Reviews

• gamedeal user

  Sep 27, 2021

  I want to start by saying that I've really been enjoying this game for the most part. The graphics are beautiful, the stages are fairly challenging without being too frustrating (until a certain point -- I'll get to that soon), the music is awesome, and it overall does a very nice job of providing a retro platformer experience. I felt like I was playing a genuine SNES classic from the 90s. However, I can't recommend it in its current state because of a problem with the controls. There are many platforms in the game that you simply cannot reach if you time Rick's double jump anything less than perfectly. This wasn't a big problem for most of the game, but it becomes incredibly frustrating during the third world boss because there are many, many jumps you must do in that battle that HAVE to be timed perfectly, and making even a few mistakes means you die instantly and have to start over. There is one jump in particular that I have not been able to get past, and I'm not even sure if it's possible to do it right. I'm currently still stuck on that boss because of that. Even though I don't regret buying this game, with a glaring problem like this I can't in good conscience encourage other people to spend their money on it. This problem is probably very easy to patch, so if the developers are reading this, please do something! This game has so much potential!
• gamedeal user

  Feb 26, 2023

  It usually isn't a good sign when you play through a level in a game and see a bunch of colored objects you can't yet interact with, because it usually means the gametime will be artificially extended by mandatory backtracking. And yep, that's exactly what happened here, and was the prime factor in me dropping this game. So yeah, this game definitely ticks enough boxes to be a decent "oldschool pixel platformer", and while I think the combat and season-switching mechanics were a bit unresponsive and perhaps even tedious at times, I think I can kinda see what the devs were going for. But if it weren't for the mandatory backtracking, I think I would've been able to have a nice sight-seeing tour and would've been able to ignore the slightly bleh gameplay due to being mesmerized by how pretty it all was. It's sad to say, because the developer clearly put effort into the product, but this is an easy skip for me.
• gamedeal user

  May 18, 2018

  I'm not a backer to this game, I just saw it through a group's discord and became interested in the product. Since I'm one of the first to play I might as well give my thoughts so you know what you're getting into At first glance, it looks like a standard indie-platformer with a furry themed character. However when I looked at it I knew what it was. It's an adventure platformer, a genre that is not common within the current norm. This is not Shantae, this is not Shovel Knight, this is not Freedom Planet which is not a bad thing as it's able to give a reason to add to your library of games with no real alternative currently. This game is very similar to that of Act Raiser and Demon's Crest back in the SNES days. A small handful of large levels filled with secrets but formulated in a way that gives it the feel where the ultimate goal is reaching the end. Finding these secrets will reward you with currency which you can purchase various tools to help your overall progression of the game. The stages themselves will have various obsticles that feel threatening enough to make them like get from point A to point B games. Though quantity of levels is small, the amount of hidden stash and various paths makes it easy and appealing to replay. The main gimmick of the gameplay is the ability to change season. Though it sounds unique, the mechanic is ultimatly just switching between two stages. Various hazords get removed and other platforms appear. Nothing too special but it adds a little to the general gameplay which is very solid. The main character has a veriety of melee and projectile based tools to use which works well as the game's desigin is not afraid to throw enemies at you. You'll find various ways to get yourself out of situations and you will feel like you're in constant danger of your enviroment which keeps you as a player in check and on your toes. It's not difficult, but it does offer challenge. This is a well made game that's fun but that's pretty much it. You're paying for exactly what you see and it won't appeal to everyone. But if it interested you, then go for it.
• gamedeal user

  May 19, 2018

  I first saw stuff about this game over a year ago, I think, I don't remember, it's been awhile and I was intrigued. Mostly because the main character was a fox, but it also looked fun. I don't usually play platformer games often, so it's not a genre I'm too familiar but I think this game is pretty fun from what I've played. The controls are good, movement feels a little slow but it's not frustratingly slow. I love the pixel art and the music. There does seem to be a lot of back tracking once you get more abilities, but I'm alright with that. I'm excited to play this game more, first impressions are good so far! Also to people not sure how to exit the game on PC, once you quit to the main menu you have to hit the esc key and it will close the game. Not obvious, probably something they should patch in, like a quit button.
• gamedeal user

