Reviews

• gamedeal user

  Mar 6, 2022

  I wanted to like this game but it's such a misfire. Here are some of the most egregious errors: - Even when you turn the retro filter off, it stays on in some menus, loading screens and cutscenes. Not everybody wants to play with it on, it can look really bad on some screens. - The options menu active fights with a gamepad for some reason. Actually both mouse and gamepad fight with the keyboard, which seems to take the highest priority, with mouse second, and gamepad last. It's a really frustrating user experience. - A 2D platformer where the D-pad is used for nothing exclusively controls with the analogue stick - On gamepad, the Xbox X or Playstation Square button is used as 'accept'. Nowhere on no console is this the standard. Either Xbox A, Nintendo A, Playstation Cross or Playstation Circle is used as accept. J-NTSC(Japan and some of Asia) regions use the east face button while the NTSC/PAL(America, Europe, Africa) regions use the south. - Lack of variable jump height while expecting players to make pretty precise jumps - Some sound mixing is genuinely out of whack. Certain sound effects are ear-bleedingly loud - Enemies don't react, at all, to being hit. They'll die when they're out of health but they shrug off being smacked in the face by a sword. No Knockback, no hurt state, no hit flash, just a small particle effect when struck. - Many things don't have a consistent pixel size. The HUD font is way higher resolution than the rest of the game, character portraits are massively blown up versions of the character sprites, some icons in the HUD have different sized pixels from the rest of the HUD, in game objects like keys and pickups also have different pixel sizes like, guys, what happened, why are none of your assets the same resolution? There are even some background trees with different pixel sizes from the ground tiles? There's more to making a good retro-inspired game than just slapping a CRT filter on it and using pixel art. It takes familiarity with the limitations of those consoles and a love for the medium and generally just clever use of your engine and it just doesn't seem like the dev had enough Unity experience to pull off a convincing NES-era styled game. That said, it isn't all bad. There is something of an enjoyable gameplay loop in there, I quite like throwing spears in the wall for makeshift platforms, the double jump mitigates the lack of variable jump height even if it makes the jump less expressive and the colour choices can look quite nice. Overall, it's rough, unpolished, unfinished, and lacks consistency. But a lot of the smaller issues can be fixed in an afternoon, if the dev wanted to. The dev just has to want to.
• gamedeal user

  Nov 30, 2017

  I've only played it for about 30 minutes so far, and got past the first boss. So far it's a reasonably well-made, fun game for the price. It is level-based and not a Metroidvania. You kill stuff, pick up health, gold and daggers or spears to throw. You can throw a spear in to a wall and then jump on it to reach high places or secret areas. The controls and graphics are fine. The translation(?) is a little off here and there, but it is not bad. There have been a couple of minor glitches but nothing that affects the gameplay too much. Things like a piece of loot not falling to the ground and getting stuck in the air. This only happened once I believe. And when you push a large stone block it will go up and over a gold coin, like there is a hill on the ground. Again, neither of these affect the gameplay at all. Edit: It's a decent game until you get to the first level that you have to kill all the enemies to proceed. There are no check points and it has many tricky jumps and badly placed enemies, and of course, the trickiest jumps are towards the end so you have to redo the whole thing to try again. After about 20 tries, I've moved on to something less repetitive and frustrating. I'll leave the review positive, but just be aware it is not for casual players.
• gamedeal user

  Dec 2, 2017

  If the trailer of this game appeals to you than you should buy it. Ghoulboy is a retro platformer, the level design has a gothic feel to it and the environments look like something that would have been right at home in games like castlevania or ghosts n goblins. Controls in this game are simple, attack, jump, and sub weapon. You can toggle between your available weapons with the triggers, although there is never any reason to toggle your main weapon. You start with a terrible dagger that has no range and does little damage. You quickly get a sword which is far superior in every way, and when you save enough money you get the mace which is far superior to the sword in every way. You get 2 sub weapons, a boomerang and a spear. The boomerang is largely useless, but the spear can be thrown at walls to create stepping stones and reach ledges that are higher than your jump(think volgar the viking), other than that this is a classic platformer in every sense of the word; nice retro graphics, tight controls, a generic story filled with terrible english. The game has a fair amount of levels, and it took me 2 hours to beat on my first playthrough, but none of them are particularly difficult. I died very few times in this game so if you are looking for a hardcore retro experience look elsewhere, however this game is a lot of fun and does what it sets out to do. There is nothing groundbreaking or innovative in this game, but it gets the basics right and if you are into these kinds of games you will enjoy it, and is well worth the cheap asking price.
• gamedeal user

