itch.io

Man, what a game! There's a lot to say about this one, but I'll do my best to keep things concise. I think that there is plenty to love here: crunchy sound effects, funky music, complementary art styles, and an overall retro kinda vibe that makes me feel like I'm playing one of the beat-em-up classics. All these things (and more) definitely hit the mark when it comes to the "2D Beat-Em-Up" game jam theme, and I think that's realistically one of the most important things to nail. I'll admit I got a bit lost in the gameplay a few different times with this game, I appreciate the rather challenging mechanics as they highly incentivize experimenting with different strategies at various points throughout the game. Wrap all of these things in an easy-to-follow plot with a clear goal, and you've got a superb game on your hands.

Despite all the things this game gets right, it would be a crime not to mention some of the things this game missed the mark on (in the name of self improvement of course):

• Ending/Final Stage: This game was pleasantly challenging, it took me multiple attempts to get the hang of combat, hitboxes, enemy ranges, health management(really hard actually), etc. So to overcome all of this, claw my way to the final stage, then find myself kiting enemies too closely to the right side of the screen aaaaand... main menu. Now imagine this, like, 5 times in a row. Let's just say it was rough, especially when all I wanted was to see that final boss! Which brings me to the next point...
• The Bossfight: The final battle. The whole reason we overcame wave after wave of enemies. Visually, he looks great. But gameplay-wise, he might have withstood around the same (if not less) damage as the skeleton brutes. I think he took one single swing at me, smoke filling my screen, but when I check my health bar I received... zero damage? Could be a bug, could be an extremely forgiving hitbox, but after all the other unforgiving design choices (why do hearts totally disappear as I walk over them when I'm about to die just because I'm already holding too many!) it felt, in a word, underwhelming.
• Bullet Point Three: That's really it. There are some minor bugs, like if I'm at the final stage and walk to the right my health bar/heart count doesn't reset if I choose play again (unless this is intended.) I also notice an almost identical issue when I do the tutorial: I'll fight the tutorial enemies, take some damage, walk to the right to go to the main menu, and when I press play game my health is still weakened from the tutorial enemies (which I hope is not intended!)
• Bullet Point Four: My actual last thing, which almost isn't worth mentioning but I digress, I think the game would've been even more immersive if the player/enemies were smaller while standing towards the top of the screen and grew (ever so slightly) as they walked towards the bottom of the screen. Not something this game needs, but it would've been a nice touch to better visualize walking into and out of the background, giving the game that extra bit of 3rd dimension that's already being utilized. Definitely something that would've helped on the snow stage, but as soon as you get to the bridge/wall stages it becomes much less relevant (still would be cool though!)

Overall: EXCELLENT game. The actual epitome of 2D Beat-Em-Up in my eyes. A true feat considering the game had what, 3 enemy archetypes? Plus 1 final boss? The textbook example of how something relatively simple can still be so much more than just good. Great job!

Man, what a game! There's a lot to say about this one, but I'll do my best to keep things concise. I think that there is plenty to love here: crunchy sound effects, funky music, complementary art styles, and an overall retro kinda vibe that makes me feel like I'm playing one of the beat-em-up classics. All these things (and more) definitely hit the mark when it comes to the "2D Beat-Em-Up" game jam theme, and I think that's realistically one of the most important things to nail. I'll admit I got a bit lost in the gameplay a few different times with this game, I appreciate the rather challenging mechanics as they highly incentivize experimenting with different strategies at various points throughout the game. Wrap all of these things in an easy-to-follow plot with a clear goal, and you've got a superb game on your hands.

