Xolotl

It is with a heavy heart I must mark this game off, throwing it into the trashcan with the amount of force of a thousand screaming children as I burn in my own tears. Ok, now that was a bit dramatic. Anchor Games is a wonderful studio, and they are very nice people, which is why I have a hard time telling you this game is bad. But it is, and it's important that we and Anchor understand why so we can make better games in the future, as allies. The game design in this game is nonexistent, like a house built on no foundation. And those walls look a little bit like hollow knight I guess? Look, I'm not even going to talk about originality, because, this game has no ideas of it's own ((other than swimming????)) and even steals the hollow knight downslash despite never being used again after the tutorial. This game lacks anything even slightly unique, save for a cute Ajolote protagonist :)! Second, the level design. There is none. It seems the developer just wanted to create an empty expanse for the player to traverse, and they suceeded? I mean, there is no new mechanics that are introduced then tested, it's just sort of there. You aren't learning anything, so it's not fun. Some sections felt needlessly boring and long i e the water section. There is nothing here. Sometimes the game designs to become a platformer (despite an awful character controller) but most of these sections I skipped by just picking a wall and climbing it until I reached the end. The level design presents and linear, then is confusing when and npc tells you otherwise, and players will feel lost and confused to the point of putting down the game if they aren't determined (which they have no reason to be.) I am secure in saying that Xolotl is the easiest game I have played this year. However, you will die. More than once. A thing that needs to be understood about difficulty in games is that it is a tool to help the player learn from their mistakes. If a game is unfair and the player learns nothing when they die, that is not difficulty. That is artificial difficulty. If 50 percent of the time, pressing the jump button killed flappy bird, that is not hard, it's ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. Xolotl is an easy game, yet your health never refills, so you will die eventually. The enemy design is awful in that they are very simple, and there is not really any way to dodge many of them, so you will take damage, and eventually die. Padding the runtime. Also included are small gimmicky bits like the ripped-from-HK laser beams that just appear onscreen in a boss, but later in the world, in a platforming secitons with cruimbling blocks that take a while to respawn. If your RNG isn't perfect, you will just have to die. and die and die and die. The bosses are laughably bad, so I'm going to pretend they don't exist. Instead, I will ask another question. Why does attacking exist? I know the downslash has no reason as it is never used (except for cheesing the third broken boss I promised not to mention), but attacking in general does not have to be in this game. There is no final boss, just a run of the mill timed escape sequence. Why? How is this the culmination of the game leading up to this? This game doesn't present itself as a prescision platformer, so why is the end a platforming bit? Especially when the platforming is clunky? And this brings us to Xolotl's fatal flaw. This game needed time on the drawing board, but it seems Anchor went straight to making it, discounting the importance of level design. Anchor simply stumbled around in the dark, not thinking to turn on the lights by designing their game, making it have meaning, making it be an interesting experience. And that is why, ultimately, Xolotl is not fun. It's just not. It's only two hours, half that if not for the game breaking bugs, and it's simply not worth your money. However, I am confident Anchor games will bring us something great in the future, learning from these mistakes. I simply can't wait to see where they go! Side note about art and music - Ok, you've seen the screenshots. It isn't better in game. The art is pretty bad. No idea why this artstyle was chosen, it's really obtuse. However, the colors are good for the most part, helping levels like the grotto feel atmospheric. However, a big part of this was the OST which is...ok. It's simply very average. At best, it reminds me of some undertale tracks, but at worst, it is midihaha.mp3 levels of amateur. These aspects were...ok to subpar. While a good artist and musician would have elevated the game, the game design is the most important part, and even if Christopher Larkin and Ari Gibson did this game, it would still be negative for me. Maybe this is just being a bit hard on the art and music for that reason.

