Pikmin if it were good. Tinykin's a fun collectathon platformer, and I love the tiny characters in a full sized house theme. Unlocking abilities primarily through finding new types of Tinykin is fun and there were a decent amount of unique ideas there. The level design is really the highlight I think, the environments feel really different and how ordinary rooms of a house are transformed into something else in the eyes of the bug inhabitants here is really cool. I do have a couple of minor complaints. The collectathon aspect is fun (as someone who generally likes these) up until the last few things to find in each level. There really aren't any good tools to help hunt down what you're missing, and I spent a significant chunk of my playtime scouring mostly completed levels, before eventually giving up and just getting 95% completion or something like that. This is also unfortunately the only real challenge in the game, I was hoping for a bit more of (optional?) platforming challenges in the late game or some kind of postgame content. It was a nice length overall but just lacking something near the end in that way. Also wasn't a fan of the writing and the dialogue was a bit too much for my taste. You kind of need to talk to everyone in case they offer a side quest, but I ended up mashing through a lot of it because there's a lot of dry flavor text. It also reuses objectives a bit much for my taste, like the mail you can collect in every level, or one of the side quests always being to find a ring in some side area and bring it back to someone. Even just reskinning those between levels would have been better I think. Still really enjoyed it overall, and it doesn't overstay its welcome or the minor issues I had may have become more grating. I'd be really interested in seeing what they could do with a sequel to this down the road, though Splashteam is 2/2 for me with very different games so far so I'm not complaining if they do something unique again instead.

Tinykin is a cute platforming collectathon game that I picked up primarily because of high review scores and because of the praise it was receiving here on Backloggd. I would most closely relate Tinykin to Banjo-Kazooie... but with the combat elements removed and the puzzles more simplified.

Tinykin is a very relaxing game. You take control of a tiny person (think Stuart Little sized) who finds himself exploring a number of rooms in a house that is completely foreign to him. These rooms are very large (especially since you are so small), they are densely populated with interesting things to see, and you are free to explore them at your leisure. Tinykin is a low stress game with an overall objective in each level, but you will spend most of your time gathering collectables, talking with NPCs, and solving light puzzles. While none of the puzzles were remotely challenging it was still always satisfying to complete them.

The game's title, Tinykin, is also one of the main collectibles of the game. Each stage has little alien creatures called tinykin scattered throughout which will either help you to solve puzzles or to help you with level traversal. I don't want to spoil the different abilities of these little guys, but it was fun and exciting each time I unlocked a new type.

I really loved so much about this game, especially just how chill and laid back it was. There was next to no challenge to be found in this game, which was a refreshing change of pace from some other games I have been playing. The environments were all very well designed and highly populated with interesting things to see and do, and the sheer number of collectibles was astounding. The abilities of the tinykin made it fun to explore and I never got bored of the exploration through my entire playthrough.

Despite how much I enjoyed the game there were two issues which brought down my rating: the story and performance. First off, and this is honestly a very minor complaint, but I didn't find the game's story to be too interesting or engaging. It wasn't bad, it just wasn't very captivating. Performance, on the other hand, was a bit more of a problem. While it never caused any big issues, and it never hampered my experience, it is impossible to ignore that at times this game would chug along on the Switch. It is completely understandable as the stages are very large and are populated with a ton of collectibles and NPCs. Near the end of each stage you can have around a hundred or so tinykin following you around, so it makes total sense that things would slow down a bit. It only rarely impacted gameplay, but I figured it was worth mentioning here.

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Tinykin. It was an incredibly charming and relaxing game which was a joy to explore at a leisurely pace. There were some performance issues on the Switch that brought down my enjoyment slightly, but I still had a great time with this. I would highly recommend Tinykin to anyone looking for a chill collectathon.

Tinykin has to be one of the best surprises for me this year; I finally decided to give it a go when prompted by a friend, and once I was a level in, I couldn't put it down.

