Review Round-Up - February 2021

Two adventures for the price of one, one familiar and one entirely new, equal SuperPhillip Central's
Game of the Month for February 2021: Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury!

It's the end of another month, so that can mean only one thing on SuperPhillip Central--well, technically, it could mean many things, but let's not argue semantics here! The point being... it's time for the Review Round-Up for February 2021!

It was a wild month of some fantastic platforming action of all types--and we even got a Zelda-like roguelite thrown in there for good measure, too. Things started strong for our review coverage with Blue Fire for the Nintendo Switch and Steam. The game was the sum of all of its inspired parts, earning a B+ for its efforts! Following that was another 3D platformer, though more of a pure platformer rather than the action mix seen in Blue Fire. Glyph was a ball of fun--literally--and it rolled up a satisfying B grade.

We then took a brief detour from all our platforming month with some Zelda roguelite action with Rogue Heroes: Ruins of Tasos, which surprised me with how impressed I was with the game. It's an absolute joy to play both solo and with friends, and that's why I gave it a B+ grade. Following up that game was a masochistic 2D platformer from 2019 that finally launched on the Nintendo Switch this past month, Cathedral. I adored the game and its steep challenge, giving the game a B+ as well. 

Finally, it was a return of a battle of former mascot rivals with Mario and Crash Bandicoot. Mario fared much better with his adventures in the Sprixie Kingdom and Lake Lapcat--aka Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury--jumping to an A grade and SPC's Game of the Month honors. Meanwhile, Crash Bandicoot settled for a B- grade due to Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time possessing lots of frustrating moments sprinkled in with its fun and enjoyable time-traveling journey. 

As we like to do at the end of every Review Round-Up for the past year now, here are some excerpts from and links to every game review published this past month on SPC. Lastly, check out the SPC Review Archive for EVERY game review ever published on our 12-year+ website!

Blue Fire (NSW, PC) - B+

Blue Fire essentially takes some of the best elements of each of its inspirations to create a cohesive and ultimately delightful-to-play whole. There are certainly some rough spots that are apparent--occasional bugs, occasional glitches here and there--but overall, Blue Fire remains a terrifically challenging and mighty exciting adventure from beginning to end. This flame certainly burns bright.

Glyph (NSW) - B

At the end of the day, I had a "ball" with Glyph, both literally and figuratively. The initial, decidedly steep learning curve will alienate quite a few players at the get-go, but for those who stick with the game, they'll eventually be whirling about levels like a pro--or at least a much more capable and confident player--and have fun doing it. While the difficulty all around is not the smoothest, having some levels that are a breeze followed immediately by those that will make you want to yell out in utter frustration, Glyph is all around a successful outing from Bolverk Games.

Rogue Heroes: Ruins of Tasos (NSW, PC) - B+

Rogue Heroes: Ruins of Tasos succeeds in making a unique roguelite that blends the tried and true gameplay of games like The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past and mixes it in a way that makes this particular roguelite actually enjoyable. That's not to say that I don't care for roguelites in general, but after seeing an onslaught of the genre and their roguelike cousins in general from indies and larger devs alike, it's great to see one in Rogue Heroes that doesn't just adhere to the genre's template so stringently. There's plenty of time to breathe when exploring the overworld of Tasos, the dungeons are filled with brain-bending puzzles and engrossing battles, and the penalty for death won't overly diminish your joy or demotivate you too easily. Rogue Heroes: Ruins of Tasos is a great marriage between A Link to the Past gameplay and roguelite design, tremendously fun and polished, making it a recommended title whether you enjoy it alone or with others in co-op play.

Cathedral (NSW) - B+

Cathedral maintains its high level of difficulty shortly from the beginning of the game to the very end. It's not Ghost 'n Goblins-level hard, but it's difficult all the same. That said, if you can withstand the challenge, you'll be rewarded with a stellar Metroidvania that may not reinvent the wheel or contribute a lot of new ideas, but is an incredibly polished, well executed game. With plenty of content in the form of story and side quests, marvelous level design, and wonderful sprite and background work, Cathedral is thankfully a blessing of a game rather than a curse.

Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury (NSW) - A

Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury is definitely a must-own if you've never experienced the original 3D World on the Wii U, which happens to be a whole heck of a lot of Nintendo Switch owners. It becomes tougher to recommend if you're only interested in the Bowser's Fury portion of the package. If that's the case, it really depends on how fiercely and furiously you want to play a new 3D Mario adventure, especially since it's basically a $60 price of admission to Lake Lapcat. For me, as a lover of Super Mario 3D World and all of its new features (particularly the ability to play online and the increased playing speed), Bowser's Fury was just gravy on top of an already super satisfying game.

Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time (PS4, XB1) - B-

Despite an intense difficulty and level of challenge, constant trial and error gameplay with the game's lengthy levels, obnoxious crate placements, and questionable completion requirements, I ultimately enjoyed my time with Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time. But, to be honest, the reason it took me so long to even review this game was that I definitely needed some breaks from it. Crash's latest--with its difficulty, with its myriad "gotcha" moments, and such--just wore on me way too much. Levels are just way lengthier than they should be, and no matter how great they look, how well designed some aspects of them are, and how interesting the obstacles present themselves, it just got exhausting to play through them for any prolonged stretch of time. While Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time was, for me, an enjoyable game with some great design here and there, its overall difficulty makes me question who this game is actually for other than diehard Crash fans and those with a severe masochistic side. Still, it's hard to ignore the quality on display here. 

It was about time Crash returned with a new game,
much like it was about time SPC covered Crash Bandicoot 4 in review form!

Glyph (NSW) Review

Fresh off the figurative heels of yesterday's Blue Fire review, we have another interesting indie for the Nintendo Switch. This time it's Bolverk Games' Glyph, another 3D platformer with some corruption going on in its story! Let's rock and roll with the SPC review!

The Sand Is Lava: The Game

The Nintendo Switch is in no shortage of excellent and promising indie games, and that trend merrily continues thanks to Bolverk Games and their work on Glyph. If you're familiar with the children's game "The Floor is Lava", where players leap from safe tile to safe tile, all the while trying to avoid the floor, you have a general idea of what the basic concept of Glyph is. Of course, Glyph is considerably more involved, utilizing our scarab beetle ball's abilities to roll, jump, and glide his way around levels while trying to avoid touching the deadly desert dune sands, with only stone slabs, fallen columns, and other objects to save him from a destroyed fate.

Glyph's tale is a simple one, but when you're essentially a platformer, you don't really need an engrossing story to hook players, as that's where the gameplay comes in. Regardless, the ancient temple has been corrupted and buried in sand. With the help of your own platforming skills and a friendly beetle companion who follows along with you, you go on a journey to revitalize the temple and restore it to its former glory, ultimately finding the source of the corruption that caused the temple to sink in the first place. What follows is a series of over 80 unique levels featuring some truly tricky platforming challenges. 

However, before you can engage in restoring the temple and indulging in the meat and potatoes of Glyph's adventure, you have a helpful handful of tutorial levels to take on. These of course give you the ins and outs of Glyph's movement and move set. Our hero can obviously roll Marble Madness-style, but he can also jump, and in some instances, double jump, though this is a very temporary ability that goes away when used once. Only by rolling over green pads does Glyph regain the ability. Glyph can also continuously leap up the sides of safe platforms, as well as extend his wings to perform a glide, great for covering long distances, among other beneficial uses. 

Able to leap medium-length walls with a single set of multiple bounces, it's Super Scarab!

Finally, there's a pound-like smash maneuver that serves as a way to not only bounce higher to gain more altitude, but also to serve as an instant stop to Glyph's forward momentum. For instance, if you're about to fly past a particular platform and want to land on it effectively, just use this smash to slam into the ground, killing all momentum. Of course, use this over sand or other hazards and you're as good as a goner. Fortunately, an assist in the form of a white ring almost always hovers below our hero at ground level, helping to judge distance and depth.

Most levels are quite open and large with few safe places to land, but LOTS of deadly places to die!

Starting off in Glyph, there is a stiff learning curve. I found myself not really easing into things too quickly. Glyph is rather slippery in movement and despite having a heavy-looking appearance, he's as light and floaty in the air as a wiffleball. There is also a lot of forward momentum, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, as you can really master it to present some incredible runs through levels. Plus, the aforementioned smash ability helps in halting this momentum in a flash. Levels quickly ramp up in difficulty, requiring all of Glyph's abilities to become almost second nature for players. At the start of my experience with Glyph, I cautiously rolled and jumped around as slowly as possible, but by the end, I was making death-defying leaps from narrow platform to narrow pillar, bouncing off floors to gain extra height, gliding about, and zooming across the expansive levels with gusto. That isn't to say I didn't die a heck of a bunch. I certainly did, but I became much more comfortable with the controls and physics of the game.

