Reviews

• gamedeal user

  Jan 24, 2017

  Before you read any further, please note that this game only gets a half-hearted recommendation from me. It's certainly not a terrible game or anything - it is good. But it's not really great, either. Just kind of... average good. Like, ok, so the art looks fantastic. The game is downright gorgeous, as you can see from the screenshots. And the writing for the story is pretty top-notch as well, and the game has some very creative moments involving the story. But as for the gameplay? Well, it's not *bad* or anything, it serves its purpose. But its not super entertaining. Once you upgrade your health one or two times, the levels become very trivial (except for the final level which spikes up in difficulty so far it feels like slamming into a brick wall). And the reverse boss fights - which were easily the thing I was looking forwards to the most, mind you - were a bit of a letdown. They all controlled a bit clunkily, and the one where you punch the ground gets special mention for being incredibly frustrating to control. Not to mention the heroes you're supposed to be fighting are very, VERY predictable, and as a result not difficult at all to fight. But, in my opinion, the game's biggest sins come from its sound design. Now, the music on its own is all fine - I love Taranto's work, usually. This time around, however, the tracks sound... lacking. I'm not quite sure how to put it other than that. They feel like they needed maybe a couple more passes to make them something truly spectacular. On top of that, most of the time the tracks are far too sweeping and slow paced to fit the fast paced, action-y feel of the game. Also they commit the unforgivable sin of improper looping - instead of seamless loops (which have clearly been composed into the tracks), they fade out after about 2 loops and then start over at the beginning. As a sound designer myself, I cannot forgive that. It's just lazy. Overall, this game feels... unfinished. The sound design all sounds kind of work in progress, there's a lot of areas where the game feels a bit unpolished (no death animations, no flashy animations for defeating heroes (hell, not even any dialogue for that), things that clearly should have sound effects not having them, etc.). I still reccomend the game. For what it's worth, it's a good, servicable product. Just don't expect anything great.
• gamedeal user

  Jan 24, 2017

  Ok, so I'm a very huge fan of the concept of being a villain. This game? does exactly that. Sure, I beat this game in 6 hours cause this game reminds me of Wario Land, but it was a great experience to fight those goody two shoes heroes and foiling their generic themed rescue missions. This game most of it all; RPG elements (for like 10 minutes), underwater segments, references to other video games (I'm looking at you villain museum lake), and many other things. Now, There are some things about this game that is frustrating.... well in my opinion that is. 1) This game did feel rather short, but then again its probably cause I'm one of those "advanced gamers" 2) This game's collectables are rather frustrating to find or understand where to access 3) This game feels like There is some cut content which makes it feel short Other than those peeves listed above, this game is great. Good Soundtrack? You bet. Good character design and level design? But Of course! Good Story? Hell yeah! So what score could I possibly give this game? 8.3 outta 10 seems fair mostly cause of its length but it's positives make up for its length.
• gamedeal user

  Jan 24, 2017

  + Concept, character building and dialogue are spot on. A real treat to enjoy + Variety of unique gameplay styles and encounters helps keep things fresh + Art from Gashi-Gashi is delightful - Enemy placement and level designof the basic platformer gameplay are rather unfair, often unfun - The Sound Effects (or lack thereof) in the boss battles makes them feel a little hollow I was pretty excited to play this game when it came to my attention a couple weeks ago. I was excited to play from the other side. I always thought that the villain was always the more interesting character. For a good portion of the game though, it plays out like a lot of other typical platformers. The way the game sets itself apart being the delightful banter between characters and the power-trip of being the bad guy. There is a variety of gameplay styles included in the game, but the majority of it your standard platformer ... a platformer that can be rather unforgiving. This really seems in contrast with the power-trip that I wanted to get out of this game. So yeah, the gameplay was disappointing in parts, but I fell in love with the characters. I have little desire to actually play the game anymore, but I felt I got what I paid for. I want more of the characters, but I don't feel like it has to be from here. If there was a TV show, movie, or comic book with Crow as our lead guy I'd be all over it. That being said, if this was introduced to me some other way, it wouldn't stick. It had to be a video game for this to work.
• gamedeal user

  Jan 24, 2017

  listen i was hyped for this game. at first it looked great. gashi gashi doing the art. reverse bossfights princesses little tropes a villains arsenal. then i played the game. the first couple levels were alright i guess. nothing too impressive. the humor was good. i thought it had voice acting the first few seconds. then everything became average. i didnt feel like i was having fun. the egg man reverse fight was okay the rpg one was shit. i noticed later the characters sprites(?) were not appealing to look at. i made my way through half the game looking at the portraits gashi gashi did and only then realized the actual sprites were gross. the arsenal was interesting to get into for 3 levels and then it all became boring. like this is a little upsetting i wouldn't recommend it but i won't try to hunt everyone who wants to play it down and tell them no either. who ever is reading this now it's all up to you.
• gamedeal user

