REVIEW: Death or Treat on PC (Steam)

Review by Jon Donnis

I do enjoy a good hack 'n' slash platform game, so when I was invited to review Death or Treat, I was definitely looking forward to the experience.

Let's first check out the official blurb for the game.

"Join Scary in the HallowVerse to make things great again!

You will play as Scary, the owner of Ghost Mart, the leader in manufacturing candies for Halloween.

Discover a huge world with lots of rooms, explore new maps in every run while you try to survive the hordes of enemies. It's not an easy task; every world is even trickier than the other. Starting with Darkchat, the Storyum lab, Riptok, the most used app sede, Deviltube, leaders distributing storyum, and last but not least, FaceBoo!, the ultimate epic frontier.

Will you overcome the challenge and dare to defeat Clark Fackerberg?"

Now why they are releasing a Halloween-themed game in May seems a bit strange, and I am sure there is some marketing genius at Saona Studios who thought it was a good idea, anyway only time will tell. If it is a success, maybe Saona Studios will release their next Christmas-themed game in July?

The first thing you will notice about Death or Treat is the super high quality of the animation, the cartoon introductions, and in-game graphics. You play as a little ghost character called Scary; you run a little candy shop, but big business is moving in and taking away your customers, so you have decided to stand up and fight.

General gameplay is your straightforward platforming hack 'n' slash. As you play, you will collect candies that act as currency in the game; these can be used to purchase upgrades, buy weapons, etc. And death of Scary is part of the evolution of the character, as that is when you can level up.

Fighting is pretty simple, fast attack, heavy attack, or ranged attack. Just watch the trailer, and you will get the idea.

There are plenty of "hidden treasures" to find, which will unlock new weapons and skills, and the level design is pretty decent. As you move through "HallowTown," you can use candies to unlock previously closed-down shops, which in turn allows you to purchase new upgrades, craft magic spells, or create new weapons.

The game looks great, gameplay is simple but challenging. A nice little platforming hack 'n' slash.

The Good

Gorgeous graphics and animations, truly the highest quality. The game is easy to pick up and play; there is a nice learning curve, and although challenging at times, the more you play, the better you get. Each level feels original and different from the previous one. I also enjoy the parodies of companies like Netflix (Deathflix) and how there is a moral story here about how big tech and big business are destroying the classic small business that countries like my own were built off the back of.

The Bad

I wasn't a fan of some of the sound effects, and I thought the music could have been better. But to be fair, I rarely listen to in-game sounds when I play video games anyway.

Overall

A fun little game, that looks and plays great. 

I score Death or Treat on PC a decent 8/10

Death or Treat will be coming out on May 11th for PC, PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox One and Series X/S.

Add to your wishlist now at https://store.steampowered.com/app/2096620/Death_or_Treat/

REVIEW: Togges on Nintendo Switch

Review by Jon Donnis

Togges is advertised as "a game unlike anything you've ever seen!", and to be fair, it is pretty unique, whether that is a good thing or a bad thing you will have to read on to find out.

This is a 3D platformer, but you control what I can only describe as a robot vacuum of sorts. You can suck up and spread cubes, (Togges) which in turn will help you solve environmental puzzles. You are tasked with helping the King President to save the Universe from the threat of The Void.

Even though your vacuum (yes I am calling it that) can move around freely and even jump, to stack Togges you need to have a start point, this start point then allows you to spread cubes either horizontall or vertically. You have a set amount of Togges. Now why would you need to spread Togges? Well early on you are tasked with collecting fruit, but to collect fruit you need to place some Togges on the top of the fruit, so you need to spread a line of Togges to reach the fruit before you can collect it. And of course the fruit aren't going to be in an easy to find location, this is where the environmental puzzle element comes in.

Now after the first tutorial, you will start your first world of sorts. Now this game is rather heavy on the text dialog, too heavy, and because of that, you will find yourself skipping through things just so you can start to play the game, this is a problem, as you will inevitably miss an important instruction, as I did.

I assumed that to reach the next level, you would need to build some kind of bridge, or find a way to jump to it, since you can see it not too far away. But instead you needed to collect all 5 fruits which in turn opened a doorway that would warp you there. I assumed I had collected all of the fruits, but of the 5 I had only actually caught 4, so I then spent way too much time going round in circles, trying whatever I could to progress but without success. Eventually I resorted to a walkthrough on Youtube and I realised my mistake. While playing you will discover the ability to change the colour of the Togges, which in turn gives them different abilities, for example the red togges can only stack 5 high vertically, where as the yellow ones can stack 7, but each Togge costs double that of the red ones. And the final fruit could only be collected using a yellow Togges. Now I am sure this was in the seemingly endless instructions, and I missed them, but I just wanted to play!

So once I figured that out, I was able to progress and finally started to enjoy what was up unil them a rather frustrating game.

There are loads of levels/worlds to play through, the graphics are excellent, even on a small Nintendo Switch Lite screen. There are lots of things to collect, loads of places to explore and secrets to uncover. There are characters to interact with and stories to understand. And most importantly as you unlock new Togge varieties, lots of new skills and interactions to enjoy.

The Good

A beautiful game, with a new gameplay mechanic. Once you get used to the controls the game is fun to play and offers a decent challenge, both in a platforming manner but also in a puzzle sense.

The Bad

The game is way too complicated at first, too many instructions, too much dialog, and you are thrown into the deep end pretty much straight away, the learning curve is too steep, and the balance is off at first. Get past the first proper world and you will be flying though, so try not to let it put you off.

