alright, i fucked with the idea of a 2d platformer that takes advantage of fighting game mechanics
even something jank like this that controls the way it does
the closest thing i can think of is the subspace emmisary mode from ssbb but i'm sure something else does this idea justice too
i hope so mainly because this game is fucking trash
like i said, it's not really the controls
but they aren't good either
this feels exactly like taking the movement of mk3 and putting it into a 2d platformer because that is what it is
there are a few obvious flaws, two of which being that you can't really do fine control of your jumping (because this is mk style controls and not a more modern anime fighter or what have you that would feel better) and there's not a great solution for locking onto targets
the latter of which the game tries to solve with a button that manually chooses which direciton you face
except your inputs aren't consistently responsive when it comes to anything other than punching something, so not only do you not always turn when you want
but you have enemies that can and will take advantage of you fucking around with just turning
i was playing on very easy (i knew this game's reputation) and the first level was me dying over and over just trying to figure out how this game was gonna opperate
but hey, i did! after that the controls honestly weren't that big of an issue
it's jank but whether it was me being better at doing it or the game mysteriously getting better at auto rotating your guy to kick a dude in the face, something clicked and i got over it
so yeah, that isn't the issue
nah it's everything else
this is one of the cheapest games i've ever played
we're running with a lives and continue system which inherently there is nothing wrong with
in the game's options you can give yourself up to six lives and four continues iirc, idk i'm not booting it up to check again
point is you get a decent amount
this will go by very quickly
now, i've said before that i suck at fighting games - platformers however are my shit
so when i say that if i didn't have save states i'd probably still be on the second level i mean i'd be hard stuck
this game kills you so god damn fast
enemies (again, i was playing on very easy) can easily cheap you out with sweep spamming and other annoying bullshit that isn't so much hard to counter as it is just really annoying to deal with
once you start getting abilities this is less of an issue, but it never quite goes away
you can spam freeze somebody (even bosses sometimes), which IS funny
but what isn't is when the moment you open a fucking door they just rock your shit for no good reason
sometimes they do, sometimes they don't! it seems to me we're working with input reading ai here which isn't out of character for mk but it is absolutely fucking abysmal in a single player action platformer
this is glaringly obvious with the bosses which seem designed specifically around you abusing this fact
the second level boss's primary method of killing you is tossing you off the stage and killing you instantly
did i mention that if you continue you will restart the level
and you'll never guess what happens when you run out of continues, i won't either because i didn't find out
i used savestates and if you play this you should too, i'm not risking the chance of this bullshit ass game taking me back to the very fucking beginning of it or making me reload a save that has a fucking password system despite saving to the memory card in the year of our lord 1997
maybe it does just let you reload the game! that would make sense, but like i said
i'll never know
because again, this game kills you so fucking fast
every hazard can kill you and it can kill you very quickly
the second level is entirely about putting you in situations where if you fuck up once you are sent back to a checkpoint
checkpoints are seemingly reasonable given level lengths (it shouldn't shock you to know that this is a relatively short game) but again
death is inevitable, it is quick and swift but the pain lingers
you know that boss i mentioned? if you drain his health bar he goes into a last attack mode that will kill you instantly if it lands
you have three options of recourse:
run, run and run but not too hard so you don't fall off the stage
spam your slide move if you have it (you should)
but those two methods are very inconsistent, no see what you're meant to do is go to the ledge of the stage and grab onto it
how? i have no idea, i did the former on accident
i KNEW what the game wanted me to do before hand and i went exactly where i needed to go but it didn't work
i feel like it was luck that i survived but it might not have been
the game conditions the player to expect deaths and expect them quick so i just assume most shit will kill me
which isn't always the case! the third level has pits that sometimes has goodies
and you'll never know unless you jump into one
but if you guess wrong you just die
so why the fuck would you ever try it without savestates or something
and listen, i like hard games, but i fucking hate bullshit ones like this
and the level design isn't even inspired enough to make it enjoyable
the reason i stopped playing wasn't because i got too frustrated, it's because i got really bored
by the time i hit the fourth level (water temple LOL) i noticed that it was a series of what looked like sewer pipes that all looked exactly the same
so i looked up a gameplay walkthrough, skimmed through it to see if i was missing anything, realized i wasn't and stopped playing
except there is ONE saving grace, one little nugget of cool that is worth this game's existence
the cutscenes are funny
it's cheap camp that hits, it's basic as hell and there isn't a lot of it but that means you can just look them up on youtube and not have to play this thing
which is absolutely the best way to go about things
this is a weirdly ambitious project that didn't even commit to its ambitions enough to make a game that was interesting to go through and i think that's the game's biggest flaw
ninja gaiden for the nes is bullshit but i like it and still consider it a good game
it feels good to control and it's not just the same closed off corridor over and over again
i am easy to please and i can handle unfair games
this is a bullshit arcade game in sheep's clothing, but instead of your money all your gonna wast is your time and that's significantly more valuable in the long term