You play as a lil guy who's found himself in the vestiges of an abandoned house teeming with intelligent bug life, and have to traverse the rooms solving everyone's problems while searching for parts to escape. The game was marketed to me as a 3D platformer with Pikmin influences, and it turned out to be even better than that. It's a very chill time, because there's no timer or lives system to put pressure on the player, and unlike the Pikmin games, you don't even have to micromanage your Tinykin via specific pathing or keeping a close eye on them to make sure they don't die; they'll just stick with you, and the targeting system automatically picks the Tinykin you need for each situation. The movement is pretty simple for a 3D platformer, but the controls are very tight and it honestly feels really exhilarating sliding around and scaling all the rooms; there are plenty of back-up ropes and silk lines to slide across to make backtracking much easier, and you can even grind along edges if you feel like optimizing your movement or just want to have a good time.

The only complaint here is that trying to get all the pollen in each room can be a bit annoying when it's very difficult to tell what pollen you've missed out on, and I do wish that there was a radar or some other kind of tracking mechanic to better figure out the locations of any pollen not already collected. Nevertheless, I was thoroughly engaged for a solid six and a half hours and I'm glad I took the time to check this out on Game Pass; I'm always down for a solid 3D platformer with Chibi-Robo vibes, for Tinykin more than delivered with no excess fat to be found.

Probably the most unique take on the "don't worry folks, this isn't just Portal again, I promise" genre. The puzzles you'll find here are truly something that you won't find anywhere else because of the base theme of playing with perspective. Not only are there perspective puzzles utilizing the size-change mechanic but there are also simple tricks of perspective like a moment where you walk into a completely dark room and after you feel like you aren't making progress, you turn around, only to discover an arrow illuminated by the light of the area you came from, pointing to a ladder.

I enjoyed it a lot for a while but then just got bored of it. No fault of the game though, I just have a very hard time finishing puzzle games.

Played on Gamepass

This was a very pleasant surprise. I absolutely love the concept, aesthetic, and music. I had a good time overall, this is much more enjoyable than the PICO-8 Celeste games in my opinion, but I do feel like it has some shortcomings in controls and polish that I wanted to talk about. These aren't a huge deal for a very short game made in a week, but I just think it's interesting.

There's some clear issues with the controls, particularly relating to the camera, that become much more obvious doing some of the more difficult B-Sides. Edges of platforms also feel particularly slippery where I feel like other games would be more generous, and Madeline is all too eager to perform a ledge climb when moving along a wall even when there are spikes on top that will instantly kill you. Many of the jumps in this game require a lot of active camera management to see where you're going, and since you also want your thumb on the face buttons to be able to dash mid-air you're constantly moving your grip back and forth. There are no control options whatsoever, and in most games I'd settle for being able to put dash on a shoulder button. I generally think taking common actions off of the face buttons in games that use both analog sticks is a good idea and fully solves a lot of issues like this, but here it feels like it would still be a band-aid solution.

The problems with the camera go deeper. For one thing, I think putting the ability to zoom in and out on the right stick's Y-axis was a mistake, you're not going to be getting perfectly horizontal inputs every time you want to turn the camera, so over the course of a series of jumps with quick camera turns you can find the camera at a very different angle than you intended. This is especially annoying since the camera doesn't reset when you respawn and you almost always have to adjust it before each attempt at a section. It's also often very hard to judge distance, I found myself under or overshooting small platforms a lot of the time. I've played a lot of 3D platformers and this is not an issue I usually have, and I had to think for a bit about what the actual cause is, which I think comes down to a couple of things. I think the developers realized this problem as well, since they included a very exaggerated guide that's enabled by default, rather than the traditional shadow below your character there's also a dotted line that extends from you to the ground. I don't think this solves the issue however.

The camera does a lot less automated movement than the average 3D platformer. In Super Mario 64 the developers only had a single analog stick to work with, and were also designing for players new to 3D games entirely, so they made the camera movement largely automatic, keeping it at a good angle behind Mario as he moved, with buttons left only for larger adjustments. Even with the move to dual-analog controllers, most 3D platformers since have largely copied this behavior. Celeste 64 seems to expect the player to do a lot more of this camerawork on their own, which is a decision I can understand sounding good on paper but doesn't really work in this genre. An interesting side-effect of this is that I think a lot of how distance is perceived is through seeing the edges of objects or textures move as the camera moves, and when the camera is at a locked angle even though the player is moving this makes the scene appear flat.

