Tres-Bashers

I saw toby the fox mention this game during the last newsletter and i was curious enough to play through it however i will call the dev evil, that right you are a evil dev making sneak a little guy who shows up behind you and is probably the only little guy i need to bonk in the head to get 100%, he is probably laughing at me living in one of those dark rooms that i probably wouldn't have thought to check behind me so now he get to remain free while his 419 friends got the bonk.. evil evil dev.........

good game however

This game really nails the metroidvania formula with style. There is definitely the sense of exploration and I love that it doesn't start you out with a map so you are building up your memory of the landscape as you go.
Update: Just finished at nearly 7 hours in. Honestly such a fun game.

this feels like a GOTY made after some world melting apocalyptic event presented by a radioactively balding geoff keighly on a pile of detritus. it looks small and simple in every way, built to run on the sparest of computing hardware pulled from a microwave, but the dev bled and sweat over every detail to make the most of what they didn't have. by default all the action lives in a cozy square display ratio. there's a tight flashlight and bat attack combo that forces some clever management to wield. every enemy feels like a mini boss with a unique look, mechanic to solve, and won't go down in one hit. and there's so much context and sense of place in the level design. lockers can be smacked for coins, vending machines will drop snacks for health which persist, and each room has a name reflecting its theme and what can be found inside it. you get the sense they were trying their hardest not to copypaste vibes through its entire design trajectory. one of the best games i've ever played and doesn't feel like it's made by someone on the epstein list - idk but iykyk

This has got to be the cutest and most fun to play single modern retro game releases I've seen. Its such a treat of a game and I love well how the cryptid themes fit the visuals, this makes me very excited to play more games from this developer

Extremely underated game. I feel bad that i didn't know about it for so long. Everything from the level design to the music oozes charm. The small animal characters that give you advice and items are all memorable and make me smile when I talk to them. The bosses are, most of the time, well hidden but you feel really good when you bash them. I also didn't expect that plethora of weapons. It's worth it to find them all since they work differently and can help you with the more difficult bosses.
The only downside to it is that it resets my save file everytime I try to play it from a different console (steam deck to PC and vise versa). Must be a problem with the cloud save. If anyone has encountered this let me know :)

Wonderful little Metroidvania. Simple with surprising depth, tons of secrets, lovingly crafted, and so much charm!
The movement options and weapon variety give enough freedom to approach the game however you want - You can skip portions of the game if you're adept with movement. And the game world is small (or rather, approachable) enough that it encourages you to experiment with the abilities you're given. Because of this, it lends itself well to speedrunning and you'll find yourself wanting to 100% it because it just seems so feasible and, most of all, fun to do so.
Highly recommend.
My only complaint is that it needs more wizards. Just wayyyy more wizards.

I really like this game. Was initially sold on how charming it looked, and it just kept delivering charm. All the way through. Now, sure, it looks like a game for the NES or Gameboy color, and if you're turned off by that, then this will most likely not be for you. Personally I grew up with these games, and I justify my nostalgia by saying I respect the visual simplicity, and how much it takes to create something that invokes the feeling of such games. Same with music, where it lands between goof and spook, reminiscent of Zombies Ate My Neighbour.
The controls take a bit getting used to, and all negative reviews mention this specifically. Yes, you have to double-tap a direction to sprint, and you go at mach 10 when you do. You also have momentum, which makes stopping feel like the ground is covered with ice. You're locked in a direction when your flashlight is on, and you have to reveal an enemy with the flashlight in order to be able to do damage to it. All this combines to make combat unwieldy. And this will turn people off. My take is that I don't care and that combat is sick. It has this frenetic energy to it, where you're flying inbetween walls flailing your weapon trying to hit the enemies, frantically flickering your flashlight on and off to keep sight of the bastards. Some bosses last long enough to demand you actually have a base-level understanding of the movement, and can outlast them with damage. This is fine, this is what bosses are for: a test of your abilities in facing the challenges.
Exploration is fun and challenging, you have to pay attention since the areas are designed to obfuscate certain parts behind changes in verticality, and some drops are very steep. So you might need to jump from another screen, into the next one, with enough height to land on a platform you couldn't see from that specific angle, but you spied from another. Yes, very convoluted, and once again this might turn people off. Regarding movement tech; its off the charts, with pivot jumps and slamming your weapon against the wall to send you flying even faster than you can sprint. It even has triple jump. Yeah yeah spoilers, but it needs be stated. IT HAS TRIPLE JUMP! Which means in this aspect, it is better than every other game that doesn't have triple jump. So Tres-Bashers win.
And that is my take. This game is sick, and got my money's worth. It is weird and fun, and delivered on the charm is first showed me. Good stuff, buy it.