CyberusUK

I’ve known about Punch Club for a while now, in fact I was one of the first to be able to make a video of it. I loved the idea from the first moment I heard about it, an 80’s/90’s influenced management sim about fighting. It sounded like Streets of Rage crossed with the Sims, to me this seemed like an amazing combination. But in reality I could sum this game up in one simple sentence “Failed to deliver on all the promise it held!” and that would be accurate. It would be unfair to say I hate the game, there really is a lot here to like. The visuals are gorgeous and really capture that retro feel, the characters look like who they so often parody and that’s not easy when you choose this 16bit style. The locations are colorful and interesting, again with a huge amount of homages to the films from the 80’s and 90’s. The story while hugely cheesy is exactly right, it takes all the best bits of Rocky, The Godfather and many other familiar greats. Whether it be facing off against teenage mutant ninja crocodiles or finding yourself in trouble in little china it’s all here, everything you’d expect and probably lots you’ve forgotten if you were a child of the 80’s. This sounds amazing, what could be so bad? That’s probably what you’re asking yourself and it’s something I’ve been asking too, a game with great music, plot and concept could be bad? The answer of course is yes and it really all comes down to execution, you see the game is a huge grind and I don’t mean that figuratively. No, I mean you’ll spend all your time in the gym just to keep your stats up let alone improving them. There’s so much to see in the game but chances are you won’t as one unexpected trip can really put your progress back. If you want to master the game it’s really as simple as train, eat, work and fight, there really is little else if you wish to succeed. But it’s a management sim I hear you cry, that’s how they work and you would of course be right. But this game promised so much more, it could have spanned genres and made something amazing. Instead you have very little connection to the main character, not even being able to control them in fights and this is a travesty. A game that’s basis is really about unlocking fighting moves and skills, that gives you zero control of those moves but instead throws them in at random with you left to watch. A frustrating affair and a huge error by the developers if you ask me. That of course sum’s the game up, it really wouldn’t have taken a lot to make this a great game. Just make training more effective with less degeneration over time and give the player some control in fights, even if it was just a rock, paper, scissors affair it would have been something. But instead I’ve been left a little deflated at the whole experience, it’s not a terrible game but it’s not a great one. Maybe not even a good one, but passable and nothing more. It’s a shame as there are some great moments here and interesting plot lines, but it’s hard to enjoy as your always planning that next trip to the gym!

Tiny Build had recently told me they were sending me out a code for Dungelot but as I hadn’t asked for it I really wasn’t too bothered, so when it arrived I thought I’d take a look but I still wasn’t sure if I’d write a review. I’m not big on games that move over from the mobile platform to PC as nine times out of ten they just don’t work for me. Dungelot has been a pleasant surprise in this respect, it’s not all that bad. Dungelot is described as a hybrid between a dungeon crawler and minesweeper and it’s a pretty accurate description, but it’s far deeper than that. The game is played on a 5×5 grid that’s covered with rocks, as you uncover each square you might find one of a few things. Items, food, enemies or the dungeon key which is perhaps the most important thing, as opening the door to the dungeon takes you to the next floor. Enemies will restrict you from uncovering the squares around them until they are defeated but don’t be tricked into taking on every enemy as this is a quick way to die, rather avoid it if you can. Food is needed for progression as moving to another floor with no food will give you a penalty to your health and items offer a range of benefits to the player like bombs to fight enemies or buff giving potions. Items used correctly can be a life saver and you quickly learn to manage your inventory to match your style of play. The game also has a selection of mini games and diversions to partake of which pop up as you quest, these are a nice little extra that keeps things fresh. All in all it’s an enjoyable experience to play with a fair bit of humour in the narrative too and while I’m not a huge fan of puzzle games which I would consider this to be I have found myself playing quite regularly. It also helps that the art is pretty good in its cutesy anime style, I’m a **** for good artwork. The heart of Dungelot is a mobile game no doubt, but it’s not a mobile game that needs you to keep playing every hour to collect something or do something, there aren’t even micro-transactions and this helps to make the experience a pleasurable one. I’m not being forced to play or strong armed into spending money, I can hop in as and when I please and have a quick blast. It doesn’t matter if I played an hour ago or a week, which probably makes me play it even more. It’s not a hard game to understand, it’s a simple puzzle game that’s all about having a bit of fun. It’s enjoyable and the fact it came out on mobile first really doesn’t matter as this is just a puzzle game that happens to have been on mobile, it looks great and plays great on PC instead of being a bad port of a bad game which is what I’ve come to think of when I talk about mobile ports. There’s no earth **** graphics or gameplay that reinvents the wheel, it’s a colourful, bright and fun little game that I highly enjoyed.

I should really start this review by saying I hate rhyme games, even worse dancing games. So why the hell would I ask for a copy of this game? And I did, I need to be very clear about that, I wasn’t approached by the developer, I specifically asked for this game. Why? Well it’s good to keep thing varied and secondly for the following Steam Review. . . Pretty harsh, also quiet offensive! But can this game really be that bad? The simple answer is no, it really isn’t, it pretty good as these games go. I’m not about to spend 40 hours playing it as it’s really not my thing, but I like it. I don’t love it or want to write a 1000 word review on it, but it’s a pretty good concept. So let’s talk about the game, it’s a rhyme game about dancing like hundreds before it but it has a hook. That hook is that it plays like a cross between the rhyme games we’ve all seen and a fighting game, as strange as that sounds it works. Instead of having to just out dance your opponent you must also put up shields and use commands to break your opponent’s combo, you can even do special moves of a sort. Each character has their own set moves and you’ll need to learn them to hold your own and while these move are a relatively simple four button affair it also takes timing to the beat of the song. This is a double-edged sword as with only five moves pre character and those never-changing their combination, it can get repetitive but as you progress you need that familiarity to even stand a chance. But at least if you do find it all too repetitive then you can always switch character, then you have a whole fresh set to memorize. It’s simple and not something that’s going to become a secret pleasure for me, but it’s got pretty good music and pretty good gameplay. At least enough for me to be happy to keep going back to it when my daughter nags me to play her, I might even have a little smile on my face while playing. It has colorful, interesting characters and there’s very little to get upset about here, it’s pretty good for a rhyme game. But it’s always going to come back to that, I’m not a rhyme game fan so it speaks highly of it that I don’t hate it. That why I’m giving it a 3 out of 5 and let me be clear here with that score, to me a 2.5 out of 5 is average as it should be for all reviewers, I consider this playable and even enjoyable to people who aren’t hardcore fans of the genre. But it’s not made me a rhyme game fan, so above average. Not the game to convert me, but good enough that I’m not chewing on the keyboard wishing the pain was over. I can play it and quiet enjoy it, that’s pretty high praise from me.

