บทวิจารณ์ล่าสุดโดย Kituss

Ghostland Yard is a precision platformer that looks good, sounds good and feels even better. If you wanted to be a bit crude, you could say it's a lot like a modern Super Meat Boy, but comparisons are a bit crass so let's go a bit deeper!
As of now in Early Access, it's got four worlds with 21 levels and a boss each, with four of these levels being unlocked by collecting enough hidden collectables. Each world adds new mechanics to the mix, ranging from saws to wind to cannons and launching rotating platformers - things get a bit crazy in later levels.

Maybe too crazy, actually, as the fourth world was by far the least enjoyable of the bunch. Whereas the first two were a bit on the easy side, world 3 was perfect difficulty-wise, with gold times that asked for a certain mastery over the game and fun collectables. World 4 adds a physics-based mechanic that's not terrible, but is hard to control and can feel sort of random, which makes both collecting the option item and going fast frustrating.

I hope that the next worlds added during Early Access are a better fit for Ghostland Yard than this one, because what's currently in the game is mostly great! Controls are tight, responsive and most importantly fluid - going fast is always rewarded by the level design being ready for you. Collecting gold medals isn't always easy but you feel that the game wants you to go fast. It looks and sounds wonderful as well with a bunch of varied environments and hazards.

This makes Ghostland Yard an excellent although slightly flawed precision platformer that I mostly had fun completing and will absolutely come back to during Early Access, which is rare enough for me to mention it. I recommend giving the demo a try and dropping ten bucks on it if you're a fan of the genre ; there aren't many other contenders right now, especially if you're looking for something to scratch that ancient Super Meat Boy itch.

24 Killers is a wonderful adventure that feels like a long-lost brother to moon: Remix RPG Adventure. It's got everything you're expecting and more: whimsical characters with crazy designs, fun dialogues and progressive gameplay.

What I mean by progressive is that the more you explore and interact with the game's characters, which are the inhabitants of an island you are saving from a collapsed mineshaft one by one, the more abilities you gain. The first of these is super strength, which gives you the ability to pick up heavy objects and access new roads, but others include jumping and gliding across huge gaps or running at breakneck speeds. As simple as they seem, these abilities make a weak and slow protagonist into a character that feels very free and liberating to use. It's not the main draw of the game, but it's still important and works in tandem with exploration.

The other main part of the game is collecting Whispers, the island's money, in order to trade it. You can trade it for items at a shop, weird gadgets with a mysterious traveler, and use it in quirky ways that I won't spoil. As the game progresses, you'll find more ways to gather more and more money - some being a bit meta, which I enjoyed! They are one of the main ways story progresses. The latter is surprisingly interesting despite its simple and quirky appearance.

I absolutely recommend playing 24 Killers. It's witty, strange, funny and unique - there's nothing else quite like it on Steam!

Germinal is a room-based precision platformer with air movement options, a serious story about mental issues and gorgeous pixel art. Let's get this out of the way: yes, it's a bit like Celeste. It's also very different in two ways that are its greatests strengths:

- Instead of a dash, your movement is based around a jetpack. This jetpack has very limited fuel and can be used for a double jump as well as gliding - a bit like Super Mario Sunshine's F.L.U.D.D. if the comparison makes sense. It's probably the best idea of the whole game! Platforming feels super fluid and permissive since you have a ton of control in the air, and the first chapter (out of a total of five, plus "hard modes") is a breeze.
However, the "precision" part of the precision platformer starts rearing its head quite fast in later chapters. Each of them includes a new mechanic that adds a lot of complexity to the traversal, ranging from blocks that are linked to your jumps/jetpack to jetpack-recharing midair bubbles. It's a lot to take in, but it's all introduced gradually so there's never too much to consider. Optional tokens can be collected in each level and are used to unlock hard mode stages.

- Germinal's story goes in a very different and yet even more contemporary direction. The main protagonist, Greg, is in the middle of a global pandemic and develops mysophobia - which I thought was the same as germaphobia, but it's a bit more nuanced as it's a fear of contamination. The end result is similar: Greg has to juggle with a lot of fears, stress and isolation as the pandemic progresses and his relationships are affected by his condition. It's a notably current story that covers an intriguing topic, and it's completely linked to the gameplay since Greg's jetpack doesn't contain water but disinfectant. Some of the mechanics, like soap bubbles or instant-death contaminating clouds, are pretty self-explanatory!

The game contains five chapters, has both accessibility options and hard modes, and takes about four hours to finish. The price is perfectly on point and it's an all around great experience - platforming is smooth, controls are tight, the story is both interesting and completely optional just like the challenges. It's an easy recommandation if you're a fan of platformers and one of 2023's best ones yet!

This review might be updated later - I just wanted to leave one more positive for Bobo The Cat because it deserves more recognition IMO. It starts extremely slow by design, and the first tens of minutes are kind of frustrating, but once you get the ability to run, everything starts snowballing into a varied and interesting moveset. I'm in the fourth area and I can run, jump, hover, dig and break rocks which makes exploration way more fun and frantic.

TLDR: The main takeaway of this review is that if you're interested in a new metroidvania game, don't be fooled by the weak start and just keep playing!