A fun but challenging action-platformer made in Mexico. You play as a pink axolotl, working on obtaining its lost godly powers by attacking various Mesoamerican gods in the Aztec world. I appreciate the accurate references (as someone who is from Mexico), the overall gameplay, and even the silly easter egg I found. Also huge SO to the developer who stopped by in my stream for a chat! Here's my gameplay: https://youtu.be/Pdzs4RQjf3w

Xolotl was a pretty cool game with some nice potential that as a whole I enjoyed, but would find it difficult to recommend to others. I think for the most part the movement feels pretty responsive, the hitbox for the attack feels pretty good, the game isn't very expensive and for being made by so few people, it's a pretty nice first game attempt! There's some love and effort put into it and I'd definitely not want to discourage the developer from trying to make more! Unfortunately, I feel that the list of problems holding the game back is not a short one. The camera lagging behind the player helps make the movement feel smooth, but it feels like maybe it jitters a bit if the player is moving too quickly through certain areas. It would be nice if holding up or down could lead the camera a bit to look ahead before falling blindly on spikes. It took me a second to find the map, but doing so only added to my confusion in navigation as you seemed to warp around from time to time and sometimes you'd travel through a room for ages and wouldn't get any sort of visual indication or update as to where you were. The idea of having the mechanics switch from land to water is really nice, but I feel like it wasn't utilized enough. I would have really enjoyed seeing a lot of unique traversal options and puzzles created by being underwater, but it seemed that the only puzzle presented was mazes. Lots of underwater mazes in place of obstacles or challenges or puzzles. As a whole, the level designs felt a bit clunky with a lot of large areas with branching paths that lead nowhere different or special. One upgrade in particular you obtained felt ultimately useless, which is a shame because collecting a new upgrade should be an exciting moment! It was just something you didn't get to use much and wasn't needed very much; The places it was required almost felt like it didn't make sense. There was an enemy introduced late in the game that didn't match the other enemy designs that I thought was an NPC and took damage trying to talk with them... They shot a projectile that was very difficult to see and could've stood to be a bit more visually striking. I found the ending cutscenes a little difficult to follow and there was a section near the very end that was difficult to see in thanks to an visual mess from so many particle effects... I don't want this to come across as a lot of negativity or hate because I think there's a lot of potential here and it feels like a really good start on creating a bigger and better next game, I just want to try to post some constructive criticism to help in the future! It's very difficult to take a step back and look at the game with fresh eyes when you've put in so much time making it that enemies, puzzles, and level layouts feel so obvious to yourself. It can be difficult to find a balance of showing the oblivious newcomer where to go and what to do without telling them directly or holding their hand. I absolutely support and approve of pixelated graphics and using sprites, but spriting and animating isn't easy to do. Definitely keep working on it and try making some more dramatic and exaggerated poses to really help sell big movements and actions; It's a lot of work, but it goes a long ways! I did enjoy the multi-layered parallax effect on the backgrounds, that always looks really cool when done well! I wish you the best of luck in your future games! <3

https://youtu.be/kdjVFoG565g I am not going to try and slip anything past you, this game does have some issues around level layout, enemy design and general bugs. Is it the best game in this genre at this price point? No. Is it worth your time and money? Yes, here’s why: This game is scrappy. Scrappy like that mutt you see at the pound that is happy to be alive and just looking to find a good home. It wears its heart on its sleeve and is determined to take the world on. It has a lot of classic elements of games we grew up on (metroidvania, precision platforming, etc.) and gives that player a sense of nostalgia. It can be tough in some sections with jumping or enemy placement, but it can be downright fun as well. Not everything made these days has to be a 10 out of 10 masterpiece that redefines the genre and changes are perception of gaming. Some games are just fun experience with some flaws that we use to escape this hellscape of life from time to time. That’s exactly what this game is, a good (not great) game that will entertain, frustrate and distract you until either a) you beat it or b) you grow tired of it and move on. Regardless of which happens, you will surely get your $5 USD worth. Recommend.

good game she took the kids

severely underrated indie game

It has an axolotl I like axolotls Good game

Petit jeu avec quelques soucis graphique. Surtout la montée finale qui empêche de voir les effets de vent avec l"effet de flamme de la lave qui est trop importante. Toutes les zones sont extrêmement vide et les ennemis comme les obstacles sont parfois aléatoires après un mouvement. Les boss sont simple et parfois facile à bloquer pour les réussir facilement. Et parfois les techniques ne répondent pas très bien (double saut qui ne partent pas alors que les pieds du personnages ont touché le sol). Mais dans l'ensemble le jeu à une sympathique direction artistique certes très minimaliste, par contre les cinématique en dessin mélangé au jeu en pixel art, cela fait un mélange étrange. Mais il y a tout de même une animation à la fin qui plaît à l’œil.

i did a pretty good job ngl

Super fun and cute game! Love the music!