Jackroid

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By all accounts i should give this game negative review, it's buggy, unpolished and sorta frustrating but i can't... Because of a few reasons, first of which being that the game is completely free so i didn't lose anything playing this other than half an hour of time. Second reason which is the determining one is that this developer lost the source code for this game in a house fire, that's just heartbreaking and i don't wanna further make his life worse by beating this dead horse with a thumbs down. Thirdly the game is already at mixed ratings, with only 54% positive, which might feel discouraging for this developer's future. So i'm gonna give this game a thumbs up to encourage this person and whatever future endaveours they take. For the sake of having an actual review though with some valid criticisms i think the game has a few issues that should be a priority in future games. It's pretty buggy and unbalanced, with annoying enemy placements (especially the spammy bats that come out of the ground). The coliders are also off and the terrain feels like it's not properly aligned sometimes. The controls are very clunky on keyboard and on controler not every button has a use, with s…

Jackroid is a really charming old school platformer that I found much more interesting than I expected. I play as Jackroid, a machine human hybrid exploring alien worlds while trying to understand his identity and purpose. The retro science fiction setting immediately gave me that classic adventure feeling, and I liked how much the game leans into exploration rather than simply sending me from one fight to another. The platforming is straightforward but satisfying. I move through open areas, jump between platforms and use my weapons to deal with enemies while looking for hidden paths. I liked that exploration is tied directly to progression because finding a new ability can completely change which parts of the world I can access. The upgrades are probably the strongest part of the adventure. Jackroid can gain new tools that let me reach places that were previously inaccessible, and abilities such as the rocket and shrinking mechanic give the exploration more variety. I enjoyed returning to earlier areas with new abilities because it gives the world that classic exploration driven feeling. The environmental puzzles add another useful layer. They are generally simple, but they mak…

Originally developed as a birthday gift for my nephew, Jackroid is a heartfelt indie game that blends classic action-platforming with Metroid-style exploration. After several requests and growing interest, I’ve decided to bring Jackroid to Steam. Free—as a thank you to everyone who’s supported me.

This started out as something of a janky but still playable Metroid-like, only lacking doors (at least the map makes sure you know where you can go), mismatched sprites, and just in general a lower level of quality than you even expect from fan games. At some point, though, it went entirely off-script and just got weird. I passed through a wall, where, like always, I wasn't sure whether that was an official opening or a secret door or a glitch, then I killed some kind of boss that looked a bit like Samus. After that, I passed through multiple screens that were just a galaxy backdrop with story bits, referencing the intro text scroll I didn't care for, and tried to write something deep and meaningful that read like someone's first attempt at writing any story. After those screens where you basically walked by and did nothing gameplay-related, there were a couple more proper-looking screens, though the further I went, the more broken the level architecture looked until I reached a section where the visuals and even sprites looked like they were ripped directly out of the Gameboy Castlevania games. I tried to get even further, but eventually the game bugged out on me. That last sec…

Originally developed as a birthday gift for my nephew, Jackroid is a heartfelt indie game that blends classic action-platforming with Metroid-style exploration. After several requests and growing interest, I’ve decided to bring Jackroid to Steam. Free—as a thank you to everyone who’s supported me.