Recent reviews by Epic Ness

Worse than the original in almost every way, but I'm ecstatic that THQ is back

This game simply lacks a lot of punch compared to the rest of the Shantae series. The base game's progression just feels more forced and railroaded than other entries and advancing simply feels inorganic. As many have pointed out, you have to visit the same couple of levels over and over, which on it's own isn't that bad, given the levels open up and you play them in different ways at times thanks to an evolving moveset. However, the issue is that a lot of the transformations are just basically keys, requiring no input to perform and offering no utility outside of opening up a couple paths. This can get really distracting when dances basically obsolete each other, like the Mermaid removing most of the use of the Crab. You also have such a myriad of niche dances you accumulate that it's hard to not look at them all and wonder why the heck there are so many. This along with the frequency the game crutches on this really hurts my longevity of enjoyment.

The humor and writing I also found forgettable despite it being more common here. You get little interaction from the rest of Shantae's friends, and what bits I do remember of the writing was a lot of incongruent, out of place 4th wall breaks or baseless zaniness (hopefully I can describe this better down the line. I actually appreciate Pirate's Curse quite a lot but the jokes in here just feel as though they spring from nothing without prompting).

The art style, while softer, is solid and consistent. I think it leans so cute that it loses a little bit of the tomboyish edge Shantae is known for sporting, but it's likable in its own way.

There's a plethora of other game modes that I honestly enjoy better than the main game which brings some great value here! They are all more traditional platformer experiences; I'd even call them arcadey. That's kinda the thing though. They're BONUS modes. They are fun, unique, and challenging sure, but they're ultimately just self contained gameplay tweaks. They pretty much just have you play through the same levels with different movesets, which is fun for a few afternoons. While it is impressive these levels support so many different little movesets, I can't help but wonder if making them fit this format is what led them to feel so flaccid (imagine being flaccid playing a shantae game, i know).

Overall, it's still somewhat fun, albeit pretty underwhelming to me, particularly after coming off the back of Pirate's Curse. It's too simple for my tastes, but it'll still suffice on other fronts

Despite being a pretty simplistic game as far as multiplayer fps goes, it's still a broken mess with slap happy updates from the dev that seem scattershot and purposeless a lot of the time. The lack of modes hurts a lot, though they've improved on the availability of tutorials. However, the continual gutting of mechanics, along with the remaining game being stiff as a cowboy in his cousin and a heap of quirky inconsistencies, I can't recommend more than a few hours on this title. Come for the community or some shenanigans with friends, but even the corny western aesthetics are fading away (wonderfully soft, bland retexturings added recently)

it's a worse new super mario bros ds versus with at least 2 minutes between games that start laggy if you have a lower end pc and you may die in immediately. Theres also a bunch of strange, unwieldy and unnecessary power ups, poor theming, but it's free, is battle royale instead of 1v1 and has a bunch of cosmetics. Also wtf game grumps did this? idk what the name is doin but glad they did somethin i suppose. tldr, play duck game, it's much more fluid and has actual single player content and level creation. also if there's an online source for nsmb please let me know that ♥♥♥♥ was sick

look how they massacred my boi! seriously, valve left the game to rot after creating one of the best sets of characters across games, redefining a genre, making many intricate and unique weapons, play styles, and mechanics, introduced many modes and a great style, and then they gutted all that and left everyone in shambles wondering when the next update will be for YEARS without any communication whatsoever. If you're done with tf2, then ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ SAY IT. ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ cowards. this game is the only reason i ever got steam in the first place and constant bots, poorly, hastily done heavy handed balance fixes that are incredibly unnecessary, ignoring other aspects of said weapons and the game, like spitting in the face of competitive players with the joke that was meat your match, thus ruining any hope for tf2 to be taken seriously in any capacity, while still ruining the fun aspects for the casual side... what the ♥♥♥♥ were those people thinking? This used to inspire me so ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ much, now the game is unplayable in some circumstances including on my old ass pc. Any time i play anymore I just am filled with rage. People enjoy playing where there is the least valve interference, ie Uncletopia which restores old perfectly fine features the game NEEDS like choosing teams and SPECTATE FOR ♥♥♥♥♥ SAKE YOU CAN'T SPECTATE IN THIS GAME. Jesus man, now it just looks like a shell of it's legacy, an artifact, if you will, of when it was innovative and captivating and LITERALLY HISTORIC. They tampered with it all and knocked some things loose, but the undying passion instilled in its older players from your previous work PROVES there is potential. TF2 doesn't deserve to die, and it wont PURELY because of the community upholding it and expanding upon what it was. There's too much to talk about in terms of good and bad my dudes. All I can really say is, I'm glad people are still interested in the game. I just wish valve was, as they should be. A maker has a responsibility to its creation, and valve has been a neglectful dad that's gone out for cigarettes, never to return, if only to say a polite "hi" to his son. You have all these people that still care about you despite that, or at least they'd like to, if you could ever reciprocate again. You have the highest player base of all time for this game right now, but will you do anything with it? Will it last? I don't think so.