Scaling and Review Notes

Personal Hours Played: 2.1

Review Disclaimer

Every game ranked was played, but also scaled based on research, talking to developers & your feedback. The priority with the scale's initial design was to compare similarity on relatively objective features - so it doesn't claim to include reviews of the depth and clarity you'd get at a games journalism site, nor the intensive time played you might get from player reviews on steam. We try to incorporate and link all of that along with a 'review scale' that checks for bugs. See the heatmap and breakdown! Time played noted so you can take any notes with a big grain of salt! I can't get to high level gameplay in 850+ games so I heavily research every game. Over 80 game creators let me interview or survey them! I Hope to go back and refine. Please argue or submit your own scores and reviews to be incorporated with credit into the notes and score numbers.

Added or last checked on 11/13/2023

Consider this Early Access first impressions.

This one is a straight up Vampire Survivors clone so highly similar in terms of controls, gameplay, enemy behavior and weapons. That means if you're looking to get more of basically the exact gameplay you'll find that here. It also means you might feel you're getting a lower quality version of the game you love and not much else. I wasn't put off by it, though, the cuteness and eastern themes drew me in, I just didn't have much reason to play more of it yet.

The weapons aren't inspired but the enemies are relatively unique and well animated. (It's the backgrounds that feel off.) It's got relatively small maps, with loot events for chests, etc, that require you standing in one place for a certain amount of time. The enemies come in organic waves that have pretty good formation, generally leaving a satisfying path to wind through that requires enough concentration to keep you engaged. It gets that aspect of the gameplay pretty well, which is nice because many of these games do not (instead thinking that a game like Vampire Survivors is simply an automated twin stick shooter rather than a movement game.)

Graphics feel cheap phone gaming, but they are cute. The reason it gets a 0 in the graphics and sound section of the review score is the sound is also kind of chunky and cheap sounding with pretty but again generic music. But I'm kind of torn because the mid 2000s web game graphics hit a nostalgia spot for me as well.

Controls for the menu are bound weird on the controller (right bumper to select?) and it feels pretty janky. My partner tried playing and quit out feeling it was bugged, only then did I realize I had been resulting to the Steam Deck's right trackpad to select levels (and that was kind of annoying actually).

Has a town hub for level select and to look over unlocked items but it feels a little sparse for the amount of wandering around it requires it doesn't feel like hubs usually add much to me. (That's not a firm rule, though, as Hades is a good example of how it can really help make a game feel complete.) Since this is a pretty arcade style game with no plot that I could determine, I'm not sure I need a walkable menu. At least one weapon has aiming. I do very appreciate the 2x speed option and am considering making a column about those options in the metadata.

The weapons I've unlocked so far are mostly projectile based, which is a little disappointing because I feel it keeps it from being a real garlic-like mowing game. You're avoiding enemies and collecting jewels but not as much of the third common movement focused element.

What's odd is that despite there not being much new or interesting here, the technically subpar graphics and UI, etc, I still kind of like this one. It's charming and while the music isn't bumping or unique it's pretty and relaxing.

What is keeping me from playing it more the most is that it has the incremental meta progression linked to each character, meaning you need to invest in tiny boosts in health, attack speed, etc under each character. This drastically slows down advancement and discourages you mixing things up by trying someone else.

I feel like I can only give "first impressions" without putting in enough time to see anything approaching the endgame myself, but with so many options on the list I have to be honest some games may not get past first impressions. I wish there was a more streamlined meta game, but I'll check back in after Early Access since I genuinely do like the cute pop arcade vibe.