Horace Hagfish

Loved it! You can tell right away a lot of effort went into this little gem. The game elegantly pays tribute to PC games of the late '80s and early '90s, with its beautiful EGA graphics and general look and feel of the game. And unlike many retro-style games, it avoids relying on clichéd or overused references and easter eggs, opting for a more genuine and immersive homage. Horace Hagfish feels authentically retro while still integrating some of the immediacy and playability of a modern game. Of course, being authentically retro also means that it can sometimes be frustrating - but those who used to play DOS games back in the day know that that's part of the experience. At least the game offers built-in hints! The concept of the game is quite original. The puzzles are well-designed and offer a gradual increase in difficulty, introducing new mechanics at a pace that keeps the gameplay interesting. Overall, Horace Hagfish is a delightful experience that I highly recommend.

This is absolutely a fever dream EGA retro-extravaganza. Visuals and story all play to that strength extremely well, and the music is excellent (ie not so much limited to the tech of the era). Sadly, the game itself is, umm. Not the best. I love puzzle games and like to think but couldn't get into the coloring + color mixing mechanism used here. It's novel, I'll give it that. But it's too easy to make a mistake and have to start over again, and the difficulty ramps up too quickly. And it's just not that fun even when you figure it out, though I can't exactly say why. I can't quite bring myself to give it a thumbs down, if only because it's clearly a labor of love and the visuals are so well executed. But as a game, I can't really recommend it; at the very least it's not the kind of puzzle game I enjoy. Maybe somebody will, though. I hope so.

Great puzzle game. Gets hard pretty quickly in.

really awesome art with a lot of love put into it, silly fun comical lines from Horace and Monochromulous, overall really cool! definitely gets pretty tricky, and I love that gradually more obstacles/items are added to make the puzzles more complex. not sure why Steam says it might not work well with controller... I have a generic Logitech controller and everything works just fine. check this out, definitely worth it if you dig puzzle games :)

I might be one of the few people on Steam who gets excited for a game starring a hagfish, but here it is and I'm so glad it's a game this lovingly handmade. Horace just oozes charm and retro style. The level designs are tight in simplicity, without too much detail cluttering up the UI. and that makes it a pretty nice experience to stare at as you solve each puzzle. The retro 16 color palette really makes these colors pop, and even the green/brown gravy covering the screen is satisfying to watch. The puzzle fundamentals are simple but also have plenty of additional hazards/items to complicate each level. And this game throws those hazards at you fast. I'm 15 levels in and already have 3 additional things to deal with. This isn't one of those puzzle games that take 20 levels to slowly onboard you to each new mechanic. Luckily the hint system is pretty generous with nudging you in the right way (without any judgement for it either) and really helped me quickly understand what I need to do when handling these mechanics. I hope the game gets optimized for the Steamdeck soon (the screen is very small and phone sized for some reason) because this can be my go to pick-up-and-play pu…

The dev told me he was going for an "oddball shareware dev from the 90s" approach with Horace Hagfish and he absolutely nailed it. Great puzzles too. Took me a while to get this review out - I'm really enjoying the game but I suck at it so it's taken me a while to get anywhere! Horace Hagfish is a blast from the past. Totally nailed the retro 90s shareware EGA vibe in terms of both gameplay and graphics. Puzzles are nice & original too. Simple in concept but challenging! For more niche curation, follow me at: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/27440015-CSH-Picone/