ZCW Reviews

  A Look Into Indie History-A VVVVVV Review Following a recent update fixing some bugs and framerate settings, the first update for VVVVVV in 7 years, I decided now was a better time than ever to go back one of the first indie games I have ever played: VVVVVV.  Gravity Flipping Platforming VVVVVV laid the groundwork for building upon simple mechanics, one of my all time favorite ways to design and construct a game. For the entirety of the game, you'll merely move and flip gravity with the level design dictating complexity.  Some of my favorite moments here were when VVVVVV broke the conventions of a platformer to create these crazy gimmicks (keep in mind that due to age a lot of these have been reused but VVVVVV was the catalyst). Ideas like making the screen wrap around to make puzzles and bouncy floors that flip gravity when you land on them are all over this title, improving the experience by making you switch up your thinking.  You're tasked with rescuing all the...

  How Hot Lava Captures Childlike Imagination-A Hot Lava Review Originally, I booted up Hot Lava with the explicit reason of reviewing it. However, deeply entranced by the vision of Don't Starve creators Klei Entertainment, I eventually realized that Hot Lava was far more special than its first impression.  Classic Bhop Meets Modern Mechanics Hot Lava is deeply reminiscent of old school Bhop and surf courses from games like GS:GO and CS 1.6. That being said, its the additions and polish that make HL stand out from their inspirations. All the staples are here, yet, by fine tuning the jumping momentum as well as smoothing over more difficult techniques like surfing, it is far more approachable for the target audience.  Despite some of these touch ups, there is more than enough challenge here for those familiar with these classic mechanics, which caught me off guard. Continually I found myself replaying levels for optimal routes, cutting corners faster and smoother each time...

  An Aquatic Art piece-An Abzû Review This week I decided to take a look at an older game I played back when it came out in 2016 to see if it still holds up. Abzû is the first title released from Giant Squid, a company comprised of some very talented developers as well as a few people from the Journey development team, from which Abzû is inspired.  Smooth, Simple, and Elegant Abzû, like Journey and Flower, more of a visual and musical experience than a typical example of a videogame. Based around merely swimming and exploring, Abzû is a game where you merely take in what's occurring around you as the incredible choirs and instrumentals fill your headspace. What sets Abzû apart is its setting, the vast and diverse environments of underwater life. While I won't spoil all of its surprises here, I was insanely impressed with what Giant Squid were able to accomplish with a genuine care for Marine Biology and what kind of fish inhabit these environments. As ...

  An Absolute Wild Ride-A Buck Up And Drive Review With the very prestigious Sonic Amateur Games Expo rolling around this week, a celebration of various fan projects as well as independent ventures by new indie developers, I decided to go play around and found a fully completed project in Buck Up And Drive. I had previously stumbled upon this project on twitter a while back, and have held deep excitement for this title ever since. Well, instead of wasting any more time, let's see how this stacks up. Drifting, Dodging, and Driving Galore Buck Up And Drive is, and these are the words of the dev here, "a playable shitpost...inspired by arcade driving games like outrun." While I agree its a very silly game at heart, BUAD has a lot of really rock solid gameplay packed into it. The game's main gameplay loop revolves around reaching the end of a level before the 60 second timer runs out. As you keep playing the levels get longer and longer as well as the amount of obstacles...

  FPS Dungeon Crawling Fun-A Hellblusser Review Hellblusser was a game I saw earlier this year on twitter during its infancy but eventually forgot about as time passed. Eventually I stumbled back upon Sokpop Collective's work, and also found out these madmen make a game a month! (If you'd like to support this team, which have already created 80 games already, you can join their patreon here ) Without further ado, let's check out Hellblusser, and see if this was special or something to forget about. Dungeon Crawling and Spellcasting Hellblusser has a very interesting artstyle consisting of what I'd call super cell shading, meaning taking that initial artstyle and highlights outlines even more and ups contrast to the max. What results is a somewhat nostalgic visual theme that sets Hellblusser apart from other first person dungeon crawlers.   Speaking of first person dungeon crawlers, I typically dislike their adherence to stiff movement and restrictive dodge mechanics. Wh...

  A Digital Toy?-A The Ramp Review The Ramp, as described by the developer themself, is a digital toy meant to highlight an aspect of vert skateboarding that is often overlooked. Does the little microgame highlight this aspect or fail to really be anything of value for 5 bucks? Let's find out. A State of Flow The Ramp showcases the carving into curves that skateboarders will do to gain speed on halfpipes and bowls. Essentially, you bend and release your knees on the board depending on what part of the ramp you are at to gain and maintain speed. The Ramp's incorporation of this mechanic relies on rhythmic button presses chained together to gain more height and move faster. There are even a few nifty mechanics here like turning before a jump to spin faster off a ramp, which was very fun to mess around with.  What results is a game that, while extremely simplistic, is a great little distraction for small play sessions and is wholly satisfying. The sound design is also great, with...

  Embracing Uniqueness-A Cruelty Squad Review Cruelty Squad, for better or for worse, is by far the most insane and unique fps game I’ve played in my entire life. This immersive sim takes you through one of the most insane universes ever conceived in a sort of anarcho-capitalist nightmare fueled by flesh and guts. Deathly Loop In Cruelty Squad death is merely a setback, as technology has gotten to a point where full body reconstruction is a commodity. As a societally deemed failure and loser, the player is hired by an ominous megacorporation to be a deranged hitman. Each mission will have you hunt down a variety of different targets in vast, multi-leveled areas (all of which can be replayed infinitely due to the aforementioned body reconstruction, that NPCs often joke about). It is these multi-layered levels that had me coming back again and again to Cruelty Squad to optimize routes to beat them as fast as possible.  And I mean you can go unbelievably fast. Check out dudeguy’s...