Blood Alloy desperately wants to be a Metroidvania game crossed with a twin stick shooter, the truth is it struggles to do ether well. You’re put in the role of a cyborg ninja style character that can fly around the screen taking out enemies and looking flashy as you do it. Unfortunately this doesn’t cover the gaping holes in its control scheme and this is where the game really falls apart. When played with mouse and keyboard the game is a mess and makes some really odd choices like having two jump keys but on controller things become a little easier. Even then though the choice to make the shoot button something you have to press repeatedly instead of the traditional hold to fire that’s been tried and tested just serves to frustrate even more than is necessary. These aren’t the only issue I find with the controls ether, much of the time these controls seem to focus on style rather than substance. The character has a dodge that takes you so far across the screen chances are you’ll avoid one enemy only to land on another. Your sword attack can be done in any direction, but its hit and miss if the game will pay any attention to the direction you’re pressing. I could go on, but I’m sure you get the idea. There are even issues with level design too, sometimes you can shoot through platforms and more an inch to the left and suddenly you can’t. There’s no consistency with the game. On top of all this there’s no guidance on what you’re even doing, you wonder round shooting things until an onscreen marker shows up and you go kill what it’s pointing too and you’re on your own again until it decides to show up again. I don’t know if you have to kill X amount of these to progress or if the game is just score attack as it doesn’t tell me. You get a brief glimpse at a plot when completing training mode, but nothing to give you any idea of what the hell is going on. The game shows me an upgrades menu, but gives me no idea of how to unlock them and this story continues. . . The Steam reviews so far show a very different story than mine, it seems to be really well received. Maybe if you persist with the game thing improve, maybe it becomes clearer but I have little to no incentive to do so as the game gives me no hint of this and I’m not inclined to continue in some blind hope. This isn’t an early access game, I have no reason to suggest it might improve or get better. Maybe this game just isn’t for me, or maybe everyone else is wrong. I don’t know but I do know I don’t recommend it.

INTRODUCTION: Snail Bob 2 is so far from the games I would normally touch on, so you maybe wondering why I’m covering it? Well the truth is though this game is very far from my comfort zone I know like myself some of my readers have kids, Snail Bob 2 is really for them and for you to help them. In my overview below I spoke about my son loving it and I think this is the case for lots of kids. Snail Bob 2 is a puzzle game aimed at family’s and as such gives you no time limits or puzzles to complex for kids to work out. This review will very much focus on this aspect and so should be read as such. If you’re an adult looking for a puzzle game for your self please skip this review as Snail Bob 2 isn’t for you. PRESENTATION: The game is jolly and has bright colours, all the things you’d expect for a game trying to appeal to children. There are outfits to adorn bob with giving the little guy an element of uniqueness about him but not too much to overwhelm them. My son of course chose the Batman looking outfit as after all my son is Batman, at least that’s what he regularly tells me. There are a lot of references to popular culture like Batman in the game too, Mario, Darth Vader and Minecraft all make appearances in Snail Bob 2. This is nice for the adults that will often find themselves playing alongside their children. The game really plays on its simplicity and keeps things to a minimum in settings and controls and this does help the younger players. The only major criticism I have is that this game is very much a mobile style game, but as it’s also a mobile game this is really expected and also this will let it run on pretty much any PC which is good as not all parents are tech heads like myself. GAMEPLAY: The controls are beautifully simple and though offer little challenge to the experienced gamer, they offer just enough challenge for the younger demographic this game is trying to reach. The puzzles are relatively straight forward but again this is a good thing and so is the lack of time limits. I was pleasantly shocked how quickly my son got to grips with the game, only requiring the smallest amount of help every now and then. I do feel the mobile version would be easier for little ones as the touch screen is maybe more natural for this game, but ether way I didn’t encounter any major issues. ONLINE: Now this is an interesting one as I was going to remove this selection from my review template, this game doesn’t have online functions. But then I thought as a parent I wouldn’t want my children on the Internet and would want to know if they can get online with it. 2015-09-29_00006 PERFORMANCE: The game performs fine, as you would expect. It could run on any current PC I’m sure, but I did encounter a few bugs here and there. It might have been my per-release version but I found the game would stick every now and then if you die or even sometimes when you complete a level. It didn’t happen often, but worth noting all the same. CONCLUSION: I like Snail Bob 2, well to be more accurate my son likes Snail Bob 2 and I enjoy helping him and seeing how happy he is to play it. That’s really what it’s about and if you get it for any other reason your probably missing the point, Snail Bob 2 is a great way to have fun with your kids and not have to get the paints and glue out. My little boy loves it and I love helping him, for that reason it get a recommendation from me. Snail Bob 2 is available on Steam for £3.59 or you regional equivalent.