SomnaBuster

Really charming presentation & audio to this platformer. Playing through it in a single sitting sometimes did make me feel like I'm experiencing some dream of a videogame as the stages flow so fluently but remain interesting enough to control. Some solid boss fights to top it off. The level end jingle made me think it might be the Mecha Ritz of Genesis platformers... and that kind of kept ringing true.

I only refunded because I can’t get my Xbox controller to work with the game for some reason but this game has so charm much and personality that I still want to give it a good review from what I’ve played on keyboard

Somnabuster is an amazingly abstract work of art that's just pure fun. It's a well made 2D platformer with good movement and very interesting level design, and despite its few minor problems, it's absolutely worth one's time to experience it. This game's movement seemingly isn't so special with it being binary and lacking momentum. You do get the really cool ability to just walk on the ceiling though which opens up more platforming challenges and creativity to find skips. What you'll find makes the movement really fun is the broomburst ability and that you're able to bounce off any ground or wall. The broomburst sends you off with a bunch of speed, and when you bounce off the ground, you keep your speed and switch to having momentum physics. This means that at any moment you can start zooming around the level while bouncing off anything on your path. It's not easy though, because you have to time your bounces to keep moving and also have to still initiate attacks to deal with enemies. This, combined with being able to walk upside down, really allows for a great time attack experience with you being able to create very optimized paths throughout the level by using your own creativity. The levels themselves are also built for allowing creativity due to them not being completely linear. In the majority of rooms do you have different routes or layers that you can choose to go down or weave between. Some areas that may seem linear at first can be skipped if you know the layout and use your movement accordingly. There's also always new gimmicks and enemies in the levels to vary up the gameplay even more. This game contains 7 full worlds with 3 levels each to play through, and the levels can range from 2-7 minutes each on an average playthrough. When it comes to difficulty, I must point out how the level 5-1 felt a lot harder than the ones before and after it for some reason. It's lot more linear and challenge sequence based and I lost like 15 lives on it. Outside of that, the game has a pretty good difficulty curve. The bosses also I'd say have a good difficulty curve. The first few are easy and the later ones seem very unfair at first, but once you figure out their movement, you can create a strategy to easily dispatch of them. I will say that the last two bosses do feel a little less hard compared to the ones before them, but it's really not a big issue. When it comes to extra content, the game encourages you to explore with it hiding a lot of cards or sometimes extra lives find. There are over 60 cards but they're not tracked in the level select screen, meaning you gotta find them without any guidance besides what order they're sorted in. A lot of times throughout the game did I think there was a secret somewhere only for it to turn out to be nothing which was a tad disappointing. You also get further rewards by trimming down your total game clear time which encourages replaying and time attacking. The main goal is to get to 1:15:00 which makes you really have to learn the mechanics and levels to achieve. The premise of this game is real solid. You play as a lost girl who got transported to a magical world where everybody gets to take up an abstract form that truly represents them. You got a singular goal, to reach the king who can let you get back home, and on the way you go on a charming journey across wacky landscapes while encountering many strange characters. Each world has its own story to go along with it as to be expected. I have a bit of a problem with how some of them are handled however. Worlds 2, 3, 4 and 7 I'd say have well put together stories with you meeting the important characters and getting to know about the boss before you encounter them. 1, 5 and 6 however don't properly set up what the important characters are and don't introduce you to the boss until you actually fight them. The first world for example has you go up against some bug robbers but you don't see who they are until their fight. Would've been better if you casually met them beforehand and they mentioned they had a little job to do and you just didn't think anything of it until the little tree people tell you that they're getting stolen from. Also, the ending of this game is some pretty typical philosophical stuff, but I'd say it's still sweet and does its job well. It truly is more about the journey here. The art of this game is so eye catching! The almost completely borderless abstract art with all of the moving layers in the backround and vibrant colors used throughout is mesmerizing. It's honestly impressive how much variety there is, with each level itself even having different backrounds across different rooms. The cutscenes also stand out for having such expressive and funny drawings of the characters. It may honestly be worth playing just for the art trip alone. I will say it is in a few cases difficult to discern what is solid ground. especially when you load into a new room and have to take a second to interpret the scenery again. It also isn't the easiest to tell whether an npc is an enemy or a civilian you can speak with sometimes. Still, it's amazing art and you really just gotta sit back and appreciate it. I absolutely ADORE the music of this game for taking on an enhanced 16-bit style. Nearly every track here is super chill or an absolute banger. My favorites you should really listen to even if you decide to skip the game are titled Stride, Starlight Swing, Keep On Livin It and Inseparable Ides. This really takes from the Genesis sound-wise. I can definitely hear some sounds taken straight from Sonic with the Sonic 1-2 snare and lead synth from Star Light Zone especially being apparent. This game really deserves more attention. I'm glad I ended up giving it a try after brushing it off initially. It might actually be one of my favorite indie games now and I'd implore anybody else to give it a chance if you enjoy indie gaming as well.