  Dec 1, 2018

  Look, I'm a fan of retro games, even more games composed of pixel characters and background, but that doesn't means I wont be harsh to this. The idea of the game is cool, a platformer where you use the power of the seasons to solve puzzles, the problem is that the game attempts to be more like "Dark Souls" than an enjoyable platformer. The Bayonet Crossbow is a good weapon, but there is no way of alternating between each other than by doing a key combination, if you use the attack button without jumping or holding down, your character shots arrows, if you are jumping or holding down, bayonet attack. That is a problem, even more if you want to shot small enemies, you can't, because your character will use the bayonet instead, the same is also valid for flying enemies, you have to depend on the bayonet attacks to be able to attack them. If you have played Ty the Tasmanian Tiger, you'll probably remember Lenny when reading Patty messages. And he's as annoying aswell. The game really wants you to be less greedy too, since to activate check points, you need to spend coins, SPEND COINS, TO NOT RESTART THE ENTIRE STAGE WHEN THE CHARACTER DIES. And the best part is, the stages are big, so if you die without buying a check point, you'll have to do the stage all over again, and lose everything you got during the stage. EVERYTHING. The keyboard controls are AWFUL! You use WASD to move, and Enter to attack. Why? Would be better to use the number keys or IJKL to do the game actions, and the best part is, Backspace uses items. Most of the time you'll do mistakes in the gameplay, and most of the time is because you get confused by the control schemes. Even though there is an alternative control set you can pick, the situation doesn't turn less awful if you do so. The game also countains a few enemies in stages, whose respawns way too fast, like, 3 seconds after you killed them, they respawn, that is an annoying thing, even more if that monster shots, or if you are doing some platforming jump. It also features a upgrading system, where you buy upgrades from one pidgeon shops in the town, the problem, is that when you try to buy the third or fourth ability for Rick, it shows "Coming Soon". Is this game WIP or something? I thought it was a full released game. Also, if you want to attempt a shot less gameplay of the game, don't try to use your bayonet to attack the first boss, because for some reason, the boss will turn into Thor just to retaliate your attempt of attack, It's like "Don't touch me, you flea bag". How the heck that frog is able release a eletric discharge? Also, the best part is that when you die in the boss fight, the game shows "Game Over" on the screen. Why? The game isn't over! My character died a lot of times and that didn't shown up, also, upon dying on the boss fight, it shows a window asking if you want to restart the boss fight, or get tips. So, If you can't figure out how the boss works on your first attempt probably means you're stupid? Not only to count that the tips are appearing quite... Soon? Maybe during the development of the game the devs couldn't figure out how the boss works, either. There are also a few cases of bugs in the game, like if your character dies while sliding down a rope, the character dies floating in the air, and some cases where when the character dies when jumping, the jump animation freezes, but the death music plays, and shortly after you respawn. But the most absurd issues surge when you unlock the area 2. Why is that? Because you will meet holes you can't get out, forcing you to quit the stage, so It's not so different from not using a check point, other than the fact you'll lose more time. And there is the best part to come, I still haven't beaten the game, because my patience also has limits, but during the stage 2-2, you'll discover that the game also has a sidescroller shooter session. I'm not an enemy of adding other game elements on the game, but making the stage be a freaking deathtrap isn't fun, even more since the character has only 1 of health, meaning that touching anything kills your character! At least on that stage the checkpoint is free, I guess. I tried to complain about several of those issues the game has on the forums, but then I discovered that the developers went Hello Games since 5 months ago, so they are nowhere to be found. Basically, after launching the game, they freaking abandoned it! What the heck?! So, do I recommend the game? No! Because not only It's really annoying to play, contains absurd mechanics, but also you have to ALT+F4 or click the X button on your window to close the game. This game isn't good! But isn't that bad either, that's why I'll keep trying to play THIS sometimes, but certainly it could have fixed some of it's problems and removed some of it's annoyances. If you still want to get this game, buy it when it's on sale, because on the full price you'll feel ripped off. If you want to see the complaints about the rest of the problems the game has, check out here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/603400/discussions/0/1741100729961633901/
• gamedeal user