Despite all the things this game gets right, it would be a crime not to mention some of the things this game missed the mark on (in the name of self improvement of course):

• Ending/Final Stage: This game was pleasantly challenging, it took me multiple attempts to get the hang of combat, hitboxes, enemy ranges, health management(really hard actually), etc. So to overcome all of this, claw my way to the final stage, then find myself kiting enemies too closely to the right side of the screen aaaaand... main menu. Now imagine this, like, 5 times in a row. Let's just say it was rough, especially when all I wanted was to see that final boss! Which brings me to the next point...
• The Bossfight: The final battle. The whole reason we overcame wave after wave of enemies. Visually, he looks great. But gameplay-wise, he might have withstood around the same (if not less) damage as the skeleton brutes. I think he took one single swing at me, smoke filling my screen, but when I check my health bar I received... zero damage? Could be a bug, could be an extremely forgiving hitbox, but after all the other unforgiving design choices (why do hearts totally disappear as I walk over them when I'm about to die just because I'm already holding too many!) it felt, in a word, underwhelming.
• Bullet Point Three: That's really it. There are some minor bugs, like if I'm at the final stage and walk to the right my health bar/heart count doesn't reset if I choose play again (unless this is intended.) I also notice an almost identical issue when I do the tutorial: I'll fight the tutorial enemies, take some damage, walk to the right to go to the main menu, and when I press play game my health is still weakened from the tutorial enemies (which I hope is not intended!)
• Bullet Point Four: My actual last thing, which almost isn't worth mentioning but I digress, I think the game would've been even more immersive if the player/enemies were smaller while standing towards the top of the screen and grew (ever so slightly) as they walked towards the bottom of the screen. Not something this game needs, but it would've been a nice touch to better visualize walking into and out of the background, giving the game that extra bit of 3rd dimension that's already being utilized. Definitely something that would've helped on the snow stage, but as soon as you get to the bridge/wall stages it becomes much less relevant (still would be cool though!)

Overall: EXCELLENT game. The actual epitome of 2D Beat-Em-Up in my eyes. A true feat considering the game had what, 3 enemy archetypes? Plus 1 final boss? The textbook example of how something relatively simple can still be so much more than just good. Great job!

I could go on and on about all the things I love about this game: the sounds, the mechanics, the story/plot, the synergy among art assets, even the layout of the page hosting the game, it all is just so. good. The effort invested into this game is blatantly obvious, and I want that to be the key takeaway here.

Having said that, it could always be better, right? Here's what I think could help make that happen:

• Camera: Let's start with the main one... why is my character on the left side of the screen? Was this game supposed to be played from left to right only? I can understand if there was a reason behind displaying the game from this specific point of view, but if that is the case then I don't get it. If the enemies didn't spawn to the left/off-screen this would be less of an issue, but just to get a good look at the guy I'm fighting I'm spending at least a quarter of the game trying to reposition (at the expense of my valuable health bar to boot!) The main point here being that you have a beautiful game here, just let me look at it!!
• Styles: The switch mechanic is a fantastic idea. The way I see it, this is what defines this game and sets it apart from the rest. I think you can lean into that a little more though, as the current implementation is, well, ambiguous. I definitely notice the difference in movement speed, but in the current state the game doesn't seem to give me a huge reason to utilize that (a bigger map may help, or perhaps a more meaningful variety of enemies, I'm not sure). To me, the real difference then is defined in combat.
• Combat: Again, in a word, ambiguous. Yes, the enemies have hurt animations. Yes, the player has attack animations. Unfortunately, these seem to rarely match the gameplay. I could be wrong, but if I pressed the same attack button in a rhythmic fashion, the attacks seemed to activate at the same speed regardless of style (according to the meter that increased upon successful attack). Normally though, during my initial play-through(s), I found myself just mashing the button as quickly as possible (which seems to simply allow my attacks to come out as fast as I'm able to hit the button, if this isn't the case then I think that could be made more obvious). Since the only combat-related stat tied to style seemed to be damage per attack, this would lead to faster styles having less DPS than slower styles. If there were more reason to utilize the differences in movement speed, this would make sense; tradeoffs are important, but without that, I myself found a consistent strategy in immediately switching to the slowest/hardest-hitting style possible, then spamming the strongest attack button available as quickly as possible. Without a tradeoff in movement speed (or something else like slower styles receiving more/less damage from enemy attacks, etc) I think the slower styles with stronger attacks should have an increased cooldown on attacks that way I don't feel like there is never enough of a reason to switch styles. Tough mechanic to balance, but extremely worthwhile. Also want to briefly mention that basic and strong attacks could use similar differentiation (increased cooldown on strong attack or decreased cooldown on basic attack, maybe an animation that better matches them or a unique sound effect to help make it feel obvious that I'm using a different move)
• Win-Condition: On my first few playthroughs, I actually didn't realize that this is a game you could win, I thought it was endless. This is something that could be made more apparent, either with an enemy tally that shows how many remain, or perhaps a wave tally that shows how many more waves until victory (or the boss fight if that ever gets implemented!) Definitely something I'd consider to be minor, but worth mentioning nonetheless.
• Boundaries: The last thing, possibly a bug, but not listed in known issues, I'm unable to walk through/inside of any of the buildings EXCEPT the building on the top right of the middle street T, closest to the center of the map. The rest of the map seems to have rather meticulous boundaries, it feels rather out of place (though I appreciate the extra space for maneuvering, it just doesn't seem intended)

