Decline's Drops (PC, NSW, XBS) Review

We now turn our attention away from Mega Man for a little bit for a review of a game that's been on PC via Steam and itch.io for a bit and has only recently released on consoles, specifically the Nintendo Switch and Xbox Series X|S. This game is Decline's Drops, and despite its name, you might find yourself INclined to play this game after reading the SuperPhillip Central review!

This platformer's got some serious punch

Decline's Drops stars Globule, a mute wooden puppet who one day is tending to her lovely garden when all of a sudden, said garden is destroyed! Thus, Globule sets out to discover the perpetrators and their whereabouts to rightfully deliver some justice through her giant punching glove fists. The story is pretty scarce overall (a plus for me, as in a platformer I want to get straight to the action without much in the way of interruptions), save for the opening and ending cutscenes, and dialogue during boss battles, but the game does a nice job of providing a satirical take on concepts like pollution and corporate greed without feeling ham-fisted.

Take the gameplay of Super Smash Bros. and combine that with the platforming and secrets of Yoshi's Island, and you somewhat get an idea of what Decline's Drops is all about. Globule has her aforementioned punching gloves to bash and beat baddies to a pulp with a myriad of moves, from simple short jabs to more powerful "smash"-like attacks. All of these can be combined to jostle, juggle, and jam enemies into submission. 

No time for a rope-a-dope, so just punch that chick into submission, Globule.

Globule even has a Smash Bros-like dodge used to evade enemy attacks at the last moment, as well as being able to use the same evasion move in midair to reach higher or further away areas. Regardless, she'll need all the strength and moves in her repertoire she can muster, as the six worlds in the game pit Globule against all forms and sizes of foes, including those in rooms sprinkled about the levels where all enemies must be defeated before she can move on.

Dodging can not only be done on the ground to avoid attacks, but also in midair to move higher and farther, too!

Levels are wonderfully done, offering plenty of verticality a lot of the time, a multitude of secrets that are smartly hidden but also well telegraphed to not give players a sense of "well, how was I supposed to find THAT?!", and lots of exploration. Yes, you can simply run from point A to point B to clear levels, but exploring them and discovering their cleverly laid secrets and optional areas really gives you a fuller appreciation of these levels. 

Bounce off these streetlamps with care, Globule, or else you'll find that oil's well doesn't exactly end well!

And, goodness, do the levels house some masterfully placed secrets. As stated, secrets are telegraphed well to the point of not being unfair, but also requiring real observance of Globule's surroundings and environments to discover. I'm referring to fake walls that have the telltale signs of being able to be broken through, or ones that require Globule to make a running start so she can eventually transform into a big blue fist to smash through otherwise impenetrable blocks.  

The main optional collectible in Decline's Drops reminds me a bit of the previously mentioned Yoshi's Island and its five Smiley Flowers per level. These take the form of Heart Fragments in Decline's Drops, and you guessed it--there are five per level as well. Most are located in out-of-the-way or hard-to-find or reach locations, while others are inside specific chests, requiring passwords to open. These passwords are situated on nearby signs and come in the form of hitting the chests in specific directions in a specific pattern (aka up punches, down punches, punches from the left, punches from the right). This is where I found that sometimes my punches wouldn't land as planned. What I mean by this is that sometimes Globule would punch twice, fouling up the chest's password in the process, or Globule would smash the ground instead of simply punching downward once. 

When given enough runway to speed across, Globule can transform on
 command into a giant fist to smash through certain objects and obstacles!

Either way, gripe aside, whereas collecting all Smiley Flowers in a world in later Yoshi games unlocked a secret level in the world they were collected in... well, that's actually the same case in Decline's Drops! Instead, a more difficult platforming-filled level known as a Vanitas opens up once all Heart Fragments are obtained in a given world. These seldom host checkpoints, require careful, cautious, precision platforming, and can get the palms mighty sweaty, too! Take it from me. They're enjoyable challenges all the same, however.

Otherwise, another collectible of the optional variety in Decline's Drops' levels is that of a red key. Collecting this and finishing the level with it brings about a post-level mini-game where you pilot Globule in a big blue glove form (she takes on a somewhat similar form when underwater) as you race through a labyrinth of corridors, pathways, and boost pads to beat a pod to the finish line. Winning these races unlocks new color pallet choices for Globule, and once all the races have been won, they net a bunch of Drops, the currency of the game.