However, part of the challenge that comes from Glyph does not always have to do solely with the oodles of platforming perils placed in your path. Instead, it's a combination of moving about levels while simultaneously messing about with the camera to put it in the perfect position for you to execute your platforming. Even with mastery of the platforming piece of Glyph, you need to juggle all that with getting the camera at the right angle, oftentimes requiring an almost "pat your head, rub your stomach" level of confusion. I'm not pleased to say that this is where Glyph greatly falters, but at the same time, I don't really know how this could have been improved considering how open and exploratory the levels are by design. They encourage you to traverse all over and move the camera around to discover new nooks and crannies.

A winged tortoise with a hazy green trail following behind it? Totally unlockable!

And yes, the 80+ levels on display in Glyph are mighty large and expansive. Well, at least the exploration-based levels. The other type of level in Glyph is the time trial, which unlike the exploration-based levels, these are linear as can be. However, I must say that the time requirements are a bit too tight for my liking. Some are manageable to get gold, while others are so arduous to even complete in time much less get gold in--even one-star difficulty level stages. So, here there is bit of an unevenness in Glyph's difficulty. While the exploration levels have a more... mm.... "relaxed"--for a lack of a better word--pace, the time trials are just plain devious. While they do unlock gems for beating specific target times, they fortunately aren't required to unlock every level in the game. If you're doing a modest amount of discovery in the exploration levels, you'll most likely have enough coins and gems to unlock everything up to the final boss. (Yep, there's an actual final boss, which ends up being rather enjoyable, though requiring lots of trial and error to beat.) 

For its exploration-based levels, Glyph takes a page from 3D collect-a-thon platformers with plenty of trinkets to collect. There are pink gems that unlock new areas of levels in the ancient temple hub, there are coins that unlock new levels within said areas, there are golden scarabs that only appear when all coins in a level have been collected (and those unlock specific levels as well), and there are keys to collect, too. Collecting all of the keys in a level is the only "must" to do in a level, and once you've done so, you must find and make your way safely to the goal. 

Don't hurt me for saying this, but these particular trinkets are "key" to clearing each level.

Glyph does not utilize checkpoints, so this may frustrate a fair number of players. Only some collectables are saved in a level upon dying, such as coins and gems. However, if you're going for a golden scarab, the secret avatar item that is hidden in each level, or the keys, you need to collect them and reach the goal intact in one run. 'Else you'll find yourself having to not only collect all of the keys again, but also either (or both) the golden scarab and the avatar item. Thankfully, you need not go after both optional collectibles (the scarab or avatar item) in a single given run. Still, since some of the exploration levels are so large in scope, it can be rather demoralizing and obnoxious to die and have to start from the beginning of the level all over again. It's more of a problem with convenience. Many levels have you trekking up or down the same starting linear path to reach the more open sections of levels that it becomes rather rote and tedious to do. A small blemish on otherwise enjoyable levels. 

The physics on display in Glyph are notably precise, sort of important for a ball-rolling platformer!

Speaking of levels, but changing the subject to a technical level, Glyph runs incredibly well on the Nintendo Switch, matching its 60 FPS promise in both docked AND undocked forms. The game is incredibly fluid in motion. Sure, you could argue that it's only because of the relatively simple geometry and non-complicated objects on display here, but it's a feat that is still worth applauding. There's a minimalistic approach to the visuals as well the sound design, too. The soundtrack is ambient and environmental, only kicking in with a pulsating rhythm and beat when all of the keys in a level have been collected and the goal unlocks. It is a small but highly effective touch. 

Glyph kept me entertained for a good while, from the easy difficulty levels that gave me an eventual comfort in the controls and physics to the five-star (or in Glyph's case--five-skull) levels, which are truly challenging affairs, requiring a masterful grasp of the game's mechanics and physics to overcome and complete. I can see myself playing even more long after this review is published, as there are many more levels left unplayed and unfinished, avatars to unlock (such as a skull with wings, a fly, a bird, and even a rainbow turtle) and particle effect trails to unlock as well. (Though the latter might be a bit too challenging as unlock new trails requires individual golds on time trials.) Still, the point here is that there is no shortage of content to be had in Glyph.

I have no time to deal with you, pesky enemy. I'm late for a Metallica concert.
(A caption that might have worked better without a pandemic going on.)

At the end of the day, I had a "ball" with Glyph, both literally and figuratively. The initial, decidedly steep learning curve will alienate quite a few players at the get-go, but for those who stick with the game, they'll eventually be whirling about levels like a pro--or at least a much more capable and confident player--and have fun doing it. While the difficulty all around is not the smoothest, having some levels that are a breeze followed immediately by those that will make you want to yell out in utter frustration, Glyph is all around a successful outing from Bolverk Games.

[SPC Says: B]

A Nintendo Switch code was received by SPC from the publisher for the purpose of writing this review.