Recent reviews by RussianManSMWC

Super Squidlit is the colorized sequel to Squidlit, and it's as charming as ever. The big improvement over the first game is that it's longer and more varied. The first game is really short, and only somewhat made up by the achievements.

The platforming is here to stay, and Plip has gotten a new dash ability which literally opens up new heights as well as new ways to deal with enemies or avoid them. There are also first person shooter sections, which I actually quite like. The game is advertised as "Strives for total accuracy to Game Boy Color hardware!". Given that Tyrannosaurus Tex exists, the first person shooter on a game boy color is not unfeasible. Heck, Faceball 2000 exists for the OG Game Boy. Anyway, these sections aren't actually as unplayable as some may tell you. The game does actually provide an option to play with modern controls, if you have a controller that is. I played without, you have to hold a button to strafe or left and right or the camera will turn instead. You can also lock onto enemies. The weapon selection only goes forward which is only a minor inconvenience. Overall the controls are adequate. The gameplay is a little repetitive, not much enemy variety, though there are a few "gimmicks" to try to spice it up, such as an autoscroller, or a falling section that uses this first person view or a boss fight. I actually liked these FPS sections so much, I'm craving for more stuff like this. However, what I did find "unplayable" is swimming controls. The swimming is similar to any old school game like Super Mario Bros. except when "jump", you swim in a given direction. You can swim up, up-right, up-left, and down. You can face down-right and down-left but can't actually swim in that direction which is kinda awkward. Moreover, in order to attack the enemies, you have to turn around, which is also awkward, and the shot goes in upward trajectory (if you aren't aiming straight up/down that is). Works the same way as in 2D platforming sections but it's just so clumsy. I did not find the entire swimming level and it's boss to be much fun. I think modern swimming controls would've worked greatly. It's a squidlit afterall, not a fat plumber.

With longer runtime it's more likely for unpolished moments to creep in. I already mentioned swimming mechanics, and the first person shooter sections are somewhat devicive. Then there's the final boss in the FPS style, where the difficulty is actually finding the boss and approaching them from behind. I was actually quite confused on what to do until I figured it out. Still though, overall Super Squidlit is still a good game, there are few issues to speak of compared to the rest of it. It's quite enjoyable and a worthy successor to the original. Just like the predecessor, it's charming, approachable and most importantly, good.

PuzzGun is a puzzle platformer, where you use a special gun to solve puzzles. The gameplay is pretty unique, said special gun is capable of changing grey blocks' properties depending on the ammo type you use, for example you can change a block into a spring that can bounce you up, delete blocks, freeze them so they can be affected by gravity and can be pushed and so on, and I haven't seen anything like this before (I do know there are Portal games where you use a portal gun, but it's not quite the same). The game has a decent variety, with new ammo types, and the last set of levels introduces a neat gimmick of a switch that switches grey and brown blocks. The story is pretty basic, you're a treasure hunter who had aquired aformentioned gun to find a treasure in wizard's castle. And that's it, the story isn't a focus of this game, rather it's level design.

The puzzle difficulty can feel a little inconsistent, some of them can have massive breaks, skipping majority of the puzzle, which I don't really mind, it does feel nice to outsmart the puzzle, and it does open up potential for speedrunning. Others, I had to look up a playthorough (the only thing I found was a speedrun actually, did I mention this game has speedrunning potential?). The in-game hint system isn't particularly helpful, every 4 minutes you unlock a step towards solving a puzzle, however by the time these 4 minutes pass, you likely have figured out half the puzzle already. I think a way this could've been improved is let the player choose which hint to unlock, rather than having them all in a linear order. Or simply not have a hint system and offer official solutions via guides. That being said, for the most part this game isn't that difficult, maybe because of aformentioned skips, I don't really know.

The graphics look pretty decent, I noticed that the look of the blocks is randomized, offering visual variety every time you restart a puzzle, and even then, the backgrounds look fairly detailed. There's even a little touch where grey blocks accumulate snow as the time goes on in the last set of levels, which I think is neat. The main character themself looks pretty small and kinda minimalistic, but is well animated. The music is pretty calm and ambient, you wouldn't expect a tense music while thinking of how to solve a puzzle, which is fitting.

Overall, I do think this is a rather neat puzzle game, it offers unique gameplay and some clever moments. I recommend you check out this little hidden gem.

