Recent reviews by Asianwaste

Desperately needs some way to prioritize work orders for maintenance and construction. A sudden malfunction can cause a serious chain reaction of things because your staff prioritizes things that really should not be prioritized. This was almost a good Yoot/Sim Tower spiritual successor with some good ideas but there are some large flaws that make this game maddening.

If I want my tower to fall in shambles, let it be from my own incompetence, not the game's.

This was alright and I get what they were going for but I found the amount of survival tracking and tasks to be way too arduous and tedious. I can recommend games that use similar systems that don't take things nowhere near as hardcore like The Forest and Grounded.

Runs like ♥♥♥♥. Total memory hog.

Disclaimer: I received this game for free at PAX South

I think this game is a good start for Starblade. I think this game touches on some right ideas well but misses hard on others.

Pros:
Artstyle - very similar to those seen in many Wayforward games. This is a good thing. The background art sometimes is a bit lacking but overall is good.

Control - The controls are free-aim + sidescroll platforming. They offer many simultaneous options to control the game. You have the option to use trigger/bumpers only while using dual sticks or if you prefer face buttons you can use just the right stick to move/aim while always having the left stick available to you for precision aiming w/o moving.

Weapons - Punching things is super satisfying. Honestly I think the game should have focused more mechanics based around the big robotic arm rather than the projectile based weapons. Though I think those are quite satisfying to use as well. There was a level where you are given a grenade whose smoke trails create temporary platforms and that made for some interesting mechancis.

Level Design - Overall level design is well done. There is a decent variety of enemies who are exclusive to each map and they are deliberately placed in logical places with intended player solutions in mind. There are a couple of visual language cues that don't communicate well and sometimes you end up dying because of those confusions. Overall though traversing the levels are at least fun.

Mixed bag:

Narrative - The humor is smirk-worthy. Other times it's cringe. At its best you get exchanges with local heroes and their hang ups in life. At worst you are actually reading the phrase "bust-a-cap". The dialog is accompanied by this robotic chugging sound for all characters. I think this was a poor choice. The art and writing has a lot of personality while this sound constantly going while you read robs much of that personality away. There has to be a better design choice here. Others have used simpler methods like single voice lines (laughs, grunts, oohs, and aahs), emotive gibberish also works too, and when all else fails use nothing or subtle blip noises from older games.

Music - Some tracks do a good job adding to the whole "puckish villainy" motif of the game while others are poor cultural pastiches with gibberish vocals which sometimes grate on the nerves. Overall this is neither a great or terrible soundtrack. It's pretty middle of the road.

Boss fights - The first boss fight was a simple "take their weapons and turn it against them". Cut and dry but clever enough. Every other boss fights are scenarios that utilize their own exclusive mechanics not used anywhere else in the game. Don't do this. Boss fights should be a test of your mastery of the mechanics you've spent the level mastering. At best you are given a somewhat enjoyable wrecking ball fight based around using physics and motion. At worst you are frustrated trying to crush a viking with giant fists using dubiously consistent aiming and hit detection. I know what they were trying to do (you are the bad guy so you are the boss fight) but in terms of player game mechanics this is bad design and it served no benefit to the game. These types of things should only be bonus stages, not boss fights.


Verdict:

It's far from a perfect game but it's a good start from a budding indy studio. There's definitely talent and potential exhibited here. The game itself can use some tweaks and fixes here and there but overall is fun enough. It's at the very least worth getting when on sale.

The only thing wrong with this game was that there was not more of it. This was the perfect game to play while Diablo 3 was in a messy launch.

I remember them promising more content coming years ago but nothing has come up since.

This is the best way to clone Bejeweled.
SCREW CANDY CRUSH
SCREW PUZZLE QUEST

This game is match-3 anime porno.