  Jan 25, 2017

  I was waiting for this game ever since it was promoted on Brawl in the Family. I thought it looked like an interesting idea and early screenshots made it look like a neat take on the platformer genre. Now it's finally out, and it was a day-one purchase for me simply because I was waiting for it for the better part of a couple years. Was it worth the wait? Okay, let's start with the positives: The game looks real great and the animations are smooth. I can notice the odd slip-up with graphics here and there, but for the most part everything looks good. The different looks of the stages are a nice touch as well, with some of them being bright and colourful and some being dark and ominous. There are only about five different "islands" spread out between all the levels in the game, so you will notice a bit of repetition in graphics between the levels that take place on the same island, however. Gameplay is good, and playing with a keyboard and mouse I had few issues with the controls. The controls do take a little bit to get used to, especially with the mouse, where the right click is the melee attack and the left click is the ranged. Normally I would picture it being the other way around, but here I was able to get used to the controls pretty quickly. For the most part, the gameplay is largely running, jumping, punching and throwing bombs, but different gameplay mechanics come into play on some of the levels, usually just for one level. Things are for the most part kept pretty basic. As far as the humour in the game goes, I found a lot of the dialogue to be pretty funny, and a lot of the jabs are usually at Crow's expense. There are references to all sorts of different game genres scattered throughout the game, and I'm sure most gamers will pick up on them. Now for the negatives: The biggest, glaring one is the downright cheapness during a few of the levels. For the most part, the levels are pretty straightforward and nothing you shouldn't be able to handle, but a couple of the levels have enemy placement and instant-death surfaces that shoot the difficulty factor past hard and into unfair territory. The last level alone was the cause of most of my respawns in the game solely for how annoying the enemies and pits were. While they're few and far between there ARE some noticeable graphic errors here and there. This is something that hopefully can be fixed later on, but for the moment it IS a little nitpick I have with the game. Overall, I do like the game and I think it's worth picking up. Your mileage may vary on whether you think it's worth the full price, but I say if you see it for a good price during a sale, then pick it up and give it a try.
• gamedeal user

  Jan 25, 2017

  Pros) The game is not capped to 60fps, running great at 144fps. The dialogue is very funny. The art design is excellent. Cons) There is an excellent game in here however I feel it needs a bit more polish, the major problem with the game that I've noticed is the sound design. I'm not the only one who has noticed it either. Stock sound effects, Music that doesn't loop and has too much of an easy going tone for the game plus there is no victory fanfare when you win a hero fight. Beyond that there is instances of missing graphical effects that most other games have. For example when you're in the level select screen and select the next area you'd normally expect some kind of scene transition but instead it just instantly loads the next thing. Compare that to the newest Shantae game, when you select a level you get an appropriate sound effect and animation before fading to black. This is just one example too. Don't get me wrong here, maybe that sort of thing doesn't bother you and if thats the case all power to you but I can't help but notice these things and it does take me out of whatever I'm doing. I wish there was a middle ground between yes and no on the recommendation, because right now I'd say this was a fairly average experience due to the sound shortcomings. I have to be honest and not recommended the game. The good news is the problems I have with the game can be fixed so I'm hopeful for that in the future.
• gamedeal user

  Jan 25, 2017

  Do I love this game? Hell, what is there NOT to love? It's everything I've ever asked for in a game! The villain as the playable protagonist, waifu worthy material everywhere, and a whole lot of retro references. If I had a lot of arms, I would give this a thousand thumbs up. Guess I should say one more thing before I post the review... VILLAIN NUMBER ONE!
• gamedeal user

  Jan 25, 2017

  I'll be honest - I wish this was an RPG. As a sort of pseudo-platformer, it is decent but the controls are not perfect. If the devs ever tighten them up so you don't slide so much during jumps and make grenade jumping a bit more predictable - this will be a solid game gameplay wise. That said - love the characters. The story is nice, the dialouge is filled with humor and villain jokes. To be honest - I wish this was an RPG because that way they'd add MORE interactions. Or so I hope - I badly need more of these characters. Sequel? With more dialog? Please? I'd buy....
• gamedeal user

  Jan 26, 2017

  I was really looking forward to this game since its Kickstarter, but I regretfully made it my first Steam Refund today after playing three levels. I'll let others discuss their gripes with the controls, complete lack of input rebinding, mandatory full screen, and other issues of that sort. (If any options regarding those things were present, my apologies, I did not see them anywhere I checked.) My main problem was the presentation, mostly the audio. Most of it is bland or generic, blending into the background. This stood out to me especially in the dwarf level with the miniboss. The regular music was used for the entire fight, making the whole thing feel less exciting than it otherwise would have. In addition to this, there are very few sound effects, and the game seemingly doesn't acknowledge if you lose against the heroes in the boss fight - not even the far too speedy and soundless window that normally appears when you die. I'm not saying that your money should drop if you lose these fights, I'm saying there should be slightly more here than an unceremonious dump to the checkpoint 5 seconds before the fight. More, minor issues include using B (on a 360 controller) to talk to people, but trying to open the upgrade screen by pressing B immediately closes it. Also, even if using a controller, keyboard prompts appear during cutscenes by default each time until you press a button. The game should at least remember what input device I'm using. Overall, I see potential here, but the game lacks several layers of polish. As I don't like things undercooked, I cannot personally recommend the game.
• gamedeal user