Overall

Despite the issues mentioned above, this is a fun game, it looks great and despite the at times fiddly controls, this offers up a really impressive amount of gameplay and challenge.

I score Togges on Nintendo Switch a solid 7.5/10

Out Now on Nintendo Switch

https://www.nintendo.co.uk/Games/Nintendo-Switch-download-software/Togges-2307995.html

REVIEW: Classic Racers Elite on Nintendo Switch

Review by Jon Donnis:

I was asked to review a new racing game for Nintendo Switch called Classic Racers Elite.

This hill-climbing style racer is similar to rally courses, where cars race one by one and their times are collated at the end. The objective is simple: get from the start to the finish as fast as possible, while avoiding obstacles and trying not to crash when faced with tight u-turns.

It seems the game is set in the 1960s as there is a nice selection of classic cars to choose from.

Gameplay is pretty straightforward, with standard controls: the right trigger for acceleration, the left trigger for braking, and handbrake and steering. The game handles well and the cars feel pretty decent. I played on the Nintendo Switch Lite and the graphics were okay, if not brilliant. There aren't a massive amount of tracks, but the replay factor mainly comes from the leaderboards.

There are four different categories of cars to choose from, including small cars all the way up to F1 style cars. There are also 12 different championships to compete in and hopefully win, which will help you unlock cars as you complete them. There are 17 locations and a total of 50 tracks, which are pretty much variations of the 17 locations, so some tracks are reversed or have different obstacles.

This simple and straightforward game offers decent gameplay even on the small screen, nice handling, and a nice variety of tracks and cars to play with. The leaderboards are a nice touch, and the success of the game will probably depend on whether people feel the need to keep trying to beat a friend's score, etc.

The Good:

Ok graphics

Nice gameplay

Good selection of cars and tracks

Cross-platform leadership system is nice and will mean much more competition for the faster times when the game is released

The Bad:

Sound effects are very generic, so I quickly turned the sound down.

Graphics could be a little better.

Massively overpriced on Nintendo Switch; I would expect the PC version to be much cheaper when it is released.

Overall:

A decent game that plays well with no bugs that I could find. I score Classic Racers Elite on Nintendo Switch a fair 7/10.

Release date: 29/06/2023

Pre Order at

https://www.nintendo.co.uk/Games/Nintendo-Switch-games/Classic-Racers-Elite-2372747.html

REVIEW: Joe Wander and the Enigmatic Adventures on PC (Steam)

Review by Jon Donnis:

"Joe Wander and the Enigmatic Adventures" is the latest 3D action puzzle platforming game made by Frozen Pixel. You play as an Indiana Jones-type character and travel across four different worlds, each with several levels to complete.

Each level has a set number of coins to collect and, ultimately, a colored diamond. When you collect enough coins and the diamond, you can then enter the next level, and so on until you complete that world and enter the next.

General gameplay consists of 3D platforming with a fixed camera. You can run, jump, and use your whip. The whip allows you to stun certain enemies, enabling you to jump on them and destroy them. It also allows you to grab onto items you need to move and helps you swing across gaps that cannot be jumped.

Each level will have puzzle elements where you will need to move things, activate things, and open doors to raise levels and so on, helping you finish the level.

Gameplay starts pretty easy and gets progressively tougher. When you complete the game, you will unlock three new modes: Hardcore, which gives you only one life per save game; Hard mode, where levels have no checkpoints; and Time Trial, perfect for those wanting to do speed runs.

The Good:

Stunning cartoon graphics with a great level of detail. Easy to play with fun and challenging puzzles.

The Bad:

The controls can be a bit fiddly at times, and the lack of being able to control the camera is frustrating as you cannot always see where you are. The graphics could be a bit better optimized. I noticed a few bugs here and there but nothing too bad.

Overall:

A straightforward fixed camera 3D action puzzle platformer. It delivers on its description. It is fun to play with a few graphical glitches here and there, but otherwise pretty smooth.

I score Joe Wander and the Enigmatic Adventures a fun 8/10

Out Now on PC (Steam) at

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2063310/Joe_Wander_and_the_Enigmatic_Adventures/

REVIEW: POOSH XL on Nintendo Switch

Review by Jon Donnis

Sometimes all you want in life is a super simple, pick up and play, one button arcade score chasing game, well guess what? POOSH XL is just that.

You only need to worry about pressing one button, no directions, no left and right, just press one button.

The main idea of the game is to climb as high in the level as you can and avoid the obstacles along the way. Take too long and the floor will catch up with you and kill you, hit anything and you die. You will see a circle on screen, with a moving directional arrow attached to it, when you press a button, you will fire off in the direction pointed at. The higher you get, the better your score, and really folks that is it.

The main game is just an endless climb, complete the odd challenge here and there to unlock skins, but basically just get as high of a score as you can, see the leaderboard to compare yourself to others and try to be the best.

There is some cool procedurally generated music by "veryhandsomebilly" Billy Mills, and the game is available in 11 languages, although you don't really need the language other than the menu.

The Good

Nice, clear, bright neon graphics, cool music, simple to learn, hard to master gameplay.

The Bad

Anything I could complain about, would just take away from the simplicity of the game.

Overall

Super simple, fun game, not much more can be said that that.

I score Poosh XL a simple 8/10

RELEASE DATE 8th May 2023 on Nintendo Switch

https://www.nintendo.co.uk/Games/Nintendo-Switch-download-software/Poosh-XL-2360584.html