POWERNAUT DECAY

Welcome back Alex, I remember Powernaut VANGARDT from 2017, was a cool game but I never finished it because of the save system, and hey, nice to see you still making these, given they never got much of an audience. The game is a little hard Alex, who exactly are you trying to torture here, those 2 people? Actually "NES-hard", you really came through with this one, it felt like the entire game was an endless hazard, every time you get hit it feels like there is an insta death pit located conveniently next to you, it's like a double cheeseburger with Castlevania medusa heads and Ninja Gaiden knock back, thank you for such WoNdErFul memories. To give you credit though, it's not just that game is hard, but it's hard in a very faithful way, very much reminds me those classic platformers and their shortcomings, but this time it feels intentional. I didn't like the game at first, some of the boss telegraphing felt too random, but as I kept pushing it kinda grew on me, and I was able to find correct strategies with some practice. Perhaps it's my fault being spoiled with modern games that are not as extreme, but I forgot some if these nuances you are trying to do in this game, the more I t…

This is a very narrow recommendation. I tried the first 2 games and initially left negative recs, but after getting a bit more into this third one I decided to delete them and I contemplate revisiting them. Powernaut Decay is probably the best entry point into the franchise however I don't think most people (even ones who enjoy retro games) are likely to really get into it. The difficulty is quite high, some bosses bordering on unfair/harsh. (I killed the first and third boss and have no desire to keep dying at the second). You have the ability to grind XP from mobs, which is pretty cool in a retro 2D platformer, but only does so much for you. I'm putting Powernaut Decay down, but I did start to see how this can get fun/addictive for the right kind of masochist. It's at least nowhere near as brutal as the latest Ghosts N' Goblins.

I've been playing a lot of Turbo Kid and The Last Of Us 2 Lately. These games are just saturated w/ assist options so to come into this was absolutely brutal and unfair. I guess my fault?

I would say this is a soft recommendation, as I do like the game, but it's got some issues. Apparently, this is the updated easier version where pits and spikes and stuff no longer instantly kill you, so, I'm glad I only played it now. Otherwise it'd be a negative review haha. It's got a nice retro aesthetic, it's easy to see enemies and what's going on, mostly.... except for the over-reliance on dark areas?? I would've maybe made one area dark or something, not like... 3 or 4 or 5 or however many there were here. There's some good 8-bit style tunes. It's very retro and pretty difficult. It's also a souls-like design though, so if you die, you lose your XP and have one chance to get it back. I didn't find that to be much of a burden though. There are certain cores you can find that will trivialize boss fights if you equip yourself properly, so it could've been much harder (although again, this is the updated easier version, so it was probably much nastier before). There's a bit of lore in the terminals, but I'm not sure it really explains that much of the world? But it's nice to have. There's some secrets and collectibles to find as well. A pretty small metroidvania, and many of …

Love it. Working on all the achievements other ppl cannot get lol

This game feel's really polished and the art is insane and consistent, I had fun playing and enjoyed the exploration, the enemies and boss fights were also fun (I've only defeated the first boss). This game is honestly really under rated and I plan on finishing this game. The only problem I had was with the charge up mechanic, It was very annoying to have to hold down the button basically non stop, after playing awhile it would start to be uncomfortable, it also makes it a bit harder to jump while charging as well. I feel like a better way would be to have it passively charge instead, but even with this the game is definitely top tier.