Останні рецензії користувача CMYKoi

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Fun, original, colorful, rogue elements, modular shipbuilding...REALTIME modular shipbuilding...what's not to love here?!


+Gameplay: Fast and satisfying. It feels just as good to destroy as it does to narrowly win.
+Graphics: Loving those neon blocks and creative color palettes!
+Audio: The music is good and blowing things up is satisfying.
+UI: Beautifully minimal and efficient.
+Roguelite: Embrace death, and do better next time. It's fun to die!
+Genius: Why has there never been a game where you have to build in real time while fighting?
+Charm: It's cute, and knowing it is a made up game between two kids makes it a little easier to take deaths less seriously.

-Progression: Sometimes the balance is a bit off on kits, potentially even just because you won't get enemy parts due to blowing them all up.
-Story: Could be slightly more engaging/structured.

+/-There needs to be more! This concept could be pushed SO far!


Captain Forever Remix is a game that makes no pretense; it is all about the gameplay. If you like games where you get to custom build your ships, salvage enemy parts, and experiment with various designs to wreak havoc in creative ways, it is the game for you.

The most distinct feature of Captain Forever Remix is the modular ship building, much like legos, you pop on blocks and parts with various purposes. Unlike everything else, however, you do it in realtime, while any enemy could walk up and attack you. You may be fighting two enemies, kill one, and then quickly pop on the weapons or armor gained from it to kill the other.

This is a really fun, engaging, and original concept, and I'd love to see it go above and beyond this game to potential future titles or projects from the developer. It is one of those pieces that amounts to more than its individual worth in tandem with other parts, and it increases the worth of other parts, too.

At any rate, you will be kept on your toes, at times enraged, and at times filled with adrenaline while trying to hastily add to or rebuild your ship in the middle of chaos. The mechanics for momentum are quite nice, as you can use various types of boosters to propel yourself forward, turn more efficiently, or brake yourself or your turns. You could also put boosters on all sides of your ship and it can be omnidirectional.

There are a good mix of weapons present, each of them satisfying in their own way, and encounters are most of the time quick and fun. There are just a few problems, though. If you don't keep your ship very fast at turning, you can end up in perpetual spinfights, sometimes destroying all of everyone's pieces (but there being a couple left) they will eternally run away from you becasue they have 3 strong boosters sitting around. Another issue is that you can at times get ships two levels above you, that will completely wreck you, or say, when you use mines, at first it spawns in all ships that use mostly mines, and you just end up blowing each other up. Little things like that, usually easy to work around, or can be avoided if you get good, but present and slightly annoying nonetheless. All in all, it's very fun, though!

So to start with, the backgrounds used in Captain Forever Remix are beautiful, and I love the brightly colored neon blocks. The character designs are also cute and colorful, although a bit simplistic. The weapon effects are distinguishable and satisfying. The particle effects are also quite colorful and lovely. Everything is very bright, colorful, kid friendly, and looks good...and that's about all there is to say about that, really.

I really like the music in Captain Forever Remix. It reminds me of Birdy Nam Nam a bit. Some more tracks definitely wouldn't hurt, though, and some of the weapon sounds are a bit loud, and can drown out other sounds.

The audio present in CFR is pretty sparse, though, so that's all I can think of to mention!

Your kids will love this. The kid in you will love this. It's happy, colorful, bright, and fun. You can't go wrong with purchasing this title. The story should take you anywhere from 5-10 hours to complete and unlock all kits. I'd like to see additional gamemodes in the future to add to the longevity, but either way, you will get your money's worth!


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TL;DR: I don't care if this review gets attention or not, the steam rating for this game deserves every single hit it takes, and it deserves for people to proactively take those shots.

Amongst many indie games that didn't quite reach their ambitions, didn't have the funding, or shot themselves in the foot, I find the steam community usually has things covered. Reviews often mention pros along with cons, or will admit if something is redeeming or good. You might hear that the mechanics are great but content is lacking, for example.

Amongst many AAA games from greedy publishers, or with terrible quality, or maybe even just a poorly done port, I find the steam community often always has it covered. Sometimes, I think the steam community just likes to ♥♥♥♥ on things, and do it hard and dirty, and some things unfairly get a bad rap, or the rap lasts a little longer than it needs to.

