Bat Boy is basically Shovel Knight with a baseball bat instead of the iconic shovel. You got a classic 8-bit platforming gameplay split up between stages, a plethora of abilities, bosses, optional levels and a health/stamina upgrade mechanic. Sounds cool, right?

Unfortunately, unlike Shovel Knight, Bat Boy's weaknesses show up relatively fast. There's not much incentive to use most of your abilities save for a few of them (the invincibility bubble basically makes every boss and platforming challenge trivial), the story's very so-so, uninteresting cast of characters, meta progression is boring and there's almost no side content or meaningful collectibles.

But the most glaring issue to me was how the game underutilizes its main mechanic: batting. Aside from reflecting projectiles thrown by enemies and into switches, that's basically all there is. For a game with such heavy emphasis on baseball, they should definitely have invested more into this concept.

If you love Shovel Knight like me, perhaps you'll come to like Bat Boy as well for its creative level design filled with different gimmicks, classic platforming gameplay and beautiful pixel graphics. But don't go expecting the same level of polish and brilliantism - otherwise you're bound for disappointment.

A highlight of this game is the boss weaponry. Unlike Megaman and Shovel Knight, where boss weapons must be equipped from a pause menu, Batboy has access to all upgrades at all times. The player simply has to learn what button combinations are used to activate it. After beating a boss, the player is able to learn how the boss weapon works by completing a small platforming challenge. These challenges are a great way to teach the nuances of the weapons, since they can be used effectively in both combat and platforming.

The rest of the game is fun too, with catchy music, fun level themes, and engaging level design. It could be argued that the game takes a bit too much from Shovel Knight (some of the level themes in the late game are remarkably close), but it's all of a high quality. Honestly, my only issue is that the grounded swing attack should have more range. I often found myself using the air attack instead of the grounded swing attack just because it was more reliable.

Come già hanno scritto alcuni sono stati troppo cattivi, il gioco è una sintesi di altri titoli come per l'appunto shovel knight/alcuni megaman e sicuramente questo è più un malus che altro però rimane molto divertente nel gameplay. Non ci sono fasi di platforming in cui usi chissà quali skills, infatti molti poteri sono superflui. La materia per fare un secondo titolo meglio costruito, anche sempre tenendosi sull'essenziale, c'è e per questo mi auguro di vedere altri titoli. Il lato migliore per me rimane l'artstyle e tutti i design in generale

Al inicio fue full sencillo, cuando llegue como al mundo 5 o 6 que es el tipico de industrial se subio la dificultad del parkour del jefe no tanto, se me complico en el jefe de futbol en adelante, el resto de jefes tienen truco, el juego es facil de romper pues tiene varias mecanicas, las cuales casi nunca se usan, la historia es muy x, es una excusa para jugar y con el apartado visual es lindo el pixel art, no es la gran cosa pero cumple, y es una idea genial la inclusion de tantos deportes que se ven en tematizados en ataques y ropas de los jefes

Bat Boy may have sadly been relegated to be my "Tears of the Kingdom break-game", but I actually had been looking forward to it for a while, and it mostly met my expectations.

The game excells in level design and presentation. Its story may be lacking and its dialogue cringeworthy, but as any other game of its ilk, narrative isn't a priority (at least I can tell it's sincere, if not very competent writing).

I'm a bit mixed on the special abilities you gain throughout the game. They're mostly good and expand your options (even if some are a little redundant), but all of them share the same stamina resource. Imagine if every weapon in a Mega Man game shared the same energy bar, it would suck, right? Now imagine if that energy bar could only be replenished at checkpoins, no energy drops from enemies. I'm aware there are consumables that restore some stamina, but I still think it's needlessly restrictive and reduces the incentive to make the most out of your entire moveset.

Despite my gripes, I had a great time with Bat Boy. It has one of the smoothest and most enjoyable difficulty curves I've experienced in a while, and all its stages are high quality and of decent length. I think it's reasonably priced too, so if anyone is on the fence about buying it, any sale would make it a no brainer.

Conocía a la dupla XPLUS/Sanzai por el mediocre (pero con buenas ideas) Smelter así que aunque me llamaba mucho tenía cierto miedo. Pues estoy muy contento de poder decir que ha superado mis expectativas con creces.

Batboy es un juego reminiscente de Megaman (incluso tiene el sistema de mapa de otro de sus herederos, Shovel Knight) que además de tener un sistema jugable muy entretenido que aprovecha el concepto de bateador, tiene mucho humor y unos diseños de personajes increibles, basados todos en diferentes deportes. Además, las herencias de habilidades que nos dan, en lugar de funcionar como el manido piedra-papel-tijera que tiene la saga del bombardero azul, se reinventa para ser mecánicas de movimiento que hacen que el juego se sienta AUN más ligero.
Si no le han caido las cinco estrellas es porque hay zonas que se me han hecho algo frustrantes, pero es un juego tremendamente recomendable si os gusta este tipo de juegos.

