Best Buds vs Bad Guys

This is one of many terrible contra clones on steam. I am a sucker for these kinds of games so when I saw best buds it looked like the kind of game that I should love, but once you start playing you realize all the flaws. -Bad controls, unresponsive and aiming is awkward, makes firefights far more difficult than they should be, this is not a problem that I ever ran into in the original contra which came out over 30 years ago. How simple run and gun controls are not perfected by now is mind boggling. -awkward camera. yes you read that right, awkward camera in a sidescroller. When you press up to aim up the camera shifts up, when you duck the camera shifts down, this often obstructs your view and is also very dizzying. Like for example, I am running through a level, an enemy is flying overhead shooting at me, I aim up at him and now I can no longer see enemies below me/ on the same plane. Very awkward and not needed. -boring level design, each level is a scavenger hunt for 3 letters that open a door where you fight a boss to get the last letter of the word exit and then you can leave the level. Exploring the levels is not fun, and there are several really obscure pieces. …

I never quited a game that fast... -Attrocious controls. -Imputs delay. -Where do i go type of deal -Can i jump on this or is it not a platform? And so on you got the idea. Stay away even for the price.

What a great little platformer/shooter! I picked this up for £1.60 and don't regret it one bit! If you like old retro games then this would be a good investment. Initially I found the controls a bit clunky but after a few minutes I started to get a grip of it and the gameplay flowed a lot better. I think the visuals are brilliantly defined with vibrant colours and generally polished. There are a few nice retro ditties and the sounds are functional enough. The pickups are pretty cool but I think leaving them for the end of level bosses would be a wise move. Also, once a level is complete, you can carry on from the level you are up to and your lives are restored. At present I've only passed the first two levels (out of 11) and have been enjoying it so far with nods to the likes of ESWAT, Titus the Fox, Ghost's n Goblins, Ghouls n Ghosts, Altered Beast, Turrican, Castlevania and I'm only on level three! Overall, I'm not sure if it warrants Steam's asking price of £9.99 but I reckon if you can grab it for a fiver or less and you like this sort of retro goodness, then snap it up!

"Best Buds vs Bad Guys" is a 2D retro pixel sidescrolling arcade shooter with some platforming elements... basically a derivative ripoff of games like Metal Slug and Contra, only there's a kitschy "game developers" fighting theme which doesn't make a lot of sense and isn't a great idea. Gameplay as always consists of a lot of shooting and dodging, but also some move timing and careful run + jump precision stuff. One important note is that even though this is an amateur project, it does seem to be sincerely and genuinely made. I couldn't find any flipped assets, plagiarism or any other kind of insincere actions from the developer, but unfortunately genuine intentions alone are not enough to produce a brilliant PC gaming experience. From a technical perspective, the game doesn't meet basic minimum requirements that most PC gamers expect as standard. A choice was made to use obsolete, decades old retro pixel "art" as a substitute for contemporary PC graphics. It's unclear if this is due to lack of budget or talent, regardless, the overall visual quality of the game is extremely low as a result. It's worth pointing out this is some of the "better" pixel "art" stuff, but there's…

https://youtu.be/mUVBaVeROwU A lot of craft went into this game making characters and settings feel colorful and unique. The AI buddy fits well into the style and is a welcome variation on the 2D platform shooter genre. The areas where this game falls short is in level design, especially visual language, and enemy balance mainly their ability to shoot in any direction leaving players unable to dodge or counter them properly.

Where the hell do I go?