This game is great!
The cute art style and dialogue, great character, and cool enemies and bosses make this a must-play for fans of action platformers. The movement and some weapons can be a little bit clunky at times, but overall the character maneuvers pretty smoothly.

My only big complaint is the checkpoint system. In my opinion, I shouldn't have to redo the whole level that is leading up to a boss I died to three times. However, running through the level a second time is not really a daunting task after having completed it one time already.

The different weapons could've been a bit more thought out too for my taste. While the yellow and green guns were the main options for combat, having different strengths and weaknesses, the design of the bubble gun and flamethrower was a bit more on the nose. Those two weapons are intended for specific types of enemies and aren't really useful on many other occasions. The only times I found myself using those guns when they were not clearly intended was for cheesing groups of enemies.

While this sounds like a harsh critique, I still enjoyed the game and would recommend fans of the genre to play it.

If there is one phrase to describe Kero Blaster its a common game done uncommonly well. The game is far more similar to Mega Man then Contra in it's speed and pacing with a larger focus on precise platforming and choosing what weapon to use for what sitution. While the weapons here correspond to common gaming archetypes (rapid, spread, lob, and flame) unlike Contra each weapon manages to find different uses based on the scenario at hand. Unlike many modern games which feature atleast an infinite lives mode Kero Blaster uses the life system of classic megaman. You get infinite continues but a game over sends you back to the start of the stage. Yet, there are a few modern twists like allowing you to keep all the money you collected at the time of death and spend it immediately on life upgrades or the fact that most minibosses and set pieces remain dead or deactivated even on a game over. The level design gradually introduces mechanics but doesn't waste it's time trying to belabor the point. The hard mode doesn't simply alter stats but instead offers new level designs, new enemy placements, new bosses, a new story, and a completely different final level. Even the new game plus mode hides hidden optional levels which contain even more secretes.

Kero Blaster's graphics are cute and the music is soothing creating a very comfy experience, but unlike other modern indie games which revel in the excesses of modern kirby - forcing cuteness with overly easy gameplay, sickening sweet pastel graphics, and a shallow obsession with friendship- Kero Blaster maintains a relatively deadpan tone. The game is sometimes funny, is sometimes cute, and sometimes even a little creepy (but never to the absurd degrees as some modern games get in trying to replicate Earthbound's ending). The difficulty is never too hard but also never mind-numbingly easy, and the story is surprisingly personal without ever losing site of the fact that its a game about a cartoon frog who works for a purple cat. Kero Blaster is proof that even the most banal game can become extraordinary when pared with good design sense and a extreme amount of soul.

On paper, Kero Blaster isn't anything special. It's a back-to-basics run-and-gun shoot-em-up with a japanese vibe/aesthetic coated over it. It doesn't innovate on anything - everything you see in this game has been done to some extend.

Yet this is the first game in years that I bothered to "Master". I don't 100% games or go achievement-hunting - it's just not for me. But for some reason, this game compelled me enough to suck all of it's content dry in just a few days. Is it because of the classic-inspired combat? Is it because of the artstyle and it's charming characters? Or is it because of it's tightly-crafted levels? It's all of it combined: Kero Blaster isn't elevated by just one stand-out quality, but by the sum of it. However, you can say that to any video game. I think Kero Blasters accels in two aspects quite well:

1. The game respects the players time. The game feels (and is) small and the game knows that. Because of that, it doesn't dwell and waste it's time on a lot of stuff the player already knows about. This can be seen in the level design: Instead of a Mario-like process of babystepping the player a level mechanic throughout the whole level, alot of the tutorialization or learning process happens at the same screen the level mechanic gets introduced, thereby avoiding the common pitfalls a lot of other short games tend to fall into, where the whole game is a glorified tutorial and the player doesn't truly feel like playing the game. What get's worse in these games is that once the game is finished doing that, it just ends. Kero Blaster avoids this by making every moment count and not dragging the game wastefully out. Even the story goes straight to the point: We don't know the names of the characters, but the few lines they speak already gives us the gist on what's all about. There are only 4-ish weapons, but each feel distinctly different. The upgrade system isn't just a plain stat booster, it keeps the weapons fresh as they transform and extend their characteristics. The bite-sized delivery of encounters, rewards, progression empathizes every moment without feeling fatiguing or boring. Even the different "modes" aren't just cheap reskins: The Zangyou mode, titled "Hard mode", is just a lie - it feels more like the 2nd act of the game, with remixed stages, different encounters and even new content. Even the NG+ mode (Omake) introduces something new. It's just great.

2. The game feels non committal. This is more a plus on my end then I assume for anyone else. For me, it's hard to get invested into games, films or stories purely because I have to commit to it. Errant Signal talk about that in his "Gaming In the Quarantine Years" video and it perfectly summarizes my dilemma. It's hard to force myself to "consume" something without having a deadline or reason to. (This the reason why I didnt play all them popular games yet) Kero Blaster's "familiar from a distance" aesthetic combined with moment-to-moment arcadey gameplay eliminates that problem. Coupled with the short playtime, it was easy to get into, because I didn't have to commit to it for 20+ hours. It doesn't look that special and the gameplay pleases my "peanut brain" and the short length allowed me to chip away at this game without havin' to really "invest" myself in this game.

By and large I am just so suprised by this game. I highly recommend this game for bite-sized, cute fun.

Seems I'm late to the party for this game, I had no clue it released in 2014. Regardless, I played Kero Blaster for the first time today on my Switch and beat it in only three hours. Its a simple arcade style game that follows the run and gun formula mixed in with platforming elements, similar to a Mega Man game. You even get more weapons later on in the game that you can experiment with, though with all of them you can only aim straight in front of you or upwards. A big part of Kero Blaster's charm in my opinion is the visual style; its very simplistic with little to no detail and it almost looks like an Atari 2600 game but with sprites that aren't blocky, which I feel looks cool. The soundtrack is great, too, and it emulates the sound of retro games nicely. Kero Blaster has excellent controls, I've never felt like I was screwed over because of the way it controls. Overall, its actually a pretty challenging game, too. It wasn't quite as difficult for me as other retro style indies I've played, such as Cyber Shadow or The Messenger, but I did still die quite a few times. Everything still felt fair and achievable, in part due to the many upgrades you can buy for your weapons. These upgrades make the game much easier, but its balanced out by the fact that the prices of upgrades ramp up quite dramatically after you've already bought the cheap stuff so you have to wait a while before you can afford the other items. The game has a few progression unlocked upgrades, as well, such as the coat that lets you take one extra hit and the jetpack that lets you double jump, which I felt were neat additions. The jetpack in particular was nicely implemented into the level design, although I found it a little awkward to have to stop dead in my tracks to propel myself straight upwards instead of at an angle. It does make sense for it to work that way, though.

I feel its worth noting that there's an extra mode called Zangyou Mode that you unlock after beating the game normally, which seems to be some kind of hard mode. Chances are that I won't be playing that, since there aren't many games that I replay, but considering how short this game is maybe I'll give it a shot later.

Fun little game. I haven't played Cave Story in a long time but from what I can remember Kero Blaster is weaker in nearly every aspect. Still a nice game with satisfying weapon upgrades, some atmospheric areas, nice music and fun bosses. The story is okay but the game's short length kind of hampers it. The mutated president did genuinely unnerve me somewhat and the ending was cute. The gameplay is generally fun but I often had some small troubles with the controls that could get annoying considering how quickly you can die. Sometimes my character would keep moving without my input and changing directions while shooting/switching between shooting up and forward was pretty clunky. I like that the unlockable hard mode has remixed levels and a new story but my issues with the gameplay and the fact that I already had some trouble with the end of normal mode makes me not really want to go through it.