Janosik 2

Objectively this is not very good. It's super easy, it has glitchy aspects, the graphics are meh, the music is repetitive. But subjectively, I enjoyed it a lot. It's a great palette-cleanser to play when you've accidentally played three tough turn-based tactics games in a row. It reminds me of Flash-era metroidvania, like Robot Wants Kitty - it's not *about* being challenging, it's just having fun, and the myriad secrets and completely unnecessary upgrades make it fun. You don't even need a lot of the "key" powerups - the "stick an axe in the wall to form a platform" makes it so with a little skill you can get anywhere it looks like you're only supposed to get to with the later wall-climb or wind-gust-catch powerups. The gold is completely excessive, I bought all the powerups and still had over 10000 spare gold at the end (and many of the powerups I bought *after* defeating the final boss, so they weren't necessary either). If you have all the health boosts you can pretty much just tank through all the boss fights without even dodging anything. All of this is to say, it's a very relaxing casual play, and it's fun to have one of those occasionally. Possible warning for Linux users, none of the achievements registered for me - I tried switching to proton vs. native after I'd already finished it, and it seems that disconnected my save file. I didn't try again from there, so I don't know if proton version from the start would have had working achievements. It's also possibly related to the snap install of Steam, maybe it would work native outside of that.

I love how this game respects my time, hubworld & levels are full of shortcuts as you get further into them, and levels usually only have "you'll need a new ability for this" 1 level before you get the ability required, maps show all secret areas so once you get the map it's easy, and while the boss fights can be a little BS, you are constantly given more than enough potions and hearts to just tank them if you want.

This game reminds me of the Apogee platformers from the shareware days in the early 90s. It's a fun, tight platformer with some (lite?) metroidvania elements thrown in and large levels littered with secrets and gold. It really tickles that lizard portion of my brain that likes to hear a string of chimes as I pick up collectables throughout the level. It's pretty tight and fast too, so you feel like you're flying through levels (and once you find Janka, you can really move!). The game's story is also kind of funny, with some silly, yet endearing characters. Love the cutscenes. The game picks up where Janosik 1 left off, which is free on Steam. Give that a try first if you're not sure if this is for you. You can probably clear the first game in 2 hours or less. Much of the gameplay is similar in Janosik 2, so if you liked the first one, you'll probably like this as well. Not too challenging for someone who's used to platformers, but a lot of fun and enjoyable use of time. Recommend if you like platformers with a lot of loot to collect, or are looking for something short yet satisfying. :)

Awesome!! I've only played the first couple of levels but so far it is a great game. I hope I don't end up collecting all of this gold for nothing though. The jump mechanic is a tad bit sloppy but I'm looking at it in relation to the graphics... meaning, the graphics are old school, so the jump mechanic is old school. But I still give this game two thumbs up and look forward to playing through it all. For less than $5 this is perfect!

Quite an excellent hybrid of a casual platformer with a metroidvania. Graphics took a little getting used to, but were ultimately fine. Highlights are the superb movement controls, general speed and fluidity of play, and the level design, with tons of fun little secrets. More exploration than challenge either in platforming or combat; bosses are absurdly easy once you've gotten a few upgrades. Metroidvania elements are quite minor but still enough to create a whiff of progression.

Polecam! I nie jest to akt czystego patriotyzmu, ani tym bardziej nostalgii (bo pamiętam jeszcze pierwszego, amigowskiego Janosika z lat dziewięćdziesiątych) - po prostu muszę przyznać, że gra jest niesamowicie... Miodna! Lekka, przyjemna, wciągająca. Poziomy są dobrze zaprojektowane. System zapisywania gry się sprawdza. Grafika ma swój urok, a muzyka klimat. Wszystko to dopełnia całkiem zabawnie rozpisana fabuła. Napisał to ktoś, kto wychował się na dziesiątkach, niejednokrotnie kultowych, amigowskich platformówek.

As someone with not a lot of free time to spend on games, Janosik 2 is an easy recommend for me. Based on some of what I saw in the trailer, I was worried that this might dip into masochistic precision platformer territory at points but was happy to have been wrong. I loved the constant feel of progression in both moving forward in exploring the world and in advancing the characters and their skills, the satisfaction of finding secret after secret that the game gleefully shovels your way if you're looking for them, the humor, the music, the sheer scope of the game with about half of the game being optional/hidden/secret levels. I deeply appreciated how there were only a couple instant-kill obstacles (and that they could be destroyed if I didn't want to tackle the platforming challenge they presented), plus how easy it was to jump in and out for a quick session or hang out for a couple hours if I had time, and how little progress you'd lose if you did die. The variety of gameplay options available between the four characters is great, and it's nice that you're usually free to choose at least one other character for how you want to tackle an obstacle rather than there only be one solution to a problem. And I adore the voices of the spearman most of all. In weird but good ways my brain made associations between this game and: Wiz 3 (the classic java game) for game feel, pixel aesthetic, and just general vibes. Flashback - for the cutscenes. And Magicians & Looters - for the writing and humor. The only negatives (which wasn't one for me, but may be for you) are that cloud saves don't seem to work at the moment, and that on Steam Deck the achievements do not trigger properly right now, so if that's important to you make sure you start and play through the whole game on your PC.