While it doesn’t offer anything particularly new to the “throwback 8-bit platformer” genre that’s so prevalent in the indie scene today, Bat Boy excels thanks to its satisfying platforming action complemented by a host of modern conveniences. Stages are thoughtfully designed to challenge your skills, boss fights are intense and rewarding, and the art and music propping up the experience scratches that particular retro itch quite well.

Full Review: https://neoncloudff.wordpress.com/2023/08/02/now-playing-july-2023-edition/

Too many power-ups that are never used in levels aside from the wall jump, which you get horribly late. Sometimes the dash is useful, but rarely. Everything else is a combat ability in a game where your jump attack is far and away the best option 99% of the time. Bubble shield breaks the game by allowing you bypass most of the piss easy platforming. Too many autoscrollers for my blood. Music is good, art is pretty nice. I got this game because I thought it'd be Shovel Knight with a grappling hook, only to find out it isn't a very good Shovel Knight and the grappling hook is so useless it shouldn't have been included to begin with. There are so many clashing elements in this game that don't work together. I still can't understand how they added so many power-ups and failed to use them in any stage. If you're gonna add combat upgrades, make sure to include worthwhile combat in your game. If you're making a platformer, for the love of God please make sure you actually use the platforming abilities. Fucking Guacamelee did both better and I hate that game, too. At least this game was short.

If there is one game that Bat boy is it's greatest inspiration for I gotta say it's Shovel Knight. It's moment to moment gameplay really feels just like that game. Which is a really good thing. There are a lot abilities and skills you unlock as you defeat bosses from stage to stage that make platforming or destroying enemies even easier. Plus the jumping attack where you bounce off enemies is such a heavily used mechanic for dispatching enemies and for traversal just like Shovel Knight. However, unlike Shovel Knight I feel Bat boy could have used more polish on it's metal bat.

There is a map with a stage selection where you go from level one to level 12 with shops and bonus stages sprinkled through out. While the game does look rather good for a throwback title i feel the art direction in the stages and character models outside the main character are rather lacking. The music is also rather forgettable overall and could be much better, which is a huge crime in these kind of retro inspired games. The plot and character interactions in it's light story is pretty bad and it doesn't have a robust world enough to flesh it's characters out and give it's world charm like in Shovel Kinght. There isn't much of anything to do outside of the level completions. As for the levels themselves I think they are mostly okay. I don't find them that memorable or uses the gameplay mechanics all that great outside of a stage or two. For the most part they are simple. Enemies are mostly one hit affairs and are typically feel like obsticles rather than adversaries. Which is fine. The bosses I expected to be more of a highlight are really easy. Heck the whole game is easy. Bosses have like one or two moves they spam and when you defeat them they get back up and add maybe one or two new moves and do the same thing again. So using one simple strategy usually works like stand over here and just jump attack when he gets close and rinse and repeat till he is dead. The final boss was really disapointing and easy as well.

I know it sounds like im being overly negative but Bat Boy isn't that bad of a game. It's just kind of disappointing because with some tweaks and changes it could have been a great one. It's foundation is there, and like I said the moment to moment game does feel good and Bat Boy moves at a very fast pace. You could easily 100% complete this game in one sitting or two and that's kinda my problem with it too. There just isn't enough stuff in Bat Boy. Outside of some health and magic upgrades there really isn't anything to do in the levels again or to collect in the world. There are no unlockables or extra difficulty modes. It really is a one and done affair and that sucks cause if there was more to do after an intial playthrough I would have been happy to oblige the game again.

Platinum # 181

Bat Boy é um jogo de plataforma e ação, daqueles que mistura elementos de Mega Man e Ducktales, ou se preferir, tipo um Shovel Knight. Não falo isso dizendo que um é melhor que o outro, sendo apenas comparações inevitáveis.

Talvez Bat Boy caia na sombra desses jogos, mas para mim no momento foi o melhor indie de 2023. Tá cedo pra isso, mas é inegável a qualidade do game e muitos pontos dele são bem nostálgicos pra mim.

E não caia nesse papinho de "genérico" ou "metroidvania". O game é bem linear, e ele se diversifica bastante nos diálogos, temática e principalmente chefes. Tem um level design tbm muito bom, mas infelizmente não chega a ser perfeito.

Falo mais no meu vídeo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0WZNqm5DW4

+ Main character design
+ Unique theme
+ Overall presentation
+ Good speedrun mode
+ Good music

- Bad writing
- Weak level design
- Forced bird companion spouting unfunny quips mid-game
- World map lacks originality
- Too many auto-scrollers
- Most upgrades feel redundant
- Bubble makes challenging sections & bosses far too easy
- Minor bugs & audio glitches