Surprised by this one since I'd heard it was a bit middling. It's actually a ton of fun! Feels like it channeled a lot of the NES Castlevania energy, which I guess makes sense, since it's technically a remake. In actuality, it's a completely different experience after the first stage. So I guess it would be more of a reimagining? I don't know what the appropriate terminology here is but it's good shit regardless. Excellently crafted stages filled with unique enemies and combat encounters, satisfying sound effects with phenomenal arrangements of classic tracks, and a diverse set of ways to move through each of it's many challenges. It has the same problem as the older games do though, in that it's too fucking hard. You get a bit more leeway than some of these older titles, as the amount of dodging is lessened and there are more healing items scattered about, but it still doesn't change the fact that the game has some pretty ridiculous requirements for you. The clock tower stage ends with what is both the hardest room in the game, followed by the hardest boss in the game, and dying to the boss sends you back to the beginning of the hardest room in the game. This is dumb and also not fun and also annoying. Don't do this if you're reading this and also designing a video game right now. Some of this is remedied by difficulty options in the PlayStation version, but the easy mode feels like a hard mode in basically any other platformer. Regardless of the difficulty problem, I did power through with some help from my buddy, "pause and create a save state", but it didn't feel as abusive on the saving as I get sometimes. That's because repeating parts of this game was fun to do because, for the most part, it has pretty strong design. I might even like it better than the original Castlevania! 4/6

Preface: This review is made after completing the SAGE '21 demo.

Just feels lackluster overall, for some reason the sound mixing is really bad; the coin pickup is the loudest thing in the game by a mile and they're everywhere.

The movement feels real slow and seems to be a fixed speed until you get to a borderline scripted section where you use the signature Frogun to cross a few gaps.

I think my biggest disappointment with the game is that the main gimmick, the Frogun, doesn't actually achieve anything that can't be done without (besides debatably crossing those one-off gaps that have no sense of timing or urgency).

I know it's a demo, but it's a really bad sign when you can't utilize its 1 gimmick in any significant capacity within the entire first world. A game with a similar gimmick that does a lot more with it would be Chameleon Twist.

Release update: Didn't fix my issues with the game, camera having zero guide later is ridiculous. Say what you want about SM64's camera etc., at least it attempts to give you a usable angle to jump with and for the most part succeeds in doing so. They didn't even try here, you're on your own claw-gripping or otherwise making a custom rebind to have full camera control.

7+/10
(2-hours review)

A simple, unpretentious platformer that once tried to ride on the success of "Crash Bandicoot", but now has acquired its own unique visual style, coupled with a small, and, good, "bitemap" component, the game can be called quite original with which I can congratulate the authors.
Conceptually, everything here is "old-school", there is a semi-open hub, or hubs, in which you collect the necessary pebbles/coins, talk to someone, buy something, for enough "collectibles" you open the next level, also you can find bonus levels that give extra diamonds. Boss battles are also separate full levels.

The game doesn't have a big budget, the animations are cheap, the plot is .. purely formal, the music is average. A funny detail .. When you pass by secondary characters, they don’t have voice acting, they just get text over their heads, no, I do not demand from such a game the voice acting of all the characters, but it looks somehow poor.. well, they could probably come up with something else.
In general, a good, but average game, if you are a fan of platformers - take it! Although, are there bad platformers exists?) Crash's recent remake, Psychonauts 2, there is no shortage in this genre. But nevertheless, it’s also nice to jump here, well, for a 7/10) at least it’s even interesting to just admire the visuals, good designers did their job here.. of the enemy characters, I managed to see only toads, but they look pretty good, like chubby “battle toads”)

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Простенький, ни на какие высоты не претендующий платформер, когда-то пытающийся выехать на успехе "Креша Бандикута", но теперь обрётший свой собственный уникальный визуальный стиль, в купе с небольшой, и, хорошей, "битемап" составляющей, игру можно назвать достаточно самобытной, с чем авторов я могу поздравить.
Концептуально тут всё по олд-скуллу, есть полу-открытый хаб, или хабы, в них вы собираете нужные камешки/монетки, с кем-то говорите, что-то покупаете, за достаточное количество "коллектиблсов" вы открываете следующий уровень, на самих уровнях можно найти бонусные уровни, дающие дополнительные алмазы. Битвы с боссами также являются отдельными полноценными уровнями.

Главная проблема игры, наверное, её цена в снг регионах, прям почти "AAA", но тут бюджетом и не пахнет, анимации дешёвые, сюжет.. чисто формальный, музыка средняя. Забавная деталь.. Когда проходишь мимо второстепенных персонажей, у них без голосовой озвучки, просто реплики вылезают над головой, не, я не требую озвучивание прямо всех персонажей от такой игры, но вот уже это выглядит как-то бедно.. ну можно же было как-то по-другому придумать, мне кажется.
В общем, хорошая, но средняя игра, если вы любитель платформеров - берите! Хотя, а вообще бывают хорошие платформеры?) Недавний ремейк Креша, Психонавты 2, не то чтобы в жанре был дефицит. Но тем не менее здесь тоже прыгать приятно, ну так, на семёрочку) В игре как минимум интересно даже просто любоваться визуалом, тут хорошие дизайнеры постарались, из вражеских персонажей я успел увидеть только жаб, но они выглядят достаточно неплохо, такие типо "батл тоадсы" толстенькие)
Оптимизация норм. И, кстати, разрабы, где демоверсия игры? Она же была раньше, почему все отказываются от демоверсий, это очень полезная вещь для индустрии была.
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