The shadowdrop of all time. The year already started and no one could’ve expected for a worthy GOTY contender to be dropped this soon, much less by a developer like Tango Gameworks. This is the biggest glow up I think I’ve seen any developer in recent memory take up and I think this has proven itself to be incredibly successful and makes them worth keeping tabs on if they still continue to make games like this every now and then.
This is the perfect throwback to not just 2000s circa Saturday Morning CG Animated Cartoons like SlugTerra or to stretch it to the following decade, Max Steel, but an even bigger earnest throwback to the Playstation 2, Gamecube, and Dreamcast era games. The quality shown here is just insanely impressive from the use of cel-shaded CG animation and how effortlessly they weaved in 2D animation during certain cutscenes. The levels may stretch a bit longer, some really didn’t need to be over an hour long to beat earlier in the game and could’ve been broken down to smaller levels, but they look very well designed and colorfully vivid to just fuck around in chaotically. I was afraid the enemy variety might be what’ll help hinder the gameplay loop but they managed to make it engaging and add variety with the combos you can unlock, perform, and who can assist you to keep things constantly refreshing. The boss fights are actually insane and make great use of this already fantastic rhythmic gameplay with so much style and pure entertainment that left me genuinely impressed. With how gaming trends have started to become nowadays I think it’s incredibly satisfying to play a game like this that evokes that soulful childhood sense of early 2000s fun that you don’t see too often anymore. Also this is the only game I can remotely think of which references Twin Peaks, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, and fucking XenoGears which makes me the developer who put these into the game are truly a based madlad that I respect. Only thing that doesn’t click with me is that the music could use a little bit more variety in sound and could spread some more bangers throughout, mostly in the first half where I slowly started to wane in from the (intentionally) cheesy garage band sound played during the levels. The final boss is set to The Perfect Drug by Nine Inch Nails which is pretty damn god tier so it's a bit of a shame we don’t experience the kino unloading right from the get-go like that.
Other than that, this is still a fantastically cool game which may be what Tango Gameworks needed to lift themselves from games which people didn’t care too much for to something that gamers wont stop playing and taking notice of. It’s too early to call it right here and now but I have a good feeling this is gonna be my personal GOTY and it’s gonna be an uphill battle for other anticipated releases to try and compete for that spot.
This is the perfect throwback to not just 2000s circa Saturday Morning CG Animated Cartoons like SlugTerra or to stretch it to the following decade, Max Steel, but an even bigger earnest throwback to the Playstation 2, Gamecube, and Dreamcast era games. The quality shown here is just insanely impressive from the use of cel-shaded CG animation and how effortlessly they weaved in 2D animation during certain cutscenes. The levels may stretch a bit longer, some really didn’t need to be over an hour long to beat earlier in the game and could’ve been broken down to smaller levels, but they look very well designed and colorfully vivid to just fuck around in chaotically. I was afraid the enemy variety might be what’ll help hinder the gameplay loop but they managed to make it engaging and add variety with the combos you can unlock, perform, and who can assist you to keep things constantly refreshing. The boss fights are actually insane and make great use of this already fantastic rhythmic gameplay with so much style and pure entertainment that left me genuinely impressed. With how gaming trends have started to become nowadays I think it’s incredibly satisfying to play a game like this that evokes that soulful childhood sense of early 2000s fun that you don’t see too often anymore. Also this is the only game I can remotely think of which references Twin Peaks, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, and fucking XenoGears which makes me the developer who put these into the game are truly a based madlad that I respect. Only thing that doesn’t click with me is that the music could use a little bit more variety in sound and could spread some more bangers throughout, mostly in the first half where I slowly started to wane in from the (intentionally) cheesy garage band sound played during the levels. The final boss is set to The Perfect Drug by Nine Inch Nails which is pretty damn god tier so it's a bit of a shame we don’t experience the kino unloading right from the get-go like that.
Other than that, this is still a fantastically cool game which may be what Tango Gameworks needed to lift themselves from games which people didn’t care too much for to something that gamers wont stop playing and taking notice of. It’s too early to call it right here and now but I have a good feeling this is gonna be my personal GOTY and it’s gonna be an uphill battle for other anticipated releases to try and compete for that spot.
shys
9 months ago