You know I am a big fan SEEP, but considering the Ninja Gaiden framework I imagined it would be a little more creative with the platforming, while the game is not all that bad, it just didn't have any levels that would be memorable, this is what I was worried about when I posted in the forum, I was afraid you would keep it too primitive with the challenge, I wanted you to go harder on the mid-air gameplay. On that note, I understand that you release games every few months or so and maybe committing to more visuals is not worth it, but I just didn't feel like the stages were all that interesting to play, many flat sections with similar challenges, overall I feel like the levels needed a bit more background detail or more textures in general, aside maybe from the area one that at least had some funny posters.
The game is about 60 to 90 minutes, relatively easy mostly because of the generous checkpoints, although if you had lives it probably would take a few attempts. I was about to say that the melee attack has annoying delay, but then I thought about it, oh yea that is actually somewhat faithful, for better or worse. The movement felt a little off to me, to be fair it's better then some of your previous games, maybe it's more of an issue with whatever engine you using, sometimes I feel like I slightly go too far or not far enough when I try to judge the distance. The boss fights were a bit underwhelming, you were never particularly great with them, the last one was okay, reminded me of the tiger from that barbarian game <.< (you better not be cutting corners on me). Also, I think it would have helped if you had a few extra power ups, maybe something you can consider adding if possible.
For the moment there I thought you were using some real images for the cutscenes, it looked that good, props if it's fully manual, I have seen a lot of your artwork but this was exceptionally good with the shading and texturing, you should do more of that, C64 style or whatever you call it, got that sick retro computer vibe to it.
[h1] Pros: [/h1]
(+) I like the artwork you did to imitate the original cutscenes, although I wish there was a bit more movement, at least something basic like the original. Really nice shading there, I think it's some of your better work if done from nothing.
(+) Some of the music was good, with the exception of a few later levels, I kinda wish there were more darker and industrial vibes.
(+) The movement was not perfect, the character felt a little heavy at times, but overall I think you did a decent job with the wall climb. There is a funny tech you can do, if you spam the jump against the wall you climb really fast.
[h1] Feedback: [/h1]
- this is an issue I have with most of your games, and I feel like you not giving the levels enough character, it would be nice to see more level specific challenges, more detail and textures in the backgrounds
- I felt like the game needed more power-ups
- boss fights were very stale, needed a few more patterns I feel (last one was okay)
[b] Overall Thoughts: 6/10 [/b]
As with all SEEP games this is a very basic NES experience, which in itself is not bad, but I think of many of my favorite retro games and the levels that I remember, I didn't get it from this game, I feel like you didn't put enough work into the details and platforming.
Serviceable, but slightly not what I was hoping for, I think you could have done something more fun with the gameplay.
[code]Niche, obscure and underrated games: http://store.steampowered.com/curator/31294838-Hidden-Gem-Discovery/ [/code]
