Scaling and Review Notes

Personal Hours Played: 4.4

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 10/16/2023

Previously called "Soul Survivors"

A so-far solid single stick shooter in Early Access. VERY close in aesthetic style and design and actually keeps 1 handed movement focused play. Edit: Seems they are adding a dodge, so this will need to be re-examined.

Also very Dark Souls inspired visually with some fun subtle jokes for fans. Bumpin' music. Graphics an upgrade - especially on elite/boss animations - while still feeling pretty lofi.

Necro earns this a summoning game tag from me.

Classic inspired classes have their own unique weapon and move set, with some interesting twists like fighting style movement combo to activate a move for the monk. They also have their own money pile and upgrade tiers. Not a ton of maps, but a decent range of characters considering their depth - unfortunately no crazy crossover evolutions it seems.

It's still early access so I intend to check back in later for a real review. First impressions are pretty positive.

Includes a necromancer summoning class In Early Access so we'll see how much of a summoning game it is - very responsive developer!

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

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.