Witch Dance

There is something special about this little game. I bought it to support the developer knowing it was a game about getting a high score which is usually not my thing. Yet, here I am with 10 hours played at the time of review. Once you get your first taste of setting a bomb off a shotting up past 1,000 points and you're desperately trying to complete missions for points while also keeping enough enemies alive for your next big bomb to shoot your score up even higher before you inevitably fall to a single enemy you didn't see or predict correctly. I've really fallen into a "just one more" mindset when I play this because I know I can do better, I know I can score higher. But even if I stopped now, 10 hours for a $2.99 game is pretty good in my eyes. The music is also very good, I've died sometimes because I try to move the character in beat with the music or move in place to cause ripples in line with the beat. Its only a few bucks, give it a shot and get on the monthly leaderboard.

Cool and cute little arcade game. For me, it brings back a raw joy of gaming. You game, you zone, you die/your run ends, you repeat with no post game summary or anything. You really just game, which I feel might have gotten lost along the path of meta-progressions and post-game summaries. Soundtrack and artstyle are cute, gameplay is very responsive and tight on docked steamdeck with bluetooth mouse once you know that commands are issued on click release and not on click.

This game works great on Steam Deck. Just remap the controls from the Deck menu, e.g., change it to left stick for mouse and A and B button for left and right mouse click. It is a different experience on Deck because the controller does not facilitate fine motor control as well as mouse and keyboard. Still fun gameplay. When I tried with mouse and keyboard I was playing reactively and trying to maneuver around sprites. When I played on the Steam Deck I found myself trying to predict where the sprites would go, and plotting a linear path through them, because when using Steam Deck controls that's easier than micro-maneuvering. Doing it this way is more difficult; not unreasonably so, but it might deter some new players. Depending on how the sprite motion is programmed, if possible the developer might want to update to make the sprite paths more linear for people playing on deck, or slow their movement slightly. I bought the game to support Marcus in thanks for introducing so many of us to Souls games back in the day, and for sharing his progress when he started developing indie games. At my suggestion, my oldest child just completed a simple 2D game as part of a school…

There is a witch and you do have to dance. 10/10

Witch Dance is a new and visionary product that guarantees a meaningful consumer experience! But jokes aside... It looks innocent with simple mechanics but is seriously challenging from the get-go. Trying to improve my dancing skills and going for that new PB had me hooked immediately. Heh. That rhymes.

Fun little game