ICEY

Pretty short game, really fun cathartic combat but the story does go all over the place. Apparently a lot of players complain about hitstun which means they didn't pay attention to the tutorial, you can recover from hitstun instantly by pressing the jump button to recover a la kingdom hearts.

Fun combat and fun story!
NOTE: PLEASE switch the narrator's voice to the Chinese dub before playing. It's the most expressive voice, and really ties everything together.

TL;DR - If you enjoy The Stanley Parable and fast-paced 2D action games, this will be perfect for you. Be expecting plenty of 4th wall breaks and a shockingly brief amount of time to complete this title (I got all achievements and beat the game in a little over 4 hours).
Gonna' be honest, going into this game blind, I did not expect it to be what it was. I will keep this mostly spoiler-free, so no need to worry, I'm not going to ruin anything that you don't experience in the first 5 minutes of the game. That said, the appearance of the narrator completely caught me off-guard and it was only after a bit of playing did I realize what the game was truly going for. I will say, I'm not too crazy on a lot of games that break the 4th wall so heavily, but I didn't hate what was done here, so that's a plus in my book.
Now, I will say, this game plays so amazingly, I really wish they could have made it longer for that alone. It's so intense, fast-paced, fairly flashy, and the dash ability is amazing, both in and out of combat. Major proper to the battle designers here because they definitely nailed it.
The music and sound design were pretty spot on too, although I am not super crazy on the electro/techno/synth-y sort of genres on display in this title.
Also, I will say that I do enjoy the idea of the game's plot as a whole, but I do kinda' wish there was a bit more to one half of it. Not on the 4th wall break side of things, but the other plot. Keeping it vague for newbies, but those who have played the game should get what I mean.
All in all, I enjoyed this title quite a lot and definitely look forward to sequel, or another game by this crew that plays kinda' like this one. I highly recommend it if you want something to just sit down for an afternoon and blast through some enemies and a fairly short story.

Recommended on sale, probably not at full price, if you are picking this game up in 2025 and beyond. I think there are other indie 2D action games with better value for the bucks.
An enjoyable, if short, side-scrolling action game with a fairly enjoyable combat experience. I will say it is not a particularly well-designed one though, despite the flashy, DMC Vergil-like stylish katana girl video you may come across online. While ICEY's moveset is cool and feels good to practice/execute, the interaction with enemies (both mobs and bosses) isn't particularly well-thought out. Throwing around never-stopping hyperarmored mobs is not a fun experience, especially when your avatar's damage animation does not seem to have i-frames, leading to frequent stunlocks. It's still an overall fun combat flow (trying to clear that secret room without using the "cheat" felt good), but it's a missed opportunity when experimenting with majority of the moveset simply increases your risk with very little reward.
I will say the combat being very lenient with animation cancelling was nice though. I could chain a launcher + helmbreaker so quickly that it's like I was standing on the spot, chopping up and down with very high flexibility. Reminded me of some techs from X4 Zero after all this time.
The "story" is...enjoyable, I guess? I played in Japanese, and the Narrator's VA was pretty good, so maybe that helped too. But it's definitely "not for everyone," and in my view not in a good way. It's something you may enjoy if you're sort of in on the joke kind of deal. Let's just say phrases like "not for everyone" mentioned above, or "play it without spoiling yourself" usually invokes an expectation of some serious, dramatic story experience but...temper your expectation, this game ain't it.
Overall, a nice cheap, short action game to pick up for a chill fun.

I recently played it and i gotta say its a short but very nice time.

I picked up this game based on the visuals and was blindsided by a few of the quirks that are only found by playing the game. I don't want to spoil them but in short I do recommend the game to other players.

I played this game with all achievements.
I don't know what to say about a 2D action game, I have so little experience with the genre. I don't know why I bought this game either, I guess it just seemed interesting. What I can say is that I absolutely adored this game. It was very approachable and easy to play.
I started this on easy and played through the game. Then I switched to hard difficulty, which is very uncharacteristic of me as I play only for story. Then I encountered the games hardest boss and dammit I beat it. It took a few tries but went down eventually. What a rush! But I will still continue to play on easy, this was a mishap and won't happen again.
On hard I played the game to 100% and it was great. I don't know what else to say about this game, especially as it is an experience. I don't want to spoil a thing. It is in numbers short but long enough, just perfect. It doesn't have to be longer. Please don't quit after you beat Judas, the game is not over, keep exploring. I'll leave a small hint at the end. It was the only thing I needed to look up to accomplish full game.
You can choose the voice-over language for the narrator. I started in english, but quickly changed it to japanese which I heard a bit when I watched some gameplay before buying. That guy was gold.
Definitely get this, I got it on sale for 5€, worth every penny(or cent).
Hint: You can go through some doors with the same button you do the finishing moves with.