NBB.EXE

Camera and some control issues make the game more difficult than it is, but exploring for secrets is always enjoyable.
The game's name alludes to a Neon Blast tournament where the top bombers participate. These are extremely advanced robotic athletes, supported by various corporations, competing in a lethal sport to become champions. You can choose from one of the five available characters, however there are no differences between them other than appearance and color. Also, you may always switch at any time.
After the tutorial, you arrive at the main hub area, from where you can enter stages. The world looks nice, and you get to explore several different sectors, but there are relatively few paths and sections are locked with doors. There are additional characters sitting around, including the rest of playable characters. They talk when you run into them, although it is usually not very intriguing, and they are only an added feature to bring the world to life.
Paths are unlocked by completing challenge nodes. While order is not important, you must beat all of them inside a given area to unlock the next door. Challenges need a lot of platforming and precise jumping. They take place on platforms that either stay still or move around. Because that would be too easy or dull, challenges contain several threats and dangers.
Fortunately, you do not need to worry about juggling too many skills. You only have four abilities: jump, kick, dash, and bomb. Jump is basic and dash recharges fast. But while ground dash can be activated up to three times in a row, air dash can only be performed once.
Unfortunately, I had some difficulty getting comfortable with jumping. Because the action is followed from the top-down view, it is difficult to determine the appropriate timing and elevations. Some platforms are set higher or lower, and I frequently fell to my death because I assumed the platform was in a straight line.
Because the environments makes it difficult to see when your feet actually touch the ground and you can jump again, there is a visual cue in the form of a circle. This circle appears when you jump and fades once you can jump again. It is useful.
However, it is also quite deceiving during air-dash. The main issue is that air-dash always finishes with a roll that is not included in the circle. This means that after you land, the circle disappears, but you are still unable to jump until the roll is completed. It was the main reason for most of my deaths.
Although kick appears to be meaningless, it is really handy with bombs since it allows you to kick directly at the target. Bombs, by the way, are mostly employed to eliminate certain walls and rare enemies. Walls regenerate after a while, so you must move quick. Aside from the nothingness everywhere, the most fundamental threat comes from lasers. While smaller ones can be jumped over, larger ones force you to hide behind cover.
There are also switches to press. They typically appear in restricted locations where you must avoid traps and press multiple switches to advance. Switches can either create timed platforms or open a door.
If it were not for checkpoints, the entire situation would be extremely frustrating. There are a few checkpoints in every challenge, positioned after or before a difficult stretch. Another piece of good news is that number of deaths is irrelevant.
The only goal is to get to the finish line. Of course, you will go through different locations with its own mechanics and difficulty, and you’ll have to use speed and precision to dodge several obstacles in a row until the next checkpoint.
After beating all stages in a sector, you have a fight against big robot bosses. This involves a lot of dodging until a boss exposes its weak point. Since you can’t get hit even once, boss fights are frustrating and take a lot of tries. Especially because most of the time you don’t even know what the weak points is.
The game’s main appeal comes from the fact that this isn’t just generic challenge. After a few stages, you begin to notice unusual occurrences, and some robots say things they probably shouldn't. However, the most significant change occurs when you discover that the world is not as linear as you believe.
Your powers are available even outside of the challenge stages. This allows you to go places you shouldn't and open new paths. Such paths frequently lead to difficult puzzles, platforming challenges, and glitched nodes that expose one of the previous competitor's thoughts and a much larger mystery.
Bad news for completionists is that you never know how many secrets there are. Although secret nodes change appearance when you activate them, individual sections don’t tell you how many you found and how many are hidden. It’s far too easy to miss a switch or a computer screen that opens a path to another hidden part.

A challenging and heart-pounding platformer that takes bomberman-style controls and contorts them into a frantic high-speed playstyle. The open world outside of the regular levels hides so many secrets and hidden pathways that connect in interesting and dynamic ways, allowing the player to "break" the normal order of the game as they see fit and discover a lot more about the world around them.
However, the REAL star of NBB.exe is what this deceptive title hides just underneath its glossy surfaces. If you take the time to explore during and after the base game, you'll discover that rolling the credits was only a FRACTION of the full story, and the darkest, most challenging parts of this title are opened up to explore if you dare to ask the question, "Why...?"

Very cool game. It's a precision platformer that incorporates a mechanic where you place and move bombs to either remove barriers or assist with solving puzzles. Definitely a hard game but like all hard games, it just takes some repetition to learn and conquer. The game has 3 main areas of levels plus a multitude of in-world puzzles, and a few hidden ones inside a several of the levels. The overarching narrative is more nuanced than initially perceived.
Edit:
The Dev has constantly been updating the game with bug fixes and the like. They have also patched in a camera you can use in the vein of typical 3D platformers which is pretty great!
A GREAT buy!

I beat the base game in beta! It's a super challenging puzzle platformer with levels spread throughout a mysterious robot overworld that will reveal it's secrets if you dig deep into it. Since beta, the story/world elements have been polished with more flavor sprinkled in. If you enjoy overcoming platforming that is demanding for your fingers and for your brain, or finding secrets, hidden puzzles or additional challenges off the beaten path, this one's for you! Make sure to get to the 2nd world, it's cool!

A really fun time from start to finish and one of the few titles that I think can truly be called a "hidden gem". I had a blast throughout, with only a few hiccups here and there. I did admittedly encounter a couple of bugs during my playthrough, but thankfully the developer was extremely helpful and responsive on Twitter and they quickly dropped a hotfix almost immediately in both cases. While there are a couple rough edges that need sanding out, the positives far outweighed the negatives for me, and I'm excited to dive back in after getting what I assume to be the standard ending to discover all the optional content I missed the first time around. I definitely recommend this for anyone who likes well-designed, tough-as-nails platformers, compelling stories with a big buildup of mystery and engrossing lore, or for anyone who's just a fan of cute robots!
Positives:
- A genuinely intriguing story with a great buildup of mystery
- Excellent "game feel"/responsive controls
- Polished and impactful sound design
- Great presentation and UI
- Consistently good level design (especially the puzzles)
- A surprising amount of exploration with a plethora of secrets to discover, furthering the game's mysteries
- Really pretty environments
- Fun characters with great designs and witty dialogue
- Cute robots!
Negatives:
- A little buggy
- Pushes my computer pretty hard at times
- Features some occasional awkward design choices, particularly in the first two boss battles (though the first seems to have been improved in a recent patch)
- The soundtrack is solid, but didn't leave much of an impression on me
- While the game features multiple playable characters, they all play exactly the same, making them feel like little more than alternate skins at times from a gameplay perspective
Gameplay: ★★★★☆
Story: ★★★★☆
Music: ★★½☆☆
Graphics: ★★★★☆
Art direction: ★★★★☆
Sound design: ★★★★½
Level design: ★★★★☆
Presentation: ★★★★½
UI: ★★★★½
Game feel: ★★★★½
Bosses: ★★★☆☆
Puzzles: ★★★★★
Exploration: ★★★★½
Overall: ★★★★☆

Hard as hell and intriguing world. Really having a good time with this one. Can get stressful at times with the difficulty but if you like hard games, you’ll really get a challenge here.

An absolute gem of a difficult platformer, some levels are not for the faint of hearts.