There are a wide variety of platforming challenges and enemy types to contend with throughout Decline's Drops and its carefully and cleverly crafted levels. For instance, there are rails that send Globule grinding along their path which she must switch between with caution, Donkey Kong Country-like cannons that fire our puppet protagonist out (and hopefully not into peril) with proper timing, switches and levers that need to be activated to open up gates and doors, and sequences where Globule must make haste and retreat from a pursuing wall of pollution or else find herself instantly defeated. There are also ample opportunities for the game to shine in both its platforming and punching, throwing in puzzle elements, too, such as hitting floating yellow blocks with arrows on them. The direction Globule hits one of these blocks in, sends it flying in that direction until it smacks against a solid object. There are even plenty of puzzles that require you to get these blocks from one destination to another to open locked doors and reach new heights. 

Mind the rails, mind the gap, mind the pollution--heck, just mind EVERYTHING, Globule!

Fortunately, despite all of the trials and tribulations Globule faces on her adventure, checkpoints are fairly common throughout Decline's Drops. Therefore, repeating large portions of levels is seldom a common happenstance. That said, later levels do get incredibly challenging in both battles and platforming tasks. That isn't to say they require a professional's rank of platforming prowess to progress in the latter half of the game, but you will occasionally get stuck. 

This is especially true for the bosses, which pit you against one of the six Hydra heads in battle. These end-of-world levels, like any game worth its weight, relies on witness boss patterns, acclimating to them, knowing when to go in to attack, and knowing when and how to dodge each boss' offensive advances. These battles will take not just part of your cunning, but pretty much all of it to come out unscathed--or at the very least, the victor. I did appreciate the level of challenge of the bosses, and each time I failed, it was because I didn't properly dodge attacks or got too greedy. It was always on me, and never the game.  

The first Hydra to fight. "Hi, 'Dra! Why so angry?"

Fortunately, there are ways to assist Globule and the player in general on their adventure. An in-game shop run by a genetically-engineered ape named Serge houses a host of helpful trinkets and tools that Globule can spend her fiercely fought and hard-earned Drops to purchase. Only one particular trinket can be equipped at once to Globule, but these range from boosting her special attack, doubling her health, turning all of her special attacks into massive fireballs, and providing hints as to locations of the game's hidden goodies--to name a handful of helpful wares.

Decline's Drops is a rather meaty game all-in-all, coming in at around 10 hours for me, though I was methodically going through levels to make sure I collected every Heart Fragment along the way to unlock and complete the Vanitas levels, and also played through the final optional seventh world, complete with its own challenges, platforming perils, enemy types, and yes, a true final boss. I didn't, however, opt to aim for all of the time trials, and thus take on going after all of the gold times which seemed far beyond my level of play (and honestly, far beyond my level of commitment to the game either). That said, the option is there to add even more replay value and longevity to Globule's journey.

The art style of Decline's Drops is marvelous in presentation and appearance. The entire adventure is seemingly hand-drawn, and the first world definitely brings about an aesthetic reminiscent of Yoshi's Island, which was much appreciated to me, as a fan of that game. Future worlds offer the same beautiful hand-drawn goodness, offering detailed environments, backgrounds, easy to parse areas visually, and fluid animations all-around. Musically, I found the soundtrack to be very good. In fact, I am eager to purchase it on the artists' Bandcamp page to further support it, and that's not something I do often! Nevertheless, the soundtrack is full of memorable and rather nifty and neat themes that I will enjoy listening to outside of the game.

Decline's Drops is most certainly a looker with a charming, gorgeous hand-drawn delight of an art style.

While I wouldn't raise Globule's glove up and claim she and her premiere adventure are the undisputed champions or anything like that, I will say that Decline's Drops certainly surprised me with its high quality in precision platforming, engaging combat, and copious secrets in its well done level design. This mishmash of Super Smash Bros. gameplay and Yoshi's Island-like level design is one that I certainly enjoyed and can see myself coming back to in the future. Minor aggravations and gripes did pop up, and the difficulty of the game may be off-putting for many not used to Smash Bros. and its particular style of melee gameplay (and heck, even for those who ARE used to it). Overall, though, if you can dig a gorgeous hand-drawn 2D platformer with plenty of personality, charm, and character, as well as lots of action and platforming goodness to adore, then definitely "drop" what you're doing to take on the drop of a different variety with Decline's Drops.

[SPC Says: B+] 

Big Hops (Multi) Review

Let's put our snowboards away from last week, and prepare to get our tongues a good workout instead. Actually, let's leave the tongue-work for the hero of our next game review: Big Hops! For anyone who is familiar with this blog and its writer, you know I love a good 3D platformer. Heck, I sometimes even love a bad 3D platformer. I'll take what I can get nowadays!

Fortunately, Big Hops is the former, and this review, based on the vanilla PlayStation 5 version, is ready to be read! Let's hop to it!