While fixing that problem would go a long way, I think there's also just an inherent issue with the amount of air control expected from Celeste's mechanics when applied to a 3D space. Most 3D platformers give you a lot of control in how you start your jump, but once you're in the air you're mostly just expected to make minor adjustments to ensure you land in the right spot. Completely changing your trajectory in the air and having to use that precisely is a lot more challenging, and even as someone who has played many difficult platformers I think that type of challenge is more awkward than it is fun. It's still probably possible to make a better-controlling game around this idea, with a better camera and level design that keeps this in mind and tries to avoid the awkward situations, but I think this game shows how difficult that would be to make properly.

While I mainly focused on negatives so far, I did have a very nice time with this overall. The play area feels packed with secrets and I was really impressed with the number of B-Sides. The ideas taken from Mario and the way they're implemented is great, I love the inclusion of 64's side-jump, and the short B-Side levels as secrets fit in great with the more open exploration. Like I mentioned at the start the game looks and sounds great, especially so for something put together so quickly. For something that took me under 3 hours to 100% the downsides are easy to overlook, and I had a really fun time with it.

First three maps follow the promising concept of city based scenarios, which was hinted in the two first maps of the original game’s third episode. While not being mindblowing, they succeed at being fun enough.

Map 4 is the one i liked the least, and apparently it’s pretty infamous among Blood fans. Really confusing map layer design (which is going to be a common thing for the next maps) but mostly, a terrible enemy placement. That rotating cabin could have been better at giving some Myst/Riven vibes.

Maps 5 and 6 suffer from the same flaw: The level can be finished just by chance, getting casually to the exit, while ignoring big parts of the maps. Like, these maps could be easily finished up with just a 60% of completion, and the other 40% of unexplored areas are not truly rewarding: they don’t offer big bonuses, interesting encounters, or worthy secrets. I consider that to be a big flaw. And even if they aren’t really bad maps, they feel just bland.

Map 7 is in my opinion the best of this pack. It feels like a Hexen map but actually done good. The beginning of this level resembles a hub with three different doors. This doors are open by solving a very simple puzzle, and they lead to different isolated sections, at the end of which there’s some kind of lever. This sequence of three levers must be completed in order to open a fourth door, which leads to the exit and the boss fight. If that isn’t Hexen-like enough for you, well, Caleb even says “wow, what the hell did that do” once he pushes one of the switches, which was basically a way of resume the experience of playing Hexen, so i’ll definitely take a guess about this being the mindset for the designers of this level.

Overall, i think the main problem with Post Mortem is how lazy they went when it comes to level textures. I mean, at some point every map just starts looking all the same. Everything is so grey and rockish. And that’s kind of a let down considering how impressive the original Blood’s work was when it comes to textures. One could think that developers decided to focus on gameplay rather than aesthetics, but the truth that gameplay-wise, this pack offers little to be remembered. And also, underrating the aesthetic design of a level is like discarding a crucial point for a good gaming experience, which is the sense of novelty throughout the progression.

Still, a must play if you’re a hardcore Blood fan.

Favourite map: M7. The Dungeon
Worst map: M4. Aqueducts

ENG: The year is 1997. At id Software, without John Romero due to creative disputes with John Carmack, the launch of Quake II is being prepared. Quake II had only the name, since the lovecraftian aesthetics was replaced with a militaristic-futuristic aesthetics and the soundtrack went from being ambient with industrial horror touches to heavy metal. It sold well, but had mixed reviews.

None of this matters... much, though. I'm just commenting on it to sort of follow up with my Duke Nukem 3D review. Or if it matters... at all. And the thing is, even though Doom was a thing of the past for id Software, it wasn't for many people. Duke Nukem 3D was not the last gasp of a class of technologically outdated games.