I have never, ever felt the need to put up a negative review for a game. Most of the games I go for have some redeeming or unique quality, if I don't find them to be wholly good. Other things, usually have the reputation they deserve.


But this...

Overkill, you absolutely deserve absolutely every negative review you get.

More than that, you don't just deserve what you get...you are so deserving, that I think people should go out of their way to make sure you know how the gaming community feels about these kinds of business practices. Even if it doesn't effect their personal experiences with the game much.

• Got it as a gift? Doesn't matter.
  
  
• Only have one hour in the game? Doesn't matter.
  
  
• Never bought any of their blatant advertisement DLC? Doesn't matter.
  
  
• Maybe you just think this ♥♥♥♥ is bound to happen eventually, and shake your head. No, ♥♥♥♥ that, doesn't matter.

They deserve to know this isn't right, no matter who you are, how much, or what you've invested.
Don't let this go.

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While many find this JRPG to be on the easy side, it is still fun and varied, with an engaging combat system and a refreshingly good sense of progression.


+The Main: While the cliche "Just let me sleep/eat!" type, I am so glad he isn't an unsufferable whiny baby that never takes initiative. He isn't afraid to tell people off and doesn't opt into heroic deeds mindlessly.
+Combat: There is a wide variety of spells and skills, and the combo system is great.
+Art: The character portraits are varied, distinct, and well constructed.
+UI: It might not be the most minimal UI, but it is well thought out, looks nice, and has a lot of options for easy navigation (excluding page up/page down requirement.)
+Sound: Satisfying navigation sounds...and...come on, that music though.
+Dynamic: There are ways to change the difficulty, types of mobs, and rewards you encounter.
+Progression: Every levelup really feels like it makes you better, and there are so many things you can upgrade and level.
+Convenience: You can skip animations and dialogue with ease!
+Save Slots: Thankfully, as is standard, there are plenty to use.
+Settings: Plenty to mess around with.
+Tutorial: While at first a bit obtrusive in the "Try walking to walk!" sense, it is actually very comprehensive, and you will have zero holes in your knowledge of how to play. This also makes the game EXTREMELY kid friendly.

I wish to state these are minor, except the last two.
-Story: Relatively generic, but it does have its good points.
-Dialogue: Tropes and lack of inspiration abounds. However, I like the references, and I think some of it is meant to be in the spirit of parody.
-Camera: It sort of moves on its own...slowly, and you can move it yourself...slowly.
-Performance: This is a VERY minor con, but there are ocassional slowdowns when loading an area, and expect to potentially wait a bit if you tab out of the game.
-Strategy: Or the lack thereof. Unfortunately resistances, normal attacks, and weaknesses are not differentiated enough to make you REALLY hurt if you don't plan, and often party positioning is of very little significance.
-Fodder: The regular mobs quickly become walking goodies and experience that pose little threat. As you progress, most of the bosses will also enter this category.

+/- While the level design in terms of art can be fairly varied, unfortunately, many assets or whole levels are recycled. So I'm a bit mixed on this one.
+/- Fanservice: While almost always tame (excluding harley...) it does exist.



Welcome to Fairy Fencer F...yep, that's a name! In Fairy Fencer F, the big bad and the big good fought a long battle ages ago and both were sealed as a result. In this world, the divine weapons they fought with/used to seal each other are called Furies, and are essentially inhabited by/an alternate form of Fairies. Those who wield the Furies and collect the Fairies to attempt to unseal the Goddess or Vile God are called Fencers.You play a Fencer called Fang, who likes Food.


In Fairy Fencer F, scenes and towns act like menus in a visual novel, while the overworld map is a literal map with interest points you can visit. Upon entering one of these areas, you can move freely. In battle, each character can move within a certain circumferance each turn, and you can select skills/magic from an easily accessible menu, or just hit enter to attack it normally. You can also use the menu for special abilities and to select items.

While the story is, broadly speaking, cliche, I like a lot of its finer points. An easy example is that while black force and white force waged war and both fell, it is up to you to do the work to unseal them, you get to choose who, and you get a share of the power from extracting the weapons sealing them. Likewise, the game allows a lot of variety in dungeons through "World Shaping," a feature that lets you alter the properties of the dungeons such as exp/item rewards, the mobs themselves, or outright give yourself certain buff/debuffs.

