Alphaprospector
M. joined
Marketing and Editorial Consultant (the MEC) for Nyu Media Ltd. Also, I like mechs if it wasn't clear enough by the profile imagery.
Reviews
Quite a solid plataformer! Unexpectedly nice and overall very, very polished but still not without its flaws: the platforming sections suffer a lot from the terrible jump controls, the dashing requires you to crouch instead of having an independent button and some jumping sections will surely crank your nerves. However, it has some of the best music I've heard in a while for a western release (along with Jamestown) and the challenge is there: unlocking the Genesis Suit is not an easy task! It's all about perfecting the stages so, regarding that, it feels like a shmup at times.
On the technical side, the game is pretty much built with the 360 in mind. Aiming is actually much easier with the mouse though but the plataforming is already bad enough with a pad... and it becomes a nightmare with the keyboard.
While I admit I got it during the Indie Royale, it's still a game worth its full price, that's for sure. You can tell the Metroidesque and the definite Megaman influences both in the dashing, shooting and the music, courtesy of the great HyperDuck guys.
I'll be brief as I'm preparing a video review. The game has some serious flaws that I hope can be fixed at a later time. Too many to name, I'll just point out a few:
- The ship has inertia.
- Why would you need a fire button when you are using a twin-stick shooter control approach? The right stick can fulfill that task, it's one less button to worry about!
- The hitbox of the ship or the hitboxes of the bullets appear to be bigger than their real sizes, thus causing deaths out of nowhere. It desperately needs clearer hitboxes.
- There are barely any sound cues to enemy fire, bomb activations, pretty much anything.
- The enemies come in pretty chaotic waves, often firing offscreen.
- Bullets are BLACK. I mean, I knew bullets could have contrast problems with bright backgrounds but just make them all pink or purple and you can usually see them just fine!
I guess for the price, some nice ideas (I like the free roaming and defending a bigger ship) and the HD graphics (which indeed look pretty nice) it's fine but I found it to be quite a let down :(
Edit: maybe the 5 was too cruel. I'll rise it to 6. I do hope it gets patched and fixed, the game has potential!