  Jan 27, 2017

  Argh. This is one of those games. The would-be greats, the ones that could have, should have been good, but for whatever reason or other just didn’t end up being. These tend to upset me more than just outright bad games, since it seems so easy to look at things that could have been changed to make it great. Nefarious has a lot of those. You play as Crow, latest in a line of bird-themed sky pirates whose MO is kidnapping princesses. His typical target is Princess Mayapple, but is always foiled by her kingdom’s hero, Mack. At the end of the game’s tutorial level, though, Mack decides to throw in the towel by breaking up with Mayapple, since in his own words she sees Crow more than he does. It’s a good introduction to the game and decently humorous. Even though he’s not used to actually winning, Crow decides to go whole hog with the opportunity, and steal four more princesses to power a doomsday device and take over the world. Each resides in a different themed kingdom with its own gimmick, and you have to bust through their security, kidnap them, and make it back out. You do this through platforming, and this is where the game unfortunately starts to become lack-luster. Crow’s arsenal consists of a metal gauntlet he can either punch people with, or fire grenades out of. You can do these in any direction you want, although bizarrely your punch is right click on a mouse and the grenades are bound to the left, which seems really backwards. Now, even though you’re the villain (a very silly, essentially harmless villain, but one nonetheless) in the story, it never felt to me like that factored into the gameplay much. These two attacks are pretty much all Crow has, and he ends up feeling weaker than many heroes from similar games: Mega Man and Shovel Knight have a whole arsenal of weapons by the end of their games, Kirby has whatever power you want to have, Mario is a deft acrobatic, Shantae can shapeshift into a ton of different forms, and that’s only a few examples. Crow doesn’t really have anything unique of his own, and that would be bad enough if he were just the hero, but the idea of most villains is that they’re set up as superior to the hero, a real obstacle. Which Crow still sort of is, but only because the game is so easy. You can breeze through the stages pretty easily, and most enemies are ineffectual. You start with three heart containers, and damage typically comes in halves. Health drops very often, and you can buy three more hearts inexpensively, letting Crow take up to twelve hits before expiring. All death does anyway is make you drop a bit of your money, Shovel Knight style. Midway into each stage, you kidnap that world’s princess, and gain an ability from each of them (except for Mayapple since her kingdom’s the tutorial). This is where something interesting could have come into play, but I found it a letdown. The first, a bug princess, gives you a hover-jump, which isn’t bad but has been done before. The second, a dwarf, turns the rest of the level into an auto-scroller after she decides to make Crow into her steed. I actually really liked the demon kingdom’s gimmick, where you send out a wave of fire upon throwing a grenade which hardens into a platform, but you hardly use it. Once you bring a princess back to the ship you don’t use their ability again, so none of their mechanics feel as fleshed out as they could be. Before that, though, you have to deal with the heroes protecting them. In theory this is where Crow’s villainy comes more into play, as instead of fighting them on foot you hop into one of his robots, flipping the perspective around. That’s a great idea, but the devil lies in the execution. The first of these places you in what’s basically the wrecking ball hovercraft Doctor Robotnik used in the very first Sonic boss fight. Instead of it working like that game, though, you’re fighting with the physics engine to swing the ball at a fairly small target, sort of spoiling the homage. In the second, you’re in a giant robot (I assume also a Robotnik reference, in this case to his final fight in Sonic 3 & Knuckles) trying to pound a dwarf with its fists, but your movement is limited to jerking the body back and forth, and punching at the same two spots. It’s clumsy, and nowhere near as enjoyable as I imagine they hoped. The two guys you fight also have clear patterns and vulnerability periods, so they don’t really feel like you’re fighting something controlled by the player - compare it to Shovel Knight’s boss fight in Plague Knight’s campaign, where he has tactics for every situation and uses his full arsenal of weaponry. A lot of other reviews of this game praise the characters, and here I sort of have to disagree. The princesses you kidnap are pretty one note, and while Crow himself is a decent character, he’s the same kind of ‘laughable bad guy’ I’ve seen in plenty of other media. It’s not anything new, and that’s actually true on Steam as well, since Plague Knight (I'm sorry for bringing that game up so much in this review) pretty much does everything Crow does but with much better gameplay. I was particularly disappointed with the heroes you fight, since they're practically non-entities aside from Mack and only show up for their fights. It feels like they could have been a more constant premise, although that would probably take more levels for each kingdom. Overall Nefarious could have been a classic, but unfortunately the gimmick seems to have overshadowed having really good, or even just solid gameplay, and you can’t get away with not having that in a platform game.