The year is 1997. Blood is released by Monolith Productions.

If Duke Nukem 3D was the next step in terms of Doom-style FPS, Blood was the refinement of that formula.

Blood has, mainly, two things that make it stand out from the rest: the weapons and the setting. It's true that Duke Nukem 3D already had some curious weapons compared to its predecessor, Doom. However, it was Blood who took this topic to its maximum expression: a pack of dynamite, an aerosol can, a flare gun, a voodoo doll, among so many others that I forget. On the other hand, the setting. If Duke Nukem 3D was an ode to Hollywood action movies of the 80s, Blood was an ode to Hollywood horror movies of any era. It is not a horror game per se, because it is still a frenetic FPS of its time, and yet, thanks to its setting, it gives a very different feeling to what we were accustomed to the FPS of those times.

Caleb is the protagonist of this story... a story that doesn't matter much, I know. But what does matter, just like in Duke Nukem 3D, is the protagonist. Duke is mocking and ironic. But a good guy at the end of the day, his mission is to save the world. Caleb, on the other hand, is sadistic and ruthlessly sarcastic. His mission is not to save the world. He's involved in a personal crusade and doesn't mind killing civilians. Where the voice acting was comical in Duke's character, it is also comical in Caleb, only in a more perverse and cruel way.

Blood isn't perfect, as much as I'd like it to be. Like Duke Nukem 3D, maybe it wears a little thin at the end.

Despite that, Caleb lives, again!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svzMK33PMUk&ab_channel=KurtHecticJukebox.

ESP: El año es 1997. En id Software, ya sin John Romero debido a disputas creativas con John Carmack, se prepara el lanzamiento de Quake II. Que de Quake tenía solo el nombre, puesto que la estética lovecraftiana se reemplazo con una estética militarista-futurista y el soundtrack pasó de ser ambiental con toques terroríficos industriales a ser un heavy metal bien pesado. Vendió bien, pero tuvo críticas mixtas.

Aunque nada de esto importa... mucho. Solo lo comento para hacer una suerte de seguimiento con mi reseña de Duke Nukem 3D. O si importa... algo. Y es que, aunque en id Software Doom ya era pasado pisado, para mucha gente no. Duke Nukem 3D no fue el último suspiro de una clase de juegos desfasados tecnológicamente.

El año es 1997. Blood sale a la venta por Monolith Productions.

Si Duke Nukem 3D era el siguiente paso en cuestión a FPS estilo Doom, Blood era el refinamiento de esa formula.

Blood tiene, principalmente, dos cosas que lo hacen destacar del resto: las armas y la ambientación. Es verdad que Duke Nukem 3D ya tenía armas cuanto menos curiosas en comparación con su predecesor, Doom. Sin embargo, fue Blood quien llevó este tópico a su máxima expresión: un paquete de dinamita, una lata de aerosol, una pistola de bengalas, un muñeco vudú, entre tantos otros que me olvido. Por otra parte, la ambientación. Si Duke Nukem 3D era una oda a las películas de acción hollywoodenses de los 80s, Blood lo era a las películas de terror de hollywoodenses de cualquier época. No es un juego de terror per se, debido a que sigue siendo un FPS frenético propio de su tiempo, y aun así, gracias a su ambientación, da una sensación muy distinta a la que nos tenían acostumbrados los FPS de esos tiempos.

Caleb es el protagonista de esta historia... historia que no importa mucho, ya se. Pero lo que si importa, al igual que en Duke Nukem 3D, es el protagonista. Duke es burlón e irónico. Pero un buen tipo a final de cuentas, su misión es salvar al mundo. En cambio, Caleb es sádico y despiadadamente sarcástico. Su misión no es salvar al mundo. Está envuelto en una cruzada personal y no le importa matar cíviles. Donde la actuación de voz era cómica en el personaje de Duke, en Caleb también lo es, solo que de una manera más perversa y cruel.

