2D Platformers / Metroidvanias

Aunty Treats

This just reminded me that there are several different settings in Gravity Circuit to increase difficulty if/when you want to do so. The order of difficulty is normal mode < hard mode < normal + rude enemies < hard + rude enemies. The last one's pretty rough, I finished it once but have settled on normal + rude since.

Always have the harder stages ("master levels") active obviously.

So you can switch to "story" mode at any point, and then that gives you direct control over a damage output multiplier (idk what it goes up to, looking at a screenshot of the menu I'd guess it goes possibly up to 10x), and a damage received multiplier (which I believe you can even drop to 0).

Blazing Chrome (Steam)

Another Contra-style run'n'gun, made by Joymasher (who later made Vengeful Guardian Moonrider), taking a lot of inspiration specifically from Contra Hard Corps/Probotector on the Mega Drive. Like in that game, you can hold all 4 available weapons at once, there are 4 playable characters, and there's an i-frame roll. Unlike the slide in HC though, you can cancel out of this roll at any time, similar to Mega Man's slide.

Jump controls are also Mega Man-style which is typical for Joymasher games, so you have much greater control over jump height than what you normally get in Contra-style games (usually none, but Contra HC actually has limited jump height control, not nearly as much as Blazing Chrome though). I like this a lot. There's one oddity: you can't jump down through platforms, unlike in other Contra style games where you do this all the time. You'll do the roll instead if you try that. It's rarely much of an issue, but in a few places it can be irritating.

Graphics and theme are what you expect from a Contra game, not much to say about that. Sound design is pretty cool, definitely more retro than Iron Meat's modern soundtrack, even having authentically low quality voice samples like on old consoles (again typical for Joymasher games).

You get 7 lives on easy and 5 lives on normal difficulty, both with unlimited continues. Hardcore difficulty however gives you only 3 lives and 3 continues, similar to the western release of Contra HC. I don't think I'll go anywhere near this setting because it's clearly for hardcore players who play through the game dozens of times and I don't see myself playing that much.

There are 6 levels in total, the first 5 can be played in any order, and they're longer than classic Contra games but in line with modern releases like Operation Galuga, for a total playtime of about one hour, which is great. This game is a bit harder than Iron Meat, mostly thanks to much fewer lives, but on the upside if you use a continue you only have to repeat the current subsection, not the entire level. Sadly there are no profiles/save slots, so when launching the game you either continue where you left last time or start a new game. Unless you're playing hardcore mode which doesn't save anything at all.

Gameplay-wise it's... well it's Contra. Don't know much else to say. It captures the spirit, it's very competently made, it's exciting to blow shit up and mow down evil aliens. It's fun. I forgot to talk about the different characters so far, you start with a mechanically identical pair with the regular weapons, and finishing the game for the first time unlocks a second pair which don't get any different weapons at all, they have only one short-range weapon but which can be charged up Mega Man-style to release a huge long-range projectile that annihilates almost everything in its path, it kinda breaks the game but it's fun. Sadly there's less variety than in Contra HC where you get 4 distinct entire weapon sets, but still having 2 different classes is appreciated.

However comparing it to Iron Meat some differences become apparent. Most of all, in terms of variety Blazing Chrome is much closer to the source material because it has set pieces with mechs and hoverbikes and even a third-person rocketpack section through a tunnel, whereas Iron Meat stays strictly with the core on-foot action throughout. While I appreciate variety, I'm not sure if it works in its favour because the on-foot parts are still the most fun and the gimmicky sections can get a little tedious. The tunnel section is visually super cool because it so authentically recreates fake 3D from 16-bit games but it's less fun than the traditional action which hurts replay value a little. One game is more repetitive, the other is more gimmicky, choose your poison I guess.

Another difference is boss fights. In Iron Meat they can be a little underwhelming because they look cool but mechanically mostly resort to shooting the same small projectiles and spawning the same critters as the rest of the game. Blazing Chrome does this better because bosses generally have their own distinct battle mechanics which is more in line with the source material. The final boss

In the end I can't say one is better than the other, they're both great with minor flaws in their own way. If hard mode is a consideration, Iron Meat's hard mode is more for mortals seeking a greater challenge whereas Blazing Chrome's hard mode is for hardcore arcade players.

Blazing Chrome is frequently on sale (on Steam at least) at -66% off so definitely worth wishlisting, Iron Meat is still new so doesn't get sales yet but there's a demo that tells you all there is to say about the game.

8/10

That’s the other 2D Platformer that’s sat on my Switch wishlist since forever.