  Jun 6, 2019

  Girlfriend challenged me to play a bunch of fox games in 2019. Here’s #4. FOX n FORESTS is a sidescrolling hack-‘n-slash with RPG elements. You traverse long levels, slaying enemies for money which can be used to purchase upgrades. There are a lot of secret areas to hunt for, some which will yield rare materials needed to purchase certain upgrades, and some of which are necessary to beat the game. After deliberating, this game just [i]barely[/i] got my recommendation. There's a whole lot of positives and negatives to address: Firstly, the tile and sprite work in this game is [i]fantastic![/i] The visual design of the levels is beautiful and immerses you in the seasons it’s supposed to represent, even in its 16-bit art style. Especially impressive is the fact that each level needed to be designed [i]twice[/i], once for two different seasons, and both designs are (with some exceptions) very visually pleasant. But what really stood out to me were the jaw-dropping boss sprites. [i]Especially[/i] the final boss. The music also fits the 16-bit style by using SNES samples. The tracks were mostly forgettable, but quite above average in quality and very enjoyable. At several points I had to stop and realize I wasn’t listening to music from A Link to the Past. The game’s gimmick of season-swapping is greatly overstated. It’s actually more like a light/dark world mechanic, since each level only has one pre-determined alternate season to switch to. But to the game’s credit, the season-swapping is very well-designed and makes for lots of creative moments. The storyline and humor is mildly amusing in a so-bad-it’s-good sort of way. Expect a hurricane of awful puns that reference classic games. “now I really feel MEGA, man!” is a good example of what you’re in for. The “plot” is nonexistent except for a single solitary twist that, to the game’s credit, was brilliantly foreshadowed from the very first level. Physics are decent. I liked the way the game handled edge physics. Some games have a problem where jumping off the side of a ledge unexpectedly eats your double jump. Here, you can walk off a ledge and still use both your jumps anytime before hitting the ground, so this problem never happens. Some people complain that nearly every jump in the game needs to be a double-jump, but I didn’t mind since a double-jump is still more flexible than having a single, longer basic jump. Now for the negatives: The game’s biggest problem is probably its confusing and unresponsive combat controls. Your basic attack completely changes depending on how you’re moving. If you’re standing or walking, you’ll fire an arrow. If you’re jumping, you’ll use your sword. You can’t slash your sword while standing unless you’re unintuitively holding the up or down button. Your areal attack is useless unless you double-jump, after which you’ll use a completely different, stronger areal move. Hot-swapping between weapons is annoying because there’s no button to swap backwards. And worst of all, sometimes your attack will outright fail due to weird cooldown timers, especially after taking damage, making for infuriating moments of panic. The most annoying enemies (the bugs, bats, and goblin soldiers) respawn a few seconds after killing them. Why??! That’s really, really annoying, especially if you’re trying to stop to puzzle something out. Then there's the lack of content. Each forest consists of two normal levels, one boss level, and one bonus level. The bonus levels take quite a bit of effort to unlock and are built up as this mysteriously important place where the fifth season is invading the forest. So what do you expect? Some tough levels that push the game to its limits and challenge even your fully upgraded fox, right? I was looking forward to that, but nope. They’re literally just the bonus banana rooms from the DKC games, and you can only play them once. Also, after beating the final boss, a fourth seedling appears in the town, requiring all 40 of the game’s secret seeds to grow. Since the seedlings unlock new areas, is this where those challenge levels are? Nope, it only unlocks the ability to play the boss and bonus levels over again. Turns out there [i]are[/i] no challenge levels – the Kickstarter stretch goal for them wasn’t met. And 2 of the 8 normal levels are shoot-em-ups, meaning there are only 6 levels where most of the game takes place. The game forces you to play these 6 absurdly long levels multiple times since most secrets require weapons from later in the game, and since you can’t progress unless you have a required number of seeds. While about half the seeds are cleverly hidden, the other half are like the cages from the first [i]Rayman[/i] game, where they don’t appear unless you touch an arbitrary tripcord somewhere nearby. Some of them get really unfair, like one where you’re given a choice of dropping down three holes that lead to the same pit, and the secret seed will only appear at the bottom if you jumped down the right hole. Seriously?? The game inverts the checkpoint system from Shovel Knight, where breaking a checkpoint gave you extra money. Here, you need to [i]pay money[/i] to activate a checkpoint, which has pretty much the same effect but feels less rewarding. And progress is strictly tied to checkpoints; if you die, you lose all progress since the last checkpoint, including any gold and secret collectables you obtained. And let me just stress again that the levels are [i]way too long[/i]; a single level takes nearly 30 minutes for an underpowered fox to traverse and explore for the first time. It gets very exhausting. The second shmup level is one of the worst I’ve ever seen! Why do you only get 1 HP for shmup levels? Why does merely touching a wall kill you? Why is there a scrolling foreground layer that makes the gameplay layer look like a background? Why does the game hide enemies behind said foreground layer? That level left such a bad taste, I nearly feel like deducting a point just for it. Overall, FOX n FORESTS is a weird amalgamation of awesome things and awful things which somewhat cancel out into sheer mediocrity. Games like this make we wish Steam had a “neutral” vote. For lack of one, I’m giving this game a [i]very[/i] weak recommend since I had fun overall, but I wouldn’t pay more than $5 for it. Otherwise, try Dust: An Elysian Tail if you want a furry hack-n-slash with RPG elements. 6 / 10. (Achievement hunters: 8-10 hours to 100% completion.)
• gamedeal user