Blood no es perfecto, por mucho que me gustaría que lo fuera. Al igual que Duke Nukem 3D, a lo mejor al final se va desgastando un poco.

Pero que mierda digo, yo voy a seguir con Caleb, caretas.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svzMK33PMUk&ab_channel=KurtHecticJukebox.

In a way, Blood is the most perfect FPS of the 90’s. In a time where Quake basically launched officially the tech race, Blood goes in the opposite direction: Dev’s decided to stick to what was already known in the industry, and get the best out of it. And man, they definitely did it. Blood not only takes the best out of the Build Engine (even with it’s issues, it was arguably the best engine for 2.5D shooters of it’s time), but they also show how aknowledge of the genre they were, and how determined they were in perfect it, not only in it’s gameplay aspects but also in it’s artistic possibilities.

To me, it feels like the devs spent years taking notes of other shooter’s flaws and how to fix them.

- Ever thought that hitscan enemies in early fps (With the exception of chaingunners in Doom II) were a little bit too easy in general? Blood’s approach on hitscan enemies is pretty avant-garde, in my opinion. This guys are really tough and unforgiving, they can kill in less than seconds, and they are placed everywhere around the game. Even if some other enemies might look more frightening and threatening in appearence, the truth is that even the bosses can pale in comparison to the two varieties of hitscanners, which are The Cultists and The Fanatics. By the second level of the game you’ve already meet both of them. And i think they are somehow avant-garde, since they pioneered this style of hitscanning that would become more popular on games like Half-Life and Counter Strike: it’s so unforgiving that you can get killed in just one shot. This definitely forces you to be strategic in your way of approaching them, more than any other fps at the time, and that’s not just the core of Blood’s gameplay but it would also become pretty influential, despite not earning enough recognition for it. ✔
- Ever felt like pistols were always the worst weapon in the game? Well, Blood replace the pistol with a flaregun, a whole different weapon, which is pretty useful even if you’re pretty stocked with ammo from other weapons. ✔
- Ever felt like most of incendiary weapons were interesting in concept but sucked in execution? Well, Blood not only fixes this but is also the most flammable shooter of the 90’s and is fantastic for that. ✔
- Ever felt kinda wrong that, despite having multiple weapons, enemies only had two death animations as much? Well, Blood has tons of death animations, and enemies can be gibbed in many different ways, feeling at times like a Brutal Doom precursor. ✔
- Ever thought that no FPS offered you a spooky and scary experience the way your first Doom playthrough did? Well, Blood succeeds like no one at the time (Except for Quake, obviously) at putting you in a horror-like mood. ✔

All of this, packed with all the typical Build engine goodies, such as mouse freelook, jumping and crouching, exploding walls and demolishing buildings, etc.

Blood’s arsenal, which is inspired by the possibilities of the early XXth century, is not only incredibly original and huge, but it also incorporates the novelty of the alternative fire, which will become a landmark for modern FPS onwards.

And i have to say this is also the most detailed spritework ever put into a 90’s 2.5D FPS, which shows the often overlooked artistic possibilities of the genre.

As for the episodes:

Episode 1 is by far the most iconic. It’s also the one with the strongest sense of storytelling: You wake up in a cementery in Map 1, then go to a train station in map 2, then you enjoy a train ride in map 3. In map 4, you explore the carnival where your train crashed. Map 5 and 6 are focused on cultist temples, which lead you to the boss fight in map 8. Is a quest for revenge and also, a quest for the truth. Gameplay wise, is absolutely perfect, and is just amazing how every level seems to be better than the one before.

Episode 2 is also amazing and has tons of memorable moments. It’s in my opinion, the one with the stronger and most authentic identity, which is mostly divided between snowy landscapes and gothic mansions. This episode even puts some mazes but they are so well designed that you can hardly get frustrated by them. You can say that, at moments, the episode seems to be a little more focused on exploration. But of course, there’s tons of action in here.