 One giant leap for an indie developer, one big hop for frogkind.

The platformer, especially one in the 3D realm, is so difficult to nail. It doesn't matter if your game has incredible level design or the cutest platforming mascot around--if your game does not FEEL good to play, offer tight and responsive controls, then all of the clever design was for not. I've seen many games suffer this fate, and it's always a sad thing to think of "what might have been". Fortunately, Big Hops does not fall victim to this fate. Instead, it offers surprising fluid and fast platforming action, good feeling movement, and plenty of appreciate within its 8-12 hour runtime. While this frog certainly doesn't croak, does Big Hops offer enough of a "ribbiting" experience to stand as an indie darling and fondly thought of classic?

Big Hops begins with precocious young frog Hop hanging out with his little sister around their forest home. Hop yearns for adventure and getting out to see the world. He eventually stumbles upon a mysterious voice who turns out to be an ultimately annoying character named Diss, who grants Hop his request for adventure--whether our frog-tagonist likes it or not! In order to get home, Hop must venture through three unique biomes to find airship parts in each, all the while doing Diss' dirty work of acquiring otherworldly elements known as Dark Drips. 

Every story starts somewhere, and in Big Hops, it's here at Hop's home, the forest.

As the story progresses, the purpose as to why Diss wants these Dark Drips collected is revealed as the main overarching plot, while each of the three biomes delves into separate quests for Hop to collect each airship part. Really, some aspects of the story don't mesh well at all, and the inability to skip cutscenes completely when desired (instead, you have to mash a button to skip different dialogue individually) makes for its own headaches. That said, the dialogue itself, whether as part of the main plot or uttered by NPCs sprinkled about the game, is quite humorous at times, so it's worth listening to, all the same.

Big Hops isn't your standard 3D platformer. There's no direct combat to speak of, first of all, other than the two boss battles that appear through the duration of the game. Hop's only real enemy is the environment-- having Hop take damage from falling into pits, drowning, or getting hurt from fires, electricity, or thorns. 

What Hop lacks in true enemies, he makes up for in mobility and maneuverability. This frog does have big hops in him, as well as a nifty kit of other platforming skills. From being able to climb walls (as long as his stamina gauge has energy in it), run along them, jump and dive on the ground to gain momentum, and most notably, use his tongue to engage with the environment in myriad ways, Hop has a small repertoire, but chaining these together results in some speedy and super impressive platforming feats.

If you ask, "what that tongue do?", the answer would be, "Quite a lot!"

Hop's tongue, specifically, has a multitude of uses. It grants him the ability to interact with switches, buttons, and levers, asking of the player to pull away from them to flip them on or off. Like any tongue, it's also good for taste--eating food to replenish his health or stamina. Additionally, Hop's tongue is worthwhile for being able to grab onto floating red balls in the air, performing aerial acrobatics through swinging from them to cross chasms or reach new heights.

Ew! Hop, do you realize where that floating red ball might have been? How unsanitary!

Perhaps the most interesting mechanic within Big Hops in theory is that of various veggies. Throughout the game, Hop comes across plants with growing veggies that upon being grabbed and thrown has unique results. The first introduction to this is in the tutorial forest level, offering mushrooms that can be used as springs to bounce Hop up to higher places. There are acorns that grow beanstalks that are climbable, cactus fruit that let loose tightropes used to cross chasms and many otherwise insurmountable gaps, and also bubble fruit that burst open to reveal bubbles that Hop can pull himself towards with his tongue, enveloping himself in it to reach new areas.

There are various veggie types found in Big Hops, and some have more utility than others. For instance, the red peppers are hardly good for anything than burning up tumbleweed blocks. While others, like the mobility and platforming-focused veggies, offer much more in the way of capability, especially to those who experiment. This opens up the potential for solving platforming puzzles and challenges in different ways. With this mechanic, in combination with Hop's previously mentioned platforming abilities, it brings some emergent gameplay to Big Hops. 

The flow of Big Hops has you completing objectives across myriad environments and locales, furthering the story along. However, just following along with the story and completing the required tasks will make a given player miss a heck of a lot of the content within the game. It's very much worth scouring the game's multiple maps for special wares in the form of Dark Drips, the main collectible within the game, of which there are 100 total. These come in Super Mario 64 Power Star-styled goodies earned from completing platforming challenges in and out of the game's Super Mario Sunshine-like obstacle courses called Challenge Rooms, and assisting characters with their personal problems and dilemmas. You also earn Dark Drips from collecting enough smaller Drips scattered around the worlds that add up to form one big Dark Drip apiece. 

Whether in standard (seen here) or small sizes, Dark Drips are a good idea to nab in Big Hops!

