Tres-Bashers

Fun game! Took me a little over 5 hours to beat the game (including bashing all monsters and finding all pages). But there were still a few things I missed, such as one minor weapon and I didnt get all the achievements. That said, its fun metroidvania with old school graphics and music but modern gameplay and quality of life design. The controls felt good other than the occasional accidental dash. The map is good with multiple ways to access certain areas. And if you are like me and see a place that "looks possible" to cheese your way to, this game will allow you to make the effort to get there :) If you like metroidvania games, this is a good game to enjoy for a week or two exploring its map and findings it secrets that won't overstay its welcome.

I really like this game. Was initially sold on how charming it looked, and it just kept delivering charm. All the way through. Now, sure, it looks like a game for the NES or Gameboy color, and if you're turned off by that, then this will most likely not be for you. Personally I grew up with these games, and I justify my nostalgia by saying I respect the visual simplicity, and how much it takes to create something that invokes the feeling of such games. Same with music, where it lands between goof and spook, reminiscent of Zombies Ate My Neighbour. The controls take a bit getting used to, and all negative reviews mention this specifically. Yes, you have to double-tap a direction to sprint, and you go at mach 10 when you do. You also have momentum, which makes stopping feel like the ground is covered with ice. You're locked in a direction when your flashlight is on, and you have to reveal an enemy with the flashlight in order to be able to do damage to it. All this combines to make combat unwieldy. And this will turn people off. My take is that I don't care and that combat is sick. It has this frenetic energy to it, where you're flying inbetween walls flailing your weapon trying to hit the enemies, frantically flickering your flashlight on and off to keep sight of the bastards. Some bosses last long enough to demand you actually have a base-level understanding of the movement, and can outlast them with damage. This is fine, this is what bosses are for: a test of your abilities in facing the challenges. Exploration is fun and challenging, you have to pay attention since the areas are designed to obfuscate certain parts behind changes in verticality, and some drops are very steep. So you might need to jump from another screen, into the next one, with enough height to land on a platform you couldn't see from that specific angle, but you spied from another. Yes, very convoluted, and once again this might turn people off. Regarding movement tech; its off the charts, with pivot jumps and slamming your weapon against the wall to send you flying even faster than you can sprint. It even has triple jump. Yeah yeah spoilers, but it needs be stated. IT HAS TRIPLE JUMP! Which means in this aspect, it is better than every other game that doesn't have triple jump. So Tres-Bashers win. And that is my take. This game is sick, and got my money's worth. It is weird and fun, and delivered on the charm is first showed me. Good stuff, buy it.