tbh i think its a bit of a shame that whenever devs try to make an “indie crossover game” they potentially struggle to gain relevancy because they don’t include only the well known heavy-hitters, the indie scene doesn’t have to be just shovel knight, meat boy, and bit.trip you guys!!!!!!! play some indie games that dont have 100k+ reviews on steam for gods sake!!

enough about that, indie pogo is visually, quite delightful, every fighter is really fun to look at, there’s actually a lot of specific visual flair that i really enjoyed, like each stage having unique countdown animations, i thought that was cute. they managed to make welltaro look like, cute, and not this weird pointy-limbed thing that fraymakers did. as well, the trophy system is a fun way to include some smaller-scale indie stuff without having to go through the effort of making a whole new fighter. (underhero rep will always win me over tbqh)

the gameplay itself is… fine? the pogo mechanic won’t click with everyone and that’s fine, im all for weirdo game ideas, although, movement could stand to be a little quicker. personally i thought it was pretty fun once i played around in singleplayer modes, although i imagine the player base has gotten to that point where its small enough that everyone who still plays regularly is a god gamer so going online basically means you’re going to get bodied instantly (i didnt touch the online so i might just be talking out of my ass). also the boss at the end of the arcade mode is a motherfucker

Ok game. They talk up the pogo mechanic too much, even to the point of the game opening to the devs TELLING us "don't worry, it's super fun", and honestly that's the mechanic that brings this whole game down. I'm not even trying to play competitive, I am trying to just have fun, but the Pogo hops are just not fluid. It feels clunky and the flow of movement is constantly interrupted. If the characters were able to move left/right while hitting the ground, and you were able to act out of the bounce quicker, I think it would feel a lot better. Or at least decent enough to understand why they based a game around the mechanic.

As it stands, it feels like a missed opportunity. A bunch of great IP's which would have been super cool in a smash styled game, but put in a game trying to hard to set itself apart from that genre by using a very strange gimmick.

The cast of characters has some absolutely incredible picks (Viridian, Commander Video, Yolk, Orca, Downwell dude), but also some very lackluster additions that feel out of place among huge indies like Bit Trip. and Shovel Knight. Also some weird omissions from the indie greats (Meat Boy/Isaac?).

The visual style is nice. The stages are wonderful, and are based heavily around the games they're on (even to the extent of changing the "3, 2, 1, GO!" timer at the start). It can come off as a bit all over the place though. Specifically in the main Colosseum/arena. I'm assuming the characters there are kickstarter backers or something, but they all look so ugly and out of place.

It's serviceable. Fun to play as those characters I love, but it just makes me wish they were in an actual smash-type. I'm not sure why anyone would pick this game up over any other smash-like out there right now, besides the roster. Even casuals! Like I said, the gameplay is clunky at best and incredibly frustrating at worst.