Prison City (Steam)

Retro action platformer where you are some action movie dude with a short range 8-way cyber boomerang. You fight your way through 8 selectable nonlinear stages, having to first find your contact to collect a keycard and then the boss room that can be opened with it. Then a few Wily Fortress stages and a final boss. There's a demo on Steam.

It's a spiritual successor to Power Blade on the NES which I played side by side for comparison. Power Blade 1 is actually pretty good, not a must play classic by any means but a competent and fun Mega Man-adjacent NES game.

Sadly I can't say the same about Prison City, which is in principle a solid (if unspectacular) retro game, but it has some issues bogging it down. Controls are clunky, stages and boss fights and bonus rounds tend to be too gimmicky (one boss is literally a Pong match--I'm not against jokes in games but it shouldn't come at the cost of gameplay and replayability), balancing of "classic mode" (the game's hard mode) is terrible because your damage is heavily reduced.

I made the mistake of playing classic mode first so I could enjoy dying from falling into pits etc. like a real dude (and get difficulty similar to a Mega Man game), but enemies and bosses were all tedious bullet sponges--afterwards I replayed it in "modern" mode (normal difficulty) and it quickly became apparent that's what the game is balanced around.

Meanwhile, Power Blade just doesn't have any of these issues, it has tight responsive Mega Man style controls without the Super Mario World style momentum they added in Prison City, there are no annoying gimmicks, you don't have to crawl along grids and beams all the time, there's no excessively long late stage, most enemies die in a single hit, your boomerang doesn't obscure enemy projectiles coming at you. It just feels better in direct comparison.

Power Blade 1 gets a recommendation, Power Blade 2 doesn't because it's a slog. Prison City is ok-ish but overshadowed by other retro games and its own source material.

6/10

I think I've seen that game a few times and it's really brazen just how much of a rip of HK's art style it is. I don't really see how anyone can defend it.

And his 'critique' is that you have to hold up or down for a second before the screen moves. Isn't that how it always works, otherwise you'd be doing it all the time

I just played the demo. Should have copied HK more because it controls like ass.

That Voidwrought review is horrible.

"A crouch button would've been nice"

"I've not actually finished the game ahead of this review. I've played it for about six hours which is about 15%" ... sorry what ... "There is a demo so you can try for yourself which is often the best way with these things, right?"

Rightttt

Started Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom. Looks lovely - wish more games went this route instead of pixel stuff

What does the ringing bell mean? It's doing my head in. I thought it indicated a secret of some kind but it also does it after a save

Yeah, Monster Boy was an absolute joy to play. I liked it more than
I wish they'd make an another one.

Battle Princess Madelyn (Steam)

Currently -75% off. It's a 16-bit style Ghouls'n'Ghosts-like but easier and with backtracking and fetch quests etc., but there's also a classic arcade mode which is just simple linear progression. Graphics and the Mega Drive style soundtrack are very nice actually, it's really a charming game and they even got the wonky ladder animations right.

So they understood how to make graphics and sound, but sadly not how to make a good game. It's way too easy, but worst of all it seems unfinished. In story mode, sometimes getting items from statues randomly doesn't work and now I'm stuck at a boss door that just won't open no matter how often I retry reloading the area and whatnot.

Arcade mode feels too insubstantial to be engaging thanks to the lack of difficulty, but worst of all there's something wrong with your attacks. In G'n'G if you actually shoot is decided by how many projectiles are already on screen, but in this game it seems completely random, you mash the button hoping that projectiles come out in quick succession but sometimes they do and sometimes they don't and I couldn't make any sense of why or when that's happening. Whatever the reason, it's very annoying and unsatisfying and further diminishes an experience that wasn't very engaging to begin with, to the point that I just don't want to play it.

This game feels broken and is a definite candidate for a refund, but sadly I already have played 4 hours so no luck.

I normally want my reviews to be understood as mostly subjective experiences and not as definitive purchase recommendations, but in this case I just have to recommend to stay away.

AVOID


Alternative: if you're looking for a nice little G'n'G style game with a little more moderate difficulty and less bullshit than the original series, you might enjoy Cursed Castilla, which also happens to be on Steam sale currently for €6 (-50%), but only for another 24 hours. I like this one, 8/10 for me.

Duffking beware that (imo) hard mode seems like the intended difficulty, as it forces you to at least a little to engage with the game's mechanics and gear and patterns, or make some strategic decisions about prioritising enemies etc. In normal mode, most of the time you can basically just hack away at anything in front of you without a care in the world.

Normally I'd hesitate to recommend hard mode to new players before they've got used to the game but I know you play much harder games and imagine you might be pretty bored with normal mode.

I believe hard mode is usually only available after beating the game once, but if the internet can be trusted, if you name your profile NIGHTMARE you can choose any difficulty from the get go.