ERSATZ

[b] Ersatz [/b] is a reflex oriented platformer with a heavy emphasis on speedruns. It is not a particularly punishing game because it has an abundance of checkpoints. About 80 percent of the features like extra modes require you to speedrun certain parts to unlock. So you do need at least some level of competent reflexes to get the full experience. As you can see I dropped 24+ hours into the game and I still have things to do. There are 3 regular modes that change mechanics, journey mode, and infinite mode. If you like that kind of gameplay where you have to learn the layout of the level it has a lot of replay value. As far as music and aesthetic part go I absolutely love it. I think for some $9 may seem a lot of a speedrun game but the price is well justified with content. [h1] Gameplay [/h1] The game is focused on speedruns and each stage times your playthrough. When you die it simply adds 20 seconds to your time and puts you maybe 10 seconds back at most. You can even buy hit points at a cost of 2 seconds per charge. The controls feel very fluid and easy to pick up. I just love the how mobile the character is with 3 charges of the dash which you can use in air, on the ground or while sliding. To attack you just repeatedly ram into things as many times as dash can allow which is extremely satisfying. Unlike most similar games there is a health bar. Not instantly dying to everything is nice although the game makes up for it with an absurd amount of things that can hit you. Most of the boss fights are unique and very well made (most). Pretty much like any wall jumping game you ever played but very refined if that makes sense. [h1] Soundtrack [/h1] Ersatz has some of the best use of sound effects and music. Each time you move into a new room the soundtrack gets another lair. Certain enemies have attack timed to the score so they actually create a beat for the music (seems intentional).The soundtrack is very dynamic and does not feel like an afterthought loop. So many sound effects like huge explosions that make me think of Atari. Man, I even enjoy just clicking around the menu. I could not compliment the audio in this game enough, it is just awesome. [h1] Aesthetic [/h1] It looks simple but I can tell there is a lot of effort went into making this. I am not just talking about backgrounds, there are so many cool visuals effects from character or screen transitions. Those explosions after killing bosses.... Another Atari nostalgia vibe. Each level has a different theme going on with unique stage mechanics. It is kinda hard to react to projectiles though because there is just so much going on visually. Just a very well presented game. [b] Pros: [/b] + Dynamic platforming + Smooth controls + Fantastic Music/Sound effects + Good pace & friendly checkpoints + Lots of stage mechancis + Good level variety + Challenging but fair difficulty + Very appealing visually + Decent replay value [b] Cons: [/b] - Kind of hard to see things because of constant effects and color choices. - Few hitbox problems with bosses - Achievements could be a little more forgiving. You get 1 and the rest are like uber level hard. [h1] Final Thought: 9/10 [/h1] In my humble opinion, this is the best game I ever played in this hardcore platformer format. There are so many games that repeat the same old formula with minimum effort. Someone actually put a lot of effort into this one, how refreshing. If you like this kind of games based on repetition,speedrun and learning the layout of the level give it a try. I really can't give it enough justice through words. ........................................................................................................... For more hidden gems: http://store.steampowered.com/curator/31294838-Hidden-Gem-Discovery/

ERSATZ is a challenging platformer game with focus on the musical influence in the gameplay. Next to moving and jumping you're also able to dash, however your dashes need to recharge and you can only have up to three dashes available at the same time. Thus it is necessary for you to carefully time your movements in regards to the current musical cycle as well as to your dash availability. The developer approached me on Twitter and introduced his game to me because I run the "Press Play to Jump" Steam group which focusses on games with gameplay mechanics built around their musical side, however I'll stress that I bough the game myself and I'm happy I did so. The game is extremely challenging and once you're done beating the normal story mode there's much, MUCH more you can go through which includes getting better scores and times - this game has an excellent speedrunning implementation! - and unlocking and beating different and even harder game modes. While I have beaten the main campaign so far, there is still a lot I need and want to explore. I need to stress that the one-man-developer, Paris Stalker, is extremely comitted to his creation and tries his very best to find and fix bugs and problems the community brings to him which leads to very frequent and useful updates. The game was created in Game Maker, which is a small downside, so the limitations of the audio engine are fairly early reached and I'm pretty certain Stalker found every thinkable possibility to give it the interactive music system that it uses but that is certainly more than I had expected Game Maker being capable of at all! If you like challenging platformers that use the music as an integral part of the gameplay and you also like to go for speedruns in hard games, this is definitely a game you have to check out! :) Strongly Recommended.

