Atomic Bricco is an insanely fast pace and engaging 2D platformer where you play as a high school girl who suddenly gain magical powers from her miniature nuclear reactor and has to stop the villainous Ms Valentine who has catnapped Schrodinger. The game has some very challenging moments in terms of platforming as well as due to some bugs but the game is playable and the ending is reachable.

Magical Girl Concept:

Bricco the ordinary high school girl turned magical girl possesses the magical ability to dash through the air and performed double jumps that seem to be powered by her atomic powers. The magical girl concept is utilized in terms of magical powers but not fully utilized since she did not visually transform or look the part of a magical girl (still in her high school uniform). (Spoiler Alert! Start) However she does possess a magical companion which can be seen especially at the end of the game (Spoiler Alert! End). In other words, Bricco is pretty much a magical girl in terms of magic usage but could use a magical girl dress just to complete the magical girl trait/trope.

Mechanics:

The game has smooth movement controls with the player character moving at a very fast pace, (she is always in her running animation when moving) and I think it would be helpful to include a walk modifier button so at some points during platforming (near the end), smaller platforms can easily be landed on when movement speed can be controlled. For a game with fast pace platforming the player movement speed is good since and traversing through the game level did not feel slow. The player character can also double jump by double tapping the space bar while the attack is set to the K key which is a little odd but doesn't get in the way of gameplay. The attack behavior the player has is a sort of dash punch which can be charged while holding down the attack button and the player can also hover in place in mid air when charging the dash, quite a vital feature as most platforms in the game requires hovering at a certain height to be able to make it past certain hazards. The combination of careful jumps and dashes is important in traversing the level as the hazards are placed in a particular configuration, making the player utilize the mobility at its fullest. The dash punch also has a very heavy knock back to the player character where the higher the charge, the further the character will bounce off any walls. The game becomes pretty insane (at some point hilarious in one of my play through) when the character bounces off all over the place but the generous respawns made it a lot acceptable even when getting killed by spikes which are one hit kill hazards. One thing that needs to be considered are the strange one hit kills and the super fast laser shots which for the first one seem to happen often when touching certain enemies and the second one kind of stun locks the player character into oblivion. Besides that the game featured decent platforming mechanics with moving platforms as one of the challenges. The moving platform could use some improvements especially with the vertical ones as it clearly shows that character physics behavior did not sync well with the platform movements. Besides that the game features a VN dialog system where the character art is displayed along with a text readout and dialog is forwarded with the Space key. I notice the read out sound effect did not line up with the readout and seems that the text appear to be delayed by a second long. For QOL, the dialog could use a line of code that lets it complete the entire readout while the text is being displayed with one press of the Space key and the completed text allows the next key press to forward the dialog. Reason for suggesting this is that I seem to missed several dialogs by accidentally pressing the forward dialog key skipping it unintentionally due to a habit from playing RenPy games. So far the dialog system is basically good and it could use some improvements where there was a point in the game where I was able to trigger a slow motion bug when the dialog open while doing a dash, its possible that the slow mo effect caused by the dash when in contact with an enemy may have not reset correctly when dialog came up at the same time (this one happen in my second play through). Moving on the camera tracking on the player character is really smooth even with the zoom in effect but do note that some areas of the game don't necessarily need to zoom in at times so setting up a careful plan of where zooming in or out is necessary, e.g. the part where Bricco jumps down into the school gym is a well planned camera angle but zooming in at the science class room may not be necessary. Basically, the mechanics are good just required some time to polish up and iron out the bugs which seem to contribute to the challenge of completing the game (I ended up freezing the dialog system at the end of the game by making the character fall through the platform in my first play through so I only got to see the entire end credits in my third run).

Visual:

The art style for the characters and sprites made are pretty good with the sprites being fully animated an all. The background art and tile set is made with good intention and purpose for the setting as well as the genre. The character art is really good and well made but it could use some additional facial expressions that could go along with the dialog instead of a single image, which is a norm for most VN games. The animated pixel art sprites is one of the best so far as it makes the game feel complete and does make it appealing to watch. By the way, appealing part is in regards to the fluid movements and how it lines up with the character's actions, not the surprisingly extra fabric exposure bit (⌒_⌒;) which I will take it as a lewd joke. Besides that the UI for her health and dash charge bar is pretty decent and clearly shows the relevant information. One minor but not important thing I notice is that Schrodinger the cat appears to be a cutout photo for some apparent reason. Anyway the artwork in the game is really good with lots of thought and effort put into making the game feel complete visually.

UI:

There seems to be no main menu or in-game menu present in the game. The only UI present is the health bar and dash charge bar which has been explained in Visual.

Audio:

The game uses some sound effects in the relevant parts of the game and fits well with the pixel art style during gameplay. One thing I want to highlight is the music tracks used in the game which gives the game a nice fast pace feel. Also different levels uses different track relevant to the environment.

Theme:

The developers picked Nuclear Energy as their main theme and that matches very well with both the title and the character's magical powers. I appreciate that the developers did not include Schrodinger Cat in the theme even though the game features a cat named Schrodinger.

Challenge / Engagement:

The game is really challenging and very engaging with the tough level designs and layout of hazards throughout the game. Do note that since the game is short, it is reasonable for the game to be difficult and besides the game can be completed when the jump patterns are known or discovered. In terms of story, I think its lack engagement since the story is written in a generic manner where there is a villain and the magical girls is set out to defeat the villain due to X reason.

Originality / Creativity:

The idea and concept of a high school girl turning into a magical girl due to nuclear powers seems original and creative at best but I would say the artwork and level design has good level of creativity put into it.

Story (Spoiler Section ahead!):

The story is basically about a high school girl who somehow manage to build a mini nuclear reactor that gave her tremendous magical powers. Bricco the newly powered up magical girl has to save her pet Schrodinger from Ms Valentine the science teacher who has somehow taken over the school turned the male students in to her minions. In the final battle where Bricco defeated the villainous teacher, she escaped the secret lab facility with her pet cat, and to her surprise gained a magical companion. The story and plot is decent as a good minimum base line for the game but it could be expanded by giving the game more depth to the game world.

Overall:

The game is really fun and engaging with its fast pace platforming gameplay featuring a fun dash mechanic that is pretty much tied in with how the level and hazards are designed. The developers have all done a really good job in bringing something that's fun, comedic, and definitely challenging. Anyway, if there are plans for further development, I would really like to see the story having a bit more content and with each character a little more fleshed out, giving them a presence in the game.

I have similar thoughts to everyone else:

• Dialog needs proofreading
• Game moves way too fast
• Upskirt jumps turn me off, but maybe I'm not the intended audience for this game
• There is a point where I have to read text while an enemy is attacking me. Pretty annoying.
• It was not clear that the dash also doubles as an attack. I only figured that out because I looked at the manual on the itch page.
• The camera zooming is a good idea but it doesn't work right in the first part of the teacher's dungeon (results in a leap of faith)
• I appreciate the quick respawns after death and generous checkpoints
• Issues due to game speed and leaps of faith caused me to quit the game at the horizontal platform part of the teacher's dungeon

I think this game will be better if the pacing is improved. Both the character movement and the game itself move too fast, making otherwise simple tasks feel impossible because my character goes blasting off at the slightest touch.