Recent reviews by ziggy_

Minishoot' Adventures (really called Minimalist Shooting Adventures if you're trying to understand why there is an apostrophe) is a twin-stick, shoot 'em up-styled metroidvania with bullet hell elements, and while it does do most of those things solidly; it doesn't do any of them exceptionally.

I purchased it pretty quickly after trying the demo, something about the crisp graphics and Zelda-ish vibes made for a fun hour or two. I was excited to see more dungeons, weapons, upgrades, bosses, and secrets. It seemed like there was a lot of potential for this title.

Well, 13 hours later and 100% completed (on the Advanced difficulty) I can say that there really isn't too much added beyond the demo. There are a few enemy types but not a lot of variety. Bosses don't carry that much distinct character or variety either; most consist of a common enemy type that has been scaled to fill your screen and produce big rings of bullets, etc. As a pretty avid shmup player I didn't find the patterns anything special. So, in that sense I think it could be good for beginners and casual players.

The level design was generally OK but despite the 'biomes' changing from desert, to beach, forest, etc. the general mechanics and layouts felt very similar. Break the jars, push the switch, go in this hole and come out this other hole. That kind of thing. Eventually you'll unlock map fragments and the game does a decent job at labelling outstanding areas to check out or boss locations. Only occasionally did I search for some advice on where to go next and that could've been my impatience (I have very limited time to play) to aimlessly fly around the map.

Other than that, most the systems and mechanics would be familiar if you've play any kind of metroidvania or twin stick game; you can move around your XP points to tweak your skills for the fight or situation at hand. It's not very dramatic and I mostly was shifting points back and forth between speed/boost and weapon stuff.

The rest is pretty self-explanatory from the trailer and screenshots. It's not a bad looking game with bright, crisp colors, and good bullet/enemy visibility. I actually think the best part of the game is the sound design; it sounds good when you break stuff and boost, and the synth-y music never became annoying or anything.

Overall, I'm not exactly sure where the 'Overwhelmingly Positive' rating is coming from; this is no masterpiece. However, it is a fairly short and sweet twin-stick adventure that kept me entertained for a few sessions. It's not too difficult to 100% and I can't say there's much replayability beyond that.

I would recommend it on sale! Play the demo first!|

7/10

光と影が音に乗る
ブロックのダンスでゾーン広がる
消えるラインの快楽、もう戻れない
グルーヴに埋もれたらLUMINESタイム

波のような流れ、めくるめくショー
パターン揃えて、心が光る
ビートに沈んで、時が遅くなる
また遊ぶ、また遊ぶ、止められねぇよ

光るグリッド、サウンドの魂
リズムとパズルがシンクロする瞬間
ルールはシンプル、奥深い旅
止まらないサイクル、テトリス×トランス

HDの光、サラウンドの響き
イヤホン刺せば、宇宙旅行行き
二〇〇四からずっと名作
LUMINES Remastered、まさに魔法

光、音、ゲームの結晶
Steamでポチれ、後悔はゼロ
「あと一回…」気づけば夜

There's quite a bit of coverage and reviews about Dave the Diver already so this is just a quick 'no' from me.

After about 35 hours of the game I put it down quietly. Don't think I'll be revisiting it anytime soon.

While it sports a great aesthetic and quality polish, Dave the Diver is too padded out by a 'never-ending' trickle of mediocre 'stuff' to do that ultimately undermines and erodes the original 'tight loop' between diving and managing your sushi bar. It could've benefited from being a little more concise overall.

Lastly, on a personal note I didn't care very much for the story and some of the characters.
I'm no real big environmentalist but I felt making all the sharks stereotypically 'mean' and having Greenpeace activists appear like idiots, the sea peoples 'climate change' driven plight unfolding while happily annihilating all life under the sea for my joint...random DLCs, a mobile phone as your HUB....I dunno it all struck me as kinda dumb and hollow; maybe just reflective of design choices in the gaming scene I don't like so much.

I'll still keep tabs on MINTROCKET to see what's next and hopefully someone will come along and give us a different take on the fishing/restaurant management; I think it's a neat loop with a lot of potential.

Thanks for reading!

...alas, instead of milk and honey, I admit it was a world of falling blocks, cascading colors, and by far the dopest puzzlin' vibes I've felt in while.

Enter TETRACHROMA (テトラクロマ).

It struck me immediately as a studied and passionately made iteration drawing from a few of my favorite TETRIS games.
For example (and I am by now means a TETRIS expert, so forgive me), the overall graphical style hits like TGM, it's beautiful white outline of stacked pieces accelerating my subconscious for high speed play. Rotating backgrounds, a strange but beautiful soundtrack, tons of modes, tons of detail in how blocks move and are animated when scoring points; again I get moments of TETRIS CD-i, NullpoMino, Shiromino, Apotris, and even TETR.IO. I'm sure there are even more influences...