even something jank like this that controls the way it does
the closest thing i can think of is the subspace emmisary mode from ssbb but i'm sure something else does this idea justice too
i hope so mainly because this game is fucking trash
like i said, it's not really the controls
but they aren't good either
this feels exactly like taking the movement of mk3 and putting it into a 2d platformer because that is what it is
there are a few obvious flaws, two of which being that you can't really do fine control of your jumping (because this is mk style controls and not a more modern anime fighter or what have you that would feel better) and there's not a great solution for locking onto targets
the latter of which the game tries to solve with a button that manually chooses which direciton you face
except your inputs aren't consistently responsive when it comes to anything other than punching something, so not only do you not always turn when you want
but you have enemies that can and will take advantage of you fucking around with just turning
i was playing on very easy (i knew this game's reputation) and the first level was me dying over and over just trying to figure out how this game was gonna opperate
but hey, i did! after that the controls honestly weren't that big of an issue
it's jank but whether it was me being better at doing it or the game mysteriously getting better at auto rotating your guy to kick a dude in the face, something clicked and i got over it
so yeah, that isn't the issue
nah it's everything else
this is one of the cheapest games i've ever played
we're running with a lives and continue system which inherently there is nothing wrong with
in the game's options you can give yourself up to six lives and four continues iirc, idk i'm not booting it up to check again
point is you get a decent amount
this will go by very quickly
now, i've said before that i suck at fighting games - platformers however are my shit
so when i say that if i didn't have save states i'd probably still be on the second level i mean i'd be hard stuck
this game kills you so god damn fast
enemies (again, i was playing on very easy) can easily cheap you out with sweep spamming and other annoying bullshit that isn't so much hard to counter as it is just really annoying to deal with
once you start getting abilities this is less of an issue, but it never quite goes away
you can spam freeze somebody (even bosses sometimes), which IS funny
but what isn't is when the moment you open a fucking door they just rock your shit for no good reason
sometimes they do, sometimes they don't! it seems to me we're working with input reading ai here which isn't out of character for mk but it is absolutely fucking abysmal in a single player action platformer
this is glaringly obvious with the bosses which seem designed specifically around you abusing this fact
the second level boss's primary method of killing you is tossing you off the stage and killing you instantly
did i mention that if you continue you will restart the level
and you'll never guess what happens when you run out of continues, i won't either because i didn't find out
i used savestates and if you play this you should too, i'm not risking the chance of this bullshit ass game taking me back to the very fucking beginning of it or making me reload a save that has a fucking password system despite saving to the memory card in the year of our lord 1997
maybe it does just let you reload the game! that would make sense, but like i said
i'll never know
because again, this game kills you so fucking fast
every hazard can kill you and it can kill you very quickly
the second level is entirely about putting you in situations where if you fuck up once you are sent back to a checkpoint
checkpoints are seemingly reasonable given level lengths (it shouldn't shock you to know that this is a relatively short game) but again
death is inevitable, it is quick and swift but the pain lingers
you know that boss i mentioned? if you drain his health bar he goes into a last attack mode that will kill you instantly if it lands
you have three options of recourse:
run, run and run but not too hard so you don't fall off the stage
spam your slide move if you have it (you should)
but those two methods are very inconsistent, no see what you're meant to do is go to the ledge of the stage and grab onto it
how? i have no idea, i did the former on accident
i KNEW what the game wanted me to do before hand and i went exactly where i needed to go but it didn't work
i feel like it was luck that i survived but it might not have been
the game conditions the player to expect deaths and expect them quick so i just assume most shit will kill me
which isn't always the case! the third level has pits that sometimes has goodies
and you'll never know unless you jump into one
but if you guess wrong you just die
so why the fuck would you ever try it without savestates or something
and listen, i like hard games, but i fucking hate bullshit ones like this
and the level design isn't even inspired enough to make it enjoyable
the reason i stopped playing wasn't because i got too frustrated, it's because i got really bored
by the time i hit the fourth level (water temple LOL) i noticed that it was a series of what looked like sewer pipes that all looked exactly the same
so i looked up a gameplay walkthrough, skimmed through it to see if i was missing anything, realized i wasn't and stopped playing
except there is ONE saving grace, one little nugget of cool that is worth this game's existence
the cutscenes are funny
it's cheap camp that hits, it's basic as hell and there isn't a lot of it but that means you can just look them up on youtube and not have to play this thing
which is absolutely the best way to go about things
this is a weirdly ambitious project that didn't even commit to its ambitions enough to make a game that was interesting to go through and i think that's the game's biggest flaw
ninja gaiden for the nes is bullshit but i like it and still consider it a good game
it feels good to control and it's not just the same closed off corridor over and over again
i am easy to please and i can handle unfair games
this is a bullshit arcade game in sheep's clothing, but instead of your money all your gonna wast is your time and that's significantly more valuable in the long term