Review scoopings 3/5 · Sep 8, 2023
Decent Vertical Scroller With A Nice Fantasy Theme And Cool-Looking Bosses
Preliminary: At first I wasn't sure how I felt about this... the scrolling was painfully slow and it seemed too easy, which is very odd for me to say. But the difficulty level increased rapidly after that... and then I better understood the power-ups, I loved purposefully getting 3 Boomerang power-ups so I would throw three at a time! Nice …
Preliminary: At first I wasn't sure how I felt about this... the scrolling was painfully slow and it seemed too easy, which is very odd for me to say. But the difficulty level increased rapidly after that... and then I better understood the power-ups, I loved purposefully getting 3 Boomerang power-ups so I would throw three at a time! Nice touch with that. Plus, a good track. Hmmm, perhaps this is worth a full playtest after all (tho a full playthrough is questionable... 8 areas?!)
Look: 7/10 Cute enough, nothing special or striking. The second stage had some ugly colors, and most the casual enemies are very bland, but the cool-looking bosses and fantasy theme make up for that.
Sound: 7/10 I loved the first stage theme, but then it started overusing the Halloween-y one I didn't care for.
Play: 7/10 Some of the power-ups were meh. But I did love them boomerangs! Loved controlling them on the return back, loved having multiple at once, loved em. I was not impressed with the boss battles, tho I did like the Look of some of them, kinda giving me Casatlevania feel :-p
Feel: 7/10 I got to about Stage 03 and called it quits. I should probly return to this and devote more time but... it just was missing something. Maybe if all the tracks were as solid as the first one, or if the Look wasn't so striking (Stage 2 was outright ugly).. There's a lot of great things about this game, and as usual with MSX games, it's tight controls and well-made. But I dunno. Despite the coo looking bosses, fantasy theme, and the fact a few months ago I always felt an urge to finish vertical scrolling shooters... it just wasn't hooking me. Maybe it's a sign that my mind is ready for 86's rise of JRPGs and action-adventures like Dragon Warrior and Zelda, since it was precisely the action-adventure vibes from this game (the power-ups kept making me think of that, as well as the Shield reminding me of Zelda haha) that I liked the most.
Attachment: 7/10 The fact I want to return to it says something, but we shall see. Time to move on in the meantime! I blame Pokemon Yellow for having me so addicted lol (and I wasted an hour tonight for 37k GP in OSRS doing a great ToA run... oh rng-based loot in RPGs...)
Completion: Through Stage 02 Playtime: ~20 mins