This game feels like the natural evolution of Dig Dug, and a less-punishing version of Spelunky. Digging through this game's underground is so fun and relaxing, I don't know how to explain it. It's just a really fun game to turn on, load up your inventory, and stop playing. I played it on some Nintendo console years back, and I still remember how much fun I had back then, even. Super glad I decided to get this game again.
Pros:
+ Really unique concept for a metroidvania
+ Some good potential for speedrunning
+ Atmosphere, aesthetic and music are all on point
+ Pretty good story for a small indie game, and the cliffhanger leads well to the sequel
+ Fun and memorable characters
+ Excellent and reliable autosave system
+ Unlike its sequel, ores are a bit more randomly generated which makes subsequent playthroughs subtly different
Cons:
- Apart from the aforementioned, there isn't much interesting to say about replaying the game
- Quite short and is dragged a bit by sections where you have to manually climb back up the mines to empty out your inventory
- Due to the game being short, the upgrade system feels a bit wasted since you get quite a lot of extra money just in case you die and lose resources
- Extremely small hubworld/open-air region
- Final boss' origins aren't ever really properly explained
- Unless you're really a fan of the franchise, there's really no reason to come back to this game as its direct sequel does practically everything better. If you want to try Steamworld in general, Dig 2 and/or Heist are the best games to do that!
+ Really unique concept for a metroidvania
+ Some good potential for speedrunning
+ Atmosphere, aesthetic and music are all on point
+ Pretty good story for a small indie game, and the cliffhanger leads well to the sequel
+ Fun and memorable characters
+ Excellent and reliable autosave system
+ Unlike its sequel, ores are a bit more randomly generated which makes subsequent playthroughs subtly different
Cons:
- Apart from the aforementioned, there isn't much interesting to say about replaying the game
- Quite short and is dragged a bit by sections where you have to manually climb back up the mines to empty out your inventory
- Due to the game being short, the upgrade system feels a bit wasted since you get quite a lot of extra money just in case you die and lose resources
- Extremely small hubworld/open-air region
- Final boss' origins aren't ever really properly explained
- Unless you're really a fan of the franchise, there's really no reason to come back to this game as its direct sequel does practically everything better. If you want to try Steamworld in general, Dig 2 and/or Heist are the best games to do that!
Stellar vibe, and such interesting worldbuilding. The gameplay leaves a bit to be desired, though. Maybe it's better if you don't play through it start-to-finish in one go, but I definitely found the loop a bit stale around the halfway mark. Even still, it's a solid game, and I'm very excited to see how the sequel expands on it.
Fun little gem of a game. There's not much story and the game is short, but that's okay because it would have lost it's appeal if it had been much longer. I mean, all you really do is dig in order to find gems and orbs to help power up for the final boss fight, which is the only boss fight in the game. My only real issue with the game is the controls are a bit sloppy.