This game is interesting visually, musically, and design-wise. This game sells itself as: 'a minimalist Action Platformer, featuring an Original Dynamically Progressive Soundtrack and rhythm elements' and they're not wrong. It does achieve what it claims to. [h1]Art:[/h1] The art is minimalist but not in the "programmer art" way. I think most of the art is quite good looking, with most of the appeal coming from the stark colour contrasts and polygonal shapes. I think some of the early game art (such as in level 1) are fairly low quality compared to the rest of the game, but by no means is the early art bad. Personally I think the style is quite unique and attractive *most* of the time. There can be issues with being able to see though rare, but I have terrible eyesight so who knows YMMV. [h1]Music and Sound Effects:[/h1] The music is very varied in genre, and whilst some tracks are weaker (usually the earlier levels again. I think you can tell the developer improved over development in almost all areas, because the design also improves later on; though that may have to do with extended freedom in terms of difficulty). The music is written in what appears to be layers, with different layers and sections programmatically unlocking as the level progresses so you'll struggle to get bored of the music. Bandcamp link for those who want to have a listen: https://parisstalker.bandcamp.com/releases. [h1]Programming/System:[/h1] The game generally runs extremely well (on release there were some issues with performance but they have since been ironed out; at least for me). The options are a tad empty, but there's about enough there to do what you'd want. More exact resolution selection would've been cool but the multiples (e.g. 2x, 4x initial resolution) used are no gamebreaker as the game supports fullscreen well. The camera usually works very well, with only a few rare exceptions most of which have been fixed since release. There were a few immediate bugs on launch that have since been fixed. The developer is pretty quick to fix stuff, which is nice. [h1]Story:[/h1] Despite immediate thoughts when I started the game, it does indeed have a story. There's a hidden key in every level that unlocks a single message (think of a diary entry or an email or whatever) expanding on the lore of the game. It's nothing to go crazy over in terms of depth, but a nice little touch. You don't have to care if you don't want to, as the game doesn't really shove it in your face which works out quite well for the game and allows the player to . I found some of the keys quite tricky to find. Other than that, the levels, enemies, mechanics and bosses are themed and named after the supposed 8 functions of life which is a really nice touch, whilst not amazingly deep adds some level of cohesiveness to what you otherwise be somewhat disparate. [h1]Design:[/h1] The game has 8 levels, each one taking anywhere between 5 minutes to 15 minutes if you're extremely good at the game. Some levels can easily take up to an hour depending on how many times you die. The game also has several game styles that give the player character slightly different mechanics which affect the way you play a surprising amount. The basic "alpha playstyle" that you start off with is focused around the core mechanics of: [list] [*] Dashing to manoeuvre and kill enemies and break barriers/objects (you have 3 use dash bar that refills over time. Kills refill 1 block of dash, so theoretically you could dash forever) [*] Jumping (bog standard