Combat is relatively fun, and the combo system makes it unexpectedly engaging. The downside to combat, however, is the almost complete lack of strategy required. You'll probably always win no matter what you do.


So the graphics are a mixed bag. They're good...in a way. The art can have a lot of variety, and this includes the level design art, but the levels themselves can be outright rehashes if not just using rehashed assets. I think the UI is overall nicely done, but some of the elements could be a bit sharper or have a bit less/more going on. The character art is pretty great, actually, but...you won't see much animation. This is pretty much the common trend. "Nice enough...but."

I think that even with all of its faults considered, the graphics really are entirely fine, its just that in comparison to modern games it could use a facelift/seems dated. An easy example would be how much this game would benefit from better/higher res textures in the dungeons. Are they horrible? No, they look decent, just not good, and the quality itself is lacking...blurry/etc.


The audio in Fairy Fencer F has far fewer counterpoints than everything else. The music can be quite nice, as background ambience or high-octane bloodpumpers, but you're going to get a bit tired of hearing some things repeatedly. I find, unlike many games, that the menu sound hits the sweet spot between pleasant and assertive.

While I quickly switched from English to Japanese, I didn't find the voice acting to be especially bad in the English, but the voices themselves kind of took away from the experience for me. On the other hand, the Japanese voice acting was better than expected. The voices suit the characters, the timing, and the emotions seemed synced to where they should be in delivery.

Overall the sound is good when you notice it, unobtrusive when you don't. I did have ONE issue with it: there is a very jarring popping sound that randomly occurs.


This is a fairly solid JRPG, great for a dive into a new world, and good for fans of the genre, but not for those who really want to be challenged. If you like easy or story-based games, or even just having a little fun while unlocking/collecting things, this is a good choice. Great as a genre introduction or for young kids.

I will repeat: If you want to be challenged (Dark Souls, SMT, Mother, Valkyria Chronicles, etc.) you should definitely look elsewhere. Otherwise...I think it is worth the full price.


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Divide by Sheep is a wonderfully crafted puzzle game, sporting a beautiful artstyle, well paced difficulty increases with new feature introductions woven in, and a lovely dose of black humor.


+Art: LOVELY modern-retro isometric style with great and vivid color choices.
+Gameplay: Clever use of "division" makes for a smooth and fun puzzle experience.
+Humor: The concept of the game alone is pure gold, even if the humor is black.
+Difficulty: New features and difficulty both come at a good pace, although there is sometimes inconsistency in said difficulty.
+Sound: The audio design is pretty good, and there are no problems that stand out.

-"Tutorial": The briefing for new features through the use of a single picture can make instructions a little murky at times.
-The menu is slightly awkward to navigate with a mouse.
-Nobody likes it when the "Rate this app!" page stays on a mobile port, but this isn't a huge deal.

+/- It would be cool if there were even more options for how to divide the sheep.


Welcome to the wonderful world of Divide by Sheep, a fun puzzle game where it is your job to fling livestock from platform to platform to ensure the correct amount get to the end.

Divide by Sheep is a puzzle game through and through. There's no run and gun, there's no portals, there's no incentive to click as fast as you can, there's no minigames or leveling up. All there is, is a collection of levels with simple mechanics used in very clever ways, and a goal. That's right, it's just you and your brain. You can take as much time as you need, and retry at any time, but be prepared to do it a lot if you intend to complete every level perfectly.

Never before has it been more difficult to simply kill one sheep, or feed a few dogs. In your quest to (sometimes literally) extract these cute animals, you will have to systematically divide, subtract, and add to the groups of critters. You have various tools at your disposal for doing so, including incineration, lazers that split individuals in half, drowning, replacing (and still drowning,) jump pads that split your group up and send them in specific directions, platforms that swap with each other, etc.

Sacrifice is the name of the game, here, and it's never been more cute or fun. Divide by Sheep starts off relatively easy, and with great pacing gradually introduces more features and difficulty, although sometimes a level or two might be easier or significantly harder than previous ones. All of the puzzles are completely solvable and require experimentaiton or calculation, but never abstraction; you will never have that moment where you have to look up a solution to a puzzle and then go "How was I supposed to know that's what I was supposed to do?" The design of the levels is brilliantly clever and you will find yourself feeling increasingly satisfied with figuring out how to beat them with a perfect score. Get ready, it's really addicting!