A competent, albeit slightly janky platformer in which the difficulty comes from the controls.

Controlling a jester on a unicycle leads to some awkward sliding that forces you to "stop and go" as you platform, which isn't too hard but can get a bit demanding when you also have to juggle with cannonballs, fire, spikes and other hazards. Later levels get a bit tough but stay fun. There are a hundred levels (+40 bonus ones), divided into 5 realms that each introduce new stuff: bouncing springs, cannons, falling hazards, fire...

All in all, Tightrope Theatre is one of Adventure Islands' most average platformers: it's not great, but it's cheap, fun and should last around an hour and a half at most. I recommend trying out some of their other titles like Total Party Kill which are a bit more interesting imo.

SokoFrog is on the easy side and the music is super annoying since it's a very short loop that doesn't change throughout the whole game. However, it's nice to look at with some very cute frog skins and introduces mechanics at a rapid pace which makes it interesting enough to play through for an hour or so. I love ice sliding puzzles and was delighted to find some here.
It's a good, cheap and very casual Sokoban game if you're not looking for something too complicated and relaxing! 🐸📦

Boots Quest DX is an adventure game in which you'll walk around, interact with people and pick up items. Most of these items will be useless, but not all: some are quest items for NPCs, some are little hats you can put on your character and some are boots that can increase your speed and stylishness.

It's a short game that has a simple goal: you want to find the Best Boots that came to you in a dream. There's nothing too complicated about it, and that's the most charming part of Boots Quest DX: it's pure, simple fun. Everything you can interact with has something to say, and it's always funny and charming. From a man who wants to find the best fern to a gang of tough sun baddies to a ghost merchant looking for futility, everyone's worth your time talking to them and maybe looking for an item that could help them. Most of the time, you'll be rewarded with boots that increase some of your stats, the main of which is the ability to go faster.

Zipping around the world once you get some speed upgrades and looking for secrets if super fun, and there are tons of secrets. I spent two hours on Boots Quest DX, finished the game and was surprised to see I was missing about 20% of the game's content after exploring what I thought was everything it had to offer.

I absolutely recommend giving Boots Quest DX a try at this asking price. It's got tons of charm and funny writing, it's pretty cheap, and it'll stick around in your mind for a bit!

Fun and quirky roguelike that can best be described as a The Binding of Isaac-like: four levels with around ten floors and a boss each, a final boss on top of that, 20-something items with various effects on stats such as damage, speed, rate of fire and health... It's very short but plays well and has a fun if slightly creepy atmosphere. Definitely recommend giving it a try on sale!

Flat Eye is an innovative mix between a resource management sim and a visual novel. While it’s not officially categorized as the latter of the two, its emphasis on story and character dialogues makes it a great candidate for the genre for reasons that will be explained later on.

First off, most of the game is spent managing a shop. It’s situated in a gas station in Iceland, and your objective is to make it profitable. This entails completing tasks to manage the shop, installing new modules, making sales and speaking to customers. As the game progresses, you unlock new and more interesting modules, starting with a soda machine and ending up selling virtual reality trips!
Despite being the main part of Flat Eye, it’s not my favourite – I’d say it’s serviceable at best. There’s no real problem with the shop sim, but it’s very basic and linear, with the best feature being the customisation. It’s where the game’s art, being all tech-y and smooth, shines the most as it makes for a presentation that goes very well with its narrative side. Despite that, there are moments where managing the shop feels monotone because you have to wait a long time between story beats.

Interestingly enough, Flat Eye shares a striking number of similarities to the visual novel genre. It’s not exactly one, as the meat of the game lies in the shop sim, but it’s developed enough that even its developers specify there is an “emphasis on story and narrative choices”. Several characters called Premium Customers can visit the shop if you have installed specific modules. These customers all have interesting character arcs, complete with an introduction, development and a conclusion that ask the player to make choices while thinking about big society questions. This is why Flat Eye is more of a narrative game that a management sim game in my opinion, and it’s perfectly fine that way – just don’t expect too much depth from the shop sim part.

All in all, Flat Eye is an easy recommendation. It’s not expensive, feels very refreshing thanks to its themes and setting coupled with an accessible shop sim gameplay that, while being too simple and repetitive, leaves space for the core of the game that is its narrative to shine. Its themes can be a bit heavy, but trigger warnings are provided and the subjects are treated well enough that meeting new characters and helping shape their life always feels rewarding. If you’re looking for a story-driven game in a dystopian setting, I absolutely recommend giving Flat Eye a try!

A very ambitious game with an interesting story in which you're a stranded archaeologist tasked with exploring a ruined city haunted by broken machines. If that seems like something you would like to play, give Niravasi a try - I was not a fan of its gameplay, but it's repetitive at worst and asks you to do some clever note-taking and shuffling around dark maps at best. The real draw is the story and atmosphere of the city which, while I won't spoil anything too big, is a bit reminiscent of some brutalist works such as the manga Blame! or the game NaissanceE. It's got a touch of horror, a lot of mystery and it feels great to explore.

I would absolutely recommend at least trying out Niravasi, since the prologue is quick to finish and you get into the real meat of the game way before the two-hour mark. There's nothing else quite like it!