Pipistrello and the Cursed Yoyo

小而美的代表，很难挑什么缺点。 整体难度不高，从悠悠球延伸出的能力、对应的教学、马上出现的不是这个能力就不行的关卡，这些都安排的恰到好处。我这种没怎么接触类塞游戏的玩家也能玩得很爽。 俯视角，但是打起来就只有上下左右四个攻击方向，类似那种街机游戏，不算缺点，仔细想想也和游戏设计有关？ 复古像素的美术相当生动流畅，在我这里是加分项。 独创的贷款系统，能以一定代价提前解锁能力。前期很新奇，也更有动力探索。中期开始觉得贷款的负面代价太大了，动不动就是扣血上限和攻击力，手残党无法接受。 地图很不错，四个超级电池分布四周，下水道相互串联，加上一些内有乾坤的独立地图，组织起城市全景。最喜欢右上角姑妈跳舞的那张图，两种颜色的开关不断切换，像一块不断变化的迷宫，每一次却只能选一条路。综合几个能力的使用，同一地方，来回的感受却不同。 大概是第一款全程用手柄通关的动作游戏，攻击滚动的震动反馈很带感，就是不熟练，用起来变菜好多。 全收集做爽了，作弊者徽章和可修改难度是好文明。

A fantastic action-adventure game that reminds me of some of the SNES / Gameboy favourites of yesteryear. Play as Pippit, a member of the Pipistrello family, and self-proclaimed yoyo master. Returning to town in search of a cash infusion from his wealthy aunt (head of the Pipistrello family and local energy corporation), Pippit gets caught up in a scheme of the local crime lords to remove his aunt from power, sending him on a quest to track down pieces of her soul that have been fused into mega-batteries, the final piece ending up in your yoyo. Battle your way across four different districts to reclaim the batteries in the hopes of making your aunt whole once more. Gameplay is from a top-down perspective, reminding me a wee bit of something like Zelda: Link's Awakening. Use your yoyo for combat, as well as to maneuver around the terrain and complete puzzles the more yoyo tricks and upgrades you acquire through the game. When it comes to mobility, your yoyo can be thrown to hit objects / enemies, used to ride across liquids, and as a platform to hop across gaps in pits - so long as you have the appropriate trick / move unlocked. Combat moves can be unlocked too, equipping one at a time at workbenches in your hideout, giving you charge attacks, stuns, etc. Upgrades come in a few different forms; the moves and specials you unlock, badges found out in the world and via blueprints, and upgrades you obtain via contracts. Contracts act as something of an upgrade tree, giving you small side-grades and additional badge points. While a contract is active, 50% of the coins you pick up will go towards paying off the contract, plus you will be saddled with penalties in the form of less health, attack power, and badge points, depending on the contract, until it is paid off. Badges can be equipped so long as you have the points, acting as small side-grades as well, also giving you additional abilities depending on the badge. Each badge can be upgraded at your hide out once in exchange for coin, usually being well worth the cost to do so. Petal and Badge containers can be found hidden around the world, eight of the former and two of the latter giving you another point of health and badge respectively. Puzzles are generally straightforward, having to maneuver around a screen using jumps, rolls, and platforms to get yourself, and often at times an object like a battery or key, to the other side of the room to avoid barriers. Sometimes you might have to juggle buttons / switches, but nothing terribly complicated. There are times where you might have to deliver a food item like a burger or popcorn without dropping it to a citizen elsewhere in the city for a reward. Taxi stands can be unlocked around the different districts as a form of fast travel, requiring a bit of coin to initially unlock then $10 - $20 to use, depending on the distance. Thankfully you can take whatever item is in your hands with you when travelling by cab, making it easy to bring a food item, key, battery, or diamond along with you. Your hideout is going to be your main source of healing outside of heart containers dropped by enemies, although you can get an upgrade to just walk past it to heal instead of having to pop inside. Two characters hang out inside your hideout, one working on upgrades and blueprints for your badges, and the other on contract upgrades. Things like batteries, keys, and diamonds can be thrown on the ground of your hideout for storage, making it easy to grab at different points in the city where you might need 'em. Combat isn't too difficult, with the attack and health penalties being inconsequential once you get one of the special moves that lets you attack multiple foes on a single charge. A move will let you deflect bullets back at certain bosses / enemies too, making things much easier for you. Challenge buildings exist, either having to run through a place in a certain amount of time using as few hooks as possible, hitting x amount of targets in a certain amount of time, or fighting in a combat area. The prizes are pretty worthwhile, being money, badges, diamonds, etc. Much of the charm of Pipistrello and the Cursed Yoyo comes from the delightful and colourful pixel art that makes up the world. The design of characters, enemies, and environments are fantastic, really being on point to help bring the world to life. I've been absolutely thrilled with how much of a surprise Pipistrello and the Cursed Yoyo ended up being. This is a high quality game that folks shouldn't sleep on that I had an absolute blast of a time with from beginning to end. [quote]Follow [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/45701624-CthulhusMonocle-That-Next-Fest-Guy/]CthulhusMonocle - That Next Fest Guy[/url] for more game and Steam Next Fest demo reviews.[/quote]

Excellent game, enjoyed it the whole way through.

I haven't enjoyed a game this thoroughly and consistently in ages. Really fantastic puzzle solving (often with multiple solutions) and a game that's cheeky enough to let you get away with (and encourage!) a lot of fun tech and movement. The moments where I did get frustrated made me experiment, or slow down, think faster, or explore more to solve. It's also rare for a game to treat health as an actual resource you can trade for convenience or power. Keeps you on your toes constantly introducing new tools or mechanics or hazards, but really throwing you into the deep end (lovingly) to learn them and when you finally figure out a difficult puzzle or room or encounter, it feels extremely rewarding (and you usually GET a reward too!) I never had to grind for anything, the environments and characters and "how do I get that?" make you curious enough to explore plenty (and there is PLENTY to explore.) I'm also crazy about all the character design and environments and I love Pippit especially.

