NintendanGX

Onion Assault is a 2.5D platformer heavily inspired by Super Mario Bros 2/Doki Doki Panic, in that you can pluck vegetables from the ground and throw them at enemies, in addition to lifting and throwing enemies you've jumped on. There are also three Onion Coins in each stage for completionists to collect, which is a feature brought over from more modern 2D platformers like NSMB and the modern Kirby games. It features a simple yet brilliant impressionistic art direction with vibrant primary colours and outlines around every object, some clever use of the grab mechanic (especially during bossfights and the final stage), and a mostly rewarding challenge in collecting all the Onion coins, in spite of the flaws holding it back. The game has a lot of really great ideas throughout. Unfortunately, most of those ideas fail to live up to their potential due to poor execution, questionable design choices and a lack of focus-testing that severely impacts the overall quality of the product. The main issues affecting this game stem from one source; the controls. Something so basic and fundamental for a platformer to get right. Yet the player character in this game is one of the most unreliable I've controlled in a while. Whereas platformers like Mario give you a good degree of control over where you're going to jump, and reliably convey information to the player such as jump height and distance when performing certain inputs, this game does the exact opposite. The character will often under shoot or overshoot a jump by default, forcing the player to make constant micro-adjustments mid-air if they're not already plummeting to their deaths after missing a platform. This issue didn't change the more time I spent with the game, and it's not a simple case of "getting used to the controls" or "git gud". The majority of deaths I experienced didn't feel like my own fault at all. Then there's the run button, which is standard fare for any platformers inspired by Mario. The issues I mentioned before are only further exacerbated with this mechanic, and worse yet, running is mapped to the same button as grabbing. So if you're already on an enemy or object, and want to do a running-jump off it to clear a gap, you're out of luck unless you already jumped on said enemy with the Y button already held down. I know SMB2 did this, but in that game's defense, the NES controller only had 2 face buttons; A and B. The Switch controllers have four face buttons and two shoulder and trigger buttons. There was no excuse not to take advantage of the real-estate on the Switch controllers, and map grabbing to a separate button from running, especially when it could've mitigated a lot of accidental deaths from the player. As it stands, this is an archaic and outdated design mentality. Speaking of outdated elements in the game, the player can take damage just from bumping into enemies from the side, even when they're not actively attacking or flaunting a weapon. When you're trying to jump on top of an enemy (some of which make a surprisingly small target) with the game's lethargic, unreliable controls, and repeatedly getting hit , this becomes a major problem. But even if it weren't, I don't understand why this particular hazard was put in place when games like Wario Land and recently Pizza Tower already fixed this issue. It'd make sense if the enemy's sides were covered in sharp spikes or if they brandished a spear, but when they haven't even noticed me before I bump into them from behind, I shouldn't be the one taking damage. Not to pick on the devs too much, but I get the impression that Horberg Productions got so used to their borked controls and levels that don't accommodate them very well, that they couldn't see the forest from the trees. The game was clearly in desperate need of focus-testing, even just with a couple of other people who enjoy these types of platformers, to course correct it early on and fix the fundamental issues permeating the experience. It would've humbled the devs and helped them identify these issues before they started charging money for it. I know my review has been scathing so far, and I do want to stress that this isn't a bad game, but it falls just short of being good despite its many worthwhile ideas that I can't help but wonder how and why we ended up with the mediocre product we got. I'm not going to give the devs a free pass, regardless of how small the team was, because Pizza Tower was released on the same day as this, made largely by one guy with less experience than any one member of Horburg Productions, and shows an abundance of competence, polish, detail and thought rivalling the best triple-A platformers, while providing a brutal yet mostly fair challenge for those trying to fully complete the game. If Bertil Horberg would spend less time isolated in his small bubble while virtue-signalling to idiots on twitter, maybe he could make something worth the asking price. There's no excuse here.

Astrai Chain is a solid Switch exclusive that offers plenty of new and exciting gameplay ideas and mechanics to the character-action genre. I have no gripes with the story so far, or the likeable characters, or the setting, or the way it integrates law enforcement into a character-action game. However, it's a heavily flawed example of its subgenre, for just two reasons. I'll be focusing on these two broad reasons for this review, as I think they're far more important than the pros that have most likely already been discussed. 1. The game doesn't run at 60fps. You might not care, and you might not "notice it" (which is code for "I don't know what to look for so I'll deflect a criticism I don't understand"), but 60fps has been, and should always be, the standard in these games. In a skill-intensive, mission-based action game that encourages you to get the best rank possible during combat, every single frame counts. The controls need to be as responsive as possible with as little input delay as possible, and 30fps makes that so much harder to achieve. What baffles me the most is that this is Platinum, the guys who always target 60fps with these types of games. In a day and age when Devil May Cry 5 exists, there's literally no excuse. So what if the Switch isn't as powerful as a base PS4 or Xbox One, don't focus so heavily on visuals if it's going to be a detriment to the overall gameplay when it truly matters This isn't an open-world or sandbox game, this is a linear action game with branching secrets and an emphasis on combat. And if they really wanted people to experience pretty visuals over responsive and gratifying gameplay with minimum input delay, then why not give us the option? Plenty of games now allow you to choose between performance and visual fidelity, even Fire Emblem Warriors on the Switch. If someone at Platinum sees this, please include this in an update. In many cases, it can make the difference between an okay game and a great game. 2. Souls-like elements do not work in a character-action game. For those who don't know, the lock-on is done by pressing the right-stick in, like a Souls game, and attacking is done with the trigger buttons. This is fine in a souls-like, but not a character-action game akin to Devil May Cry, Ninja Gaiden and Bayonetta. It makes it harder to switch focus between enemies when that type of control scheme is geared towards a slower-paced, more methodical kind of game, but implemented in a faster-paced game that demands the most ergonomic control scheme. The game does have different input options, but the way lock-on is implemented by nature makes it a pultry amendment at best. Oh, but that's not the only souls-like element in the game. While this issue is less noticable than the framerate problem, it's worth noting that you cannot jump into the air by normal means. A feature in DMC, Ninja Gaiden, Bayonetta, The Wonderful 101, and Metal Gear Rising, is done away with in Astral Chain. I wouldn't have minded so much if they hadn't thrown pace-breaking obstacles at you that could've been dealt with in a number of ways given the player was fast enough. But there's even souls-like gimmicks and hazards that make their way into this game, like sticky floors in the 4th mission, which stop the player dead in their tracks. It's an unfair disadvantage that doesn't add a worthy challenge, but rather hinders the player in a game that expects them to play at their best and make precise dodges. The pace of the fight comes to a crashing halt when you transition from a dodge to an unskippable stumbling animation after landing in said sticky substance, and it can cost you a perfect S+ rank. And the worst part is that it would've been a passable feature if you were able to jump more easily to attack in mid-air, much like Nero from DMC5 when things get dicy on the ground. These two subjects and the problems inherent within them do not prevent the game from having worthwhile, enjoyable content within it, nor should they deter you from getting the game at £40. They are, however, easy enough problems to fix given Platinum's calibre. If they did update the game and provide an option for people to weaken the visuals for a smooth 60fps, then my score would likely go from a 7 to a 9. but as things currently stand, it is a severely disappointing aspect of what could've been a new rival to DMC5 and its threshold of the best character-action gameplay.