What this amounts to nothing less than a great time tapping away at my keyboard. Plenty of modes to explored and find your threshold of difficulty, lots of customization in terms of block color, grid, music, you name it.

Now in terms of kick tables and rotation behaviour, again, I am not expert, but having spent quite a few hours with TGM and TETRIS: Effect, Tetris DS, and the above mentioned games; the game feels good. You can play quite fast and really feel that flow.

It also means a lot that the dev, sparsevector, is friendly on the discussion forums and seems quick and attentive to updates and patches. The game itself is pretty damn awesome right now and at a great price, in my opinion, too. However, the idea that there could be even more tweaking and additional content for this game would probably crank my enthusiasm from 10 to 11.

Overall, as a 'falling-block puzzler' fan, it was so, so, so, refreshing to have a sweet 'lil game like this kicking around on Steam in particular. For any puzzle lovers, TETRIS fanatics, Reversi warriors, and generally anyone who's lingering on the store page; I think this is a solid buy!

It's fun, it's challenging, it's lookin' good. Thanks for reading and the best of luck! May your T-spins find their way.





*For more mediocre reviews and questionable game curation

Playtime: Short/Initial Impressions

I came across this 'lil action puzzler via Itch.io. Vibrant and fast-paced, SUPER Dungeon Muncher has you racing your hero at breakneck speeds away from a huge dungeon gobbling monster. While the big bad monster is chewing things up in real-time speed, your character is operates with turns; smaller monsters move in tandem to your actions, etc. Tap frantically, choose your path, collect coins, weapons, use the shop...tons of quick decisions to make!

+ Great pixel art
+ Potentially clever idea
+ Different characters to unlock
+ Dungeons change a bit each playthrough

- Spiders and bridges
- Repetitious music (although you can turn off)

± Difficult
± Mixed feelings on the downward scroll
± "Wimp" mode childish dev response to actual difficulty scaling challenges

All in all, a cool idea but could be executed so much better. Sometimes captures a frantic flow and near death escapes. However, I died a lot so the frustration can ramp up pretty quick; especially with those pesky spiders. Seems like a pretty steep curve to really master as you have to interpret enemy movements very quickly!

Score: 5.5

While it may look kinda neat on the surface; a cute pixel art version of Breakout set in a fantasy world with spells, treasure, etc. the game has some serious issues and ultimately led to a frustrating experience.

1. The paddles controls are just OK, nothing amazing; hard to change direction...
2. The levels are all kind of the same, similar layouts; nothing really noteworthy builds as you 'progress'
3. Enemy projectiles can be blocked but then you go on a timer that prevents you from blocking more (you take damage); this leads to a 'trickle' effect where you're constantly needing health just to offset the projectile damage.
4. Most spells feel fairly inconsequential; the fireworks is random...not very useful for later in the round when the blocks are mostly broken.
5. Everything from character upgrades to the level design to the enemies to the spells...it all feels a bit underdeveloped.

Lastly, I just ended a session where I had these two priest enemies constantly healing the enemy healthbar back to the top. One would resurrect the other before I had time to kill them off. That combined with my ball ending up in a side to side bounce with such a small gradient that I was waiting minutes for it to come down back to the paddle. Meanwhile, they healed to full health, spawned more enemies. All the bricks were long gone, just me left in some psychotic pong game trying to hit the other side of the level while it gets healed back to full health....I dunno; left me pretty annoyed. So yeah...!

Neat idea, cool pixel art. Execution is not quite there. Save your dollars for something else.

Having the playtested the first 4 chapters, I can say that SCHiM is definitely a neat idea executed quite well.
You play a lil' shadow with googly eyes separated from it's 'delivery dude' owner (or something) and your goal is traversing the shadows around you to return to your rightful place.

Of course shadows themselves come in all shapes and sizes, they change and stretch with the movement of light. I appreciate how the art and design celebrates a familiar phenomenon and makes a fun mini-game out of it.

The controls are simple and I didn't find the 'hop from x to y' puzzling too difficult. My brain often figured out where I needed to go quite quickly but then I had to work out the controls and mouse/controller presses (tried both) to make sure the jump worked.

I think that's where the game is weakest. Not too bad, but I feel like the jumping mechanic and the moment of connection with the shadows to be lacking just that small 'something'.

The palettes and outlines change and there seems to be some consideration in the early options for changing some of this stuff so that's a great sign. You can even modify some of the mechanics to affect difficulty (one jump instead of two, etc.)

All in all, I liked the atmosphere, contrasting art design, concept, and music. The gameplay wasn't thrilling but as far as a more casual relaxing 'puzzler' that simply invites you to enjoy its world, I think SCHiM is worth checking out for sure.

A welcome and memorable addition to the TETRIS continuum!

At it's heart, TE:C is a familiar and modern interation of TETRIS completely touched and enrobed by rich sound design and visuals. I've enjoyed playing in both VR and on my monitor, although I don't use the VR as much anymore it's always fun to return to play journey mode with the particles, dolphins, windmills, and countless other things flying past you as you stack your way into the next wormhole to see what the next experience will be...