Upon earning enough smaller Drips that a big piece is made, Hop can then find Diss in one of his many locations around the game in order to craft a new Trinket. These are equip-able patches that can be attached to Hop's backpack to grant various effects, from using up less stamina when climbing, allowing him more backpack space, granting Hop shop discounts or ways to earn more coins in general, to pinpointing the general direction of collectibles and points of interest to Hop's compass.

There is a fair amount of things to collect within Big Hops--the aforementioned Dark Drips, of course--but also things like bugs, mixtapes, flower petals, and outfits for Hop to become his inner frog fashionista. Unfortunately, one aspect that I don't exactly love about the game is that there is no broad or general collectible menu to see what worlds and areas in the game you have collected things in. Yes, there are collectible Trinkets that inform you of how many Dark Drips have been collected out of a certain amount, but you have to be physically within the area to see this info. With worlds containing up to a dozen different areas, you have to painstakingly visit each area across three worlds to determine which contains the last Dark Drip, missing mixtape, overlooked Challenge Room, etc. has not yet been found. Completionists will discover quickly how much of a genuine pain in the butt 100% completion in Big Hops truly is. 

Nice and steady, Hop, within this particular tightrope-heavy Challenge Room.

The unfortunate part here is that it was deliberately designed by the developer this way as to not create an overwhelming checklist for players, but I'd argue that the audience who plays a 3D platformer is one who aims for general completion or at least maximizing their enjoyment of collection. Thus, ironically, not including an in-game checklist is the thing that makes this game overwhelming in trying to blindly stumble upon missing collectibles!

My issues with Big Hops don't end there, unfortunately. While this has since been patched, my first playthrough on the PlayStation 5 version of the game started out well enough with stellar performance. However, as I went deeper into the game (let's say, after the first biome was completed), I encountered ungodly amounts of stuttering and hitching graphically, essentially resulting in noticeable and disruptive hitches every five seconds or less. Thankfully, this has been ironed out, but still happens, though at a drastically reduced rate--maybe once every minute or so, if even rarer. 

To continue with the technical issues, clipping and falling through floors and environments happened more often than I'd like. Weird little presentation quirks, like Hop literally passing through the airship entrance and walking from out the other side as the screen transitioned to the loading screen, or hitches between areas being loaded, reminded me that this was a small dev and a budgeted effort. 

Also, I found the tongue mechanic to be a bit clunky in execution to use. When two items or things of interest that can be latched or grabbed by Hop's tongue are in close proximity to each other, this can oftentimes result in the wrong thing being grabbed. While this is usually not a costly issue health-wise, it absolutely antagonizes when Hop is over a chasm, and instead of him latching onto a floating red ball to save himself, he inexplicably grabs onto something else (perhaps like something flying by in the air). Thus, the pit becomes Hop's new home. 

Hop says, "I'm the captain, now. ...So... How do I get down from here?"

Despite these niggling gripes and issues I found with the game, Big Hops delighted more often than its issues detracted from the experience. It delivers some clever puzzles, both platforming-based and environmental, some superb design in general, as well as both linear/focused levels and wide open areas of exploration to be found. Its vivid, vibrant art style and colorful cast (both visually and personality-wise) absolutely gave me plenty to look at and--in the case of the dialogue--laugh at, too. 

Big Hops is one visually stunning game, where the draw distance is phenomenal!

When it comes down to it, Big Hops nails the most important aspect of a 3D platformer--its movement is fast, fluid, fun, and feels right. Everything else is gravy, really, and while some of it fares better than other parts, overall, Hop's first adventure shows a stellar amount of understanding of what makes a modern 3D platformer enjoyable: with its remarkably tight controls, genuinely delightful level design, and mostly impressive presentation. If you're seeking out a new 3D platformer and don't know whether to try this one, my advice is to "hop" to it and simply do it.

[SPC Says: B-] 

Assault Android Cactus+ (NSW) Review

We roll into the weekend with a new review for a recently released Nintendo Switch eShop game, Assault Android Cactus+. If you like twin-stick shooters and high-scoring frenzies, this game is for you. See why with the SuperPhillip Central review.

Do androids dream of getting high scores on leaderboards?

Originally released in 2015 on PC, indie developer Witch Beam's Assault Android Cactus eventually made it to home consoles--specifically the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in 2016 and 2017 respectively. PlayStation Vita and Wii U versions were planned and in development, but those didn't pan out. The cancellation was especially painful for one particular group of gaming fans, as out of the big three console ecosystems, Nintendo players were left out from the game's release.

