Spooky Ghosts Dot Com

Cute bite-sized Metroidvania that reminded me a lot of Kero Blaster as well as Ghostbusters for the Mega Drive. Controls are a tad unresponsive, but due to the limited scope of the game it never becomes too much of an obstacle.

I played the other game by this developer, and I am leaving the same review here as I don't think they changed much between these two games other than the world.. "This is a fair Metroidvania. It doesn't really bring anything new to the table but the bosses are challenging and well designed, and the formula itself is always a good time. It's a 2 hour game, so get it on sale."

I'm personally a really big fan of simple games that do a lot with a little. This game and Daniel Linssen's Roguelight are 2 great examples of this type of game design being put to good use, though admittedly I feel like the latter is designed a little better. This game said everything it wanted to say and it did it pretty well, the controls were easy to get used to, the art was simple but nice, albeit a bit rough around the edges, and it felt good to make progress. I also really enjoyed the witch boss battle. I can't really think of too much criticism to give the game, it's not perfect but it's so small that I don't really know what I can mention. If I have to say something, I feel like the game could've benefited from having a bit more character. It does have character, with the opening just being you browsing cat photos and the various NPCs, but I kinda wanted a bit more. Maybe some more dialogue for each different section of the house you visit, possibly talking to your temporary ghost companion, and also a more fleshed out ending cutscene. Overall though, I had a good 2 hours with this game, I'd recommend it for anyone with an afternoon to burn through.

I know I may sound like a bit of a broken record (and perhaps I am being soft of budget indie games), but this [i]just[/i] edges its way into the positive side, and it'd get a squarely neutral vote if it was possible. It's a very barebones Metroidvania, and while I took my time trying to explore, sometimes unsuccessfully, it can be beaten easily in under two hours. Rooms themselves feature very basic platforming with a few area specific obstacles, with only one movement upgrade in the whole game and even then it isn't used that often (hell, due to a patch which made spikes no longer instadeath -an overall good choice given the game- one of the optional pickups it guarded is now obtainable by simply tanking a hit). Enemies have plenty of health but are generally very easy to dodge [i]once you know what to do[/i], so killing them (not necessary outside of bosses, but will definitely make your life easier over trying to run past/around them in plenty of rooms) always feels a bit slow. One of them is actually a bit of a puzzle to figure out how to dodge it the first time you encounter it, and sadly that's as complex as regular combat gets. Between these two aspects the core gameplay loop is not getting too worn down by damage you will likely take if you aren't being super careful between the save rooms, which are the source of healing in normal mode. One of the game's more interesting aspects is its bosses. While I am unsure about how long they last given how much damage they deal and how static most of their patterns are (the final regular boss has two phases and the final one adds more obstacles as the fight goes on), they all have their charm in terms of how they play out. They're not perfect, but the rhythm of a good fight is rewarding in its own right. Overall, [b]I've played browser games with more content than this[/b]. But all in all, it has enough charm and good ideas throughout the entire playtime to be worth a buy during sales. I'm definitely curious about how SJ-19 Learns to Love fares in comparison.

Light recommend. In game time is 2:21 and it can be a little tough at times despite its cute appearance. some of the bosses are pretty legit, otherwise I had some fun, found 7/8 cats and 97% overall. Retro style visuals and decent controls.

This is a fine little game. Everything works as intended, and it held my attention to the end. For a $5 game made by what I assume is one person, it's good. I can tell the developer had fun making it. The developer has since released SJ-19 Learns To Love, which looks similar but more polished, definitely wishlisting it for when I run out of other things to play, or when it pops up on a sale.

Cute little Metroidvania.