Genuinely one of the best NES era titles, I think I can confidently state it blows a large selection of other NES platformers out of the water.
The Good: The basic gameplay is satisfying, the level design is (mostly) fantastic and there are so many little things that actually incentivise switching between the four characters!
I generally find when I play games with larger character rosters, or different "powers" (i.e. the mega man franchise) that there are characters or weapons that fulfill the niche of others much better, but here I found great uses for all characters. The mouse being able to demolish the first phase of almost every boss was wonderful to discover. The final boss rush levels were a little overwhelming at first but once I got into the flow I ended up enjoying them a ton.
- There's a hidden crab level?! And it's awesome?! You get it (as far as I can tell) by falling into the waterfall during the boss fight in the waterfall stage. The crab level also teaches you to grab onto the ceiling as Samson to avoid certain obstacles, which became very useful in some later levels. My friend completely skipped this level by beating the boss so when I accidentally plummeted into this level it was a really cool experience for both of us. The crab also looks awesome.
- The animations in this game are really charming! I love Samson's little spin when he jumps, the Golem's punching animation or how silly the mouse looks when hanging upside down. They help make the more frustrating sections a lot more tolerable, and add to the overall charm of the game.
The Bad:
- Being a NES title, it still suffers from a lot of little tricks used to make the game "harder" and extend the runtime through unfair difficulty. The main way Little Samson achieves this is by leaving characters besides Samson dead until you complete the level, which especially makes some of the later levels aggrevating without save states (If you're looking to get into this game, make sure you have a save state with everyone alive and healthy before going into the level, it will save you a ton of headache.)
- Since the themes are character specific, you'll be hearing the same four tracks throughout the entire game. The tracks are good, but after hour 2-3 they start to become a bit tedious to listen to.
- I find some of the ways the platform models overlap a bit visually unappealing. Just feels like they slapped a bunch of already existing models on top of each other without trying to make them visually cohesive. But thats a minor gripe.
Conclusion: Absolutely worth a play if you're into some of the NES classics like Mario or Castlevania. A hidden gem that I wish more people would give a try!
The Good: The basic gameplay is satisfying, the level design is (mostly) fantastic and there are so many little things that actually incentivise switching between the four characters!
I generally find when I play games with larger character rosters, or different "powers" (i.e. the mega man franchise) that there are characters or weapons that fulfill the niche of others much better, but here I found great uses for all characters. The mouse being able to demolish the first phase of almost every boss was wonderful to discover. The final boss rush levels were a little overwhelming at first but once I got into the flow I ended up enjoying them a ton.
- There's a hidden crab level?! And it's awesome?! You get it (as far as I can tell) by falling into the waterfall during the boss fight in the waterfall stage. The crab level also teaches you to grab onto the ceiling as Samson to avoid certain obstacles, which became very useful in some later levels. My friend completely skipped this level by beating the boss so when I accidentally plummeted into this level it was a really cool experience for both of us. The crab also looks awesome.
- The animations in this game are really charming! I love Samson's little spin when he jumps, the Golem's punching animation or how silly the mouse looks when hanging upside down. They help make the more frustrating sections a lot more tolerable, and add to the overall charm of the game.
The Bad:
- Being a NES title, it still suffers from a lot of little tricks used to make the game "harder" and extend the runtime through unfair difficulty. The main way Little Samson achieves this is by leaving characters besides Samson dead until you complete the level, which especially makes some of the later levels aggrevating without save states (If you're looking to get into this game, make sure you have a save state with everyone alive and healthy before going into the level, it will save you a ton of headache.)
- Since the themes are character specific, you'll be hearing the same four tracks throughout the entire game. The tracks are good, but after hour 2-3 they start to become a bit tedious to listen to.
- I find some of the ways the platform models overlap a bit visually unappealing. Just feels like they slapped a bunch of already existing models on top of each other without trying to make them visually cohesive. But thats a minor gripe.
Conclusion: Absolutely worth a play if you're into some of the NES classics like Mario or Castlevania. A hidden gem that I wish more people would give a try!