This was really great! The standout features are the fantastic art and music. The artstyle and presentation has this wonderfully cartoony vibe to it which is a joy to look at from start to finish. The characters are really memorable, and the use of comedy throughout keeps it lighthearted (mostly) and fun. The presentation of the cutscenes allows all of the wonderful art, character design, and writing to shine. The use of FM synth in the soundtrack is masterfully done, as well. If you are a Genesis/Mega Drive fan you will love it. The gameplay doesn't do anything groundbreaking mechanically, but it feels good and is free of clunk. The boss fights were a highlight to me. The level of challenge felt perfect, with fair and varied movesets and decent healthbars. I enjoyed the different level gimmicks, but wish some of them were used a little more frequently. The game feels a little too easy at first, until around 1/3 through when it starts to pick up pretty quickly and settles into a nice balance that never goes overboard. The only real negatives I had were technical. By default, controller support is broken. If you want to use a controller you will need to disable Steam Input for the title. There is also a pretty major animation glitch where your character will get stuck in the jumping animation when you stick to a ceiling. If happens whenever you jump onto the ceiling from a run and keep the d-pad held down. Lastly, there was a moment when I got softlocked when I got stuck on one of the screw platforms and had to restart the level because my character wouldn't jump off of it. None of the above issues detracted from my enjoyment of the game, however. I would recommend it even at $15, because I think the dev deserves support. 500 lifetime sales is criminally low for such a great title. Buy it!

A platformer that stands toe-to-toe amongst its inspirations. There's your Marios, there's your Sonics, there's all of Treasure's output ... and there's SomnaBuster there too. It gets to sit at the big boy table. That's how good this game is. Play it.

Terrible game, not comedy, I thought it was going to be funny for some reason. Very simple and not funny.

SomnaBuster -Recommended- Gameplay: Platformer Gameplay Rating: Pretty Good Story Rating: Decent Soundtrack Rating: Pretty Good Achievement Difficulty: 2 Additional Thoughts: Overall a pretty good retro feeling platformer that invokes SEGA Genesis vibes. my only gripe about this game is how easily it is to get attached to the roof when trying to move about stages. but its still pretty neat that you can attach to the roof and move about the stage that way.

This game is fantastic. No idea why it isn’t more popular, with hundreds of thousands of sales already. Just goes to show that some great games are buried under the mountain of stuff released on Steam every day. I actually found it after trying the demo for the developer’s upcoming game. I saw it in ShmupsBR’s “upcoming games” video, loved what I saw, and decided to check out Somnabuster. Ended up falling in love with it. The art style is gorgeous, the controls are super responsive, the levels are (mostly, more on that later) really fun, and each new world has something fresh to offer. That said, I do have a few gripes. World 5 drove me nuts, not because it’s hard, but because it’s full of leap-of-faith moments where you only figure things out after dying a few times. And the ending? Without spoiling anything, it felt like one of those JRPG finales with multiple back-to-back battles. I was just getting boss fight after boss fight in a platformer, which kind of killed the excitement for me. A couple of smaller complaints too: the spin jump takes a few frames to kick in, so you can get hit just because the animation hasn’t fully started yet. And the “stocks” in boss fights feel pointless, getting a GAME OVER only sends you to a menu before retrying, which just wastes time. Still, this game is great. I’ve already gifted it to two friends and plan to give it to more. Way more people should give it a shot.