All in all: GREAT game. Additional kudos for controller support, pause button, main menu, and particle effects on style switch are definitely in order. Truthfully, everything other than the camera feels like nitpicking to me (some things more than others) because of how well built the game already is!

I could go on and on about all the things I love about this game: the sounds, the mechanics, the story/plot, the synergy among art assets, even the layout of the page hosting the game, it all is just so. good. The effort invested into this game is blatantly obvious, and I want that to be the key takeaway here.

Having said that, it could always be better, right? Here's what I think could help make that happen:

• Camera: Let's start with the main one... why is my character on the left side of the screen? Was this game supposed to be played from left to right only? I can understand if there was a reason behind displaying the game from this specific point of view, but if that is the case then I don't get it. If the enemies didn't spawn to the left/off-screen this would be less of an issue, but just to get a good look at the guy I'm fighting I'm spending at least a quarter of the game trying to reposition (at the expense of my valuable health bar to boot!) The main point here being that you have a beautiful game here, just let me look at it!!
• Styles: The switch mechanic is a fantastic idea. The way I see it, this is what defines this game and sets it apart from the rest. I think you can lean into that a little more though, as the current implementation is, well, ambiguous. I definitely notice the difference in movement speed, but in the current state the game doesn't seem to give me a huge reason to utilize that (a bigger map may help, or perhaps a more meaningful variety of enemies, I'm not sure). To me, the real difference then is defined in combat.
• Combat: Again, in a word, ambiguous. Yes, the enemies have hurt animations. Yes, the player has attack animations. Unfortunately, these seem to rarely match the gameplay. I could be wrong, but if I pressed the same attack button in a rhythmic fashion, the attacks seemed to activate at the same speed regardless of style (according to the meter that increased upon successful attack). Normally though, during my initial play-through(s), I found myself just mashing the button as quickly as possible (which seems to simply allow my attacks to come out as fast as I'm able to hit the button, if this isn't the case then I think that could be made more obvious). Since the only combat-related stat tied to style seemed to be damage per attack, this would lead to faster styles having less DPS than slower styles. If there were more reason to utilize the differences in movement speed, this would make sense; tradeoffs are important, but without that, I myself found a consistent strategy in immediately switching to the slowest/hardest-hitting style possible, then spamming the strongest attack button available as quickly as possible. Without a tradeoff in movement speed (or something else like slower styles receiving more/less damage from enemy attacks, etc) I think the slower styles with stronger attacks should have an increased cooldown on attacks that way I don't feel like there is never enough of a reason to switch styles. Tough mechanic to balance, but extremely worthwhile. Also want to briefly mention that basic and strong attacks could use similar differentiation (increased cooldown on strong attack or decreased cooldown on basic attack, maybe an animation that better matches them or a unique sound effect to help make it feel obvious that I'm using a different move)
• Win-Condition: On my first few playthroughs, I actually didn't realize that this is a game you could win, I thought it was endless. This is something that could be made more apparent, either with an enemy tally that shows how many remain, or perhaps a wave tally that shows how many more waves until victory (or the boss fight if that ever gets implemented!) Definitely something I'd consider to be minor, but worth mentioning nonetheless.
• Boundaries: The last thing, possibly a bug, but not listed in known issues, I'm unable to walk through/inside of any of the buildings EXCEPT the building on the top right of the middle street T, closest to the center of the map. The rest of the map seems to have rather meticulous boundaries, it feels rather out of place (though I appreciate the extra space for maneuvering, it just doesn't seem intended)

All in all: GREAT game. Additional kudos for controller support, pause button, main menu, and particle effects on style switch are definitely in order. Truthfully, everything other than the camera feels like nitpicking to me (some things more than others) because of how well built the game already is!