Then you have quite a few modes. If you're more familiar with TETRIS than you will recognise many like the 40 line sprint or score attack. It even has NTSC score attack with older rules. You can change many of the options are usually pair your preferred mode with the theme of your choice. There are even some secret bonus levels (although not so secret anymore) that celebrate some of the past versions of TETRIS; very fun!

If you like to stack against others, or even co-operated, you can hope online and play with other people. The matchmaking can be a little inconsistent at times but for the most part you get a stimulation experience playing against other real thinking minds...you might do better than you think! Weekends bring events that change the modes slightly and create collective goals to achieve as you play with others (both solo or multiplayer).

Unlock avatars, and earn ranks; the achievements are based on skills I would say and while some are easy to obtain, the rarer ones do rely on much practice so if you simply must 100% a game then this will have you practising quite a bit!

I liked the soundtrack, it pairs very well with the in-game visuals and had enough diversity to infuse the core journey with lots of smiles and surprises. I liked not knowing what was next and also took pleasure in seeing my speed or strategy payoff with neat 4 line clear effects or shifting the entire palette based on speed level.

One thing that would be cool to see in the future is a new mode that allows you to play journey but cooperatively somehow (maybe even competitively).

If you find out that you really enjoy TETRIS or are very competitive and into the mutiplayer; consider looking into other versions like TETR.IO, NullpoMino7, and the TETRIS Grand Master series! I don't love the TETRIS Company these days but I do hope to see a continuation of TETRIS and many new versions being made, new variants, new themes and GFX styles!

TETRIS is awesome! Thanks for reading!

While I haven't yet achieved 100% in Tiny Rogues, I have finally taken the throne.
I've experienced quite a bit of content; bosses, weapons, characters, cinder levels, secrets, etc. to write a bit about the game.

First off, Tiny Rogues is a very tight and polished 'retro' experience. It's got elements of The Binding of Isaac, Dark Souls, extreme bullet hell moments, many references to pop culture, and a great NES graphical style. I get the impression that this is a labor of love.

In around 30 hours of gameplay I have never once hit a bug or crash. The game starts up quickly, runs smoothly and includes plenty of options for visibility and gameplay tweaks. You can play with KBM or controller, interchanging flawlessly. Controller includes an auto-aim feature that can make the game a bit easier for some, and it's got some twin-stick behavior for certain weapons. I personally used mouse and keyboard for most of my playthroughs and had no problem absorbing the controls.

It's certainly fast paced. With numerous stats, traits, enchantments, potions, and other buffs interacting in complex ways the game can quickly oscillate between you feeling like a weapon of mass destruction to sheer moments of bullet hell terror as your brain desperately tries to process what is even happening room-by-room.

That being said, this game can become insanely difficult. With maximum 'cinder' levels (difficulty enhancers/modifiers) in conjunction with the deeper floors I found at times I literally couldn't even take in the amount of particles, colors, flashes, and bullets on the screen. While it can result in hilarious moments, I've definitely experienced some frustration feeling like I died deep into my run with little chance. Compared to an intense shmup this game seems a lot more random with often so many patterns overlapping you wonder where the heck you should've moved.

However, the many classes and the variety of runs do allow for quite a few hours of enjoyable gameplay. If you're set 100%'ing this game, I wouldn't expect to blast through it. With the Heaven and Hell update, there is even more to do, with added classes, floors, bosses, and more.

It's priced at 12$ in my region and I think that is great value for a great game. Difficult yes, but fun and full of great humor and style. I recommend checking out some videos (try to avoid spoilers) to see if the bullet hell aspect will be an enjoyable challenge for you or a hindrance.

Curious to see what RubyDev does next! Thanks for reading.

キュレーターページ

Stumbled across this one through a friend in the activity feed. Immediately captivated by the visuals and music!

These Gnorps are cute and funny to watch as they toil away trying to smash up the rock. Very simple concept (break rock, get shards, Gnorp paradise) but allows for many approaches in terms of what you build and what sequence.

It's quite active and engaging if you want, but press the 'screensaver' button at your leisure or even ALT-TAB to do some other things and your operations will still continue. Not usually a fan of IDLER games but this one has a nice balance I enjoy.

The music is great, ranging from nice songs to familiar chip-tuned classical pieces.

+ Great optimization (read the devs posts; great stuff)
+ Solid blend between idling and playing
+ Quirky and appreciated sense of humor (tooltips are funny!)
+ Original and unique world/idea
+ Good price for gameplay

In conclusion, you can't go wrong purchasing this game if it doesn't put you off through the GFX or idle elements; it's a great time diving in, learning the systems and sitting back to watch the Gnorps throw themselves into their singular purpose with abandon.

Seems like an active and friendly developer with a good community behind it. Looking forward to the "Gnorps In Space" expansion! Thanks for reading!