Holua's Arcades

Everything in this game is a good idea in theory but I can't say I fully enjoyed anything in it. The idea that it's a demo for a larger game that you play to get credits for four smaller arcade titles is very smart, but that main game it's demoing really doesn't play all that well (though the backgrounds look really nice). The four arcade games are the star here though, so I hoped they'd be worth it and to be blunt I don't know if this was worth the dollar and change I paid. The best of the four is Peng Peng, a very Taito-esque single-screen action platformer with a lot of smart mechanics (carrying one ice block with you, each block freezing enemies in 8 directions around it) and a meaty number of levels with some decent minigames you can skip a few with. However, the oddly stiff jump and inconsistent collision on the platforms holds it back. It also has the best graphics of the four games with charming sprites and great animations. Heist of the Ninja is fairly short but is a decent example of a semi-modern stealth concept made into a single-screen retro arcade game. Taking time to search each spot and having limited ammo keeps it somewhat interesting and the controls are the best of anything in the package in terms of responsiveness but given how short the game is at 10 smallish stages compared to Peng Peng's 40 or the 4 long stages of the other two it's limited. Don't Mess With Rick had me the most interested due to me loving beat-em-ups but it has a lot of pain points. I do really think the core mechanics of the game are solid enough where you roll or jump or block (read: parry) enemy strings to get hits in while building a meter for specials of varying cost, but the timing and hitboxes for everything feel wildly inconsistent. Some enemies I got the parry window every time without issue but couldn't always get a punish with the same timing, other enemies will just not consistently have a window either at the start or the middle; plus enemies will duck your attacks at seemingly random intervals which sometimes can be hit with a Kick or Crouch attack and sometimes can't. That could be a skill issue or an instance of needing a different approach which sometimes works, but the MUCH larger issue is the hazards. Hazards are extremely finnicky and you can be knocked from one into another that your wakeup roll doesn't protect you from, and the platforming is absolutely horrid. There is a sequence on Stage 2 where you need to jump across pillars of increasing height which genuinely requires you to be so far ahead that your entire character sprite save one pixel of your heel is off the platform, and THEN do a forward jump, but because of the insanely large buffer for the roll (feels like 45-60 frames) trying to inch your way into that position will kill you instantly unless you press once per second. The Stage 3 boss is actually really fun though. Crescent Moon is just an outright very bad shmup. The powerup system is remarkably basic but workable, but the level design is just awful. Enemies which are huge static sprites will just fly at you without warning as a knowledge check when none of your upgrades carry over upon death (including speed which you need for some dodging sequences) and there are full-blown checkmate moments in the level design where you figure it out fast enough or just die. Stage 3 has trusses that kill you instantly that blend very closely into the background and that's before some fall on you. Stage 4 is an extremely fast autoscroller that is JUST terrain traps like that. While I did try to complete the others as best I can in spite of everything thrown at me, by the time I reached the double first boss moment into the final boss I just rammed myself into the bosses with my i-frames and credit dumped; given how freely you can get crebits outside I have to imagine most of these games are meant to be beaten this way. I hate to be so negative towards an indie dev that had an idea this cool for a game and had some really interesting mechanics for most of the games but everything here just felt bad to play and lacking in any passes for balance or polish.