Scaling and Review Notes

Personal Hours Played: 5.6

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 11/9/2023

Bing is in Wonderland and you can be too! Fairly unique title on the list and has features that may appeal to a wide range of players.

Picked this one up from my Steam Queue unsure about what it exactly was and I've never been happier. First of all, I just want to say that it's incredibly refreshing to have fun silly games based on mythology not as overdone as Norse, Greek, Celtic, etc and Beijing based Wanba Studio really delivers. And in an incredibly silly lofi refreshing way. The localization team deserves a nobel peace prize.

It's a "sidescroller" but really only in small arena style stages linked together in the now classic branching paths rogue-lite fashion. You don't see all your paths on a map, but you can pick a stage with a certain kind of power progression. New skill, stat increase, vendor, etc. It's somewhere near Hades but also feels a little brotato style with wave design.

So in that way it's perhaps more similar to other dungeon crawlers, but they say "without exploration elements". With the picking up resources off the ground, over the top upgrades, and general streamlined presentation it fits in well with what a lot of survivors-likes fans are looking for.

Tons more build depth, weapon variety, etc than you'd expect from it at first. Just packed with content. Maps, characters, bestiary, you name it. Sometimes the UI organization is rough but it can also be really creative so hard to ding it too much.

Besides the change in perspective, the biggest difference is with the complexity of controls. It's an action heavy game, though not really a tactical or challenging one. It lends itself very well to button mashing so I quite enjoy it, but the amount of different buttons involved can make it less accessible (I have to play in rounds with my partner for runs, since my hands tire easily.)

I very much appreciate that it has only auto aim, no manual aim, so at least that part you don't need to worry about. Which is good because this most definitely is a bullet heaven, even if the dungeon crawling nature of it makes it perhaps not a survivors-like. There is auto-fire, but it's a mid game unlockable hence partial score.

More scoring modes: We're judging the area selects as "maps/stages" in the VS sense, since they function very similarly. Has both jump and dodge but can't go past -1 in that column anyway. Early runs to clear the first few stages were maybe 8-10 minutes. Probably can go down if you're better and go up on later levels.

But speaking of that, the button mash friendly action focus and streamlined nature also makes this a game that appeals highly to my partner as well as me (while my partner sometimes bounces off buildcrafting and I bounce off games too reliant on tactical button presses). It reminds me a bit of Hades, which I was able to complete runs of, in that when it's going well you're constantly dashing around the screen.

Lovely uglycute art style based on classical Chinese ink wash paintings, I'm honestly unsure I've ever seen anything exactly like it. Especially mixed with the lowbrow humor. This is probably off a little bit since I'm not an expert on the art history, but my first impression was like if Binding of Isaac was made during the Tang Dynasty. Screenshots and even videos don't really do it justice. Just fresh.

Sometimes a game might actually get dinged in 'subtle' humor when it's got a lot of poop jokes, but it's got a wide range of humor overall. Something I thought was a UI bug was a "prank" so watch out for those. Did I mention the music is really good? Devs should play this game and take notes.

Scaling and Review Notes

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 12/19/2023

Scale scoring from scorecard submitted by the publisher. Once evaluated after a couple hours play and some research, will be adjusted and moved up into the ranking proper.

Designer note: "It's a lighter Vampire Survivors Game w/ tuned up pixel graphics. If you're looking for an affordable game with a survivors-like feel, then Renfield is one of many options you can pick up on Steam."

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