Boom Box Blue!
“Boom Box Blue is a frenzied skill based physics game. This is what you get if you merge Tetris with physics and throw some bombs into the mix!”
Well, slow down guys.
The truth is that this game features 35 achievement that require basically grinding, and they can be completed within an hour - in fact, the hardest achievement requires us to reach the maximum level, and by doing this we’ll take the other ones too.
So, what’s it all about?
The game itself has a very basic tutorial, hovering upon the ? mark - we must collect stars, avoid red blocks, eat toasts to get bonuses, pick up bombs and drop them with the left mouse button.
– Real player with 68.9 hrs in game
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“Nom nom nom! Boom!”
This dodge and collect-items game is so cool and appealing in gameplay. I like everthing about it. The soundtrack, the progressively leveling while collecting falling stars, different kind of enemies which you have to bomb away, unforseen special modes like winds that bursts too high grown towers of blocks or darkness that let you only survive in a small light cone. There are powerups. This time mushrooms make you smaller while hamburgers enlarge your box. (I would suggest to being smaller to survive longer) You even can vomit out the burgers if you don’t want to grow too big. You’ll reach all achievement requirements after about 1 hour. Depends if you invest more into stars falling from the sky (faster leveling) or more bombs, bigger explosions or lives (higher scores).
– Real player with 1.3 hrs in game
CosmoDreamer
I have over 100 hours spread across the demos, and I’ve cleared most of this dev’s past games on their highest difficulty. I’ve been anticipating this game since March, and it has far exceeded my high expectations.
Veterans can enjoy a good challenge and the full experience on Nightmare difficulty. It’s a step above arcade difficulty, and a little under a 2 loop experience, at a whopping 9 stages and a cruel TLB reminiscent of Mushihimesama’s Aki. While I haven’t cleared Nightmare Trial at the time of this review (might take a month or two of hard grinding to do so), I can guarantee anyone at any skill level will have a good time with this game. It’s great fun for what it’s worth.
– Real player with 121.5 hrs in game
Read More: Best 2D Platformer Top-Down Shooter Games.
Honestly, I’m surprised that this game’s price tag is this low. For what it provides in terms of gameplay, it should charge at least twice as much. This is an absolute jewel among indie shmups; it doesn’t try to hide its obvious influences (Touhou and CAVE STGs being the big ones here), even makes some references to them in its bullet patterns, and realizes them very nicely. The scoring system is simple and straight-forward, and routing Nightmare difficulty (which I’m currently ultra stuck on) is like a gateway drug to DDP or Mushihimesama. There’s even some secrets to discover.
– Real player with 41.2 hrs in game
Crimson Glaive Sigma
This game is BRUTAL but fair.
a two dimensional explorative platformer with good mobility and quite a unique button layout.
it is heavily advised taking your first steps with caution and to not rush into it, otherwise the game will get chaotic real quick.
– Real player with 14.5 hrs in game
Read More: Best 2D Platformer Retro Games.
This neat little metroidvania is surprisingly good for a one-man project.
There’s a lot about it that might initially put you off; the visuals are pretty basic, the music is serviceable at best, and the early-game movement can feel a little clunky. However, once you start getting your hands on more movement upgrades and weapons, and you really get into the flow of combat, it starts to feel really good!
As of this review I have not finished the game, but from my early impressions I would highly recommend picking this up.
– Real player with 2.1 hrs in game
Demon Slayer Akagi
Just as advertised: a solid, classic arcade-styled game; the sort that will kick your butt at first, but becomes very satisfying and replayable as you get better and learn to handle its unique and tricky mechanics with all three of the different selectable ability sets.
Jammin' soundtrack with simple but cute visuals and character designs as well.
– Real player with 2.4 hrs in game
DISCLAIMER: I received a key to bug test this game a few days before release.
Short Version: If you like Touhou 1, then you’ll probably like this game.
Long Version: Demon Slayer Akagi is a bullet-hell breakout arcade game where you control Akagi in her quest to free girls from the control of a demon. The core gameplay revolves around propelling a magic ball onto tiles to slowly break them down, but, unlike many Breakout-like games, the tiles will shoot back at you, and you will have to avoid those in addition to your own ball. Additionally, there is no penalty for missing your ball, so you can drop the ball as necessary to avoid incoming projectiles. Just make sure that you don’t get hit by it yourself, since it counts as a projectile.
