Sir Noggin

Cute characters and nice colorful pixel art but they can’t hide the fact that the gameplay is overly repetitive, and often feels deliberately frustrating because enemy placement is almost always hostile in a way that is designed to interrupt me. I can seldom make a smooth jump across a gap or onto a platform without an enemy suddenly appearing or dashing at me the moment I press the jump button. I completed the game in less than an hour, but the experience was never enjoyable because I constantly had to stop, lure, kill, wait, and repeat. Each area includes 3 stages, the first 2 are so similar they really should be made into one, and you still need to pass through similar maps again to face the boss in the end. On top of that, the game lacks consistency, for example, the spiked ceiling in the lava area appears in one room, disappears in the next, and then shows up again later without adding anything. Besides, many areas feel too similar with nearly identical enemies. I pushed myself to keep going, the snowy mountain level feels a bit better with at least strong wind that slows movement, but the rest are nothing fresh. The boss fights are disappointing. Aside from the final boss, the others are merely oversized versions of regular enemies with long health bars. Their attack patterns are simplistic, making the gameplay tedious and boring. By the end the game left me with an impression that the developers know how to create nice visuals, but not how to design a good gameplay. [u] [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/43342176-Why-Not-Games/#browse] My curator page[/url][/u]

Soy un seguidor fiel de Sinclair Strange desde que probé por primera vez uno de sus juegos: ALIEN SPLATTER REDUX. En cuanto lo jugué, me pareció una auténtica joya oculta de Steam, imprescindible para cualquier amante de los títulos retro con mecánicas y estética inspiradas en los clásicos de la NES. Entre todos mis amigos fui el único que supo apreciar el verdadero potencial de este diseñador, y pasé horas analizando cada detalle de su jugabilidad y diseño. El juego me fascinó, aunque todavía lo tengo pendiente de completar: me quedé atascado en un jefe y no lo he vuelto a intentar. Sin embargo, la obra que tenemos hoy supera incluso aquella experiencia, con un nivel gráfico y un colorido increíbles que evocan los mejores tiempos de los salones recreativos. Al principio me ha parecido bastante sencillo, pero imagino que, conforme avance, la dificultad irá aumentando. Títulos como este son los que me hacen amar el PC. De hecho, mi última adquisición ha sido un equipo sencillo, de menos de 500 euros, únicamente para poder disfrutar de este tipo de juegos con pixel art clásico. No soy muy aficionado a los juegos en 3D; perdónenme, pero me considero de la vieja escuela. Aunque mi habilidad como jugador no sea la mejor, no pienso apartarme de esta línea de videojuegos. Si alguien revisa mi biblioteca de Steam, verá que la mayoría de mis juegos siguen este estilo. Alguno que otro en 3D lo tengo por mis sobrinos, para que puedan jugar y experimentar distintos géneros, pero yo solo tengo ojos para esos gráficos. Amo el pixel art, y Sinclair Strange es uno de mis autores favoritos. Alien Splatter Redux, Crypt Stalker, Jet Gunner, Fist Slash: Of Ultimate Fury, Sir Noggin son juegos que avalan avalan mis palabras. Gracias por crear estas joyas imprescindibles.

This one's a bit easier than Sinclair Strange's other games, I managed to get all achievements (finish all levels without dying, beat all challenge stages, beat boss rush) in under ninety minutes and that included me taking breaks to do some chores. The presentation is great, with Kirby inspired graphics and sound. For $2 I have no room to complain when the product's this well made, but I couldn't shake the feeling that as a 2D challenge hound this just wasn't made for me.

Sir Noggin name-drops the Master System as its inspiration, and I can see it - at least aesthetically. The orange checkerboard pattern of its first 'zone' is straight out of classic Sonic, and it has a bright, chunky visual style across the board that evokes something like Alex Kidd or Psycho Fox. A lot of the actual design of the environmental visuals and enemies, though, reminds me more of Kirby's Adventure than anything on the Master System. In any case, Sir Noggin is a pretty straightforward 2D platformer. I got through the main mode in 90 minutes without particularly rushing, and while there are some challenge modes, those aren't really my thing. It's a perfectly fine game, but not a memorable one either. It leans very heavily on the nostalgia of its aesthetic to carry it, and it works well enough for the game's brief run time, but it doesn't do anything uniquely its own either.

A wonderful 8bit Style Platformer!

First things first: Sir Noggin is very short and very easy. I was able to 100% the game (including all achievements) in just over an hour and a half. This is not a game that is going to engage you over a long period of time and offer a lot of replay value. Having said that... I love it! The pixel art is vibrant and pleasant to look at, with heavy visual inspiration from Sonic and Kirby. The chip tunes are great and suit the action very well. The controls are solid. The sub weapons offer a bit (and [i]just[/i] a bit) of strategy. The zones offer just enough gimmicks to feel different from each other. The bosses are fun (and there's a boss rush mode). There are extra challenges to beat outside the main game (unique stages built around time limits, limited life and having no weapons). Despite the game's short length, it feels like effort went into it and it's quite fun to play. I love retro-styled games that evoke the 8-bit era, and Sir Noggin is a polished gem that I enjoyed quite a bit despite its short length and lack of challenge. It's also quite cheap (particularly on special) so it's easy to get one's money's worth out of it. Recommended for fans of retro gaming.

Great music by Coda, very cute art. Pretty easy, got the no death achievement in every act on my first playthrough (except 1, which i was testing to see how it handled deaths). I definitely did die a couple times though, so i'm not sure why i got them Unlocked some custom-challenge-levels outside the main game which seem tough and have a unique tileset / song, so i'll be going back in to do those soon. Has some lack-of-buffer annoyances which cause you to not swing your sword again unless your timing is perfect, and you seem to not always jump at the edge of a platform, but it's a fun little action platformer, and def worth the price for the music alone, imo.