Well, I'm hesitant to review this piece both on the grounds that it is emulating retro nearly to a point of fault, and that I'm not encouraged any further upon seeing a lot of salty responses to reviews lying around. Reasonable and well written enough, sure, but definitely feels like a bit of lashing out. I hope I'm wrong.
I guess I'll list pros because I'm absurdly tempted to list cons off the bat. I think we can agree reviewing both sides of the coin is the better option, of course.
Pros:
-Not bugged in any major sense I can find.
-Good art and soundtrack, and it seems like a fun world portrayed and played through.
-Not an absolute cookie cutter retro piece, despite its many function throwbacks.
-Challenging enough to make its (relatively slim) content potentially last much longer, given the player has absurd patience. Sadly given the reviews I've seen in the first two pages, it seems a good chunk of the demographic receiving this piece don't share such a trait, whether by age or by disinterest I'll leave up to you.
Cons:
-Poor clarity. There is no tutorial level to speak of, or any other in game method to find out the controls, and this is a colossal ass pain. One might argue the controls are so simple and/or flash game trope based they can be guessed or are in themselves retro. However, considering both the high level of difficulty and the fact that guessing occurs over an entire keyboard, this often devolves into poor execution of clarity. I totally guessed controls from experience, knew to check for anything else in the NG desc, and quickly saw the control menus and etc, but for people who just want to walk into a game and get the information they need in the game, directly and as a new player, this is counter intuitive.
-Dashing isn't described anywhere I can find period. I found this out by reading reviews. Dashing is never listed that I can find, and even the game's NG desc makes no mention of it. I assume this was a bit of absent mindedness and/or a bit of assumption that this sequel will be pitched to people who usually know of the first. As a person who doesn't know of the first, this just leaves me asking why.
-Found a couple places where enemies just blend into background too readily, probably due to similar colors and especially saturation values.
-Cheap stage design from hell. Once again, while it is retro, having enemies respawn every single time you doddle off screen for a moment's notice and having them prearranged to kick your ass savagely from the get go is a real rough go of things.
FRAGMENT RANT:
Maybe I'm a bastard for starting with the upper left first, instinctively, but I found a wall tank shooting through platforms, hitting me, knocking me down and back, and by the time I walk over to the platform again him and his buddies have respawned and I'm primed to get hit by the same combo again. I wouldn't mind this if it weren't for the fact that for most people, by pure instinct, the upper left is the level they choose to start, only to find out that respawning, floating enemies are shooting bolts down on their hands en masse from the very start, and then letting those bolts split into schockwaves to further mess with you. Also said enemies don't die from a single charged hit likes some enemies from the "first" level do, so trying to strike early is virtually useless and will probably just get you shot.
-So, the controls menu doesn't have an arrow indicating which thing you're floating over. As a guy that prefers visual aid more than colors, I sat there mashing enter for almost 30 seconds because I didn't know I was inputing a "enter controls" command instead of an "exit" command.
I want to take a moment to refocus that I can tell this game is well made and it has a LOT going for it, but it has the polish of sand paper to me as I walk into the experience. I play retro plenty often, and even prefer it in a good handful of cases vs newer or similar installments.
For all my instincts, this game is confusing, unclear, and has zero concept of foreplay, moreso than most retro games even. And that's a statement. Further, I find that once I figure out what the hell I'm doing, the task set before me is time consuming, will almost certainly need dozens of attempts, and is pretty sadistic seeming in nature. That's not bad or anything, but the seeming scarcity of content, lack of empowerment to the player, and the laborious need to claw your way back up every time you die emphasizes those previous two points painfully well.
To me, this game is very minimally entertaining yet wants me to invest much time, blood, sweat, and tears into the process to accomplish much of anything.
I feel very safe saying that much could be learned from the similar (yet later nerfed) asslevania: son of the butt. It had clarity, it had empowerment, it had a good degree of content, and it was sadistically hard in a sense that made you want to push ahead further, while still throwing back a fun handful of things that were homage to castlevania itself.
Personally, a 4/10. Objectively, a 6/10.
~WCCC