– Real player with 1.3 hrs in game
Lavapools - Arcade Frenzy
You will hate bats for the rest of your life if you play this game.
An Analysis of Lavapools
Recommendation for people who like rage games/games that require skill and have lots of player death: 10/10
Recommendation for people who aren’t into that stuff: 5/10
Overview: Lavapools is a top-down rage game. You are a crab, trying to get your son back who has been stolen by an octopus who is designing traps for you.
Lavapools has 3 gamemodes on several levels:
1. Procedural
The most common gamemode. You collect gems from gem spawn points, and as you get more gems the world gets more hazardous. At 25 gems the door opens to end your progress and save your score, but you can keep collecting gems. When you die, you drop about half of your gems in one little pile and can pick them back up when you respawn (with 0 gems, of course). The hazard level/rank/music also resets when you die. The levels in this gamemode are the smallest compared to other gamemodes.
– Real player with 10.1 hrs in game
Pure skills arcade game. Why it’s awesome ?
1. You play as a blue Krabb
2. You play in a HOOOOT volcano (Yes, the game is called Lavapools for a reason)
3. It’s full of deadly trap, and you will die …. a lot.
Very easy to understand, very hard to master.
– Real player with 3.7 hrs in game
Pazing By
Pazing By is a Hidden Gem among the Bullet Hell/2D Platformer genre. The game is still in early access but provides 6-7 stages to go through with numerous replayability and secrets to discover on a run. I personally like the combat by gazing enemies to do damage to them as it makes it possible to learn its attack pattern before getting hit by them. Moreover, I like the bosses in the game for each stage where you have to face of with 1-2 mini bosses before facing the main boss of the area making it more satisfying/frustrating when perfecting them. However, like any early access games there are minor bugs and issues that are actively being resolved and updated by the developer of this game. I encountered errors with unable to launch the game at first but reached out to the devs to resolve this issue and yes i did the devs were very friendly and provided a solution to this problem making my day. In conclusion, I would recommend this game to anyone who loves bullet hell/platformer games.
– Real player with 2.5 hrs in game
Easy control, it is a pretty game~ 8bit style like classic
– Real player with 0.7 hrs in game
Moolii’s Dreamland
The game is playable and fun to a degree but I would recommend this game if you fixed the following:
I know in some point in the game you probably want the player to revisit old levels to farm more tokens like any other shmup would. However, the chance of finding a token in beaten levels are reduced, thus making it pointless to replay them. Especially if I want to upgrade before as the newest level is too hard without it.
– Real player with 7.2 hrs in game
Full 100% completion run of what’s out so far once it uploads here: https://youtu.be/lqRThUakt6I
This game is worth every penny the art work is phenomenal, the game plays so clean, it makes you feel powerful, and it has upgrades you can work towards. I loved the cutscenes wish there were more but there all super well done character design is great. The game is challenging but it’s fair and beatable if you don’t mind spending the time and you most likely won’t cause this game is amazing. The achievements are easily attainable. Definitely the best 5 dollars I’ve spent in a while. It’s adorable. The 2nd to last final boss stage gave me a fatal error a couple of times which you can see in the video at 1:34:38 and 1:35:43 I’m not sure if it’s fixable, because that boss has a ton going on I thought I’d mark it for the devs to let them know.
– Real player with 3.4 hrs in game
Round 99
very good very good 5 star
– Real player with 1.5 hrs in game
overall a great game, but sometimes buggy and broken, love the art style. edit for game awards lol
– Real player with 0.7 hrs in game
Cosmophage
Love this game. Does a great job of easing you into a chaotic bullet hell. The music makes it feel that much more intense which puts a unique and needed flare to the genre. Challenging, but rewarding!
– Real player with 2.8 hrs in game
At first I thought “hmm, this is pretty easy!” - no, it gets harder. Sound track is on point, too!
– Real player with 0.5 hrs in game
Fortune and Gloria
Would be nice if one could use and upgrade different weapons or collect enemy weapons,
– Real player with 9.9 hrs in game
Basically a “Freedom! Do or Die” clone. Not as cool but still a lot of fun!
– Real player with 1.1 hrs in game