Look, man. I wanted this game to be amazing too, and was rooting for it every step of the way. But this is kind of a mess.
Great movement when you figure out the controls for sure, not to mention a great sense of style, fun music, and a lot of love poured into it from developer Evening Star.
But like, this is a speed run focused game that asks you to care about things like score but compromises that vision when I clip out of the stage once per world (at a minimum). And I'm sorry, for as good as the rolling feels when you figure it out, the player moveset is way too complicated and poorly explained. At bare minimum, it needed a moment where the game tells you to try rolling downhill and to not let go when you go up a ramp. I didn't figure out how that worked until like World 6 or 7. You also gotta love old school platformer knockback (when you get hit) combined with design that makes it difficult to gauge where you're going to land. It felt like playing Super Mario 3D Land with the 3D off.
Other issues I had:
-The bosses are pretty much abysmal across the board.
-Unnecessarily punishing checkpointing.
-Poorly presented story (that does not feel like authorial intent).
-Just bugs and a lack of polish across the board. I'm surprised a big publisher backed this -- it has Kickstarter game energy.
To be honest, even if the bugs were fixed and the game was firing on all cylinders, the level design is mostly just...fine? I think it peaks in the 7th world and again briefly toward the end, but the level design did not impress me a ton either. When the levels prioritize movement and speed over technical platforming, it shines. When they don't, it does not shine.
This isn't a bad game -- there are some things I quite like about it -- but I would call it a pretty big disappointment (for me) when all is said and done. I wanted Shovel Knight and got Assassin's Creed 1 instead, if that makes sense. Hope this does well enough to warrant a follow up and Evening Star makes a great sequel or follow up.
Great movement when you figure out the controls for sure, not to mention a great sense of style, fun music, and a lot of love poured into it from developer Evening Star.
But like, this is a speed run focused game that asks you to care about things like score but compromises that vision when I clip out of the stage once per world (at a minimum). And I'm sorry, for as good as the rolling feels when you figure it out, the player moveset is way too complicated and poorly explained. At bare minimum, it needed a moment where the game tells you to try rolling downhill and to not let go when you go up a ramp. I didn't figure out how that worked until like World 6 or 7. You also gotta love old school platformer knockback (when you get hit) combined with design that makes it difficult to gauge where you're going to land. It felt like playing Super Mario 3D Land with the 3D off.
Other issues I had:
-The bosses are pretty much abysmal across the board.
-Unnecessarily punishing checkpointing.
-Poorly presented story (that does not feel like authorial intent).
-Just bugs and a lack of polish across the board. I'm surprised a big publisher backed this -- it has Kickstarter game energy.
To be honest, even if the bugs were fixed and the game was firing on all cylinders, the level design is mostly just...fine? I think it peaks in the 7th world and again briefly toward the end, but the level design did not impress me a ton either. When the levels prioritize movement and speed over technical platforming, it shines. When they don't, it does not shine.
This isn't a bad game -- there are some things I quite like about it -- but I would call it a pretty big disappointment (for me) when all is said and done. I wanted Shovel Knight and got Assassin's Creed 1 instead, if that makes sense. Hope this does well enough to warrant a follow up and Evening Star makes a great sequel or follow up.