Recent reviews by 8-Bit Assassin

Updated Review:

Initially I’d left a negative review based on my experience with the very end of the game and experience with the final two bosses, however after a bit of practice and studying, I’ve completed the game. While I feel the final two bosses were quite a difficulty spike, they don’t diminish what a gem Tiny Dangerous Dungeons Remake is. This is a beautiful remake with tight controls, amazing music and great pixel art, the game is a steal at the asking price any anyone would do well to add this one to their Steam library. I highly recommend, you will be glad you did!

I've never been more torn on how I wanted to review a game, and ultimately decided to give Spirit of the Samurai a positive review but need to definitely mention a handful of shortcomings that I definitely need to mention.

Spirit of the Samurai is a BEAUTIFUL game, it's seriously a master class in art style, presentation, story telling, pacing, sound and voice acting. I've never played a game before where I felt like it could have genuinely been a movie as easily as it had been made into a game. The stop-motion claymation in Spirit of the Samurai is just unbelievable. Each enemy type is unique and interesting, bosses are original and fit well with where they are presented in the story and there is one boss in particular that made me say "ok now THAT is awesome!". I could easily continue to write on the positive points, but for the sake of moving the review along I'm going to move onto my next point which I've seen a number of people complain about, the controls.

Personally, I loved the control scheme for Spirit of the Samurai. I've you've ever played a twin-stick shooter, or any game with a twin-stick scheme, you can easily learn the control scheme for this game. I think most people are used to a dedicated attach button mapped to one of your four face buttons, and while there IS an attack mapped to one of the four face buttons, the real magic comes from being able to chain together unlocked attacks and mapping them to the right stick which you press in the direction that you'd like to attack. Personally I loved this control scheme, I can certainly understand how some may not care for it, just keep in mind this is what you'll be playing with.

I can also tell everyone that performance on the Steam Deck is great for the most part! There are a couple of very specific areas where there are frame drops or things chug a little bit, but it's more than alright to be honest. The areas that had the biggest issues with this had a lot of environmental effects going on, I am hoping that this is something that the devs can address. I'm curious to see if these frame drops are resolved in the VCS version. Long story short though, very playable.

Now, I do have to be honest. Some areas seriously overtuned and need to be adjusted. In particular, the Graveyard area is so overtuned that it was enough to make me consider just not finishing the game. Enemies were firing projectiles from off-screen which I thought had been patched, I am hoping maybe they take another look at this. The gauntlet of enemies that you have to go thru at one specific point honestly was just horrible, there is "hard but fair" and then there is "broken hard", I feel like this area was "broken hard". Additionally there is a specific area where you need to do some major wall scaling playing as your cat companion and there is no tutorial on how to do this. I spent a good 15 minutes trying to figure out how to jump foothold to foothold and even then it wasn't consistently working. A tutorial being added for this specific section and a look at the consistency of how often climbing works/fails would be a major help. Additionally, controls can feel quite stiff at times and it would be of major value if the devs could add any level of speed and fluidity to them, it would make a world of difference.

In closing, the ending of the game was just pure cinema and I can honestly say that I truly hope that this become an ongoing franchise of games. Spirit of the Samurai is something special made by devs who truly love their craft. The tag Metroidvania is innacurate for Spirit, I think it would be more fair to classify it as an action platformer with a few Metroivania-like elements mixed in.

In all honesty, even with the faults, I'd give this game a 9 out of 10, and would say it's a 10 out of 10 should the shortcomings I mentioned be addressed.

I genuinely can't say enough great things about Fallen Leaf. Taking very clear inspiration from Shovel Knight, Mega Man, and Super Mario 2 and 3, Fallen Leaf delivers something that is extremely rare in the modern age of gaming. Here you'll find a finely tuned platformer with a fantastic soundtrack and terrific pixel art that very clearly was made by devs who love gaming and all that made it great to begin with. Fallen Leaf was a game that when I turned off to take a break, I was thinking about my next play session and looking forward to it. Not too easy but not back breakingly difficult either, there is plenty here for players of all skill levels to enjoy and have fun with. Having wrapped up my time with the game, I can only hope that there is a sequel in the cards because this is a great first entry into what I think could be an amazing IP.

I wanted to enjoy Souno’s Curse SO bad, but honestly I just can’t recommend it. There is no denying it’s a beautiful game with a ton of personality. But there are some issues that make the game ultimately a no-go:

-There is no map, this is absolutely unforgivable and borderline game breaking given the metroidvania elements that are a part of the game.

