The Gunk feels like a mid-point game to get some cash between the really important games. It's really beautiful, yes, and that's it. The gameplay is nothing new and the only cool unique mechanic is never used for anything groundbreaking. The characters are the blandest space-scrappers you can find out there, and neither them nor the world is even half as interesting as the one found in any of the Steamworld games. A bit buggy and very boring. Also, some animations in the environment look weird, and the facial animation is the worst I've seen in years, it doesn't feel even fully functional. It's a game. Not a good one, not a really bad one. Just meh. Mediocre.
I really don't want to be harsh with this game, since it's made by such a small company and comes from Spain (my home country), no less. However, Narita Boy is pretty disappointing in most aspects. The combat is serviceable, it works but isn't really engaging. The main mechanic of the game is activating differently colored "modes" to kill enemies with that color quicker, but none of the bosses use the mechanic. In fact, the majority of the bosses are either easy and boring or frustrating in a badly designed way. The other part of the gameplay consists of jumping around, acquiring powerups that can only be used in very specific ways, and add nothing to the game, they're just cool ideas that aren't incorporated in any meaningful way into the gameplay. You'll constantly be talking to NPCs that have the same 5 to 10 appearances, and the dialogue is baffling. Seriously, I got into the game hoping for an engaging story about a digital kingdom, which really is my jam, but it's really badly delivered. About halfway through the game I started skipping every single dialogue because I found it really hard to concentrate on what's being explained (and I'm used to playing old-school RPGs, reading long texts is not a problem for me if they're interesting enough). The backstory of the creator was the only thing I didn't skip, and it was the most enjoyable aspect of the game. The final boss is probably the worst in the game, with really poor telegraphy on attacks, and being more of a big damage sponge with bullsh** moves rather than a powerful evil techno-wizard. The game ends on a high note with a big twist, but just after that you get a powerup called "Beat 'em up" and the game just ends with a "To be continued...". I guess it's a way of telling us the next game will be a beat 'em up? Anyways it's not awful, just frustratingly average for the potential it had.
I may update this later if I keep playing, but so far this game is a total disappointment. The base gameplay is good, even though unpolished, but the progression and everything surrounding it is obnoxious at best. They tried to tack on the story into everything, so the game is a drag. For example, they used the same progression system as Dead Cells, with the "spend all your x currency on something before moving forth to the next level", but in that game it was lightning fast. Here there's a dialogue that has 2 or 3 variations, and gets annoying fast. I just want to spend my money and move forth. Whenever you start a new run, the main character will always say that the bartender has something to talk about, but more often than not it's a thing that he's already said, and 100% of the time it's just flavor text with no importance and really boring. Balancing is terrible, the first boss can legit kill you in two hits, and he's not easy to dodge since it's not programmed to stop once it reaches a column or something in the environment, he just keeps going. Not really a well designed fight. I can't say more about other bosses because I honestly can't get myself to keep playing this game, and haven't yet beaten the Wendigo, and that's a pity because I read that killing him awards you an item that makes exploring easier. See, there's these blue fiery circles every now and then on the levels and I guessed they worked as warp points like in Enter the Gungeon, but they do nothing. Unless you've beaten the Wendigo. Why keep such an important part of the game locked from the start? Would it hurt to let players warp from the very beginning? It hinders exploration a lot since the levels have lots of multiple paths and if you want to fully explore a level (you know, in order to find more things that can make the boss fight easier) you need to backtrack, walking slowly through all the different paths. And as a final nitpick, why the **** is there fall damage? Did the developers really want me to not skip a 10 second long (maybe it's shorter, but it feels that long) animation when going down a ladder? I want fluidity in my arcade roguelikes, not realism. Overall this game could've been a lot better and I think all the things I mentioned can be fixed. It certainly wasn't a development constraint issue, just good gameplay with really bad ideas around it. This game has the base to be really really good, I would love for it to be fixed.