Episode 3 is the weakest. It starts out in a very promising way, introducing you to two city levels (The first one has huge Duke3D vibes despite it’s early XXth century aesthetic), but then it changes the subject rather quickly introducing a more industrial theme (including an infamous sewer level because this is a 90’s shooter after all) that goes one for the rest of the episode. Map 1 is the only one that i genuinely enjoyed from beginnig to end in here. It’s not like the maps are actually bad, it’s just that the average level from Episode 1 and 2 is so goddamn high, that you can’t help but noticing a decrease in quality.

Finally, Episode 4 is definitely better than Episode 3 when it comes to level design, but it’s also the most eclectic, almost feeling incoherent at times. One could think that this episode was probably made up of leftover maps that couldn’t fit properly into the other three episodes, all of them having a pretty well defined theme or aesthetic going on in them. Here, you reach from a medieval castle at the beginning, to a horror film-like hospital, to a modern shopping mall and a modern aquarium (both of them could easily fit on Duke3D without the need of the slightest modification). Map 2 looks pretty much like what Dusk would do decades later. Map 6 is the standout of the episode for me, despite being a bit disliked by fans. And map 7, “In the flesh”, is simply an abomination, an ode to bad taste. The boss fight in map 8 was probably the most interesting boss fight of the whole game in my opinion.

Despite this downgrades in the last two episodes (which are not really bad by themselves, is just that the first two episodes set the bar way too high) Blood is a near perfect game. This is probably my favourite FPS from the 90s after Doom and Half-Life. If you’re into this kind of stuff, chances are that you’ve already played Blood. But if you haven’t, please, go check it right now.

Favourite maps: E1M3: Phantom Express / E1M4: Dark Carnival / E2M4: The Overlooked Hotel
Worst maps: E3M3: Raw Sewage / E4M7: In the Flesh

This one was way better than i expected. Of course, there are some noticeable flaws. The most notably being the fact that most of these maps had a single moment that left me wondering what should i do next in order to progress. A moment that feels like artificially difficult to get through, like a key hidden in an unimaginable place. It might be a little bit intentional too, since most of the times, the solving of these situations would come by twisting the logic of the map a bit, kinda thinking outside the box. It feels kinda forced, and the biggest problem is how it breaks the flow of the gameplay. Some maps felt unfinished, there were also many rooms with no purpose at all. The re-skin of the enemies was not only unnecessary, but also a downgrade compared to the originals, specially considering the new sounds they come with, which were really annoying. And it’s kinda hard to say that there were any fightings or encounters that could be qualified as “memorable”.

But, i have to say that, despite all these problems, i still had a lot of fun. The layer of most of these maps is, for the most part, well done. The locations they represent are actually very well portrayed (whether it’s an airplane, a train, a hotel, etc), and that’s probably the most memorable aspect of this expansion. The sense of progression from one map to another, thematically, is very nice too.

Maybe i was in a perfect moment for playing this expansion, or maybe my initial expectations were really low, but the truth is that i have a nice time playing it. If you liked the original Shadow Warrior, and you’re in the mood for some more of that stuff, this is definitely what you need.

Honestly, this expansion isn’t as bad as everyone’s making out to be. Of course, there are a few bad levels here, but there’s plenty of ok ones. But for sure, this is not like Duke It Out in DC by any means. And in my opinion it shares the same main problem of Wanton Destruction (which is a slightly better expansion, one that’s worth recommending in my opinion), which is having some kind of artificial difficulty in progressing troughout the map (like an absurdidly well-hidden key) in many levels.

So i finally managed to beat the last game of the Build engine holy trinity. Sadly, it’s pretty hard for me to avoid comparisons with the other two games. If you consider the fact that Duke Nukem is by far the most influential –probably for the simple reason of being the first one introducing the Build engine-, and that Blood is largely considered the best, Shadow Warrior might seem the weakest in comparison. And that’s pretty unfair, because Shadow Warrior is still a blast.

