Beard Blade

Приятный платформер умеренной сложности, где мы играем за мечеборода и спасаем [strike] принцессу [/strike] овец. Есть прокачка - барбершоп, где за монетки можно купить опциональные дополнительные удары для получения всех предметов во всей игре или различные улучшения силы/здоровья. У каждого уровня есть два варианта - день и ночь, при этом путь будет другой, и по сути как будто отдельный уровень. Но это тоже опционально, только для сбора всех необязательных предметов. Нужно собрать пять магических шаров и спасти всех своих овец. Возможности делать скриншоты нет, как и ачивок.

[h1]Here's what you do:[/h1] You play as a sheep farmer who has his sheep stolen. You also have magical beard powers that let you use your beard to attack, float, and more as you purchase upgrades. Each level has a day version and a night version. You can beat either version of a level to advance to the next level. [h1]What I like:[/h1] Five worlds with several levels (with two versions) and a boss in each. There are no repeat bosses. The music is nice and bouncy. There are a variety of locations that go from the beach to caves, the jungle, docks, factories, and castles. The coins collected in levels are used in the barber shop to increase max health, strength, and unlock new abilities (I don't think any of them are required to beat the game, but some are required to get all the secrets). The secrets in each level include three big coins, one enemy card, and either one record or one treasure. The "treasures" are just worthless artifacts with flavor text. The records add music to the sound test. The enemy cards are bios on the enemies. Unfortunately collecting all of them does nothing. There are no achievements in this game. There are no extra levels to unlock. [h1]What I don't like:[/h1] The day and night versions of levels may as well be different levels because the beginning of the level will have day/night blocks that force you to go to a separated part of the level. It isn't like Yooka-laylee and the Impossible Lair where there are two versions of every level that are similar layouts with different mechanics. Beard Blade really just has two levels on every spot on the map. That being said, there are no progression gates requiring you to do anything other than beat one of those levels to go to the next level. But that also means there is no point to collecting the three big coins that are in every level. Finding them does nothing for you. In New Super Mario World (DS), the big coins were used to unlock alternate paths that lead to more levels and bonus rooms. In Beard Blade the collectables do nothing, except for the records which unlock music in the sound test. Every level ends with a little monster carrying a bag with a sheep in it and you have to chase him down and hit him three times. There are a few different variations to this challenge like having him hide in bushes, but by the end of the game every level is back to the basic guy running back and forth that you have to hit. Thankfully the ground pound ability negates the challenge because you can hit him from a distance with it. I think it is bad design that I don't want to do this repetitive challenge at the end of every level. Did they not notice this in playtesting? There are a lot more moving screen levels than I care for. DKC mine cart levels are one thing, but these are like Mario World moving screen levels where you're mostly waiting there for the screen to scroll forward enough so you can do something. This leads to a lot of waiting around. I thought we as game makers were passed this? General lack of polish and playtesting. There is a level where you are meant to race an NPC, but each time you fail (likely from dying) you have to go through multiple dialog boxes to re-challenge him and you can't skip the text (words appear one letter at a time). It was really annoying (doesn't every game developer know you should be able to skip dialog and cutscenes?). Another thing is the beard spin that is done by pressing jump again while in the air. This acts as a float ability, but it also turns certain cog wheels that open doors and such. This was never explained and it is not intuitive. I didn't get it until I watched a video of someone else doing it. There is another annoying level toward the end where it is just a maze of water currents. The currents push you in different directions, sometimes there is a split and you have to pick the right way to go or you're sent in a loop. There is an air meter, so you have to purposely go for air breaks. There is a collectable at the end where if you pick the wrong way to go, you miss it and have to do the whole level over again. There's no platforming in this level. I get the feeling the developers mistake annoying for challenging. I don't recommend getting many of the strength upgrades. After the first couple strength upgrades enemies went from taking 3 hits down to 2 hits, but more upgrades seemed to leave enemies taking 2 hits. I actually don't like this strength stat in the game. I think enemies should take a set number of hits in a platformer. Things like that should be predictable. It is also much better to spend your coins on the abilities before worrying about strength. I beat the game, and got all the collectables before beating the game and I ended up having enough coins to get all the abilities, but could not upgrade my strength all the way. I grinded for more coins, but the latest strength upgrade will cost me over 3000 coins. No thanks. I'm moving on to the next game. [h1]Conclusion:[/h1] I'm truly on the fence about recommending this game. It is fine overall, but when there are tons of games to play, we can be picky about which ones we spend out time and money on.

Look at this crazy guy! Three bristly lobes above, another set below, like fingers, or teeth . . . a good starting point for any kind of transformation, really! Jelly toes, made of hair! And as for teeth, they do [i]indeed[/i] become a set of chompers when you jump up and [b]attack[/b] up. The goblinish Smuglins have an equal amount of personality. The very nice pixel art and animation are [i]really[/i] the main attractions of this short game -- though the basic platforming is certainly pleasant enough to carry an old jumper through three or four days. There's not much "advanced tech" to be found, and furthermore I don't think the part of the programming that reads player input is keen enough to support it. For while I had zero problems steering Branson during some rather fine, albeit ordinary jumps, the activation for the spinning [b]maple key[/b] slowdown is pretty fiddly -- especially when there are screws on the screen you have to use it for. The bounce attack is similarly difficult to pull off. And both, coincidentally, require a second tap of the A button while airborne. It's probably fixable, I think. Did I enjoy it? Certainly, enough to hundred-percent the game, It has a lot of gorgeous variety, even if it is on the simpler side, and the techniques I couldn't use consistently weren't really that important anyway. I do regret, though, that there was no pay-off for filling up the collection roster in the form of an extra level or boss or something. In the end, It's a pretty, soulful product with a few rough edges.

I can't in good faith recommend this game to anyone. It's got sloppy controls, frustrating levels, and an empty feeling once completed. It takes inspiration from the Wario Land games, but it just feels like a pale imitation.

A tentative yes, but only if you have patience. There's nothing particularly wrong with the controls but one of the moves I find a bit fussy. You'll know it when you get it. The big gold coins are half easy to get, half frustratingly out of reach, requiring many attempts at a particular level. Graphics and sound excellent, no performance problems.

Great and precise controls, good animations.. yeah this is a love letter to the 16bit era on the SNES.

not sure what the pig currency is for but it is a fun game overall

Great platform game, sad that it's not popular at all. Can describe this as classic old-school platformer experience. There are only minor cons: - day/night is basicly different levels, don't get why day/night logic was applied to that game; - magnet powerup looks mostly useless as it won't magnet from chests and better coins; - no ps5 controller support (solved by steam input); - no achievements (can be a great addition to the game).

Pretty good overall, the concept and art style were great, controls could be more tight. Totally worth it for these few bucks.

This is a great game! It has beautiful sprite art, catchy music and fun level design...What's not to love!?! Anyone who likes old school platformers should buy this game NOW!