This was a very cute little experience. I'm very glad that, considering these levels play vertically instead of horizontally, there's a bee raft that spawns and follows you up the level to catch you if you fall. It's not so close that the level becomes piss easy, but not so far that you feel like you need to repeat the whole level over again. There was one level that genuinely freaked me out too for like, 30 seconds, which is more than I expected from a game called Beeny. Also, a cute surprise at the end of the game if you go back to the house after beating the last level. Beeny slay.

All levels completed, including time trial targets. Beeny is a very short 2D platformer, with each of its ten stages based around climbing upwards to reach a goal. Once again from solo developer Slactro (Kiwi 64, Toree, Macbat 64), there's a strong retro aesthetic, in this case taking clear inspiration from the SNES Donkey Kong Country series and while it doesn't have the greatest degree of polish, it's a fun time, with well-judged, responsive controls. Each stage can be beaten within a minute, so it's easily beaten with 20 minutes or so and even with the unlockable time trial mode it won't last ore than an hour - but the very low asking price makes that feel perfectly fine. Without giving any specifics, the rewards for beating the game, and then all of the time trial target times, are a delight, leaving a great feeling to take away from the game. Ultimately, the simplicity of what's on offer here limits Beeny's potential, but what it does, it does well.

Didn't really connect with this one sadly. Once again the audiovisuals impeccably match Siactro's intent (this time a mid-90s CG look that honestly felt most in company with 32-bit GBA games), but the platforming never got challenging enough to be interesting until the last couple of stages. Macbat 64 was also a cakewalk but that at least was designed around exploring the areas; I'm not asking for Jump King levels of vertical platforming but there's just not enough substance with what few gimmicks the game offers.

The Siactro shared universe is finally coming together for me.

This is only missing a half-star because it still doesn't quite compare to the best games of the series it is paying homage to (likely due to its length). But goodness me, does this game still tick all the right boxes for me in terms of how to do nostalgia bait correctly.

The music composer, RCMusic, also understood the assignment. Visions of David Wise, and no, that will never be a bad thing. In fact, I think the world would be a much brighter place if there were thousands more David Wise clones making music this beautiful.