This one's a hidden gem. I bought it cuz it was cheap and its quality kept surprising me more and more as I delved deeper and deeper.
Its level design is wonderful and the power ups hidden throughout every stage really make traversing each of them quite a joy. The Classicvania inspiration is rather obvious, but surprisingly, it manages to marry both classic and modern Castlevania traditions into one. You have a handful of separate stages with a linear progression, just like any NES side scroller. However, you can revisit each one freely. In fact, you're absolutely required to go back to some earlier areas after unlocking new abilities in order to find certain items that will unlock the path forward. This stroke of genius turns what at first glance looks to be just a run of the mill platformer into quite the adventure, and it always kept me guessing the next step forward. This game's also merciful enough to tell you how many items are hidden in each stage and how many you've collected, so you can't really miss any crucial item without knowing, and there are plenty of optional upgrades.
There are many bosses and sub bosses to keep you on your toes. They're generally easy, but you can stumble upon them out of order. I deffinitely had some grueling fights because I lacked a sword upgrade that I probably should have already picked up by that point. However, each encounter is well designed enough so you can beat it with clever play despite being unprepared.
Of course, the game's not without its hickups. It lacks some polish and I encountered a considerable amount of glitches, one of them game breaking in what is a rather short playthrough. Attacking and hit detection can be a little cluncky, it deffinitely takes some getting used to. There are some unfortunate enemy placements that somewhat cheapen the difficulty in later stages. All the movement upgrades help a lot tho.
Generally speaking, this really feels like an NES game (more so than other famous retro revivals like Shovel Knight and such), and I love that, but it could be a negative in the eyes of others.
Developer team Joy Mashers really captured me with this one. I'm really looking forward to playing Moon Rider!
Its level design is wonderful and the power ups hidden throughout every stage really make traversing each of them quite a joy. The Classicvania inspiration is rather obvious, but surprisingly, it manages to marry both classic and modern Castlevania traditions into one. You have a handful of separate stages with a linear progression, just like any NES side scroller. However, you can revisit each one freely. In fact, you're absolutely required to go back to some earlier areas after unlocking new abilities in order to find certain items that will unlock the path forward. This stroke of genius turns what at first glance looks to be just a run of the mill platformer into quite the adventure, and it always kept me guessing the next step forward. This game's also merciful enough to tell you how many items are hidden in each stage and how many you've collected, so you can't really miss any crucial item without knowing, and there are plenty of optional upgrades.
There are many bosses and sub bosses to keep you on your toes. They're generally easy, but you can stumble upon them out of order. I deffinitely had some grueling fights because I lacked a sword upgrade that I probably should have already picked up by that point. However, each encounter is well designed enough so you can beat it with clever play despite being unprepared.
Of course, the game's not without its hickups. It lacks some polish and I encountered a considerable amount of glitches, one of them game breaking in what is a rather short playthrough. Attacking and hit detection can be a little cluncky, it deffinitely takes some getting used to. There are some unfortunate enemy placements that somewhat cheapen the difficulty in later stages. All the movement upgrades help a lot tho.
Generally speaking, this really feels like an NES game (more so than other famous retro revivals like Shovel Knight and such), and I love that, but it could be a negative in the eyes of others.
Developer team Joy Mashers really captured me with this one. I'm really looking forward to playing Moon Rider!