En mi cabeza, los indies estilo metroidvania ya no dan para más, los hemos jugado de todo tipo, con mezclas locas y con posibilidades infinitas, pero de alguna manera, cada año acabo jugando a alguno que ofrece algo nuevo que no esperaba. Pipistrello and the Cursed Yoyo posiblemente lo peor que tenga es el nombre, porque por el resto de cosas intenta dar siempre un pasito más en, como ya he dicho, un género que no parece que lo permita. Visualmente usa las limitaciones de una Game Boy Advance. Narrativamente es una historia sobre la lucha de clases disfrazada en una película de venganzas. Y jugablemente es un cúmulo de sorpresas y mecánicas poco (o nunca) vistas de yo-yo que puede pasar en un segundo del látigo típico de los Belmont a una plataforma temporal a la que agarrarse y no caer a un precipicio. Sí que es cierto que muchos de los puzzles, secciones de plataformas o unos combates nos recordarán en algún que otro momentos a situaciones que hemos vivido en otros juegos del estilo, pero en la mayoría de casos, ya sea por la innovativa localización o por las posibilidades del yoyo, estaremos todo el rato a la expectativa de cuál es la siguiente sorpresa que nos tiene preparado el juego.

Pipistrello isn't just another decent indie zelda-like - it's fantastic, and I feel like it deserves more recognition. The main thing that sets it apart is its excellent level design. If you are drawn to this genre for its puzzles, secrets and layered exploration, you'll love this game. [h3]Level Design[/h3] I'm just going to list all the things I enjoyed about the level design: [list] [*]A giant overworld that connects all the main dungeons (and is larger than all of them combined) [*]Lots of secrets, some more hidden that others, some with cool rewards, others with just a little nod from the developer to acknowledge you found a cool spot [*]A large array of "badges" (similar to hollow knight's charms) as rewards for exploration. The badges have a huge amount of utility - build around a certain mechanic you like, make a broken OP build for combat, make the game harder, focus purely on survivability, or go for high-risk/high-reward. I would change my badges often for different situations and it was always fun. [*]Every main dungeon has a unique structure to it. This relates to the theme of the dungeon, and adds some variety in the way you explore it, and the moment-to-moment gameplay within it [*]All major upgrades from dungeons have applications in combat, traversal, puzzle solving, and can be used in other dungeons and the overworld [*]Some ability to do things out of order, sequence break, and find a few unintended solutions to puzzles [*]Lots of mini side-dungeons, many of which are optional [*]Some incredibly creative minigames with extra prizes for higher scores [*]The map is sick as hell - an incredibly useful tool for exploration, but it doesn't spoil anything you haven't found. [*]A completely optional hint system in the late game that will help you track down the last few collectibles if you're going for 100% (it reveals the location on the map but not how to access it) [*]Little bits of worldbuilding everywhere. The lore is not on the level of something like hollow knight, but the game never feels like a random sequence of puzzle/combat rooms. There's plenty of environmental storytelling, quirky NPCs, and small ways that the game responds to your actions. [/list] [h3]Everything Else[/h3] Everything else about the game is great too. It probably won't be the reason you buy the game, but it will certainly enhance the experience. The combat is fun, but definitely the support act to the puzzle solving. It can be tricky in places (especially a few optional areas), but isn't difficult overall. Enemy variety is decent, mostly serving to encourage the use of different moves and badge loadouts, rather than providing significantly higher levels of challenge. There are some fun boss fights, most of which took me 2 to 3 attempts. The pixel art is beautiful and very detailed. I really enjoy the busy, almost cluttered nature of the art. It suits the setting of a dense, slightly disfunctional metropolis, and is a nice break from the more popular examples of 16bit pixel art that tend towards minimalism, highly coordinated colour palletes, and vibey lighting/particle effects. There are also a lot of nice touches beyond the art style, like every item having its own animation when you hit it with the yoyo. The music is incredibly catchy. There aren't a lot of tracks, but they're all good. The game also makes good use of slightly altered versions of tracks when you move to different parts of each dungeon. The story is decent, but like most of these games it isn't a huge focus. It's a (mostly) light-hearted, cartoony satirisation of corrpution, greed, and shady business practices. I think the game did a good job of making all the villains be very locally focused. There's no evil mega-corp trying to take over the whole world in this game, everyone is a local player trying to squeeze someone or something within the city.

Насправді це той випадок коли гру можна лише хвалити і навіть немає за що критикувати! Тут цікавий платформінг, постійно відкриваються нові здібності, локації насичені головоломками, мапа зберігає реіграбельність, бо вам захочеться повернутись за прихованими бонусами після відкриття деяких скілів! Також тут цікаво реалізована концепція бонусів і штрафів, а звичні для подібних проектів талісмани можна покращувати. До того ж гра доволі об'ємна, проходження зайняло майже 18 годин і це я зібрав далеко не всі бонусні предмети і талісмани. Ну словом просто грайте і насолоджуйтесь, це один з тих проектів які я точно раджу спробувати кожному!

This was such an excellent game!

An absolute blast full of charm and polish. Fun movement, exploration, and combat with a neat upgrade system. An all around super solid metroidvania I'd easily recommend

Probably the best top down metroidvania out there