Инди-игра на основе Power Blade 1.
Что понравилось:
— Пара боссов. Интересная идея и реализация некоторых боссов.
— Визуал. Выглядит аутентично, приятно.
— Первые уровни. Достаточно короткие,
Что не понравилось:
— Искусственная сложность. Начинал на Classic, потом перешёл на Modern. На классике игрок сразу умирает после падения в яму. А ям тут много. Всего на классике дают 3 жизни, на модерне 5. Теряешь все жизни — начинаешь уровень заново.
— Левел-дизайн. Под текущей локацией есть яма с лестницей, то есть там как бы другая комната. Можно ли туда упасть через яму? Конечно нет! Теряешь жизнь (хп на модерне). Финальный уровень вообще фу. Он по размерам как треть всей игры. И там есть один весёлый прыжок, который надо делать через подкат. А если этот прыжок не получится, то приходится проходить две длинные и унылые комнаты снова.
— Боссы. Толстые, большинство не слишком интересные.
— Отсылки. Местами игра ощущается как помесь из ретро-игр. Некоторые бонусы вставлены... зачем? Сломать машину — Стрит Файтер. Разминировать бомбы под водой — черепахи 1.
Итог? Игра не понравилась. Думал, будет лучше.

Despite having never played Prison City, immeaditly at the start of the game I was hit with a wave of nostalgia. The game looks gorgeous and is extremely high quality at it's goal of mimicking a NES game. It gave me heavy sunsoft vibes right from the get go, specificly the batman games. Any game that reminds me of the game that got me into this hobby does get some bonus points. Really though, the retro filter options are really well done and make the game look great. From the scan lines to the mirrored edge of the screen to the color pallete used put this game on my must play list.

As for the gameplay it really plays like Strider or Rygar. (I really need to get around to trying Rygar out) You have a limited disc based weapon that you can throw in any direction. The amount of discs you can throw are on a cool down meter of sorts. You can throw a lot of them out at once but they do slightly less damage if maxed out. The game gives the ability to really attack in many different posisitions so it never really feels like you can't hit something, although they only travel so far. Prison City has a Mega Man style level select set up, so you can tackle the stages in any order. As for the stages themselves they are your typical side scrolling platformer layouts. However there are a few divergents paths here or there that might lead to a health or weapon upgrade. Every level follows the same formula, first, you have to find an informant that will give you a key card and secondly you have to find the door which said key card unlocks so you can fight the boss. Usually the door is found in the mid stage and the informant is usally in the later parts. The levels are designed to be traveled back and forth so no worries there. Enemies can provide a challange and there are some challange in the platforming and it all feels nicely well balanced. The game is pretty generous with it's lives and checkpoints and for the most part if you put a bit of effort in you should be able to get through the game fine. Bosses are the harder obsticle and are really well done. Learning patterns and ways to avoid attacks and taking a good defense is a good offense is the way to go with this game. The last level does something a bit interesting that I won't spoil but it greatly extended my first run.

If your a completionist this game is pretty difficult though. Completing every stage with out getting hit is tough and beating the unlockable boss rush on the hardest difficulty might take a lot of practice. I don't know if I wanna do that right now but the game does have a bit of replay value if your into challanges. Even if you only play Prison City once though for a measly ten dollar price tag at launch you get a high quality retro inspired NES game and for me the nostalgia hit alone was worth the asking price. I can easily see myself coming back to this in a year or two.

An NES inspired platformer that stands on its own. I can't compare it to anything so it would easily be understood, and I think in the sea of Mega Man and Castlevania-likes that's great.

The structire of the game is very Mega Man - you pick one of 8 stages, then go on to the final stretch, but the gameplay is unlike anything I've seen. The levels are somewhat open, requiring you to find an informant and then a boss door. It controls and looks great, and the music is also on-par with some of NES' best.

Full recommend.

That said, there is one thing I was put off by: the final stretch. I think it's unfair for a game with 10-15 minute stages to dump a giant labyrinth and a two phase boss fight on you. I don't think it saves on checkpoints, either. I guess I can only be happy that I accidentally found an infinite lives secret, because this sudden shift could've put me off from a game had I died and game overed during the boss. So full warning: try this game, but as soon as you get to "Wily Castle" portion, be sure you have enough time, as depending on the difficulty you play on, it can be straight-up NES brutal. I've played on "Modern" mode which is the middle difficulty, and it still has extra lives, which I didn't mind, but I wish the difficulty curve was better, as it goes from fairly easy to sudden shift into incredibly challenging not even because of enemies and traps, but sheer length of the level.

That said, I do wish other levels were bigger, as quite a few of them feel like they're the size of a classic Mega Man stage only arranged in a different way, while others feel bigger and therefore more interesting to explore. Still, it provides enough insentive to replay with different difficulties and various secret modes, so I'll come back to it later, and this time prepared for the final gauntlet so that my experience isn't as soured at the end. Maybe that'll improve my score, but for now I can't give it more since what was supposed to be a short play session turned into an hour-long battle.

prison city is a competent action platformer, but it's more homage than game. that's sort of the default criticism for modern retro throwback titles, but it feels particularly noteworthy here - it's all references.

the level design is pure power blade - each stage is a micro-metroidvania where you explore to find a keycard to unlock a boss room. likewise, the main mechanics are power blade - basic action platforming with throwable chakrams. so it's primarily a loveletter to power blade, that's fine. i'll take anything that's acknowledges the NES library of action platformers was bigger than busters, whips and katanas. both of these aspects of the game are solidly executed; the levels are interesting to explore and the platforming and combat feels good.

the problem is that acknowledgement is basically all the game does. it never felt like it was bringing something significantly new to the mix. it's just a big pastiche of memberberries - remember the awful TMNT bomb defusal - what if it was playable? remember pong? just about every level, every bonus stage, every boss is an obvious nod to a classic game. as a result, prison city never really establishes an identity of its own.

aesthetically, the game looks great, but environments are often too busy for the limited palette, introducing readability issues where it's difficult to discern between the level design and the set dressing. on the standard "modern" difficulty it's excusable enough, but on classic, you'll end up losing lives to this. similarly, a lot of enemy attacks have the tendency to get lost in the visual noise of your thrown chakrams, which isn't unfair but doesn't feel great either.

i had a good time with it, and admittedly it was refreshing enough to play a retro throwback that isn't just another mega man or ninja gaiden... but as the credits rolled, i was still waiting for the game to throw something at me i hadn't seen before.

remember shatterhand?