The graphics in Divide by Sheep are pretty simple, but very effective. It has a classic isometric style with modern design, with an almost vector art aesthetic. The menu transitions and navigation are smooth and simple, and I love how the UI stays almost completely out of the way, however, I will fault it slightly for clearly being intended for touch devices, and for having a rate this app page. There is also no option to change resolution. There is, however, a button to make the gameplay more child-friendly, which is really cool, and considerate of the developers, because this would be a great mental workout for any kid who can understand the mechanics.

If you've looked at the screenshots or trailers, then you know most of what you need to know about the game's graphics.

So there's not a whole lot to say about the audio in Divide by Sheep, except that I like the music, and surprisingly at no point found myself getting tired of it or completely tuning it out. The sounds are pleasant enough, and there's good audible feedback for actions and navigation. There are also no problems with the quality of the sound itself.

Divide by Sheep is an exceptional puzzle game that will keep you busy for quite a while. It is challenging and engaging but never unfair. The content to price ratio is very good, and I am entirely comfortable recommending the game at full price...in fact, they could have charged more and I would still recommend it at full price. Seriously, treat yourself.


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Whether in short bursts or long durations, this a tennis sim with depth that will keep you engaged and challenged.


+Depth
+Realism
+Longevity
+High skill ceiling

-Graphics: Probably the game's worst but most insignificant fault.
-Controls: A bit clumsy, hard to learn, but intuitive once grasped or mastered.

+/- Sound: Works, minimal, true to life, but low quality.



Welcome to Tennis Elbow 2013, a tennis simulation featuring painstakingly realistic physics at the expense of graphical fidelity. It supports warmup, practice, campaign, and multiplayer modes, via double or single matches.


The gameplay in Tennis Elbow 2013 is fast and fluid, but the controls may leave you scratching your head at first. I spent a long time trying to figure out how to not hit the ball straight to the center of the court before figuring out there's a default shot that is performed even if you don't take one. So not only did the default kb+m controls not seem to allow me to take actual shots, but when using a controller, I was under the impression the shoulder buttons would, but they did not. Then I tried using the face buttons, and everything changed.

So in TE13, in order to get the ball where you want it, you have to move to get to it, move correctly to take the correct type of shot, and also move to aim the shot once you start to take it. If that sounds like a lot to deal with in a split second, then you are correct, but it is so much fun getting it right and the amount of precision with which you can crush your enemies with once you lock it down.

As stated earlier, there are a variety of gamemodes. The AI is quite competent, featuring various levels of difficulty as you ascend the ranks. If it does particularly well or poorly against you, you can opt for higher or lower difficulties. The scoring is...well, like tennis, and the hitboxes for the racket are good. There is an RPG factor here with the extensive character customization present, where you can even select your character's preferred playstyle.

I should also briefly mention that the animations are actually pretty nice, and there are quite a few. I don't care for the backpedaling animation, though. At any rate, it is a game that isn't especially fun to learn, is fun to play, and is very fun to learn to do well and play well with.


So you're not going to see the shadows and leaves falling off of trees. There will be no sunshafts or lens flares. You won't see much lighting at all, actually. You won't see everything fluttering slightly in the breeze. The character models even, are pretty poor. The physical build isn't too awfully bad, but the lack of lighting and shading and quality textures especially stands out on them, and the UI...the UI is straight out of the 80s.

The graphics aren't bad exactly (excluding the UI,) everything is functional and represents what it is supposed to. They just aren't good. In any way. They would be bad if you consider anything not having good or amazing graphics bad, but in the end, this is a game about playing tennis. Even more, it's a simulation focused on tennis. You don't need flashy effects when you hit the ball, or cinematic angles distracting you. You just need to see yourself, your opponent, and the ball going between you two.


The audio quality in Tennis Elbow 2013 is a bit low. There won't be any unrealistic uproar of a crowd 10 times bigger than any crowd ever present, nor any exaggerated effects involving fire and lazers when you hurl your ball 10 meters into the ground creating a crater amidst an explosion. What you get is simple sounds that are there when they are supposed to be. They are realistic in that sense. Hit a ball with a racket, you hear a ball being hit with a racket. On the other hand, the recording quality and the sounds themselves could be much better, but again I must stress that this is a sports sim and not a walking simulator meant to immerse you in deep story and compelling visuals and audio.