That is, until now, with Assault Android Cactus+ on the Nintendo Switch. An enhanced port of the original 2015 game, Witch Beam brings their critically acclaimed twin-stick shooter to the Switch with more content and the promising pictures of portable play to be excited about.

Assault Android Cactus+ brings with it top-down perspective, twin-stick shooting action spanning 25 individual levels in its main campaign. The goal of each level is to eliminate all enemies within each arena, which is no easy task when you have squadrons of robotic foes homing in on your position, surrounding and attacking. Fortunately, one of the nine android playable characters available to you (one unlocks per five levels in the campaign completed) has unlimited lives. Once their health meter depletes, it's just a matter of mashing on the fire button to rejuvenate them and get them back in action. Of course, perishing in battle results in a lower rank due to a point penalty for each time you fall in battle.

While this assault android is outnumbered, with her high-powered offense, the odds are on Cactus's side.

The primary cause for concern, however, is that androids use up a lot of energy and juice in these high-powered, high-octane skirmishes. They need batteries to recharge themselves, which drop from defeated enemies. If the battery meter fully depletes, it's game over. When you have battlefields full of frenzied foes frantically firing shots and making attacks at you, it can be difficult to get to a battery in time. It's a balance of eliminating enemies and keeping tabs on your battery gauge in order to save yourself from a ruined run.

Levels in Assault Android Cactus+ transform and evolve as you do battle on them. Static floors turn into running treadmills, walls and barriers rise up and alter the structure of the level, and platforms can appear from the arena sides to expand the size of the battlefield--or in some cases, give you less ground to work with.

The bigger they are... the more bullets they take!

While fighting off the robotic horde of enemies, there are various power-ups that drop from defeated foes. Things like increased firepower that temporarily adds two support drones to stand by your android's side to level enemies into scrap, as well as power-ups like upgraded speed and mobility, and a power-up that short circuits foes for a limited amount of time, allowing your android to pick them off as they're offline--these all give a great advantage in battle. Losing all of your health means you lose these power-ups immediately rather than after they run their course naturally, so it's important to be smart about when you pick up a power-up so you don't die in battle quickly and waste it.

Each of the nine playable androids in Assault Android Cactus+ has a main weapon and a special weapon that usually serves as a great means of crowd control and delivering extra damage to enemies with higher health to them. Our primary android protagonist, Cactus, fires a straight series of shots forward, while her secondary weapon is a flamethrower, fantastic for getting all up close and personal to take out encroaching enemies. Other androids use guns that fire off a spreading shot of bullets, deliver shotgun blasts, and utilize rail gun properties. The stronger the weapon, the more time it takes for it to cool down before you can use it again. The special weapons like firing off cannonballs and Cactus' aforementioned flamethrower take longer to cool off before they can be used once more. Additionally, the special weapon trigger doubly serves as an evade button to give a much needed line of defense for your chosen android.

Not mentioned in the body of this review, but there is co-operative play for up to four players locally.

Each area of the Assault Android Cactus+ campaign is comprised of four standard levels of eliminating all enemies and one final boss fight. These greatly add some freshness to what I consider otherwise rather repetitive gameplay. The boss battles are a nice change of pace from going through the motions of running and gunning through wave after wave of similar looking enemies. The bosses are truly challenging, and they afford little room for error. I felt decently challenged by them, and one was a roadblock for me for about a day before I finally overcame them.

One of the many cool features of the boss fights is how each android
receives their own special dialog to bookend each battle.

Every level in Assault Android Cactus+ utilizes a leaderboard that compares your scores not just with your Switch friends, but it also compares your scores with the entire Assault Android Cactus+ user base. It's incredibly rewarding to improve your own personal scores and letter grade ranks while gaining motivation to best your friends and reach higher and higher on a given level's leaderboard. Leaderboards are also available for the endurance mode, where you face wave after wave of enemies, as well as the daily challenge mode.

Unlockable Campaign+ and Boss Rush modes make themselves available to you upon completion of the base campaign. You also earn credits when completing levels, which can be used to purchase bonus content like concept art, promo art, and even cool features like a first-person perspective to play around with in game.

Assault Android Cactus+ contains enough content to it, fast-paced, wild and hectic arenas to blast away baddies in all the while gunning for high scores, and a stellar presentation to make for a game that one will find hard to not keep coming back for more. While best played in short bursts, as the gameplay does get a tad repetitive a bit after a short while, Assault Android Cactus+ makes its mark on the Nintendo Switch as another fantastic indie title in the system's rich catalog of games. Lock and load, and let loose on your targets with Assault Android Cactus+. Just don't forget to recharge that battery!

[SPC Says: B]

A review code was provided for this game.