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ThePortalGuru · (12-22-2010)

Welp, I noticed this user had just recently joined, and I instantly associated him with the old "Dark Yoshi". Curiosity got the best of me when I saw a link to a game in progress, and the videos posted looked interesting enough.

I gave it a download, and hot damn, this is a wonderful piece of freeware. Despite a couple moments of groan-worthy dialogue and style-clashing, the core gameplay and tech here are actually exceptional.

It's basically your standard run and jump platforming experience, but with a little hack and slash/RPG elements blended in. Your main weapon is your claw, which can be simply upgraded at any of the shops you'll come across in the game. At any time, you can switch the "element" of your weapon to any of the five options: Water, wind, earth, fire, and physical. Certain enemies have certain weaknesses against these different attacks, and you can find out details about each enemy's weaknesses by clicking on them to scan for their information.

The level design isn't half bad, and despite the linear nature of the game, it still has quite a lengthy story. The story's pretty stupid though, IMO, and you can just skip through the corny dialogue if need be. There are some text issues that make certain signs unreadable, but that shouldn't really hinder progress, for the most part, as much of the important stuff is legible.

Right now, I'm roughly an hour and a half in, and have still only acquired one of the game's six (seven?) mystical muffins. You'll traverse many a familiar video game setting, making this a crossover game in some respects, but the styles, like in Mushroom Kingdom Fusion, somehow make themselves work in certain areas, while other places have some serious issues with clashing.

The bosses are pretty cool, too, and each one has a unique pattern of attacks. I do wish there was a bit more variation than just "shoot at player", though, which is how most of the bosses attack.

TL;DR: It's a pretty cool game, with tons of depth in terms of the RPG elements, a long adventure experience, and plenty of variety in enemies. There are probably tons of things I didn't mention that can be found in the included manual, but for the price of free, there's not point in not giving it a look. DL link in screenshot below.