stuff, though the game also plays with different physics somewhat) [*] Ground-slamming to manoeuvre and kill enemies and break barriers/objects (again, fills up the dash upon kills). [/list] Bullets and platforms are synchronised to the beat of the song playing, which combined with the core game mechanics cause a cool result in terms of player routing and play. In terms of design focus, Ersatz is imo a speed-run focused game. What I mean by this is that the game itself, whilst fairly difficult at times, is not difficult by any inherent virtue. Instead the game is designed down to its very core for the player to *perfect* their run. Pick the best path, use the best strategies for killing bosses, never stop moving, sync up with the game's rhythm and score the best time. At its best, Ersatz is neatly laid out to cause a kind of musical synchro when the player absolutely nails something (this is super hard to describe) -- There is a rhythm to this game, and damn does it know it. Except when it doesn't. In every level there are several unique mechanics that somewhat fit the theme of the level, and these are all neat little things that I found surprisingly intuitive. Now the issue lies with one of the later levels. This level is both my favourite, and my least favourite. I like the unique mechanics and the music and the aesthetic and the level layout, but frankly it doesn't gel with what the game is. The game whole being screams the opposite of what that level tries to enforce on the player. It's still fun, but imo it's the antithesis of what makes this game what it is. Thankfully the game doesn't drop the ball too badly elsewhere. In terms of difficulty, I'd say the game starts of incredibly easy, and then ramps upon the 3rd and then 5th levels and then every level after that. I wouldn't recommend judging based on the first 1 or 2. That said, this is no needle/iwbtgfan game. This game wants you to perfect it, but it doesn't force you to :P. Then again, if you want to get good ranks on the levels be prepared to work hard - top tier play of this game is not easy to achieve and that is certainly one of this game's strengths (NOTE: There's a marathon mode unlockable called Journey Mode that lets you run the whole game in one go, but I haven't messed with that or the other playstyles too much. The other playstyles in particular change the way the game is played on a fairly fundamental level and add that little extra to the game's replay value. Marathon mode is one challenging mode, at least for me :) ) [h1]Conclusion:[/h1] I'd recommend this game. It's good fun and it managed to keep me absorbed for a whole continuous run through which is something a whole host of games simply fail at achieving nowadays. Make no mistake, this is no steam shovelware. Whilst not terribly long for a single run (think 2-3 hours for your first time if you're bad like me) there's a hell of a lot of replay value, and the game is basically designed for perfecting your routes, tricks and runs to get the best times. I can see this being a very fun game to stream and definitely one you'll find yourself repeatedly coming back to. RECOMMENDED - It's not a perfect game (no games are!), but it fills a fairly unique niche and actually has content in it unlike a few games I've seen attempt the same kind of thing. I'm very, very satisfied with it. To be perfectly honest, I don't think I really got across what it is that's good and bad about this game. I think this is the kind of game you have to try and get a feel of.