-Combat is stiff, slow and inconsistent. You can pogo bounce off an enemy once (upgradable to twice) and that’s it. Combat is short range, you rely on your kicks, which in itself wouldn’t be an issue if it weren’t for the completely inconsistent hit boxes. I’ve pogo jumped right thru enemies with zero effect, taken damage from them while being out of range, and this leads me into my next point…

-The bosses, while interesting and having creative mechanics, are an exercise in pure frustration due to the slow and clunky combat along with inconsistent hit boxes. Additionally, there are major inconsistencies as to when the second phase of a boss will trigger (if it triggers at all), alongside later boss encounter mechanics triggering at the start of a fight (imagine late fight super fast and overwhelming attacks being used at the start of an encounter). No rhyme or reason as to when a boss will die, you just have to get lucky basically.

-Lastly, you have zero way to heal yourself. You read that correctly, you have what amounts to 5 HP, and no way to heal yourself in multiphase souls-level bosses.

As the game currently is, it’s more frustrating than anything else and not one that I can recommend. Who knows, maybe over times with patches that rework the game it’ll become a must-own, but as it is I don’t recommend it.

The Ramsey was a title that I decided to take a chance on during a Steam Sale and am really glad that I did. Simply put, it's wholesome fun that players of all ages and skill levels can enjoy. The storytelling is done in a pretty unique way, and without giving anything about the game away, surprised me in setting up for a sequel which I am seriously looking forward to once the dev decides it's time to begin work on it. A colorful game world, upbeat soundtrack and most importantly responsive, smooth controls are all present here. Ramsey is platforming at it's finest and while there is definitely some challenge present, it's nothing that would be a roadblock to anyone regardless of their skill level. Definitely pick this one up, you'll be glad that you did!

Gestalt: Steam & Cinder exceeded my wildest expectations and then some. With beautiful pixel art graphics that will transport many of us back to the glory days of 16 and 32 bit, an outstanding soundtrack and smooth, responsive controls, there is very little here not to like. I felt that the storyline itself, although not the most original, was quite well done and sets us up for a sequel which I am really excited for. I think if I had any criticism (if you can even call it one), I wish that certain aspects of the storyline were a bit more fleshed out and they elaborated a bit more about each character's past and what gives them a stake in the central storyline. Bosses were a little on the easy side, and while I don't advocate for brutally difficult souls-style bosses, a hard or challenge mode for each boss would have been a nice addition, rewarding different outfits or other cosmetics. Anyways, I recommend Gestalt without a second thought, you'll be really glad that yu picked it up!

Just finished Geno Panic, what a gem indie title! The pixel art is beautiful, the controls are tight and responsive, the atmosphere and story are excellent AND they hint at a sequel at the end of the credits! Completely worth the money, can’t recommend this game enough!

Oh, and it runs flawlessly on Steam Deck for anyone wondering!!

Akatori is going to be an amazing Metroidvania once the full game releases. While I wish Chapter 1 was longer, I understand that this is really to give us a taste of the game as well as gather feedback so the devs can make tweaks for the full release. I played on the Steam Deck and it runs extremely well, my only complaint is that sometimes when entering a new area, the game will drop from 60fps down to somewhere in the 40s, which can be really jarring. There are also one or two areas where it will suddenly drop down into the 20s, and I have no idea why because absolutely nothing is going on there when it happens. I'm hopeful that there will be optimization for Steam Deck done prior to the full game being released. Beyond that, it's a beautiful game that plays extremely well, it has a great soundtrack with tight controls, and I'm really looking forward to when we get the full release!

What a hidden gem! I absolutely love the Metroidvania genre, and Kingdom Shell delivers on every front! Great pixel art graphics, smooth animations, a solid soundtrack and challenge that ramps up over the course of the game (with it being quite challenging by the end), the game is an absolute steal at full price, let alone a sale. Extremely enjoyable start to finish, I can’t recommend this one enough!

I was turned on to Kraino Origins after the failed Kickstarter for Kraino ReAnimanted, and boy does this game deliver on the fun! I believe that it is a prequel to ReAnimated and sales of it are helping the dev with it's development. That said, here you can find a really excellent (although somewhat short) platformer spanning 8 stages with some excellent level, weapon and enemy design combined with gorgeous pixel art and tight controls. On the difficulty scale I would say at times it can certainly be challenging, admittedly I had some points where I became quite frustrated, but nothing about it is unfair or unbeatable. For the price I consider this one to be a steal, I enjoyed the whole things on my Steam Deck, so in case anyone is wondering, it plays awesome there. Definitely recommend checking it out, you'll be glad you did!