Ravva and the Cyclops Curse

Sorry, I can't recommend this game. Mechanically, the game is poorly designed in how it mechanics encourage exploration and experimentation, but the level design immediately punishes it with a timer and how if you die, you halve your score. A game over completely erases your score, so there is never a sense of progression or improvement. You are supposed to spam a scanner mechanic every step of the way, which is clumsy and ridiculously restrictive, the game constantly mocks you with having INVISIBLE secrets, but will never give you the time, or reward you for seeking them out, as the game is meant to be rushed through to give a higher scores, creating a frustrating and patronizing gameplay loop. The game does not save your score, and if you die, you lose your entire score, making the game punishing without any reward or sense of learning. Which is GUARANTEED to happen, the FIRST BOSS CANNOT BE COMPLETED WITHOUT LOSING 3 LIVES, WHICH MEANS IF YOU GO INTO THAT BOSS WITH FEWER LIVES, YOU'LL RESET YOUR SCORE. Extremely poorly designed, all the boss does is rush you, and given you only have hp, means that you will lose lives. The only strategy is to spam your attack as fast as possible, but through experimenting, again, if you have fewer than 3 lives, you're screwed. I abhor games that force you to die or lose lives for no reason, as it implies that the story/plot was never meant to succeed, and will always end in failure, even dark souls you can complete without dying with planning and strategy (so the child in this game never saved her mother, the cyclops wins, and the child died hopelessly as there was never a chance of success (not spoilers, all this is in the first 2 minutes)). When the game finished, all I felt was relief that I wouldn't have to see this game again. And it's sad, I really like the developers and think this could have been at least a charming game, it has a very nice pixel art style, but in the end the gameplay mechanics, level design, and score erasure felt obnoxious, needlessly and senselessly counter-intuitive and condescending without a sense of purpose. I hope that the devs learn from this as they develop Meowja, as again, I like their aesthetic, but as of now, their design structure is really really terrible.

Joguinho simpático com cara de Nintendinho. Uma trilha sonora gostosa e um desafio na medida certa. Recomendo!

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, this game is awesome!!! Being only 3 bucks this game is a STEAL too. Nicely detailed pixel art with an awesome soundtrack that fits nicely in the SNES/genesis days along with well designed levels and a cool yet simple weapon switching mechanic make this one of the best ( and FUN) modern action platformers I've played. Plus, it caters to both casual/kids, seasoned, and pro gamers with 3 difficulties, (I played in normal, but after finishing the game I'm going to see how hard master is). You get a few different weapon types to cycle through and they all play an important role in the level design. Getting more points to unlock things like a level with extra lives is cool, and if you get a certain amount of points you can actually skip the final boss, uh what?!?!? So basically finding extra point bonuses throughout the 10 levels and not continuing will give you a nice bonus at the end which encourages better playthroughs which is brilliant. Wish it had more level, number of enemies defeated and coins collected achievements but not gonna complain here, this game is really that good. Hope they crank out some sequels!

Played the game through on Normal Mode on stream and beat it. Here's my thoughts. First off, props for the pre-game menu. Being able to set your screen size, VSynch and controls from the start help. I recommend VSynch btw for this game. The game is well-designed: graphics are as expected, gameplay is smooth and responsive, and the game captures well in OBS (for those of you looking to make content for the game). The tutorial is actual kind of fun, it gives you the information you need without dragging out the time. The acutal game has the appropriate amount of difficulty curve, you won't feel overwhelmed at the amount of enemies or the timing of the traps. A high amount of secets will let scroungers have their fun, but the game is also perfectly paced for the speedrunner. The bosses, while challenging, do have patterns you can learn. If there's any knocks to the game I can think of.... I wish the Language screen wasn't in the game and you could set that in the pre-game menu. And the game might be too short for some people. But honestly there isn't much to find in the game that needs improvement. For the cost, you are getting one heck of a game, so I fully recommend it. And then try it on Master Mode ;-) Check out my playthrough of Ravva & The Cyclops Curse on youtube: https://youtu.be/HOKNNfqbrPM

https://youtu.be/lt1iBGwe0qo Adding a few quality of life features would really make this game stand out, but the core 2D platformer elements are strong with a good variety of powers to play with.

The game is so badly made, that you can't even complete the tutorial. At one point they tell you "how" to use one of the powers which is "good at angles", but then leave you standing there baffled, because nothing you do will make it work. I screwed around for 30 minutes trying to figure it out. How sad is it when a company won't even do basic user testing before launching a game.

