Blown away by this game. Clever, confident and insanely unique. The mechanics demand a lot from the player, but feel so good to learn because of it. The game suffers from some "jank" because of these loosey-goosey physics and mechanics, but I think it's a trade-off I'm ok with. For every weird angle I wasn't expecting, or collision the game didn't know how to handle, there were at least 100 moments where I was smiling like an idiot after pulling off some kind of crazy maneuver. All while feeling as if the game was inviting me to figure out how to pull them off. The level design has enough leeway to let it feel as if you're sequence breaking; while at the same time feeling as if that was their plan all along.
My playthrough was pretty casual, really only ever hitting one or two "point pars" by the end of the stage. And not worrying too much about collecting all of the collectables and missions. So my opinion on how much the "jank" is holding it back may change if I choose to 100% this game.
I really enjoyed this way of experiencing the game. And never felt too pressured to put more time or effect than I was. Which I was appreciating. A game with the ability to balance it's "casual" and "hardcore" experience without resorting to an easy/hard mode is always admirable.
I can't stress this enough; visually this game is a masterpiece. It has to be one of my new all-time favorite LOOKING games. The style is so confident and fun. The very "early 90s abstract prerendered looking" artstyle is so well done. Colors are so well chosen. The gradients on all of the textures are so meticulously tweaked to be so pleasing to the eyes. And the animation and effects on everything is so snappy and satisfying to compliment the mechanics. Just so damn appealing to look at, constantly. Music was really great too, but that is a given considering the composer.
I think my major issues were performance issues on PC and the cutscenes and bosses feeling very "unfinished".
Audio was out of sync. They were missing sfx. And I swear they all had these weird pixel artifacts. Truthfully, I started skipping them near the end. I wasn't really invested in whatever story they had going on. It was cute, but the cutscenes weren't exactly entertaining... and I just wanted to keep playing the game lol
The bosses felt extremely safe and boring. Only one really had me excited while fighting them. But even then, it wasn't anything super special. Just really basic, wait for the opening boss design. If it was up to me, I would have just omitted them all-together.
There was so much shared passion I felt with this experience. I was having a blast, and it felt like a piece of art that was a blast to make. Which is something I'm growing to put a lot of value in with video games these days.
My playthrough was pretty casual, really only ever hitting one or two "point pars" by the end of the stage. And not worrying too much about collecting all of the collectables and missions. So my opinion on how much the "jank" is holding it back may change if I choose to 100% this game.
I really enjoyed this way of experiencing the game. And never felt too pressured to put more time or effect than I was. Which I was appreciating. A game with the ability to balance it's "casual" and "hardcore" experience without resorting to an easy/hard mode is always admirable.
I can't stress this enough; visually this game is a masterpiece. It has to be one of my new all-time favorite LOOKING games. The style is so confident and fun. The very "early 90s abstract prerendered looking" artstyle is so well done. Colors are so well chosen. The gradients on all of the textures are so meticulously tweaked to be so pleasing to the eyes. And the animation and effects on everything is so snappy and satisfying to compliment the mechanics. Just so damn appealing to look at, constantly. Music was really great too, but that is a given considering the composer.
I think my major issues were performance issues on PC and the cutscenes and bosses feeling very "unfinished".
Audio was out of sync. They were missing sfx. And I swear they all had these weird pixel artifacts. Truthfully, I started skipping them near the end. I wasn't really invested in whatever story they had going on. It was cute, but the cutscenes weren't exactly entertaining... and I just wanted to keep playing the game lol
The bosses felt extremely safe and boring. Only one really had me excited while fighting them. But even then, it wasn't anything super special. Just really basic, wait for the opening boss design. If it was up to me, I would have just omitted them all-together.
There was so much shared passion I felt with this experience. I was having a blast, and it felt like a piece of art that was a blast to make. Which is something I'm growing to put a lot of value in with video games these days.