Summer Catchers

This 'endless runner' technically has a story progression so it's not just one infinite level, it's more like a story-driven experience with a lot of grinding. The game has story acts designated by different areas where you meet new characters and gain new abilities. To make progress you have to complete objectives by grinding the endless levels, followed by an occasional unique event or a 'boss fight'. The narrative and detailed visuals are by far the strongest aspects of the game, while the gameplay could be slightly annoying. To play the game you essentially have to do a lot of grinding, it's a constant cycle of buying items and loosing due to RNG. You have a choice of 3 abilities that are generated from a larger pool of skills that you buy at the store, sometimes you just do not get the correct tool for the job, and you die.
Pros:
+ good narrative, enjoyable soundtrack
+ eye candy, if you into simple pixel art
+ some local co-op features
+ several cosmetic unlocks
+ achievements
Cons:
Progression System - the idea of limiting your run by how many consumable items you own is kinda strange to me. If you playing well, you eventually start over because you run out of items, and sometimes you just die because there is some RNG. I don't feel like I am being challenged by this system, I know I am going to win eventually because it's mostly a time thing. Ultimately the gameplay is there to roadblock the story, but I just find it kinda redundant, watching transition screens between deaths and all (over and over).
Overall Thoughts:
I don't think the game is overpriced or anything, it's made well and has a lot of good things going for it. The gameplay feels like a mindless grinding loop that does not challenge me, maybe some people are into that. Do I want to grind this game to experience a good story and art? Ummm.... hmmmm.... Yea, probably.
For more Hidden-Gems:

Review-in-progress:
The gameplay is simple pattern-matching and doesn't do anything too exciting, but it's satisfying, if pretty repetitive. The dependency on random luck can get frustrating, especially in bossfights, but I haven't been stuck for too long yet.
The music is really lovely and the art is decent, but the writing/narrative don't hook me very much, and there are quite a few typing errors in the dialogue.
3/5 "Good"

Une véritable bouffée d'air frais, au milieux de toute cette Vapeur !
( Et parfait pour les jours de canicule. ;) )
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Such a cool breeze amidst all these Steam vapor... ;) really !
( Perfect, especially during these last heat waves day. )

Ye Good Olde Scandinavian tradition of combining the disturbing and the heartwarming continues.
Plenty of content, decent writing for kids, charming protagonist. And grind. Quite a bit of it. It wouldn't feel quite so grindy if the gameplay differed a bit more, but as it is, Summer Catchers hardly stands as a PC title. But it's quite obviously perfect for mobile platforms.

I've enjoyed every minute that I've played this game. Beautiful artwork. Fun music. This is a must purchase for a fun and lighthearted experience that is still challenging.
You can see my full review and impressions at:

Note: I completed the entire campaign ~8 hours, anything further was additional achievement hunting.
Summer Catchers is a cute arcade racing game that follows a young girl's journey to visit the ocean and see summer. While there are quirks that detract from the overall quality of the game, the mechanics are sufficiently solid with no bugs such that the casual experience is enjoyable. Moreover while the game does not innovate or expand on its already established core mechanic, it is carried by a cute art style and complimentary music that carries the game into a basic but enjoyable experience.
Pros:
* The art style is cute and charming, fully embracing the benefits of a pixel art style.
* The music while not necessarily memorable, is soothing and compliments the overall tone of the game and improves the experience.
* The core driving mechanic is solid and simply works without unnecessary clutter and complication that often muddy similar games.
* A solid story that while basic, serves the nature of the game well. Small details such as messages to NPC's met in past stages solidify the connected nature of the narrative.
Cons:
* A terrible writing font. Given the quality of the pixel art and the title page font, one would be led to believe the quality would carry into the font as well. However, it almost seems as if they developers slapped Times New Roman into a text box and layered it on top of the game for any text they needed. While this may be a symptom of localization and a need for versatility, it is jarring and detracts from the flavor Summer Catchers crafts.
* Questionable RNG hampers the game. You get RNG for incoming hazards, RNG for what tools you can use, etc. It's not the worst RNG, but it does make the game less casual and more frustrating.
* Cannot replay levels/areas. Once you leave/miss them, you'll have to start a new save to get back to them. While this not too difficult, it does mean you can miss content.
* There is no real progression, you cannot get new items that make you fundamentally better such as stat upgrades. You can only get better by getting faster at selecting which tool to use. Which is interesting beacuse there are a significant number of cosmetic upgrades to purchase, so it would have been easy to tie that aspect to strength, but alas.
Is Summer Catchers a bad game? No, it is not. Is it a superb game? Again, no. If there was a "meh" rating on Steam, it would fall squarely into it. However, beacuse of the cute theme and design, coupled with solid if unoriginal core mechanics, Summer Catchers is still a good game to play casually. If you are interested, I would recommend you wait until this game goes on sale to purchase.
6.5/10 -> A cute and solid racing game to play casually.

I love everything about this game except the game part itself. Luck plays too much of a role in how things go. It's not that it's hard, I love a challenge. It's just that at times (sometimes too many times) there's nothing that could have been done to not-lose. And I get that MAYBE that was what they intended but that's not a good enough reason for me. I'm playing in hard mode and I've even been considering switching to easier modes just so that I can enjoy everything else more and just move forward instead of being slapped randomly by the game cause I don't see the point, when I win It usually doesn't feel like I did anything better or worse than when I lose. Being able to swap tools makes it a little better but it doesn't refresh quick enough, I can't believe people had to play without that at first. I hope they patch this further.
I still haven't finished the game so I may come to change this review a bit. And I suppose I still do recommend this game cause it's really nice and I like everything else about it but this has annoyed me to the point of writing a review, which I never do.