Lo Wang’s persona is all over the place, even more than the other build heroes. That’s not jut because of him having MANY more lines than Duke or Caleb, but also because his vocal performance is way more over the top than any other hero. And that leads me to another aspect of the game: The sound design. Ever felt, after a long session of playing Doom or Blood (to name a few), that the monster sounds got stucked in your head for some time after finishing your gameplay? In Shadow Warrior the only thing that get stuck with you is Lo Wang, monster sounds are not really something memorable (not so sure but i feel like many monsters don’t even have any sound at all, or at least i can’t recall any), which might be considered as a minimalistic approach to sound design, but i kinda feel like it’s just lazy. To add more to the sound design general lazyness: While the Riot Gun is a fantastically designed shotgun, i feel it’s fire sound is kinda weak, which is a bit underwelming. Of course, i know that Shadow Warrior is probably the most comical FPS of the 90s, therefore not really needing to build a certain atmoshphere through sound design. The music is also far from being memorable, mostly composing of a few ambient tracks with some eastern instrumentation, and that’s the only attempt of creating an “atmosphere”. But for sure, that’s one of the aspects that makes it feel inferior to the other two of the holy trinity. Of course, being nit-picky.

The gameplay is pretty simple. While some enemies can insta-kill you, they are never as much of a threat the way Blood hitscanners are. Weapons don’t pretend to have special functionalities for specific enemies, like in Quake or Blod. Here, they are mostly ordered from the least to the most powerful, and that’s it. That doesn’t mean that certain areas require their fair share of strategy, and just like in the other Build engine games, these strategies will frequently engage a large use of explosives. Shadow Warrior’s arsenal is excelent and it’s personality is just undeniable. Oh and another acomplishment for SW: this might probably be the only 90’s FPS that doesn’t featur any of those reaaaaally annoying enemies (i.e: Pain Elementals in Doom, Spawns in Quake) that are universally hated by everyone playing it. Okay, maybe the bees, but still they are pretty tolerable in comparison. Probably the greatest novelty introduced in shadow warrior is the possibilty of using vehicles. You can use tanks, gun turrets, and speedboats among others. They are super janky but also fun as hell, specially to kill large hordes of enemies.

I guess you can divide Shadow Warrior levels into three separate moments. The first one is actually the shareware episode and feature 4 levels. As many shareware releases from it’s time, it tries to comprise as much as it can from the whole game, including textures, enemies, and weapons, and it’s also the one with the strongest –to put it in a way- sense of storytelling. You start at a city level, then you go to a factory/techbase, and levels 3 and 4 –which have a fair extension- features a wide variety of themes: Ancient temples, dojos, forests, mountains, caves, and many more. I would say that the biggest flaw of this episode is it’s recurring use of puzzles, which are honestly kind of annoying, but all in all, this first moment is a great example of what Shadow Warrior is capable to offer.

The second moment focuses exclusively on ancient temples and such. While there’s not really a single bad map here, the truth is that it gets too repetitive, and kinda boring by the end. If you include the secret level, this whole section comprises 8 levels, which is a bit too much of the same aesthetic.

The third moment features some of my favourite maps, and contrary to the second set of levels, this one is a lot more thematically diverse. It starts with a few city levels highly reminiscent to Duke Nukem, and slowly starts going into some other military basement-related ones.

An incredibly fun game, Shadow Warrior is definitely a must for any retro-FPS fan.


Fav maps: Map03: Master Leep’s Temple / Map13: Unfriendly Skies / Map22: Auto Maul / Map16: Subpen 7 / Map17: The Great Escape

Worst maps: Map11: Sumo Sky Palace (Ok: At first the map is pretty good and different from the rest, but the latter platforming section, the trap near the end, and the final boss kinda ruined the whole level)
 

Cuphead: The Delicious Last Course takes some of the best aspects of Cuphead and distills them into a single expansion. It’s brief, but no less gorgeous or inventive than the main game. In fact, I’d say they refined everything from animation to boss mechanics.

One big thing that’s missing are the ‘Run ‘n Gun’ levels. I can’t say those were the standout of the base game (and the devs fill the vacancy with a bit of brand-new side content which I won’t spoil here,) but even one Run ‘n Gun would have been the icing on the cake.

