The Madness of Little Emma is one of those games that was compared to another (in this case, The Binding of Issac), and that caused me to skip it for a while. Luckily, I ended up picking this up on impulse during a sale, and I have found that I like it a lot.
Now, there are some parallels to Issac, in that you have a character with a tragic backstory going a bit crazy, a plethora of characters to choose from, randomly generating maps, and loads of items you can collect. The thing that seperates it is that it becomes its own game as you play, with everything from the sidescrolling layout to the types of items keeping you wanting to play.
As far as layout goes, you have a map on the top of the screen that shows you where you are and all adjoining rooms. It also tracks your progress and it keeps a rudimentary tab on some items you miss. It will not, for example, tell you that you missed a treasure chest but it will inform you that you left coins or a heart behind. This helps a lot, too, and especially when you are hurt.
You have specific abiilities on the lefthand side that can be powered up in a few ways, with these basically controlling your strength, how fast you shoot, and your luck. Along with that, you have hearts that showcase your health, and that are removed in halves or wholesdepending on the enemy.
When it comes to attacking, you have the left click shot and the right clickbomb. Different characters impact this differently; for example, you can unlock a little ghost girl that can shoot through walls. Still, this is basic - in a good way - meaning you do not have to worry about convoluted controls.
The room layout has a few options, from the randomly spawned enemy rooms to rooms with games of chance, challenges, rooms to spend coins (or hearts sometimes), and bonus rooms. There is at least one bonus room per level, so you basically get an item for winning each time. There are also RIP rooms, wherein you pick up a large item as well.
As far as what you can find here, you have 100s of items that you can get and that can be stacked on top of one another, so you can become more and more powerful as you roam the game. For example, you may find a cloud that causes all your enemies to stick to it and a hat that gives you spikes if attacked from behind. You may find bugs to surround and protect you or an assault raven that hits baddies. You can also get shot upgrades, giving you bomb shots, stronger ones, stun ones, and on.
There are loads of enemies in the game, too, giving you a variety of things to run into. From the basic moths that get in the way to the more complex enemies that shoot lightning or teleport, you have things to figure out and mater. The bosses also come in a variety of forms, from flying to those that spawn little helpers to snakes and the like. I like the boss fights because they are straight forward - there is a bar across the top depecting the boss health in read. Take it and you win.
There are also two modes of play. You can play the ladder, wherein you can see other people's scores and compete by adding onto yours (this accumulates and does not go game by game), or you can play casual.
I like this game quite a bit - it can be a good way to kill a few minutes or to set for an hour or two.