Ótimo jogo de plataforma com uma pegada retrô. A história é simples, a jogabilidade não é ruim, e a música é agradável. Pode até ser um pouco curto - mas ainda bem que é assim!

An abilities-based retro platformer with cute artwork and senseless design choices that refuses to be fun. Positive: - This is a love letter to 8-bit platformer classics, as it recreates the pixel art, sound design, music, and aesthetics of the Sega Master System, in particular. Certainly, some aspects of the presentation have been modernized, such as a widescreen aspect ratio, but the experience generally remains genuine to the bygone gaming era. The presentation is impeccable, and for those who are impassioned by nostalgia, this retro iteration may be worth a try. - Performance is solid, maintaining a fixed 144 frames per second at all times, with no noticeable drops. Jumping on platforms, avoiding enemies, and shooting the various projectiles is responsive and controls feel naturally maneuverable. Neutral: - The game prompts the player to choose a language every time it launches. The language option is not accessible in the options menu, or anywhere else in-game. It must be selected each time the game is launched, and this is not saved. - Music tracks are recycled for all stages of the same world. There are three worlds and two bosses, so, although the chiptune tracks are reasonably enjoyable, they do become repetitive due to a lack of variety. - Available from the start, all four abilities are diverse and three are fun to use within the game world and against enemies. The player may upgrade the primary weapon once, and eventually employ the more fantastic abilities in novel ways. - Creativity and imagination were applied in the cartoonistic invention of the playable character and their summoned creatures. The adolescent owl summoner is charming and adorable, and their summoned beasties are unique and fanciful. Unfortunately, it is evident that not enough originality was placed on the creation of the enemies, as they are bland and uninspired in comparison. Negative: - There is a random number that permanently appears at the top center of the screen in gray that is supposed to be used as a unique marker to verify speedrun authenticities. There does not seem to be any way to turn it off. If one is not submitting a speedrun for authentication, this visual blemish is entirely useless. - Level design relies too heavily on the player's abuse of the revealing eye ability. This function is designed to allow players to discover breakable objects and hidden items, such as power-ups, points, extra lives, shields, and invulnerability. In essence, this forces the player to repeatedly activate the ability at most occasions outside of combat and platforming, which makes this aspect of the gameplay banal and dull. - Some of the content is only available if the player manages to go through the game without taking any damage and without losing all lives, as this is the only way to accumulate the requisite points for admission. - Stage timers are too short and run out too quickly for the scope of some levels. Due to the combination of platforming difficulty with the necessity of the revealing eye mechanic, there is just not a reasonable amount of time to complete the more complex stages. - Exploration and speedrunning playstyles are in conflict and do not go well together. Putting in an effort to discover all hidden secrets and items takes too long, as the timer will run out. Speedrunning requires foreknowledge of all stages' intricacies and subtleties, which nullifies the revealing eye ability. - Dying to the final boss and quitting the game does not return the player to the final boss stage upon continuing. Instead, the "continue" feature places the player back one level, forcing them to redo the entirety of the last dungeon stage in order to meet the final boss again. Not only is this a pointless design decision, but it also disrespects the player's time with unnecessary redundancy. Overall rating: 2.5/5.0

Depois de diversas tentativas de zerar no Master Mode, acho que posso fazer a review... Bem fechado no que se propõe. Arranquei alguns cabelos em alguns momentos, mas para quem for jogar no modo Normal, deve curtir do inicio ao fim. Não é tão difícil quanto parece, só que tem alguns macetes que você vai aprendendo após algumas tentativas. É bem curto, e pelo preço acho que vale muito a pena! Para quem desejar, aqui vai algumas dicas: [spoiler] - Na terceira fase, após derrotar a planta verde, é possível continuar regredindo no mapa e encontrar uma fase secreta; - No primeiro boss, afaste-se um pouco da parede da direita e fique dando tiro, se o chefão estiver perto, vá até a parede e dê um pulo para esquivar; - No boss final a maneira mais fácil de desviar da segunda fase, no mesmo esquema do primeiro boss (só que na parede a esquerda) e pule assim que vier o ataque verde. [/spoiler]

Truly a gem. This game combines the colours and styles of the 8-bit Retro era with a creative gameplay, fast paced, with great retro-style songs. It is exactly the different ways to play, behind the simplicity, which makes it so appeasing. The price is a steal, and it is worth much more, in my opinion. And I'm not even a nostalgia-addict; therefore, retro games for me need quality. This one, surely has it all.