So, it gets one component majorly right, and two others, sometimes very important ones, very wrong. "What gives?" you might say, "since when is getting just one thing right good enough?" Well, I will tell you. It's enough when it is this damn fun to experience, however, I should also point out that the game is very capable of being modded, and many people have created packs featuring better/different sounds, player models, animations, courts, etc.

What you will get if you purchase this game is a very real feeling of playing actual tennis. In that regard, the game is nearly perfect. So in conclusion:

I recommend Tennis Elbow 2013 for any enthusiast, at full price.

If you just "like tennis" like me, I still think it is worth full price, but you might consider a sale.

If you're just interested in getting a competitive or realistic experience, or grabbing any sim that exists, but don't especially love or even like tennis, I would recommend it still, but on sale.


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Sproggiwood is a well made charming roguelike with cute graphics and mild RPG elements. While simple on the surface, it boils down to a good amount of tactical complexity.


+Quick download
+Cute, clean & crisp graphics
+Good tutorial
+Great controller support, however, see cons
+Quick n EZ tutorialization
+Good writing
+Good sense of humor
+Fun storyline

-Awkward controller controls (I have a generic though.)
-Some minor bugs sprinkled throughout.

+/-Difficulty scaling/class imbalance might be problematic.


Welcome to Sproggiwood, where you inhabit the island of Cog as a peaceful farmer. One day a talking sheep appears, and obviously you are beholden to it immediately. It tells you to follow it, you do. Monsters appear, you slay them. A mysterious portal appears. You are told to heedlessly waltz through it. You do that as well! Then you discover he is the evil Sproggi! Evil spirit of the realm, and you will do his bidding! What kind of bidding will you do, you wonder?

Sproggiwood is a standard modern rogue-like game with all the bells and whistles that come with them, distilled down to the simplest elements that add back up to tactical complexity. The only thing potentially stopping it from being a true rogue-like would be the permanent progression unlocks earned with gold. Otherwise it's all there. You've got your health, your enemies, your dungeons, your overarcing story, your traps, and a turn-based grid-based floor to slay hordes in.

In Sproggiwood you will, as previously mentioned, unlock permanent upgrades or better gear by getting gold. You get gold by beating dungeons, you get new gear (purchasable) by finding it in dungeons, and you get bonus gold the first time you beat a dungeon with a new class. These upgrades are very important and having the right gear at the right time can save your life. There are also building upgrades that will enable faster exp gains, more health, and more cryptic statues and things of that like.

Most of your adventuring will be the standard roguelike formula of diving into a dungeon and doing your damnedest to survive as long as you can, though. The difficulty curve spikes up well enough, and there's a good amount of enemy variety that forces tactical decision making, all in all Sproggiwood is a solid rogue-like that is simple to learn and only slightly hard to master, but is fun either way.


The graphics in Sproggiwood are great! They're crisp, clean, and colorful. To me, they seem retro-inspired, but like they would fit in well on a tablet. They scale well with resolution so are likely based on vectors graphics. The simplicity gives off a great vibe and allows you to be immersed in the action.

You can see for yourself what they look like pretty clearly. To sum up my opinion on them:

Effective.


The sounds in Sproggiwood are pretty okay, but the music is great. It's upbeat. It's springy. It has mellow guitar and flute and stuff, hooray! There's actually some relatively nice ambient noise in the background as well, if you take the time to notice.

Don't be decieved by the cute graphics, Sproggiwood is a real roguelike with plenty of fun and challenge to be had, and the progression system will keep you moving forward.


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Frontiers is a buggy, but immersive open-world RPG game made by one man, and I heartily recommend it if you want to feel like you're a part of the world you're exploring, and doing everything you can to unearth its secrets.


+ Graphics: Pretty good when everything is maxed.
+ Gameplay: Explore, and do everything with your own hands.
+ Audio: GREAT music, ambient sound, and sound effects.
+ Really good fasttravel system!
+ A ton of sights to see!
+ Engaging story

- Performance: Pretty bad when everything is maxed.
- Bugs: Bugs can be found easily in many areas.
- Bugs: No really, you've been warned.
- Fast travel will often kill you.