  Sep 8, 2019

  [code]If you enjoyed this review, please consider following my Curator Page [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/33864135/]Nep's Gaming Paradise (Nepiki Gaming)[/url] for more reviews! I'm also the owner of a friendly social community with the same name, which you can check out by joining the [url=https://steamcommunity.com/groups/NepikiGaming]Steam Group[/url], or checking out our [url=https://discord.gg/z2gUCmFg2K]Discord![/url][/code] [h1]Nepiki's Stats[/h1] [table] [tr] [td]Overall length[/td] [td]5-7 hours for one playthrough, 7-10 hours for completion.[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Overall difficulty[/td] [td]Low to medium difficulty.[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Overall score[/td] [td]★★★★☆[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Full review available at my site?[/td] [td]No[/td] [/tr] [/table] [h1]Review[/h1] Really great 2D platformer with a good pixel artstyle and very lovely soundtrack that just oozes SNES era. There are some varied gameplay styles like shoot-m-up stages but most importantly platforming stages with their own unique season changing mechanics. This is used to freeze lakes for or extinquish fires for example. Each stage also has three to four different collectables which all have their own benefits like upgrades to your skills, or secret stages. Most of these cannot be gathered on your first playthrough due to not meeting the requirements yet, but stages are fun to revisit and it also extends gameplay a bit because overall it is not that long. Usually I wouldn't mind but I wanted more of this game, and hopefully we'll see more of this great team of developers. There is one slight negative that I have to mention and that's with how the main protagonist controls during combat. It doesn't hinder gameplay too much, but I felt Rick to be clunky with how he is unable to use arrows while in the sky, or cannot do a ground stomp with just a regular jump and instead needs to double jump. I think that if Rick was even more agile, we would have an even better game here. But if that's the worst negative critisism I can have about a game like this, you know it's definitely worth your time. [hr] https://store.steampowered.com/app/603400/
• gamedeal user

