Tadpole Tales

Looking for a SMUP to start? Why not this?! It may not be perfect but it's short and free with a cute graphic.

Amazing art style

"Tadpole Tales" is a rather arcade simple shoot 'em up, with one notable differentiator, you're a "tadpole" (that thing looks nothing like a tadpole) and instead of space alients you shoot pollution and stuff as you swim in a river. So we've learned nothing about ecology here, tadpoles live in ponds and other fresh water still bodies. But they do play a vital role in a healthy ecology, so there's that. What do you do in the game? Very lame, repetitive side scrolling shmup stuff. That's it. It's a yawnfest. On the topic of visuals, the weak looking 2D retro assets seem like they'd be more at home in a browser game or a mobile app. 3D graphics accelerators hit the mainstream of PC gaming in the mid 1990's with cards like the ATI Rage and Voodoo3D, there's no excuse for such poor 2D graphics in 2025. That alone is enough to disqualify this for recommendation. On the matter of pricing and value for gamers, most "free" games on Steam aren't really free. There's often nasty mobile app cash shops, or content locked behind DLC, or donations being requested, or any other number of shady pricing schemes that could mislead gamers, but in this case I'm glad to say this really does appear to be a fully free game. Nothing demonstrates a developers belief in themselves and their work than giving it away without any remuneration. This is a service to themselves, and the gaming industry, and should be applauded. Of course, just because something is free, doesn't necessarily mean it's valuable, or something you might want to spend your time on. Bearing in mind that free games don't add +1 to your game collector count, should you bother adding this to your library and downloading it? This is a "maybe" experience... if you have a lot of free time on your hands and nothing else to do, why not? But for the purposes of a review, this isn't something I can say everyone must try. It's not quite there. Valve doesn't give us a "maybe" option in reviews, but if they did, that's what I'd choose for this.

Всё довольно сбалансировано — и визуал, и геймплей, и музыка. Не было чувства усталости или раздражения. Просто приятный опыт, к которому можно вернуться.

不知道自己的小猪手·在玩什么 打半天打不过去 无中文没有影响 一个操作很简单的小游戏 嗯 过关不简单

É uma vertente do jogo dos irmão xícaras de porcelana, não é ruim não, jogo é bom, da pra tirar um lazer. NOTA 9/10

fun

人麻了，最多玩到第三关boss，实在打不过 没完整通关的游戏不能留在库中，弃。

Good, free game

Game is good for a free game. Has a lot of potential.