Windswept

Overpriced, unfun slop. If you want "achievements" just use the provided cheats and be done with it. Developer is rude and delusional.

I actually had this game in my wishlist. But as annoying as some users are, you don't go and say "L Take thanks for your money, tho" and expose your unfortunate response on Twitter for likes. If a review is annoying or even trolling, just ignore it.

Try being less annoying

L game, thanks for nothing though

I am philosophically opposed to handing out achievements like candy under the guise of "accessibility" and I think he should at least issue a formal apology to the person he said "L take, thanks for the money though" even if he doesn't change his tune about it, because his lack of decorum when faced with valid criticism has only more and more made me want to issue a refund I don't want to support a creator that acts like that and I do not want to support a creator that desires to erode the very concept of achievements as a whole either

Extremely derivative and overpriced. I thought it was a $1.99 game and felt ripped off. $19.99!?

Developer seems to have the emotional maturity of a child. I don't think they deserve much support.

Great game (Even though people have been giving it bad reviews for completely unrelated reasons). I just bought it and have a lot of fun with my friend!

power trippin dev

[h1][b]Summary[/b][/h1] Windswept is both an homage and a remix to much of legacy left behind by Rareware, weaving in a solid platformer base and tying it all together with gimmicks and movement tech that could easily fit right in with other indies like Celeste and so on. There are minor gripes with certain enemy/buddy hitboxes as well as camera work in certain stages offering less desirable positioning that creates moments of "cheap hits", but the game is thoroughly enjoyable from start to finish. (Estimate Playtime: 4-9hrs for Average Playthrough; 15+ for Postgame/Completionist Playthrough) [h1]Pros & Cons[/h1] + Both characters have a wide-range of movement options that largely serve to aid in traversal (with later secret stages asking for mastery of such). + Pixel Art is easy on the eyes and everything meshes together nicely with minimal foreground/background disruptions. + Soundtrack, composed by Fatbard, is genuinely great and often put me into a zen state as I continued to walk into various enemies and sawblades for the umpteenth time, all with a smile on my face. + Collectibles remain in your pocket after holding onto it for 3 seconds. Coupled with the game denoting where the collectible aligns with stage progression, one will hardly be confused as to where you need to look to find the rest. +/- Assist Mode provides a number of extra options to fine-tune the experience one wants, from being able to place checkpoints, stage skips, invincibility, as well as various nerfs such as nulling checkpoints, buddy bubbles, and KO-ing you if an enemy is killed or a coin is collected (for pacifist/broke runs). +/- Additional Hard & Super Hard difficulties can be FOUND (not unlocked) and offer a challenge where only one of the dynamic duo is allowed to play. +/- Much like the game it pays homage to, bosses are fine enough romps with a surprising finale but the main stages are the real dish. +/- Buddies are present in some stages and can change how the stage is played, often being neat diversions but they can sometimes be a mild frustration when they need to be kept to a certain point in the stage. +/- Additional minigames are present in-game which are neat but aren't required for anything aside for an achievement and an extra mark on your save file. +/- Co-op is an option but there may still be glitches and bugs related to such. - Vertical stages have a bad tendency to not show what's below even when descending, and in particular stages with Skree, this creates an problem with determining where it is safe. - Nugget (bless their heart) is unfortunately a pain to control as not only are their stages auto-runners but you also have to manually control what little speed control you have while making precise jumps. Speed control should have been entirely removed to focus on solely the tight platforming. - Cutscenes cannot be skipped as far as I've tried and while most are very brief, one particular bossfight in World 3 was a nuisance because of such. [h1][b]Detailed Review[/b][/h1] ---------------------------------------------------------------- [h1]Move Like The Monkeys (& Beyond)[/h1] Windswept often layers its own ideas on teaching movement into the stages themselves. The tutorial teaches the basics but I found myself finding some extra tech especially with Checkers the Turtle who can pull a hat-trick during a mid-air stomp and defy gravity with a forward spin-attack which can be jumped out of among other techniques. Marbles the Duck gets some techniques as well but I feel more could have been fleshed out compared to the arsenal Checkers has. In either case, it's clear from the get-go that the game wants you to experiment with the tools it teaches you to the point that I had to learn how to handle my own speed control as I gracefully did a ground-spin off a ledge into a buffered jump much like learning the same with a cartwheeling monkey. The end result of those lessons let me better grasp just how much fluid movement the game offers but the main campaign only starts asking for those advancements during particular stages and further towards the back-half of the game. Still, it is a feather in the game's cap that lets players turn stages into jungle gyms with enough practice & I can see the sort of speedrunning vision given such. [h1]Across The Pond[/h1] Worlds in the game never stray too far from the platformer standard but I would be lying if there aren't some homages and original ideas layered in-between some of the standard romps. The most memorable stage to me has you splitting the duo apart and dodging saws on the lower half while the upper half has to stay in sight to properly collect the stage's items with one bad move pulling the plug on the whole thing. It was stressful but it never leaned into frustrating as the length was just right and taught me a lot along the way. But there are other fun stages that harken back to a certain dolphin-riding plumber, a pair of bramble-blasting monkeys, & of course a death-defying mountain climber, all of which are married well with the game's own controls and stage design. [h1]Collector's Grace[/h1] I think Celeste did a swell job with how strawberries only counted once you reached safety. In Windswept, every collectible requires a 3-second period before it is permanently yours and knowing such, the game places a lot of them in dangerous spots that require fine plays to grab and dash to safety. I deeply appreciate such but I can fully understand if some may want to enjoy the full thrill of the perfect run for everything so-to-speak. One minor gripe some may also have is that the game lets you retry bonuses BUT there is an option to boot you out if you wish to play it old-school for those specific cases. [h1]Choppy Camera[/h1] I don't like harping on things too often but I feel the camera needs a bit of finetuning to make the most of certain stages, especially on the vertical end. "Hue's Shade", "Vexatious Vents", & "Wingbat Wharf" are stages I had some cheap hits because an enemy was just out of sight thanks to the camera not following me as closely as I would like. The latter stage mentioned just has a general issue where the underwater section's camera only adjusts AFTER you land from a jump which left me blindly gauging if I would slip under the enemies before finally being able to see them on the next platform. These stages did not hamper my enjoyment of the experience but I want to note them in case these notes lead to some finetuning for the better! [h1][b]Conclusion[/b][/h1] WeatherFell has made a solid platformer that definitely appeals to that SNES side of myself and with some extra polish in spots, I can easily see this game or the next game reaching greater heights, as long as those wax wings can carefully take the altitude of course. For the price of admission, I can easily say it's well worth it for those itching for more buddy-platformers in their library.