I found this game quite a bit more enjoyable than I had initially expected it to be, considering the relative simplicity. Combat has some added strategy given the delay on player attacks, a lack of healing/regeneration provides a challenging aspect when it comes to racking up a high score, and the game overall feels very consistent (I can tell when my attacks land, I can tell when my attacks get interrupted, I can tell when the enemy attacks land, I can tell when the enemy attacks get interrupted, etc). The foundation of the game feels rock solid, which is a LOT more than can be said about many different games that cost actual money to play.

When it comes to improvement, I found myself longing for "things to be added" much more so than "things I'd like to see changed" which is a good thing in my opinion. The only real exception to this is the "combat idle mode" that is already implemented. In my play-through(s), I didn't notice this having any effect on my character. I had anticipated this to allow my character to heal/regenerate health, however slowly, or perhaps build up strength for my next attack; something along these lines. I think either would be good, as the game has a distinct lack of survivability, but if that is an intended aspect of the game then perhaps being able to use this to empower the next attack unleashed by the player would create some more dynamic gameplay.

Aside from that, what I noticed missing from the game above all else was sound: background music, sound effects, things like that. While it is nice to be able to play and listen to my own music simultaneously, my review wouldn't be complete without mention of this.

The only other issue that I had with this game was the wall bug: enemies have the possibility of spawning outside the boundaries of the game that the player can maneuver in. This isn't too bad when it's just one, maybe two enemies, but if I'm backed into the corner (unlikely with the boundaries being as big as they are, but possible) then I encounter the issue where 3 enemies spawn somewhere that they cannot approach me, and the wall is too thick so I can't kill them to make them re-spawn in-bounds, which essentially soft-locks the game since no more than 3 enemies seem to spawn at any given time. An unlikely issue, but one worth mentioning all the same.

In summary: good game. The foundation is incredibly solid, there are no glaring issues or design choices that hold this game back, and as it is I think that this game is on the border of being complete/a finished product. Fixing/enabling the dynamic gameplay mechanic that's already been implemented, adding some sort of sound, and removing the possibility of soft-locks all feel like rather minor adjustments, and yet they are the most that I can criticize (which is a very good sign to me!)

I found this game quite a bit more enjoyable than I had initially expected it to be, considering the relative simplicity. Combat has some added strategy given the delay on player attacks, a lack of healing/regeneration provides a challenging aspect when it comes to racking up a high score, and the game overall feels very consistent (I can tell when my attacks land, I can tell when my attacks get interrupted, I can tell when the enemy attacks land, I can tell when the enemy attacks get interrupted, etc). The foundation of the game feels rock solid, which is a LOT more than can be said about many different games that cost actual money to play.

When it comes to improvement, I found myself longing for "things to be added" much more so than "things I'd like to see changed" which is a good thing in my opinion. The only real exception to this is the "combat idle mode" that is already implemented. In my play-through(s), I didn't notice this having any effect on my character. I had anticipated this to allow my character to heal/regenerate health, however slowly, or perhaps build up strength for my next attack; something along these lines. I think either would be good, as the game has a distinct lack of survivability, but if that is an intended aspect of the game then perhaps being able to use this to empower the next attack unleashed by the player would create some more dynamic gameplay.

Aside from that, what I noticed missing from the game above all else was sound: background music, sound effects, things like that. While it is nice to be able to play and listen to my own music simultaneously, my review wouldn't be complete without mention of this.

The only other issue that I had with this game was the wall bug: enemies have the possibility of spawning outside the boundaries of the game that the player can maneuver in. This isn't too bad when it's just one, maybe two enemies, but if I'm backed into the corner (unlikely with the boundaries being as big as they are, but possible) then I encounter the issue where 3 enemies spawn somewhere that they cannot approach me, and the wall is too thick so I can't kill them to make them re-spawn in-bounds, which essentially soft-locks the game since no more than 3 enemies seem to spawn at any given time. An unlikely issue, but one worth mentioning all the same.