+/- Doesn't hold your hand at all.
+/- Requires a pretty decent GPU.
+/- Some of the sounds are louder than they should be.



You are a man whose uncle has according to the law, passed away, on a quest to honor his life by doing the chores he left behind in it, and potentially find him across the Rift on the way. The Rift is an aptly named place where everything stops in favor of a more molten theme. Many have tried to cross it, but any who have, have yet to come back. Your family has been trying for generations, with varying degrees of success, and Daniel has caught this wanderlust. Will you?


Welcome to FRONTIERS. a game about exploring new frontiers! I can definitely see the comparisons to Morrowind and Daggerfall here, and I'll add my own, this universe is strangely reminiscent of one of my favorite series as a kid: Deltora Quest. Everything has an ethereal sense of urgency and wonder and magic.

FRONTIERS sets a slow-paced lore-filled task of mainly exploring before you. You will wander from location to location, reading books, talking to inhabitants, burning firewood, ocassionaly fighting beast and man alike, and occasionaly partaking of food and drink. Skills may level through usage or by studying books, but skills take a backseat to your sightseeing, of which there is much to do. Every area feels unique, from the lay of the land, to the construction of the homes, to the color of the ground or sky or plants.

One thing this game doesn't do is hold your hand. I'm surprised the map even marks locations, or where you are currently, for that matter. You will be told to go places without specific instructions on how to get there, or where specifically to go. You will be thrust into a world with little idea of how to interact with it. You will be tasked with surviving with no instruction on how to kill, what to kill with, or what all you can or can not eat. And for some people that's where all the fun comes from. You will be given basic instructions, though, such as that you need food, water, and to avoid the ocean. At one point I successfully asked for directions to a family friend. It's not all bad, just hit and miss. Depth is how I would sum up my experience.

All things said, it seems there's a lot beneath the surface here, with plenty of things to see.


The graphics in FRONTIER are beautiful, for a price. You will take quite a hit to performance for maxing them out, but they will look quite nice. There's a good sense of light and dark, and things look relatively realistic. Nights are nice and dark, and light sources aren't fountains of bloom. A lot of the models look fairly realistic, but the animations could use just a little work. I can't say too much about the graphics, because they need to be experienced through playing, and also, in order to play, I had to turn them down to late 90s level quality.


The audio in FRONTIERS is amazing. Everything and everywhere will have an exhuberant ambient sound to go with it that gives the game some real life. Some of it can be a little loud depending on the location, though, seeming a bit unrealistic. Each region has unique music, offering a nice thematic touch. The audio cues are nice, but the lack of any voice for the NPCs makes things feel slightly lonely after a while. Either way, what's there has heart and soul.


I heavily recommend experiencing this game for yourself, even if it can be quite buggy, and is definitely still a bit early in development. It's beautiful, vast, varied and feels like it has been imbued with the heart and soul of its creator.


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Harold is a torturously difficult obstacle-based running game that requires a keen sense of timing. You, Gabriel, must guide Harold through his races in real time while getting at least third place in this absolutely gorgeous game with good music.


+Gameplay: Hard but satisfying.
+Animations: GORGEOUS.
+Graphics: Detailed, look hand-drawn.
+Music: Really good, but tracks are similar to each other.
+Sounds: Perfect. Good sense of timing and encouragement.
+Narration: Kid-friendly, good voice-acting.
+Menus: Minimal AND intuitive as heck.

-Brutally hard timing requirements.

+/- Have to practice before every level. Really, it makes sense, and is appreciated, as opposed to failing mid-race over and over, but can get a bit tedious.



Welcome to Harold, the obstacle-based running game! In Harold, you surprisingly do not play as Harold, but play Harold indirectly as Gabriel. Gabriel is Harold's guardian angel, and your task is to see this unlikely runner to victory in races. Seraphiel is your nemesis in this task, doing everything she can to achieve victory in your place.


The gameplay of Harold is a blast. You, again, are Gabriel, Harold's guardian angel, trying to see him through his races in at least third place. That's not so hard, right? Wrong. In Harold, timing is everything, and you will be required to perform tasks with brutally tight timing. What tasks are you trying to perform you ask? Good question!