  Sep 30, 2019

  I really tried to like this game, and I feel like underneath it's flaws there is an old style gem, but as it stands right now, Fox'N Forests feels like it tries it's best to be a chore. The 16 bits style graphics are amazing and make the game look very beautiful to look at, while also having some really good animations for the sprites and a well fitting soundtrack as well. The idea to alter the scenario to progress thorough the game is also very cool and interesting, it kinda reminds me of "Giana Sisters Twisted Dreams", even if it features more variety in the alterations with the 4 seasons. The character controls well for the most part, It's weight feels a bit inconsistent from time to time (like it is either too heavy or too floaty) but not so much to be an actual issue. The only true problem with the controls is the lack of a proper gamepad support. Also, while I do understand that having both ranged and melee attacks gives a sense of variety, I also feel like it should either only have the ranged one, OR have ranged and melee assigned to different buttons instead of depending if you are attacking while standing or jumping/crouching. However, the true issues are in the gameplay itself. Without counting the bosses and the bonus stages, the game is composed of 8 stages, and while it might not seem much, it requires A LOT of mandatory backtracking in order to get the items you need to proceed from one section to the next. Not only that, but the gameplay itself is relatively slow, and if you combine that with enemies that respawn infinitely on the same spot over and over again (some shoot or chase after you), some maze-like stage layouts, "shooting" sections with "foreground occlusion" (the foreground gets in the way), some "guessing-games" with treasure chests that can either reward or damage you with no indication, and important items hidden behind the scenario elements, you have a receipe for a game that tries it's best to slow you down at every step and punish you for it's own failure at giving you important informations. I would give this game a "maybe" instead of a "Not recommended", since I know there are people out there with a lot more patience than me who wouldn't have an Issue with it. The game presentation is amazing and the idea is very good, but sadly it all fails to deliver because of some really bad decisions on the gameplay department, and that's the most important part.
• gamedeal user

  Nov 12, 2019

  The game looks nice and remind me of the old days, but there are some details that won't let me recommend it. First, the game won't save your progress unless you finish the stage. This is a problem because the stages are fairly big and take some time to finish, thus locking you on the game. Need to leave for work? Dinner's ready? Need to take a dump? Want to play something else? Well, the devs want you to f**k yourself as you gonna have to play everything again. Then there is the combat "freeze" cooldown. After shooting an arrow, for example, you have a little delay. You can't move, you can't attack... If you change the season this gets even worst, as you can't do anything for an even long period. Your char just stays there, froze like an imbecile for a second.. Why make a fluid movement when you can create something slow and unresponsive right? The game says I played 5h, but in fact I played for about an hour. I had to leave the game on as I was doing other things so I wouldn't lose my progress. If not for that, I would request a refund.
• gamedeal user

  Nov 12, 2019

  This game is the right choice if you want some hardcore platforming action, very nice pixel graphics and beautiful music. In this game you'll join the cunning fox named Rick in some wild journey to the very heart of the dense magical forest, which has been frozen in time, to break the spell and return the streams of time into their usual course. Rick got armed with newfound trusty bayonetted crossbow, which is, being a magical weapon, will not only help him to fight hordes of monsters in melee and ranged combat, but also will be useful to solve puzzles. Yes, while time in this forest stood still, the crossbow can magically alter seasons. For example, Rick can cause local winter that will cause rivers to freeze and the huge unpassable swarm of raging bees to fall into hibernation, or cause local autumn that will make fruits and berries go ripe and leaves fall from the trees. Interesting! Different areas has different seasons, so in each area puzzles must be different. [spoiler]You'll have to pay in-game gold to save your progress in the game, however, at least at the beginning, required amounts of money are more than humble, and, thanks to the re-spawning enemies, are easily recoverable.[/spoiler] Oh, and to exit the game you'll have to press Alt+F4. I'm not sure, but I think it's because devs don't want you to leave their nice game. Rapid-fire review to let everyone know that this game is worth checking out, especially now while it's on sale with a nice big 75% discount. Works very nice on Linux, no problems encountered this far. Jumping, shooting, looting and upgrading Rick, but most of the time leading him to a certain and painful death in the bottom of bottomless pits and in claws, fangs and stingers of the bloodthirsty hostile monsters, on my computer of the following configuration: OS: Linux 18.3 Cinnamon x64; CPU: Intel Core i5-2500k @ 3.30 GHz x 4; RAM: 7.8 Gb; GPU: ASUS NVidia GTX 1050Ti 4Gb; GPU Driver version: 418.56.