Bucket Knight

Bucket Knight, developed by PigeonDev, is a lighthearted and fast-paced retro platformer that captures the charm of classic 8-bit action games while delivering a modern sense of humor and accessibility. It follows the story of a determined knight with an unusual quest—not to rescue a princess or defeat an evil overlord, but to pay off his debts. This tongue-in-cheek premise sets the tone for a game that doesn’t take itself too seriously, preferring to focus on pure, arcade-style fun. At its core, Bucket Knight is an homage to the early days of side-scrolling shooters, offering tight controls, short levels, and a rhythm that encourages quick reflexes and repeated playthroughs. It’s a compact experience, but one built with evident affection for the genre it imitates. The gameplay revolves around running, jumping, and shooting your way through a variety of hazard-filled stages. Each level is designed as a short, self-contained challenge, filled with spikes, saw blades, enemies, and collectible coins. These coins serve as both score and currency, letting players purchase new weapons that change the feel of combat. The action is immediate and responsive, with simple but satisfying cont…

It's not really a great game but it's not broken and not frustrating in any way. The fact that he has a barrel on his head (The game calls it a "bucket?") has no bearing on the game play. You move, shoot, kill enemies, collect coins and reach the exit. You only use the coins to buy guns and it's barely even necessary because the game is so easy. On the last stage you just jump to grab the holy grail and the game abruptly ends. The combat is simplistic but somewhat fun. Jumping is a little annoying because you're forced to use the space bar. You can't disable the CRT effect as far as I know which is dumb but after a while I stopped noticing. It's worth it if you like passive shooting games where you put in a minimal effort but it's definitely nothing special. I unlocked all the achievements just by completing the game so no replayability.

If monsters or the sawblade move at hyper speed, go to settings -> monitor and lower the framerate to 60fps.

This game looks nice, but it's horrendous to play. I'm not sure what it is, but something about the level progression is really awkward, and the way the game was designed feels really off. Overall, you're much better off playing flash-era games than this.

6/10

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