In summary: good game. The foundation is incredibly solid, there are no glaring issues or design choices that hold this game back, and as it is I think that this game is on the border of being complete/a finished product. Fixing/enabling the dynamic gameplay mechanic that's already been implemented, adding some sort of sound, and removing the possibility of soft-locks all feel like rather minor adjustments, and yet they are the most that I can criticize (which is a very good sign to me!)

I actually appreciate the mashup of various styles of enemies, it feels unique and original in a way that few other games dare try to emulate for fear of breaking the "norm" and I feel as though that is worth commending. I think this game has an exploration factor that I enjoyed compared to other styles of 2D Beat-Em-Up games, I didn't feel pigeon-holed into the combat to the point where I was unable to check out the level design. Using a somewhat top-down view definitely helped make this possible, good choice there. Excellent background music as well!

That being said, I feel there are some clear areas for improvement. First of all, I'm not sure when the enemies are being hit, if at all. An animation, sound effect, or enemy health bar indicating a successful attack would help a lot. Additionally, the real measure of how well I'm playing the game seems to be the amount of time that I am able to survive the onslaught of enemies, but I don't have any kind of indicator telling me how well I'm doing until I'm already dead! It would be nice to have some stats to keep track of during the game, like enemies slain or (if nothing else) how long I've currently been alive for. Finally, I noticed that at the end of the game when I die, the text on the screen will flip backwards/forwards depending on which direction my character is facing. A small thing really, but on my first play-through I thought the text was always backwards, which left me with a very silly first impression!

All in all: not bad! This game is playable and has multiple things going for it, giving it the potential to become something great if given the chance. :)

I actually appreciate the mashup of various styles of enemies, it feels unique and original in a way that few other games dare try to emulate for fear of breaking the "norm" and I feel as though that is worth commending. I think this game has an exploration factor that I enjoyed compared to other styles of 2D Beat-Em-Up games, I didn't feel pigeon-holed into the combat to the point where I was unable to check out the level design. Using a somewhat top-down view definitely helped make this possible, good choice there. Excellent background music as well!

That being said, I feel there are some clear areas for improvement. First of all, I'm not sure when the enemies are being hit, if at all. An animation, sound effect, or enemy health bar indicating a successful attack would help a lot. Additionally, the real measure of how well I'm playing the game seems to be the amount of time that I am able to survive the onslaught of enemies, but I don't have any kind of indicator telling me how well I'm doing until I'm already dead! It would be nice to have some stats to keep track of during the game, like enemies slain or (if nothing else) how long I've currently been alive for. Finally, I noticed that at the end of the game when I die, the text on the screen will flip backwards/forwards depending on which direction my character is facing. A small thing really, but on my first play-through I thought the text was always backwards, which left me with a very silly first impression!

All in all: not bad! This game is playable and has multiple things going for it, giving it the potential to become something great if given the chance. :)

I'm a big fan of the space/alien theme!

On the positive side, I find this game to be hyper-realistic, since I am unable to load the game/am left with just a blank, empty screen (but that's what the vast majority of space is like!)

Unfortunately it's hard for me to give constructive criticism beyond that, besides minor page layout suggestions (custom colors/font would be pleasant to look at, maybe add the controls to the description to ensure that they aren't overlooked by players, things like that)

Would love to see what the game looks like if there's a way to fix the load issue!

I'm a big fan of the space/alien theme!

On the positive side, I find this game to be hyper-realistic, since I am unable to load the game/am left with just a blank, empty screen (but that's what the vast majority of space is like!)

Unfortunately it's hard for me to give constructive criticism beyond that, besides minor page layout suggestions (custom colors/font would be pleasant to look at, maybe add the controls to the description to ensure that they aren't overlooked by players, things like that)

Would love to see what the game looks like if there's a way to fix the load issue!

Apologies for the late reply, just wanted to thank you for your feedback as this was definitely a glaring oversight! Although I'm not 100% satisfied with the changes made to address this issue, I hope that the game feels (if nothing else) improved since this was pointed out