Chenso Club Review Summary

Great pixel art, music, and unique roster with solid platforming, but clunky controls and frequent bugs glitches hold it back.

Great Pixel Art and Graphics: The pixel art is vibrant, expressive, and well-made, while the graphics are clean, retro, and enjoyable to look at. Clusters 3, 4, and 6 highlight the visual appeal and artistic style.

Positive Overall Reception: The game is widely praised as good to excellent, with many reviewers describing it as entertaining and playing really well. Clusters 1, 18, 22, and 23 highlight general enjoyment and a great experience for both roguelike fans and newcomers.

Excellent Soundtrack and Music: The soundtrack is consistently described as great, well-made, and surprisingly excellent, with each song having its own energy. Clusters 2, 5, and 20 specifically commend the upbeat and memorable music.

Unique Character Playstyles: Characters play very differently from each other, with unique and fun playstyles that add variety for all player types. Clusters 8 and 9 emphasize the diverse roster and multiple characters to choose from.

Solid Platforming Gameplay: The game is a good, simple platformer without excessive quirks, featuring decent platforming and neat mechanics. Clusters 7 and 14 note the enjoyable platforming experience.

Clunky and unresponsive controls: Many players find the controls clumsy, stiff, and sluggish, requiring significant time to get used to. This is widely reported as a core issue affecting overall enjoyment.

Frequent bugs and glitches: Numerous bugs are reported, including softlocks, freezes, crashes, and progression-halting issues. These significantly detract from the experience and can force restarts.

Lack of content and variety: The game is short, with limited stages, unlockables, and post-game content. Enemy and boss variety also feels lacking, leading to a sense of repetition.

Floaty and janky movement: Movement is frequently described as floaty, slow, and janky, with poor momentum and responsiveness. This contributes to a jarring and unintuitive gameplay feel.

Weak roguelike and meta-progression: The roguelike elements are criticized for lacking variety, meaningful progression, and proper explanation. The meta-progression feels grindy and unrewarding.

Roguelike Structure: The game is a roguelike with stage-based progression, upgrades, and permanent unlocks. It also includes roguelite elements and a final boss.

Distinct Character Roster: The game features multiple playable characters, each with unique weapons, abilities, stats, and move sets. This variety encourages players to master different playstyles.

Action Platformer Gameplay: It is an action platformer with run-and-gun elements and platforming sections. The game includes combat-focused gameplay with boss battles.

Local Co-op Multiplayer: Local cooperative multiplayer is available for up to two players, allowing co-op play in story mode. This enhances the social gaming experience.

Multiple Difficulty Options: The game offers multiple difficulty settings, including a story mode and casual options. Players can adjust difficulty to suit their skill level.

Severe FPS drop bug: After changing volume and exiting the pause menu, FPS can drop below 15. The issue requires a restart to resolve, indicating a persistent performance bug.

Runs well on low-end: The game runs smoothly on a Core2 Duo laptop with 4 GB RAM and Windows 7, maintaining solid framerate without slowdown. This demonstrates broad compatibility with older hardware.

Lag when overpowered: The game experiences severe lag when the player becomes too strong. This suggests a performance scaling issue tied to character power.

Controller disconnection issue: Controllers frequently disconnect after a period of play. This connectivity problem disrupts gameplay for controller users.

Lengthy loading screens: Loading screens between stages take 10 to 15 seconds, which players find excessively long. This impacts the overall pacing and enjoyment.

Wait for sale: Several reviewers advise buying only on sale or discount, citing that the full price is not justified. They suggest waiting for a price drop before purchasing.

Recommended for genre fans: The game is repeatedly recommended for fans of specific genres such as roguelites, arcade brawlers, retro-inspired games, and metroidvanias. Those who enjoy these styles will find plenty to appreciate.

Better with friends: Multiple clusters highlight that the game is best experienced in co-op, with friends recommending it for social play. It is particularly suited to couch co-op and two-player sessions.

Not worth full price: There is consensus that the game is not worth its full price, with specific complaints about $10 and $15 price points. Even those who enjoy it often recommend waiting for a discount.

Mixed or hesitant recommendations: Several clusters express hesitant or conditional recommendations, with some saying they wouldn't be their first choice. Others recommend with reservations or only for encouragement.

Community fair range: $5.00 - $10.00.

Game completion: 5.0h.

Story completion: 3.0h.

Session length: 1.0h.

Endgame: 40.0h.

Reports often describe early fun from flashy combat and co-op chaos, but many players say the experience becomes repetitive or boring quickly.

Friction: horrendous default controller layout; rough first-hour learning curve; clunky/janky controls and rough movement; glitches and bugs; no meta-progression and lost progress on death; repetition and limited content.

Couch Co-op Social Player: Plays local co-op story mode, often on casual difficulty, with another player on the couch. Motivation: To share chaotic local co-op runs with friends or a partner. Stance: buy.

Action-Platformer Arcade Fan: Runs solo arcade-style stages, slashing aliens and replaying in short sessions. Motivation: To enjoy side-scrolling hack-and-slash platforming with a strong soundtrack and arcade feel. Stance: buy.

Roguelite Progression Critic: Repeats runs, analyzes unlocks and meta-progression, and expects meaningful build changes. Motivation: To find deep roguelite progression and build variety that rewards repeated runs. Stance: no buy.

Short game length criticized: Many players note the game is very short, completable in just over an hour or a few hours, with only 6 levels. Some find the price too high for the length.

Supports multiplayer and local co-op: The game features a multiplayer mode, including local co-op for up to two players. However, it lacks online multiplayer and only supports Remote Play Together.

Various game comparisons made: Reviewers compared the game to Mega Man, Metal Unit, Shovel Knight, Dead Cells, and others. These comparisons highlight its genre influences and mechanics.

Developer information and status: Developed by Pixadome and published by Aurora Punks, the studio has since shut down. There have been no updates for several months, raising concerns about future support.

Pixel art and visuals praised: The game features colorful pixel art inspired by the 16-bit era, with destructible environments. The sprite work and art design are generally well-received.