Probably the best way to describe this game is "simple to play, difficult to master", if you'd like to check out my full review in video form of Ersatz you can check out the video down below. Otherwise, here's a copy and paste of my whole review in text: I wanna start this review off by addressing three things, first being that I was given a steam key for this game; meaning I got it for free. Second being, I would consider myself a friend of the developer and I have been given hints/tips for beating several bosses in this game. And third, neither of those two things I've addressed will be used as a basis for bias or skewing the review. When I'm making a review, I will always try to be as transparent as possible about any bias' I might indirectly or directly have with a game. That said, let's get into the review! If you don't know what Ersatz is, then I'm not surprised; it's only got around 100 downloads. That said, Ersatz is a platforming game that's more speed and rhythm focused than anything. Most platformers center around getting from point A to B within the shortest amount of time with the occasional boss every 5 to 10 levels. These games also give you power ups and sometimes extra abilities or additional characters along the way just to make sure you're not having too much of a hard time throughout the game. Now I'm not saying every platformer is like that, their are definitely plenty of exceptions and Ersatz is definitely one of them. In Ersatz, what you see is what you get. You start off with three speed boosts and six health points and you end the game with three speed boosts and six health points, adding to this the main character, Ersatz, can do one of four given things dash, slide, sliding dash, and finally a stomp. This makes for very tight and precise controls that go a long way in a game of precision like Ersatz. Gameplay wise Ersatz is almost all speed oriented in the way that you have to get from point A to B in the shortest amount of time. Dying doesn't restart the level, but it does add 20 seconds to the timer which can be fatal to your ranking at that end. But i'll talk about that later in this review. The last way Ersatz is different from your average platformer is that each level also has two boss fights that make each level feel fresh and unique. Adding to this, not a single boss fight felt like a clone of another boss fight in Ersatz, which really helped add to the overall feeling of each boss being individual and distinct from one another. Although their are different gameplay modes you can unlock for beating the game that give you different abilities, i'll be talking primarily about normal mode playstyle type Alpha. This is the default gameplay mode but their are many other modes that can be unlocked by beating the base game. In normal mode, you play as the main character who I assume is named Ersatz. The game does have a story, but it's unlocked through collectibles that I was honestly unable to find. I don't know if I'm just bad at searching for them, or if they're genuinely hard to find but I did find a few of them, and can confidently say they aren't incredibly important to the game, but they are a nice addition to have for completionists and anyone curious about the lore behind Ersatz. Speaking of lore and easter eggs, Ersatz has a ton of secrets and game design decisions that most people, myself included, would fail to notice. These additions make the game feel just that much more special and unique. I mean, hell the developer has his own game design playlist on YouTube. Their are so many hidden details and easter eggs in Ersatz that I can make a whole video just about them. That said, back to storyline. Storyline isn't the reason you're probably planning on buying Ersatz anyways, it's the bright and colorful levels and the amazing soundtrack and speedrunning type gameplay that makes this game worth purchasing. I could just end the review right here and give a definite recommendation that you pick this up if you're a fan of the platforming genre. If you're not however, their are still plenty of reasons to pick up Ersatz. For one, the soundtrack is drop dead phenomenal in my opinion. So much so, that it's the only soundtrack for a game that I have purchased and would purchase again given the choice. This is a game that I think must be played with headphones to truly get the full experience out of it. Adding to this, the replay ability of Ersatz is incredible. It's jaw-dropping seeing just how fast some people are able to go through each level and it's super fun and rewarding trying to beat everyone's time, although if you're like me and suck at platformers you might have to replay the levels multiple times just to get the D-ranking. Why do you need D-ranking you might ask? Well, it's to unlock the final level of Ersatz. This was quite the controversial topic in the Ersatz discussions page back in November mostly due to the requirement being too hard and the last level being locked behind a skill gate. Personally, I felt that locking the last level of a game behind a skill based system is just wrong. For example, what if a player is just not good enough at the game? Do they not deserve to play the last level? What if a player is like me and just playing casually, and not for speedrunning reasons? Do I not deserve to see the ending? Ultimately however, I decided to man up and just get D-rank on all levels. Previously, the requirement was C-rank but it was later changed. And I replayed almost all of Ersatz again off camera just to get D-rank on all levels. Was this a challenge? Of course, even though it's the second lowest rank, I'm still not a very good gamer and it proved to be a real challenge for me. Their were times where I would replay levels over and over again just to reach D-rank but I'd lose at the final boss and just get E-rank and have to restart all over again. This made me angry, and frustrated at times but I stuck with it and ended up finally getting D-rank after multiple hours of retrying. Once I unlocked the final level and defeated the final bosses after multiple hours of trying all I could say is well, see for yourselfs. Having to replay each level and get D-rank was very frustrating. But after finishing the final level of Ersatz and seeing the beautiful end credit scenes role, I couldn't help but feel a sense of happiness and pride that most games have been unable to give me. Theirs something about grinding through each level multiple times, failing on and on, and getting so frustrated that you literally regret even playing the game that once you finally win you can't help but feel relief and joy that it's finally over. This happens with each and every level of Ersatz up to the final boss. Listen, maybe it's because I know the developer or maybe it's because I've spent so much time playing each and every level of Ersatz that I feel such a connection to the game but I can't help but feel this game was made by a gamer for gamers in mind. This game is truly a love letter to the platforming genre and I highly recommend this game to anyone looking for a unique game by a one man developer who pours his heart and soul into what he creates. Video Review: https://youtu.be/qWUo4q93QFI

