Slime Fantasy: the search for the lost sword
More Reviews @ TheVideogameBacklog.com (It’s not updated a lot currently because I’m working on my 2nd game.)
Full disclosure: I went out of my comfort zone for this game because I saw a post about it on twitter about Slime Fantasy and it looked cool. It’s a Pico-8 game about a slime that needs his sword back to defend his kingdom and so I followed the link to Steam. What I saw there was a cool-looking pixel game with zero reviews. Honestly, I hated to see it. Especially when I thought the game looked interesting enough. Then it was confirmed to me that it was a “kill you a lot” platformer. I hesitated for a day or so then picked it up. It did and does kill me a lot; that much is true. Is it worth picking up though? Let me break it down for you.
– Real player with 3.2 hrs in game
Read More: Best 4X Retro Games.
Up Left Out
Up Left Out is a sliding block puzzle game where the primary gimmick is that the blocks have to be slid out of the pegs holding them before they can be moved around like normal. For the starting levels, removing the blocks from the pegs is all you have to do, but later on you’ll also have to create complete lines from red fragments on top of the blocks, as well as contend with other mechanics like rotating blocks and moving walls.
My main problem with this game is that it feels half-finished. There’s only around 50 levels, and considering how every time a new mechanic is introduced the game uses a few levels to ease you into how it works, it feels like only one half of the package is made of actual puzzles. Of those, the majority felt more like busywork than brainteasers, and when I reached the point where the game became engaging enough that I felt it was about to truly START, I suddenly got a “THANK YOU FOR PLAYING”, followed by a few bonus levels easier than what I just played. Disappointing, to say the least.
– Real player with 2.9 hrs in game
Read More: Best 4X Relaxing Games.
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Up Left Out is another short minimalist puzzle game from the maker of Hook, Klocki and Push but this time you are sliding blocks around.
There are various goals to accomplish. It starts off simply, you just need to free each block from it’s holding pin. Other mechanics are slowly introduced, blank blocks that just get in the way, patterns and lines on top of the blocks that need to be matched together to end the puzzle, buttons that rotate all the pieces and walls/gates that can be manipulated to stop blocks at specific places. These walls demonstrate the fundamental mechanic, blocks slide as far as they can until they hit something. Some of the later and best puzzles contain blocks that can only be moved once that pattern on top of them is replicated on other movable blocks.
– Real player with 2.6 hrs in game