How did this happen?! This was the sequel to CHIBI KNIGHT. It had EVERYTHING going for it! Chibi Knight was like someone took Legend of Zelda II, gave it a fresh coat of paint, and fixed almost all the problems with it. This game is the unholy offspring of Megaman 1 and Castlevania: Simon's Quest, with ridiculous difficulty and far too many things to remember, some of which make no sense.
The game is ridiculously unfair. Incredibly dodgy hit detection for enemies, but if an attack comes within four feet of me, I am guaranteed to lose health. And you only get enough health to withstand four, maybe five attacks at MAXIMUM ARMOR UPGRADED. And to top it off, you only get 2-3 seconds of invincibility time. You could have AT LEAST offered a healing spell early on like the original Chibi Knight did.
Why did you suddenly decide that Chibi Knight wasn't hard enough? Chibi Kngiht was the perfect level of difficulty, standing right on the precipice of being unfair. Every time I died in Chibi Knight, I felt like it was my own fault, like I didn't level up enough or I needed to be more careful. Every time I died in this game, all I could think was "Well maybe if I had a reliable way to heal myself, I would do better!" And blocking does not help at all. First of all, blocking should make you invincible from both sides, since in almost all encounters you are being attacked from both sides. Second of all, you should be allowed to move while blocking. Maybe not jump, but at least move so you can get to better place to fight from. THAT'S THE WHOLE POINT OF BLOCKING.
Chibi Knight focused on the combat, which was quick and responsive since you were always in danger as long as there were any enemies around. For some stupid reason, it feels like this game focuses on the platforming, which is not at all it's strong suit. The double tap to slide mechanic is ridiculous and can't make up it's mind; I'm constantly sliding when I don't mean to, which throws me right into enemies. But then when it comes time to cross a wide gap by jumping and sliding (Which is an incredibly stupid and frustrating set of controls to pull off on it's own), It NEVER happens when I want it to. Hey, you know what would fix it? Giving me a different button to use instead of double-tapping a movement direction.
Comparing this game to the original Chibi Knight is like comparing Portal One to Portal Two. Portal One is so good because it didn't have a whole lot to work with, but it compressed so many good ideas into a short timespan and then finished off satisfyingly. And that wasn't done by choice; Portal was originally going to be much larger and more expansive but they ended up having to cut corners left and right until we got what was left over. And it was amazing! But then Portal blew up the way nobody expected it to, so they made Portal Two, which was given a much larger budget and a much longer development time. And while one isn't intrinsically better than the other, there was a certain shift in soul from Portal One to Portal Two. And it's exactly the same kind of thing for Chibi Knight and Super Chibi Knight (at least for me). It all depends on which one you played first as to which one will be your favorite.
I completely gave up by the time I reached the Red Guardian in the snake space ship whatever level. There's no checkpoint before I have to fight an incredibly unfair boss? Fuck. That.
-SN