- Polished, fun, and challenging platformer experience.
- Excellent spiritual successor to SNES/DKC classics.
- Innovative dual-character control system.
- Deep mechanics reward skill mastery.
- Extensive hidden collectibles and secrets.
- High difficulty curve demands precision.
Emotions
Players felt satisfied by the game's high quality, mechanical depth, and tight gameplay, especially in platforming, level design, and controls. The game also met or exceeded expectations, delivering a polished experience with smooth performance that was easy to grasp for new players while offering rewarding mastery for dedicated players.
Joy stemmed from the game meeting high expectations upon release, offering a perfect and engaging experience. Players particularly enjoyed its fun co-op, charming presentation, and excellent controls, often reliving positive memories from similar classic games.
Excitement was driven by anticipation for the game's release and its potential to be a top-tier platformer, especially for hardcore fans. Players looked forward to exploring its perceived deep moveset, excellent movement, and the promise of more challenging stages.
Nostalgia was a strong emotion, frequently caused by the game's direct homage to and resemblance of classic 90s platformers, particularly the Donkey Kong Country series. This connection evoked childhood memories for players who grew up with such titles, perceiving the game as a 'love letter' to the genre.
Players appreciated the game's amazing pixel art style, overall charm, and the evident passion in its development. The thoughtful design choices, customizability, and successful homage to SNES platformers, especially Donkey Kong Country, also contributed to this feeling.
Verdict
Mostly positive
Summary
Positive 96% · Negative 4%. Score: 4 / 100
Positives:
- Players universally laud the game for its tight controls, intuitive yet deep mechanics, and exceptionally well-designed levels that offer a satisfying challenge. The charming art style, catchy music, and overall polished presentation contribute to a highly enjoyable experience, making it a standout title that some compare to genre titans like Celeste.
- Many players identify the game as a brilliant homage and evolution of classic SNES platformers, especially the Donkey Kong Country series. It evokes strong nostalgia, but also improves upon its inspirations with faster, more precise mechanics and greater depth, positioning itself as a potential modern classic.
- The game offers substantial mechanical depth and a high skill ceiling, encouraging players to discover unique strategies and master challenging maneuvers. Collecting all items and uncovering numerous secrets is a demanding but highly rewarding experience, fostering a strong sense of accomplishment for dedicated players.
- A core gameplay feature is the unique and flexible two-character switching system, where the duck and turtle possess distinct, complementary abilities. This allows for diverse skill combinations, encourages new strategic approaches to level obstacles, and adds significant depth.
- The game incorporates thoughtful Quality of Life features, particularly regarding collectibles (e.g., not needing to re-collect after falling). It also offers difficulty adjustments and customizable checkpoints for beginners, making the experience more approachable without compromising challenge for veterans.
Negatives:
- Two-player co-op mode requires significant tacit understanding and coordination, making effective play difficult. Additionally, the game's controls are not immediately intuitive and require dedicated effort from players to master them.
- Players noted that the game completely lacks mouse support, which can be an inconvenience for those accustomed to using a mouse for navigation or certain interactions in PC games.
- One player expressed a desire for a CRT shader to be added to the game. This feature would likely enhance the retro aesthetic and nostalgic feel for some players.
Gameplay:
- The game heavily references 90s classic platformers, most notably the Donkey Kong Country series and Wario Land. It integrates familiar elements like animal buddies, bonus rounds, and barrel mechanics, while aiming to expand upon these concepts with more advanced design.
- Players highlight the game's high difficulty, featuring precision platforming and requiring significant skill. The presence of hard/extra hard modes, difficult hidden levels, and challenging achievement conditions (like no-coin or no-kill runs) further reinforces its demanding nature and promotes replayability for dedicated players.
- The game's demo is praised for its ability to effectively introduce players to complex mechanics, allowing them to grasp fundamental gameplay early on. This prepares players for the deeper challenges and intricate design that the full game presents, serving as a valuable onboarding tool.
- The game encourages thorough exploration by embedding numerous unique collectibles and special tasks within each of its forty stages. Players must demonstrate skill to obtain some, complete challenges for others, and pay close attention to environmental cues to uncover various secrets, enhancing engagement and replay value.
- The game features an introductory level designed to guide players through basic operations, smoothly transitioning them into more free exploration. This structured approach ensures players learn core mechanics before encountering complex challenges across the game's many stages.
Performance:
- Players consistently report that the game runs very well and smoothly on the Steam Deck, providing an excellent portable gaming experience. This indicates good optimization for Valve's handheld device.
Recommendations:
- Players enthusiastically recommend this game, giving it high ratings and calling it a 'must-play.' It's particularly praised by those who enjoy difficult, precision platforming and miss the era of challenging games that require patience.
- The game is highly recommended for players who enjoyed classic platformers, especially fans of the Donkey Kong Country series on SNES. It resonates with 'old-timers' looking for true platforming experiences reminiscent of that era.
- Many players suggest trying the available game demo to experience it firsthand. This allows prospective players to form their own conclusions before making a purchase.
- One reviewer suggests trying the game with only one character, noting it adds a unique challenge to the gameplay. However, this approach might make some areas unreachable.
Miscellaneous:
- Players noted that the game's atmosphere or musical score strongly reminded them of classic titles like Donkey Kong Country 2, prompting a desire to revisit those beloved games. This suggests the game successfully captures a nostalgic mood.