In Harold, you will be required to perform many tasks, such as speeding Harold across drawbridges, knocking out crocodiles, and lowering or raising, as well as panning obstacles for Harold to cross them. But wait, the fun doesn't end there! You can also, with good timing, mess up other runners' journeys through said obstacles, getting you closer to victory. There is one other feature in the form of puff power. Puff power is used to either save Harold from an improperly passed obstacle such as a crocodile or fall, or to encourage him, which makes him go faster.

There is a balance to be struck between encouraging Harold, getting him safely across obstacles, and to further puff pickups. If you fail the obstacle and don't have any puff power, you will have to start over, so be careful!

All of this makes for extremely fun and engaging gameplay, with good incentivation and strangely enough a pretty high feeling of reward. If the reward of satisfaction isn't enough, the cheering and confetti flying at the end of a well-performed race will perhaps push your fun-o-meter over the edge. The only thing to make a special note of is the pretty high difficulty curve. You've been warned.


Harold is a beautifully animated game with a very slick menu and equally slick transitions. The art looks to be hand-drawn, and is very detailed. The animations are even more detailed, with each runner featuring a unique set of art and animations alike. There are a wealth of colors and they are all vibrant and eye-pleasingly used.

The menu system is minimal in every way, allowing you to choose races (levels) and the options corresponding to them simaltaneously, which is ingenious design. The menus are all made up mainly of pictures and background images, but the font that it uses when it uses a font is pleasing to the eye and a nice soft white, a good contrast against the colorful backdrops.


The audio in Harold is also very well done. The narration is flawless, and kid-friendly, with great intonation and sense of pausing, as well as unique voices for each character used, a major plus in my book. The music is also very good, although slightly repetitive, since the racing themes feel like variations on each other.


Harold is truly a gem, albeit a frustratingly hard gem. Like diamond level hard. The artstyle is wonderful, and well executed, the animations are fluid and varied, and the audio is wonderfully easy on the ears, as well as encouraging. There is polish all around, and the only problem you'll ever run into is the game's brutal timing requirements. If you're up for a very big challenge, but a fun one, Harold is for you!


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Key supplied by developer for review.
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Shrooms is definitely an alpha, but a unique one with fun and potential! Give it a buy if you're hopeful, or maybe hold off and see where it goes for a while if you're unsure.


+Gameplay: Unique and interesting, barebones but good survival elements.
+Graphics: Exotic level design, variable player model.
+Audio: Sparse, but functional, good ambience.

-Couldn't go above 25FPS on any setting.
-Interface slightly clunky.
-Forest seems to be a deathtrap.

+/-Slightly finicky targeting issues.



Hello and welcome to this review of Shrooms, a game where you...eat shrooms! Wait, wait, that's not all there is to this, you eat shrooms to alter your body which changes the way you interact with the world! There are critters, monsters, basic crafting, and survival elements brought into the mix!


There's only so much to Shrooms right now, but what's there is good! So for every shroom you eat, it alters a part of you from the head, arms, legs, or your torso. This gives them different effects or passives such as but not limited to: invisibility, damage absorption, damage reflection, a high damage punch, longer underwater time, etc. This will allow you to interact with the world and its inhabitants in different ways. A refreshing and fun game concept!

The general gameplay will have you running around collecting ingredients so that you can make tools so that you can more efficiently gather ingredients (or better ones) so that you can fight, keep warm, or stock up on bow ammo. Basically, you're doing what you have to to survive and eating mushrooms to help along the way!


The graphics, while good, could use some improvement, especially given the FPS I get.
The environment design is exotic and unique, with a lot of glowing lights and unique land and rock formations, pretty water, and vegetation.

The UI is a bit large, but in terms of design seeks to be minimal, and currently could use a facelift. Getting around it is easy enough once you get used to it, though, with simple hotkeys, and everything spelled out conveniently in non-distracting places.


There isn't much there, but the ambience is nice, and the sounds your character makes sufficies with no crack or pop in the recording. For what they are, they're actually believable, too, which is nice.