Ersatz is yet another 2D retro pixel platformer infesting Steam. Gameplay here involves mashing the right combination of buttons to perform specific platformer moves, because 2D platformer level design is apparently hard, so they had to throw in some obstacles that need specific button combos to get through rather than just designing interesting platformer levels. The key selling point is the soundtrack, which means the developers are admitting the most compelling part of their "game" is something you can hear for free on the radio without giving them any money. Good advice, because the gameplay itself, which is what games must be judged on, is terrible. The graphics: Lazy retro pixel. Hire an artist, seriously, it's not hard to find one, there's probably plenty working in the same coffee shops as the baristas who wrote this trying to escape their mediocre "careers" by making mediocre games instead of mediocre coffees. As one of thousands of 2D pixel platformers on Steam, this isn't even close to being in the middle of the pack, except for the massively inflated price point, where it's far, far higher than most. I should go through my rubbish bin and put $10 price tags on empty cereal boxes. They'd be better value for money than this, too.

Summary: Recommended if you are a masochist like me. Details: + Insanely difficult, but very rewarding once you understand a segment and can execute it without major errors. + Chill music, and objects that move with the beat, makes it easy to get in the flow. + Pleasant to look at + Unique and fun bossfights (except the first one, ♥♥♥♥ that flower) + Multiple Unlockable Playstyles + Liberal use of Checkpoints - Colors sometimes make it hard to see tiny bullets - Crashed once ~ Perfect for speedrunning. It's easy to get high in the leaderboards because nobody plays the game (seriously, people come play this game)

Ersatz is a fast paced, speed based, platformer, with a ridiculously good soundtrack. The controls are really simple and responsive, you have a jump button and a dash button. You can also press down mid-jump to terminate your jump and fall straight down with a stomp attack. The whole game is centered around the dash ability. You can dash over pits, through obstacles, kill enemies with it, and damage bosses with it. Of course you also need to liberally dash everywhere in order to get a good rank on each stage. You have a dash meter, you can dash 3 times in a row before having to wait for the meter to refill, the meter refills fairly quickly so you won't go too long without the ability to dash. There are 8 levels in the game(with a whole mess of extras that open up when you beat it), but each level gives you a rank based on your speed. In order to unlock the last level you must achieve at least a D rank on the first 7 levels. You have infinite lives, and very liberal checkpoints, but each time you die 20 seconds get added to your time, there are also heal stations sprinkled throughout the levels that add 2 seconds to your time for each point you heal(you have a total of 6 health). Level design in this game is spectacular, every level has a unique twist, with unique enemies, and unique environmental hazards. You won't see anything repeat until the last level, which is kind of a mash-up of the first 7. The levels are challenging, but very fair, and are all ludicrously fun to play. The standout feature for me in this game are the boss battles. Every boss is super fun to fight, most of them will kick your ass the first time you fight them, and you will curse as you watch your rating sink with each time they kill you, but it is extremely satisfying when you learn their patterns and flawlessly beat a boss who seemed nearly impossible when you first met them. Ersatz is a phenomenal game and a must play for any fan of challenging, speed based, rythm platformers.

This game is awesome but also super hard! It’s got a seriously good thumping soundtrack with some of the most difficult platforming I’ve ever played. This is one of those times where the trailer and steam page do not do a game justice. The game is set up in a way that you can always finish, it’s simple to pick up and play. However, you can die so much it can really take a toll on your emotional well being. I don't know how the developer did it but this game is equal parts frustrating and fun. I don't want to stop playing but I'm so mad at myself for making so many stupid mistakes. Overall for a game by a one person this one of the most polished games I’ve ever played. I have high hopes that Ersatz will find its audience and if you have any interest in these types of games this is something you need to pick up. For everyone I would suggest you try the demo, it’s free and I think you’ll find something really enjoyable. Full video review: https://youtu.be/pecn23quOkE

I really like this game, the mechanics of the game, and the art style, I highly recommend this game to anyone who likes challenging platformers.

A very challening but equally rewarding game once you master the beats of a level. I really enjoyed playing this, the soundtrack is a treat and really helps you time the characters movement. Only critism would be I found it pretty hard in some of the boss fights, but the overwhelming joy of defeating them is great!