This game is an interesting case. The gameplay is pretty fun, with a variety of obstacles that get iterated on well. The problem comes in with the game's lack of originality. The mechanics, music, story, and visuals are all fairly standard. Nothing is particularly offensive (except for some cringe dialogue and very bland UI), but nothing stands out particularly well either. I think the game could have been really great if it was more original and creative in all regards. But even with that as an issue, the game is still pretty fun.

Despite giving the game a 5, I like it. It's easily the best NES beat em up I've ever played, and has a ton of charm.
Combat's really simple but feels good to do, but does wear thin near the end of it's pretty short runtime, especially with all the bosses feeling pretty samey and easy to cheese. Also I got hit as soon as I entered a screen enough times. That got annoying. I like the idea of the rpg mechanics, but the main issue is that you don't know what items will do until you buy it. So you have to waste money (or do what I did and check a guide) to figure out what's a good deal. Overall, a neat game that feels dated but not annoying.

A pretty solid fast paced action platformer. It has a good blend of speed, platforming and exploration, all helped by pretty solid controls. Each level has unique gimmicks to keep things fresh, and it goes at a pretty good pace. Bosses are all decently fun too, except a couple near the end that get annoying. Some endgame stages also drag a bit, with overly spammy enemy placement. But overall fun to play.

The story, on the other hand, is not great. It starts out pretty bad with a ton of new characters, places, and ideas being thrown at you too quickly. It gets a bit better as it goes along, but takes an odd tonal shift that feels out of place. The story probably would have benefitted from being smaller scale instead of covering a global power struggle with aliens and stuff. There is an option to turn story off, so not a huge deal.

A pretty fun beat-em up with great presentation. One of the key elements a game like this needs to get right is the sound design and animation, since combat being satisfying is essential. These are both pretty great, and help keep the game fun to play. There's also a decent amount of variety with enemies and obstacles. The bosses are the highlights. Each one is different and fun, although one is a bit annoying. The game looks great and has clearly had a ton of effort put into it. Each shopkeep has unique designs and voice acting, the menus are clean and nice, and there's well done fully animated scenes and manga panel sequences too. The game's story and humor is pretty stupid, and a decent amount of it worked for me. A lot of it missed, though. Music's good, it does the job. Although I wasn't really a fan of the vocal tracks. I can recommend it to anyone looking for a fun beat em up.

A solid metroidvania, hindered by a lack of challenging platforming and is overall just too easy. You get access to some fun movement tools but you really don't need to use them since platforming is more about fighting and dodging enemies than getting around obstacles. This results in having cool movement that feels underutilized. And enemies are not an issue since you can stock up on a TON of cheap healing items. This makes pretty much anything a cakewalk. Exploring is at least fun, and the game will mark the next objective on your map, so you won't get lost if you're just trying to get to the end. There's a weirdly high amount of focus placed on the story given how mediocre it is. It's all skippable, so not a huge problem. Music is good, but not as strong as the music from the past 2 games. Works well visually too, although the transformation animation feels a bit flat. A good game, but not quite worth $30. There's not enough content and that content isn't high enough quality to be worth a ton. Wait for a sale.

Still in early access, but the first full chapter was excellent. It's a retro shooter that gets pretty much everything right. At first I wasn't a huge fan of how BROWN the game is. Pretty much every color is a variant of brown. While it doesn't make the game the prettiest looking shooter, it does work very well with the sound design to create a very effective atmosphere. It can get pretty spooky at points, especially with the end boss of chapter 1. The gameplay is pretty great, all the guns feel pretty good, except the submachine gun which sounds a bit too quiet and is not particularly accurate. The level design is good, and it gets better as it goes on. Especially in early levels, it can get a tad annoying trying to figure out where to go, especially given everything is brown. It could help if important switches were easier to see. Movement is really fast, which compliments the great enemy variety and aggressive ai. Overall, a very solid retro inspired shooter. I look forward to seeing how the game progresses. The start of chapter 2 is very promising.

This was a replay, and my opinion is pretty much the same as it was when I played it the first time. It's the weakest of the game's four campaigns, but it's still pretty fun. The controls are pretty interesting and fun to use, but they don't get fully used a lot of the time since most of the level design is just copypasted from shovel knight's campaign. Plague of Shadows is at it's best when it's doing it's own thing. Like the story, for instance. Seeing what's happening on the other side of Shovel Knight's campaign is really fun, and Plague Knight and Mona's relationship is great and really helps carry the story. The original music and visuals are spot on, and feel just as great as the original campaigns. Overall? A pretty great time, and a worthy game to be in the treasure trove lineup.

A pretty stellar multiplayer game. The game's insane chaos and heavy reliance on teamwork results in a game where any situation can go from good to awful pretty fast. That means you can never stop paying attention, never stop shooting, never stop scavenging. The special zombies create a ton of extra stress and variety too. But that's just the main mode. Versus mode is great too, switching between two teams where one plays as special zombies and the other are survivors. Easy recommendation for anyone looking for a chaotic and fun time with friends. Probably stinks to play alone lol