Beard Blade

Fun collection platformer that kinda reminds a mix of Donkey Kong Country and Mario. :) Controls and mechanics feel good. I love the fact that when you die the level just starts you back at the checkpoint, no lives required. The beard weapon is a fantastic weapon idea!

This game teaches you how to play it masterfully while making you feel like you discovered every mechanism. There's "wouldn't it be cool" games where people do a bunch of things in a genre that they think would be cool. This game takes "wouldn't it be cool if" and asks the question every time: "but would it be fun?" and then they do the fun thing that subverts what you think you know about the game, and invites you to play with the game instead of against it. It forces you to slow down and enjoy the design, and there is intention in every corner. The mechanisms are advanced, but they teach you how to get good through a little healthy punishment, but while rooting for you and giving you generous checkpoints. I'm not finished with it yet, but I'm soaking it all in.

like a 90s platformer-

A very good platformer with great feeling mecanics. Good level design and ideas thoughout although some design related to other things such as collectable is flawed. For example, it's easy to understand what some collectable such as the soundtrack discs do, but I've finished the game and don't know what the goblin coins do. There also is no tracking feature of what you've collected while inside a level, so unless you go from memory, you won't know if you've collected everything before finishing a level. Also, for some reason, the final world is way easier that the one that comes just before where they like to throw new mecanics and limitations in there (one of my favorite parts honestly though). It was a fun experience and do recommend it even with those small flaws in the game!

Imagine if Super Mario didn't attempt to do anything like introducing new mechanics. The movement isnt fun or fluid, its slow and clunky but theres no platforming challenge in the first place.

Now, this review is coming from someone who has pretty much only played platformers ever since I was 5 years old, and I'm still seeking, finding, and playing platformers of any kind of this day. Beard Blade is no exception, and it definitely shows in every aspect. GWAPHICS ----------------------------------------------------------------- The graphics are really the strong suit here. Everything just feels so alive and shows excruciating detail and heart and soul at that. In some aspects, like some of the nighttime levels, show remarkable attention to detail. MUSIC ------------------------------------------------------------------ The music is literally one of my newfound favorite soundtracks. After hearing that the composer of this game, Steven Melin, was responsible for numerous types of SNES-inspired music, he really hooked me in for some foot-stompin' music. From the way it's all playful jazz music, to anything that comes from a cute 2D platformer, it's all harkening back to the good ol' days. CONTWOLS ------------------------------------------------------------------ The controls, while they're nice to have, can feel a bit slippery at times, and the hovering mechanic, in my p…