  Dec 4, 2017

  [b] Ghoulboy [/b] is a decent casual platformer but it does not offer much in terms of challenge or innovation. I like that game is designed around throwing a spear and using it as a step which makes platforming more dynamic. It probably could use a higher difficulty mode because you can spam your way through enemies and bosses. It takes about 2-3 hours to beat. There are 6 main areas made of smaller levels, each with a different background and nice music. You can also change between several screen modes to make the game look more nostalgic. It just shows that developer went the extra mile when it comes to presentation. Even though it is not the amazing looking game it has a charming retro feel to it. There are many secrets hidden in walls which rewards exploration. You can spend your gold on few upgrades although I wish there were more of them.My only objective problem with the game is limited controller settings and awkward choices for navigation keys (tolerable) [h1] Final Thoughts 7/10 [/h1] Ghoulboy is probably the easiest platformer I played this year because it has a fair difficulty, unlike some other games. Overall it has a good quality for the price if you want to take a break from harder games. ........................................................................................................... For more hidden gems: http://store.steampowered.com/curator/31294838-Hidden-Gem-Discovery/
• gamedeal user

  Dec 6, 2017

  https://youtu.be/2lCFuCFBoUI Ghoulboy cost less than five bucks, so I grabbed it. I played it all the way into Act 5 when I accidently backed into the game’s main menu by accident. When I attempted to go back into my current game I clicked New Game instead of Continue and accidently erased all my progress. Mistakes happen. I just wish a mistake like that was easier to avoid with a simple prompt asking me if I really wanted to overwrite my progress. It would have also helped if New Game was below Continue in the menu... Ill-designed and clunky menus are just one of the problems I had with Ghoulboy. I don’t want to give the impression that it’s a bad game, though. It’s a decent game but it’s marred with bugs. It’s a game that can be purchased for less than five bucks so it definitely doesn’t have Shovel Knight-level polish. But the problems it does have are problems nonetheless, and they stick out like tiny burrs on an otherwise well-crafted edge. Ghoulboy, from Redro games, is a 2D throwback to the lighthearted horror-themed action games of the early 1990s. It plays like a cross between Super Mario Brothers and the first Castlevania on the NES. In this game you guide a courageous little boy in a horned-helmet named Thugar, also known as “Ghoulboy”, across Halloween-themed levels. Throughout those levels, you will leap from platform-to-platform, solve a few simple puzzles, fight the occasional boss, and face-off against familiar monsters like skeletons and ghouls. These levels are cleverly designed and enjoyable to play, for the most part. The ones I played up to Act 5, anyway. You will have access to three primary weapons: Your starting weapon, a knife. Then a sword. And finally, my favorite, the long mace. That weapon you can purchase with collected in-game money, oddly enough, from the main menu as an upgrade. It’s a strange place for a weapon upgrade, but that’s where it’s found… The chiptune soundtrack is decent, the sound effects are archetypal of 8-bit adventure platformers. There’s nothing in here that will blow your eardrums away. Disappointingly, in order to get the DPad to work on my controller, I had to use Joy2Key to map the DPad to keyboard keys. Despite this mapping, I still had to use the left thumbstick to navigate some menus. Key configuration and using menus was such a burden that if I was to explain how much a pain in the ass it was to get things in a passable state, you might get bored and start browsing waifus in another tab. As it is right now, up and down on the left thumb stick are reversed in The Options menu but work fine in the main menu, I cannot bind the Y button on my XBox One controller, and there are several other needless issues. And this is without Joy2Key running in the background to pick up the slack. Other issues with the game include: Start on the controller pauses the character, but platforms and enemies still move. Dropped coins from killed enemies can get lodged in the level geometry and become inaccessible. I saw at least one platform in the wrong spot. It wasn’t until I restarted the checkpoint that the platform spawned where it should have. Enemies can still attack you when you are buying items from a merchant, etc. The game is marred with tiny bugs which is unfortunate because there is a good game beneath it all. If you’ve played a retro-inspired platformer or played platformers in the 1990s, you’ve played a game like Ghoulboy before. It is a good game. But like anything in life, sometimes a good thing is marred with tiny problems that need sorting out. Ghoulboy has plenty of those. For its $5 cost, Ghoulboy isn’t a terrible buy despite its many bugs. I think it will appeal to young children mostly. Especially ones who like hunting for glitches and bugs.
• gamedeal user

  Mar 2, 2018

  I've played a A LOT of indie platformers and I can say without hesitation that Ghoulboy is rock solid. The game is fair, looks nice, and plays nice. Frankly, I would have paid more. I truly believe that if this dev put out another game, made it BIGGER & BETTER.........we could have another Shovel Night.
• gamedeal user

