels downright abusive. Three or four times I've pushed through an obstacle ad-nausium in the hopes that once I make it past, the rest will get better - it doesn't. I finally gave up at what I assume was the half-way point of the game. I have no interest in continuing and honestly feel kinda cheated out of the rest of the gameplay. I got my brother to play it with me months later, it wasn't any better. In fact, Co-op seemed the most buggy of them all with the checkpoints for split sections overriding each other. I understand wanting to appeal to a more hardcore crowd, but I think this was ultimately detrimental to the game and this is clearly evident from the lack of Discord chat activity, game updates, and Steam discussions. It feels like it was abandoned after the typical week 1 patches and the developer has moved on to other projects. Save your money folks.

runs liek garbage, graphical settings don't save ( or even work ) properly. every time I set graphics, they un-set themselves after I'd hit apply. AA is terrible, even at ultra, all i see is jaggies everywhere. game is unoptimized, runs at ow frame rates, despite being WELL over the required specs- heck, I'm even over the recommended specs, I stil; had to crank the resolution down to 1280 x 720, and even THAT worked liek garbage. All the characters running on the title and loading screens had JPEG artifacting around them. ^ that is about as sad as it gets, but it gets worse. You have 4 playable characters...except as far as the game is concerned, Bacon man is the only one- all cutscenes have you transforming into bacon man for the ONLY story the game has ( if you thought 4 chars meant even a slighlty different story, or levels... you are mistaken ) Also, so buggy I couldn't even pass the tutorial - It wanted me to shiled, and the buttons refused to work. and then suddenly, I was ALWAYS shileding ( and despite my using PAN , the character... the shileding animation was BACON MAN...) How is this game 20$ ? This is so poorly made, you would find it on gamejolt or itchio for free. I thought maybe it's in early access? NOPE! full release. Full release of garbage buggy , unpolished terribly optimzed gaming. refunded promptly after shield was the only thing my character could do. stay far away from this mess unless you have very low standards. Worth mentioning I checked the reviews before even buying this, and found 0 negative reviews, turns out every single positive review is from people that funded the game on kickstarter... so that explains quite a bit here.