Another faithful retro game from the Foxy Boxy, seemingly inspired by the early Famicom days, with about 30 to 60 minutes of content unless the developer adds some achievements. I enjoyed the second half of the playthrough once the levels got a bit more challenging, but overall it's a very casual platformer, and you can beat it on the first try. On a side note, you can access some settings using the 'ESC' such as the fullscreen, CRT filter, and gamepad config, although it does not have a true widescreen to conserve the pixels. There are 3 playable characters that have slight variations on the attack range and the damage output, but you can also access the transformed version of each character further in the game. I like the small variations during the stages like riding a fish, being chased by the bosses, and even a few pathing puzzles, granted the stages were very basic, perhaps intentionally so. Not sure why the stages had so many transitions, maybe the developer was trying to imitate the limitations of the early development, but I wish the levels were a bit longer. Perhaps my only criticism is that the last boss was way too simple, you put more effort into the fights that came before it.
You can also play the classic minigame where you have creature cards with the attack value on all sides, like a position game where you have to occupy more space than your opponent - I think it unlocked after the story. Interestingly, each character has small variations on the cards and some unique sprites, so it pushes you to adopt different strategies. The only problem is that game does not have achievements to really support that replay value, I would replay the game again if you challenged me. Not much else I can say, I hope you can give us the soundtrack I thought it was pretty catchy, and I enjoyed the little cutscenes between the stages.
[h1] Pros: [/h1]
[b] Faithful Retro Game [/b] - maybe it's hard for a younger audience to appreciate a game like this, but I still have an itch for them and I enjoy the simplicity. I like that you added some variations with the characters and the scene objectives, but I do wish you made the stages a bit longer and slightly more challenging. Even though the game only had basic settings, it's still a good thing because not everyone adds those for a small release.
[b] Extra Card Game [/b] - classic minigame, I like that each character has some unique cards.
[h1] Feedback: [/h1]
[u] Just some small requests [/u] - add achievements to your games to encourage a bit of replay value, it does not have to be grindy, but you can do something like beat the game in 20 minutes, win the card game 5 times in a row ect. The last boss probably needs more love, it was a bit anticlimactic. I thought the levels were a bit short, maybe a few extra scenes, even a few more harder fights would be welcome.
[b] Overall Thoughts: 7/10 [/b]
I thought the game was well made if you take the retro design into the consideration, if not a little too forgiving, where is that NES difficulty ;). The only negative aspect for me is that the stages were a bit shorter than I would like, and most of the scenes don't really pressure you at all. I appreciate that you don't overcharge for these games, I think $3-5 is about the maximum I would pay for it, but it would help if you had achievements for all modes. Can we have the ost perhaps?
[code]For more niche indie games and hidden-gems: http://store.steampowered.com/curator/31294838-Hidden-Gem-Discovery/ [/code]