  Aug 11, 2018

  I have very much enjoyed this bite-sized action-platformer. There's a lot of small things even simple games like this can mess up, but the dev did a great job. The platforming feels really good, responsive movement with precise but forgiving edges and distances. Enemies can be avoided or defeated with well-timed jumps and hits. Levels can be retried with checkpoints and have a very nice flow to them with classic elements of traps, auto-scrollers, death-pits, secrets. The spears used as platforms (Völgarr) is a great additon, reaching secrets and skipping parts of the levels with some creative placement. Loved the music and colors with the crt effects applied. There's a lot of retro games that try too hard to be nostalgic instead of just provide a solid and polished gameplay like this.
• gamedeal user

  Oct 11, 2018

  A fun retro hidden gem! The best way I can sum up Ghoulboy is that it’s the platforming of classic Super Mario Bros meets the atmosphere of classic Castlevania (minus the brutal difficulty). It took me about 2 hours to beat it with moderate exploration for hidden secrets. It’s worth picking up for the price. Pros: The game is enjoyably simplistic without being too mundane. The 8bit soundtrack and art style are very appealing. The platforming has a good flow. The boss fights are fun and unique. Cons: The game may be too easy and forgiving for seasoned veterans. At least half of the enemies die in one hit once you attain the sword or buy the mace. There are merchants located in each level that sell health and throwable weapons dirt cheap. There are health and weapon ammo upgrades to buy to make the game even easier. Enemies drop recovery items and ammo a lot. Money collection in the game is a little pointless if your skilled enough. The only thing I bought useful was the mace. Other then that, it was rare that I bought anything from merchants. Secrets where fun to find but didn’t really provide much of a unique reward; just the satisfaction of the discovery, money, throwable weapons, and health. There are a few levels that have blind leaps of faith that let you fall to your death because you missed a small unseen platform. An annoying occurrence. No harder difficulty options. The only way I can think currently to make the game harder is by only using the starter knife, not using throwing daggers at all, only use spears for climbing/traveling purposes, not buying any attribute upgrades, and don’t buy from the merchants.
• gamedeal user

  Feb 13, 2019

  [b]Seriously, this has to STOP.[/b] [i]Is this an on-going trend for developers who made bad business decisions? [/i] You revoked MANY / ALL keys from players who bought from Fanatical, GogoBundle, Otaku Bundle and Indie Gala?! I am sharing my favourite milk-store story again: [i]You supply milk to the store and consumers buy milk from the store. If you didn't receive payment for the milk, do you go after the store or the final consumers?! [/i] ---- Piece of shit - I cannot believe he deleted the threads made by angry customers. In the threads, he asked us to email him to get a replacement key. Now? He deleted those threads so you guys have no idea what happened / what to do next! You can delete everything but you cannot delete my review. [i]Guys and girls, [/i] [b]IF YOU ARE ONE OF THE VICTIMS, PLEASE EMAIL HIM AND DEMAND FOR YOUR REPLACEMENT KEY(S). [/b] serkanbakar81@gmail.com This email address has been personally given by the dev himself before he deletes everyone's post. [i]Please exercise your rights as a consumer! Claim your ownership to the game - trash it afterwards if you want. This should not be a norm to shady greedy developers like him. If he is sincere to return keys, he should have written the "solution" in news.[/i] ---- Edit Date: 18 Feb 2019 [quote=Redrogames;3203652426712420475]Sorry all. My keys finished. Sended 1000 keys. I requested again from steam. I am waiting new key. I am trying send one by one email. Please understand. Thankyou (Actually I wanted the make the game free for 2 days but steam doesnt permission to this :(( ) [/quote] https://steamcommunity.com/app/752500/discussions/0/1781640738624917537/?ctp=12#c3203652426712420475 [quote=Redrogames;3203652426715811171]İf I make free 24 hours for me was better. One by one key send via e mail very tiring. I send a request to steam. I am waiting response [/quote] https://steamcommunity.com/app/752500/discussions/0/1781640738624917537/?ctp=14#c3203652426715811171 [b]ERRR....So, did you actually email Steam or not? Please check your timeline before lying / commenting. Don't blame the fact that you are not native English speaker please. You could have written in your own language and we will google translate it instead. [/b] [i]Edit: Steam user "ReptilianWorldOrder" said there could be a misinterpretation of the 2nd quote, which I had to agree that there is such a possibility.[/i] [quote=ReptilianWorldOrder;3203652426717977977]The second quote you posted does indeed communicate that they attempted to make the game free, but that Valve rejected their proposal. But that quote you're posting is not about that request still lingering. He's saying that he's still awaiting their response to the recent request to generate more keys.[/quote] ---- For more information, you can refer to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dq4LK781auo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7K6XUF0k08
• gamedeal user

  Mar 29, 2019

  The game, purchased from Fanatical, was revoked more than a month ago and i've never received any replacement. There was also no response from Fanatical after i contacted them via Twitter and their Steam Community page. *game for this review was re-purchased via Steam, "played" enough time to leave this negative review and immediately requested to be refunded*