All in all, in its current state, Shrooms is fairly barebones, but imaginative and unique, and it deserves credit for that. Unique player models for the mutations is a nice touch, which indicates not only time spent but love given. The survival elements are a nice touch, but lack commonalities to make them worthwhile, such as the ability to build a shelter. The world also feels a bit empty currently, with only two other critters to run into. An armadillo and panther. It's easy to envision this game becoming something great, however, and time will tell if the developers get it there!


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From the very start you should be sold on this roguelite with TCG elements, realtime rhythm combat, and gorgeous graphics featuring a great use of light, shadow, and color.


+ Presentation: You will be drawn in.
+ Graphics: Gorgeous use of light, shadow, color, and special effects.
+ Gameplay: A satisfying mix of choose your own adventure and rhythm combat.
+ Combat: Speaking of, it just keeps getting smoother!
+ Audio: Special shoutout for the dealer's narration. Everything else is solid.
+ Genre: Any genre with TCG elements is nice, but mixed with a roguelite also featuring realtime combat is something special.
+ Controller: Supports both dinput and xinput!
+ Features: There are many wonderful game elements crammed in.

- The narration can become repetitive.
- The ocassional bug.
- Max graphics performance intensive.

+/- With subtitles on, dialogue will often overlap things.


In Hand of Fate, from what I can surmise, you are in some sort of netherworld or afterlife and have met with a dealer who plays a card game with your life at stake. This game is beautiful in a lot of ways, from the narration, to the environment and visuals, to the overall presentation. Early on, the game is very balanced, growing in difficulty as you progress. It also features a roguelike element, in that if you lose, you start at the beginning of the floor again. The roguelike comparison mostly ends there, besides luck being an element, but there is also a choose your own adventure feel to the game that adds longevity and a breath of fresh air!


In this card game, you have cards that both you and the dealer place into the deck. The deck is then laid out like a dungeon, and you traverse it. Each step, or new card, costs food, but there are gain cards that you can draw that can give food, money, or equipment. There are also pain cards that will make you lose resources or health, too. So there is in almost all things an element of risk vs reward, and this is good. There is also resource management: You will have to be wise with your spending. The right or wrong gear can save or cost your life.

This game features real-time rhythm-based combat, in an interesting mix. You can attack at any time, but if you wait and time your button presses, you can dodge, or parry enemy attacks automatically. With every update it seems to get smoother, allowing for a fun and engaging flurry of attacks that flow together with bliss.

There is also an element of stacking the deck, as you gain more powerful equipment, and more situations in which you know the outcome to pit yourself against, you can make sure to load the deck with only encounters and equipment suited to the floor ahead. In this way, early on, success can be guaranteed, but later on, it will become very beneficial and perhaps required.

Other gameplay features include and endless mode, mini dungeons complete with traps and treasure, a card-based mixup game where you can actually track the cards, and inventory management in the form of being able to buy/sell extra cards at shops.


The graphics in Hand of Fate can be as simple or immersive as you want, ranging from murky at the lowest settings to absolutely gorgeous when maxed out, although this can be quite performance intensive. The use of color, light, shadow, cartoonish and realistic aspects are all outstanding. There is also a great use of special effects. Everything feels immersive and hand-tailored to perfection.

The environments are gorgeous, from the dealer's room to the mini-dungeons to the encounter fields and even the cards themselves. Everything in this game drips quality and polish. This game is obviously a labor of love for the developers.

I should also mention that the animations and transitions, which can be jittery at times, are really well done!


If you've heard the dealer speak, then you likely know how nice the audio in this game is. Everything is crisp, with a good recording quality, and here too, drips polish. The sounds of weapons slicing, clashing, and bouncing off of shields are all quite nice, and probably some of the most common you will hear aside from the dealer.

The music is good, although I find it blends into the background sneakily most of the time. The large majority of the game is made up of the various sound effects, all of which, again, are nice. Unfortunately, I can't say much specific about the audio that would convey to you just how it all sounds when you're actually playing the game.


Hand of Fate is more of an indie goldmine than an indie gem. It oozes polish and is a glorious mashup of TCG and roguelite featuring rhythm-based combat that still allows for real-time as well. It features quality music, an outstanding voiceover, flowing combat, a wonderfully refreshing choose your own style, and good resource management qualities. You owe it to yourself to pick this game up and enjoy!