Back in 2017, around when the game first came out, I was a Junior in High School. I remember watching YouTube videos on all the bosses in the game while I was in my computer class and thinking it looked awesome. Only problem is, I didn't own an Xbox (and still don't). Fast forward to 2019, the game comes out on the Switch and I buy it. Now I rarely buy digital games but I figured it was a big game I've always wanted to play and that it might not get a physical for a while, so I purchased it. Me and my girlfriend at the time played it for a bit and I myself got up to Grimm Matchstick but eventually dropped it. Fast forward again to 2022, on a whim I decide I want to play it again. I restarted the game and went and beat it for the first time finally. I thought it was really awesome! Once I heard they were coming out with a physical copy, and with the DLC included..I knew I had to buy it again. And that's what I did, so I decided to replay it once again. Not only did I beat it again, I beat every boss with an A- or higher and not only that, I beat every boss on expert difficulty and got the platinum trophy!

I'm just gonna start with the absolute best aspect of the game. You all know what it is, the presentation and art style. It's the main reason this game is loved, it's immaculate. The attention to detail in replicating old rubber hose cartoons is just amazing. The game is just pure eye candy and it's wonderful. This game will always hold the test of time because of this one aspect alone...but luckily there are other great aspects about the game as well.

Accompanying the amazing artstyle is the soundtrack. Now, it may not be an OST I'd listen to a ton outside of the game but wow it's a treat. It's upbeat, it's jazzy, and it's all orchestrated. It just makes the game feel more grand and way more authentic in it's homage to the time period these cartoons came from. My personal favorite songs would have to be the the Isle Three theme, Murine Corps and Floral Fury. The Isle three theme especially is my standout favorite. Idk man it's sooo jazzy I love it.

Now were onto the real meat and potatoes, the gameplay. It's a run and gun shooter and it's pretty simple. You have your normal attacks, your special move, your maxed out special, a dodge and a parry. Pretty simple move set but it works well with how chaotic the game can be. You can choose from several different normal attacks, special moves and charms. Charms just give you an extra ability. For most of the game I just had the charge shot and crackshot, the 1st special and the smoke bomb charm. I feel like a ton of people love the charge shot and smoke bomb especially since I've seen a ton of people have those in their arsenal.

What levels do you use these moves on? Let's start with the run and gun stages. They're alright! They are not the main focus of the game, and apparently were only added because of fan outcry but they're decent overall. If the game was just composed of these, it probably wouldn't be nearly as well liked as it is cuz people seem to not really dig these stages. Which I can see, they are definitely the weakest part of the game I think. However, they aren't the main focus of the game. Those would be the bosses.

The bosses on the other hand are awesome. These were gonna be the main and only focus of the game and it makes sense. They're pretty much all well done and a lot of fun to go against. Here's where the visuals are at their peak too because one of the most fun things is to just see all the different boss animations. This is why I wanted to play this game so bad back in 2017, the bosses are a sight the behold. This is also why I'm so excited for the DLC because I've barely seen any of it as of now so I'm ecstatic to see all the new animations contained in it. Anyways back to the bosses, like I said they're awesome. Some of my favorites were Captain Brineybeard, Werner Werman and Sally Stageplay. I guess I just really like Isle three lol. There were also some very brutal bosses. Back in 2019, Bippi the Clown gave me the hardest time and he was still tough nowadays. Dr. Kahl's robot can be brutal for newcomers and he gave me a hard time. However, the hardest for me still was the devil. I dont think I died quite as many times as I did back in 2022, but it wasn't far off. However in expert mode, he was absolutely ridiculous. Expert mode in general could be really crazy, mostly the plane bosses, but the devil was on another level at least for me. Either way, I beat em all and got the platinum in the end which I still can't believe. Never doing expert mode again lol. Also never ever doing the one pacifist trophy again fuck that one.

Glad I replayed this again cuz it was still an amazing time, even if going for the platinum made me lose my sanity at points lol. Definitely one of my favorite indie games now. Can't wait to dive into The Delicious Last Course!