I was very impressed by this game! At first, I couldn't understand it. It seemed like nothing was happening. As we got more levels, it made more sense. I don't know if it's quite the same level. Well, the environment is changed.
It really is very creative. I like the sounds and the cool graphics. The colors are nice and bright. I got to three loops. I'd like to know who has the record. Well, there aren't many playing it at the moment.
Its a pretty cool concept.
I got a bug to report. While I was figuring out how to own the stage with the electric teddybear it suddenly changed its sweet electric beam into the single shot of contra which is WEAK AS SHIT! XD
It stayed like that even in the round after. Then I quite the game and wrote a review. Cheers!
To put in my two penn’orth in the discussions about difficulty…
Well, I’m afraid You’d consider me a newschool n00b, since Cancelled Refuge is really much of a challenge for me… But still, tbh, I’m developing a liking for difficult games and will be the first to admit that many (not all) today’s games are too easy, both Indie games and mainstream ones. Can’t handle real Nintendo Hard yet – though, I’m making my slow progress on titles like the original Far Cry on Realistic, or some Bullet Hell games (on easier difficulties, though…)
In time I’ve developed my own way of thinking about what difficulty should look like. I suppose you won’t agree with me, but tbh I don’t like the fact that you cannot save in between loops in Cancelled Refuge. Look – I know I can pass Loop 2 for example, and even a few subsequent loops, and having to repeat this time and time again to reach those loops that pose a real challenge for me is most tedious and boring. The better I am with the game, the longer it takes me to reach the difficult loops, and therefore, the more annoying the game becomes.
In contrast, if the game could save in between loops, I could treat it like a series of increasingly difficult tasks in a book of riddles. Or mathematical exercises. Having passed one riddle, I can focus on the subsequent one, without having to solve all previous ones again.
You'd probably say that this would make the game too easy. I don’t know if these loops go ad infinitum, but – I think this wouldn’t. If they are enough possible to pass loops, then everyone sooner or later would hit their wall, and become stuck at loop they cannot pass. In addition, such a setting could allow to gamify even the early loops – you could set up per-loop and per-character highscores based on time taken to beat that specific loop.
You say in the standalone Windows version of the game you deny in-between loop heart regeneration. Assuming everything else is identical to the Flash version, then this IMHO won’t make the game slightly more difficult – it will make the game much more difficult and horribly more annooying. And will prevent many folks from reaching these loops they might actually find difficult and interesting, if the punishment for carelessness early-on is permanent.
Look, I’d honestly argue for giving all characters only one heart (therefore, demanding perfection) – but while allowing in-between loop saving.
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Oh, an by the way, I confirm the bug with HUEY 2X4B’s primary gun. It tends to suddenly switch to a much weaker gun, that of CONTRA’s, and this persists even in subsequent loops, and even if you die and start the stage again from loop 1.
Notbad
So this was notbad of a game here and had some fun with this one the art and graphics are cool the game controls are nifty and are smooth so I had fun with this one
~~THINGS TO IMPROVE ON~~
A creative game that does not need much changes at this time
~X~
You did a decent job making this look like a NES game. Being able to edit your controls is always the right move. You did a great job with the looping theme. Some of the characters seem to be stronger than others. You could always have included more power ups.