Chirax's Fortress

Feels good to play and isn't frustrating. I love the aesthetic. And the animations are really nice!

Being a friend of the dev, I had the opportunity to playtest early builds of this game and get a bit of an inside look at development on it. It's a clear-as-crystal homage to Yoshi's Island but carries the unique mechanic of your hitpoints also being your main method of attack, (no crying babies in bubbles!) and plays a bit with some creative ideas such as your heads being platforms and foreground/background-based mechanics. If you're a platformer veteran, you might find this game over quick with a slightly medium challenge near the end, which in my opinion is a good and bad thing. On one hand, the game doesn't feel needlessly padded, but on the other, I definitely feel left wanting more. The highlight of Chirax's Fortress is the boss fights, be it simple ones like Fudgie, to some of the later ones with my favorite being [spoiler]the World 6 boss, Vivo.[/spoiler] They definitely felt like they had the most thought put into them, and all came with creative and memorable designs, and the final boss especially is a nice treat. The game also has a simple story that's easy to understand; you're a mother hydra who needs to save her babies, and there's nothing more to it, but I still feel like there are some loose ends that may need to be tied and questions that need to be answered. Why are the knights stealing the babies? What's the relationship between Chirax and Sylvia? [spoiler]What's the lore behind Xarihc?[/spoiler] I'm not asking for every indie game to have a deeper story behind everything since I believe simple is good sometimes. It's just I felt left wanting a little bit more. Overall, this game is good, but I feel like it could have used more time in the oven. It feels a bit early-access and could benefit from a few updates. Then again, that's the beauty of the modern age; that can very much happen. My biggest hope is that this game at least gets attention, or even comes out with a sequel that vastly improves on the original and gains a following. This game idea has potential and room to grow, and hopefully the devs can get the support and attention they need to bring their vision to life. TL;DR: Has potential and charm; a fun experience but feels a bit too short, like a really good fun-size candy bar. 3.5/5.

Very fun and enjoyable. Consistently entertaining and challenging but fair at times. The visual style is really charming and accurate to what it sets out to do. It's short, sweet and worth your time

A cute little platformer with a constant flow of new ideas and mechanics on every level and boss battle. Super charming throughout - good fun!

i fw the vision

Cool game! It's quite short (took me just under 3 hours to 100%) and generally easy (to me at least) but I like the art-style (2D sprites in 2.5D and 3D worlds, it also reminds me of the platform racing series if anyone knows of that) and you play as a cool hydra dragon. Note that WASD are the only keyboard controls (no arrows), but the game works well with a controller (and it recommends you to play with one too) so I played it on controller. The levels are set in a series of fun, interesting, and cool environments. The bosses are also cool characters with a lot of variety between their designs, there's also a menu that lets you re-fight just the bosses once you've beaten them. I like these elements a lot but there's not much to say aside from that, because the trailer does a good job of showing what the game is like. If you like the trailer and are fine with a game of this length for this price, then you'll probably like the game. A reason why the game was quite easy to me is the collectables save even after you die and haven't beaten the room yet, even if you die you respawn in the room you were at and not the start of the level (unless you died in the first room). There's nothing wrong with having it be more forgiving like that though and could be a good bonus for some people interested in the game. If you want to get more out of the game you can try to go for the collectables without dying (they still show up as an outline even when collected), or doing no-hit runs, which could get you more out of the game if you want more. Also to note with achievements, they only showed for me when I closed the game. I was running something else at the same time in the background though, so I don't know if that had anything to do with it, but if the achievements don't show up initially don't worry they should when you close the game. Overall this is a nice charming game that might not take long, but you'll enjoy your time playing especially if you like hydras or dragons, doubly so if you like to play as one!

Short, sweet, and very enjoyable! This game has very unique boss battles and game design. I love the retro aesthetic with 8-bit graphics and 16-bit music. I also love how the game combines gameplay mechanics from games like Yoshi's Island and Dynamite Headdy

A quirky platformer breaming with whimsical creativity. Music loops might get a bit grating in some levels, but solid gameplay and charming pixel art to entertain.

Highly Recommended!! having much fun playing this through! this is so inspiring of Yoshi's Island, Dynamite Headdy, and as for the music too! almost sound like SNES Music! so very creative indie games i ever played! :D Love from Canada!