The Siactro shared universe is finally coming together for me.

This is only missing a half-star because it still doesn't quite compare to the best games of the series it is paying homage to (likely due to its length). But goodness me, does this game still tick all the right boxes for me in terms of how to do nostalgia bait correctly.

The music composer, RCMusic, also understood the assignment. Visions of David Wise, and no, that will never be a bad thing. In fact, I think the world would be a much brighter place if there were thousands more David Wise clones making music this beautiful.

It's fine. It has all the expected charm I've come to expect from a Siactro game, and I had a good enough time with it.
But overall it's really not one of the finest games in Siactro's catalogue.

Visually it looks pretty great; the environments and character designs nail that Donkey Kong Country style the dev's going for... although I found the titular Beeny to be a little underanimated? It would have been nice if she at least blinked or something once in a while, otherwise I might as well have been controlling a beach ball. It's a minor point but just a little infuriating seeing as character design and animation is a highlight of the other Siactro games I've played, and yet that element feels a little phoned in here.

The gameplay is, however, pretty bland. I was kinda bored of it towards the end which is impressive considering its short length, and the incredibly samey level design and lack of consequence for failure made it a bit of a chore to get through at times. That being said, you unlock time trials after beating the main game, and these did help make it all a fair bit more engaging.

But yeah, overall, one of the weaker games in the Siactro collection I'm afraid...

All levels completed, including time trial targets. Beeny is a very short 2D platformer, with each of its ten stages based around climbing upwards to reach a goal. Once again from solo developer Slactro (Kiwi 64, Toree, Macbat 64), there's a strong retro aesthetic, in this case taking clear inspiration from the SNES Donkey Kong Country series and while it doesn't have the greatest degree of polish, it's a fun time, with well-judged, responsive controls. Each stage can be beaten within a minute, so it's easily beaten with 20 minutes or so and even with the unlockable time trial mode it won't last ore than an hour - but the very low asking price makes that feel perfectly fine. Without giving any specifics, the rewards for beating the game, and then all of the time trial target times, are a delight, leaving a great feeling to take away from the game. Ultimately, the simplicity of what's on offer here limits Beeny's potential, but what it does, it does well.

This was a very cute little experience. I'm very glad that, considering these levels play vertically instead of horizontally, there's a bee raft that spawns and follows you up the level to catch you if you fall. It's not so close that the level becomes piss easy, but not so far that you feel like you need to repeat the whole level over again. There was one level that genuinely freaked me out too for like, 30 seconds, which is more than I expected from a game called Beeny. Also, a cute surprise at the end of the game if you go back to the house after beating the last level. Beeny slay.