A good metroidvania game. It probably helps that I don't play a lot of metroidvanias, but I enjoyed this one. The level design is pretty good, and the graphics looks good. The only small negative I have is that some of the exploration for orbs is not satisfying because you have to collect a certain amount of them for an upgrade, and they can be diffucult to find, some secrets are unmarked and behind walls that you can walk through. This aspect is greatly improved upon in the sequel. But overall this is a simplistic but enjoyable little metroidvania.

An expertly designed puzzle platformer, the mechanics are simple but they never wear they welcome, with very creative and clever level design, even the trollish scenarios (you know what I mean) make the player pay attantion to their surroundings to find a way to progress. The puzzles are hard, but I never felt like I needed to consult a guide to progress, everything feels strategically placed and nothing feels haphazard. This is definitely one of the best puzzle platformers I've ever played, and if you're a fan of the genre, you must play this little gem.

This game is cute and charming and wholesome.

A pretty short but enjoyable game, the levels are bite sized and easy to go through all of them at once. The mechanics are intersting, and the game keeps introducing new ones to keep the adventure fresh. The only issue regarding the level design is that there are a few trial and error moments. The graphics are pretty good, and the music is decent. I think it could've benefitted from a level editor or something to give it a little more value and replayability. But as is, it's a solid platformer, and it's more than worth picking up on sale.

This is basically a Donkey Kong Country game made by an indie dev, with a lot of similar mechanics. You can spin attack off the ledge and jump in midair, similar to certain ape games. Kaze herself is basically Dixie Kong from DKC2 and onwards, sporting helicopter ears, on the other hand, the health system is more traditional, which means the devs get an opportunity to utilize her abilities without a compromise. The controls are as tight and responsive, and the level design is engaging, with some interesting mechanics and trademark "gimmicks". The titular masks are similar to animal buddies, eagle mask is like Squawks the Parrot, tiger mask allows for forward dash and wall climbing, shark mask enables modern swimming controls similar to new 2D rayman games, and of course, DKC Tropical Freeze, and then there's forgotten mask that acts like a traditional autorunner, though I like to think it's inspired by minecarts, but with additional abilities, like double jump and quick downward dash. The autorunning segments are easily the hardest in the game.

And of course, there are also collectibles for completionists. There are no lives, but there are crystals that give you a gem after you collect a certain amount, similar to lums from new 2D rayman games, there are KONG letters, I mean KAZE letters that also award a gem, and lastly there are 2 bonus barrels in each stage, I mean bonus crystals that lead to bonus stages. Thankfully, if you fail, you don't have to go back to where the crystal were or have to replay the stage to retry, you can retry the bonus as much as you want until success. Those are required for 100% completion and good ending, which took me almost 5 and a half hours to complete, but there's still a lot of replayability. You can attempt time attack challenges, or try to beat all stages without taking damage for all achievements.

The only small negative I have is that the story is underdeveloped. After beating the first boss, it turns out we're saving critters, that don't contribute, besides the first world's airship that acts as a world select. It isn't immediatly obvious that besides beating the bad guy, we're saving people. I think it should've been shown in the first cinematic to make the player more invested in beating the evil. Otherwise there isn't much to the story, beat the bad guy and save your friend. There is some historical backstory that you unlock by collecting KAZE letters, but otherwise, yeah. Not much to say.

While it may seem like the game borrows too much from DKC games, I don't think it automatically makes the game bad. In fact, it's quite the opposite, the game is very fun, as I said the level design is engaging and varied. This game is easily the most fun I've had recently playing a video game, and if you're craving for more DKC-like goodness, and even if you don't, I highly recommend checking this game.

A fun DLC that adds 2+ hours more of gameplay, the setting is amazing. The only thing I didn't like is the antagonist. She seemed like a cool character, but she feels rather underdeveloped. I wish there was a proper boss fight at the end. I was hoping that the time rift would be about her, to know her backstory. And while cute, I didn't want to know more about Rumbi. But overall, this is still a solid DLC that I can recommend.

Countless people before me said this, but let's make it countless people+1. This game is fantastic. If you enjoy 3D platformers, this is a must play. Charming, fun and most definitely good.

This game is decent, but VERY VERY short, I literally beat it in 12 minutes. One problem I have with controls is that the horizontal speed is too fast, which is jarring, like sometimes I run into spikes because of instant speed boost. Otherwise it's not a bad game, (hence recommendation), but at the same time I'd recommend you to play something else (something more fulfilling).