Insect Adventure

This game is in need of a few fixes, as it is a little bit of a mess when it comes to glitches and the like, but it's playable. It's mostly visual, but the game did also crash on me something like five times, and there were a few times where I was getting hit from afar. It's a bit of an odd one, but has its charm. There are some significant changes from the demo: you always run, having no option to walk; combat now locks Bugsy onto the enemy that he is striking with the hammer, rather than how most metroidvania melee works; and you can now switch between Bugsy and Mayo (who just straight up has a gun). It's also pretty cool how you can do so much out of order. I sequence-broke twice on a blind playthrough. There's even a spot in the extras menu, enticing you to try for a special ending (or a graphic, at least) for beating the game with 6% or less found items. Some of the music is pretty good too.

Definitely give it a shot-- despite its unassuming title, the game has a decent amount of depth. The art style might not be for everyone, but I can say from experience that it grows on you. I've bought it for two other friends too!

Heard about this game via word of mouth and I'm so glad that I checked it out! Insect Adventure offers some unique avenues for combat, that are so satisfying and yet simple enough to let good old-fashioned metroidvania exploration shine through. The combo meter mechanic was executed wonderfully - as your damage is dependent on how high your combo is, it's actually very rewarding to keep your combos going, and a bunch of the game's upgrades play around that. I won't lie, this game is janky. After replaying the game a bunch of times to get all of the game's achievements, I've seen a lot of funky stuff happening. But I wouldn't want that to scare people off of playing this game! Outside of one of the game's consumables (the Dragon Whistle) not working as intended half the time, it's very rare for the jank to actually get in the way of my enjoyment of the game. In a sense the game is encouraging you to break it - there are so many skips and secret routes available, and secret techniques to give yourself an edge. Finding them all will allow you to try the most prized and difficult run in the game, the low% run, where you can beat the game with as little as 4 out of the game's ~100 main items.

nice game!

Very fun metroidvania. Movement controls have been fixed and this game is just an enjoyable metroidvania all-round. Highly recommend. One thing to note is the demo is an older version of the game. Full game plays and looks better.

Better than silksong

It’s very rough around the edges and won’t convince anyone to start playing metroidvanias. The framework follows a standard template. This involves exploring the map, defeating enemies and gaining new abilities to push forward. These abilities are known as relics, and they teach your character new traversal skills or add something new to their arsenal. Although you begin with a hammer capable of destroying some walls, you gradually acquire different weapons that may or may not be more useful. Augments are another significant mechanic. Unlike relics, which are always accessible, augments require a certain amount of slots to become active. The challenge is that you only have six vacant slots to begin with. This urges you to focus on just activating the best possible augments. This is very difficult because every augment looks extremely useful. For instance, once you activate faster dash and higher jumps, you practically won’t be able to live without them. In my opinion, traversal augments should be placed under relics because it’s very annoying when you need to switch them all the time. The game's currency is leaves. Although killing enemies is the most common method to get them, this is not always guaranteed. The problem is that they fall slowly and you only have a little time to grab them. If they reach the bottom of the screen, they're gone. What makes them even more useful is that they heal you for free. All you have to do is grab one to restore one of your lost health slots. Since enemies respawn when switching screens, you can grind for them easily. Consumables can also be dropped by enemies, although they are unimportant because you can only carry so many. Now, the art style is unique but it’s very basic and crude. Different biomes or parts of the world don’t really stand out thanks to unique features. It’s feels more like a palette swap with one or two extra, such as grass for jungle stage. Combat and animations might be the main reason why the game isn’t for you. Although the dodge or roll move is a very powerful ability, the combat isn’t satisfying. The reason is because you’re only mashing the attack button until enemies blow apart. Movement is fast and there’s no real strategy involved. Luckily, there’s no contact damage, so you can rush straight at an enemy and start hitting. The only thing you need to watch out for are attack animations. The other issue is weird overall feel that points to lack of polish. This can be noticed in how you travel across the game’s world. Your characters goes into this jittery loop animation every time you walk into a wall or a tight space. Unfortunately, this can lead to game-breaking moments. One occurred right after you get a spider web; I got pulled and clipped right through a wall. You have no other choice but to return to the most recent save. Saving, by the way, is done at special flowers scattered around the map. The game takes pride in breaking sequences. This means that your abilities allow you to reach areas that aren’t possible in a normal game. This, however, can get you stuck. I dropped down to find a great upgrade while exploring one part of the map. But I couldn't get out since I didn’t have the ability to grab platform edges. This can make you waste a lot of progress for doing what metroidvanias are all about: exploring. I like when the game rewards you with lots of achievements for simply playing the game and exploring everything it has to offer. This one has bad achievements because more than half want you to play the game in a way that’s not fun. I recommend you play it once on normal and forget that achievements even exist.

If you like metroidvanias, BUT find Hollow Knight too much dark - THIS is the game for you! Jokes aside, I loved the whole set up of the game - and for me at least, It is like light-paced Hollow Knight. The soundtrack is very good, the explaration is fun, the battle is nice, and it have a very unique handdrawn art style! The game may have some graphic issues (on the map) and a few bugs, but it's nothing enough to game-breaks! So I STRONGLY recoemnd this one!! OH YEAH!