Gravity Circuit (Multi) Review

A new review for an older indie game is here on the site, and at this review's conclusion, we're officially one review away from SuperPhillip Central's 1,100th! A massive number of reviews on the site, for sure, and some might even be called "quality" at that! Your mileage will vary, of course! Regardless, let's take a look at a game that recently received a sequel announcement: Gravity Circuit. As a massive Mega Man fan, I'm kicking myself for not having played this sooner. Better late than never, though! 

Time to break some circuits

Gravity Circuit recently celebrated its third anniversary in July and an announcement of a sequel arriving next year. Of course, with a third anniversary celebration, I'm a little late to the party on covering the game. That said, as a rather large Mega Man fan and nerd, I felt I was lacking by not playing this game yet. In the end, Gravity Circuit is not just one of the best indie Mega Man-likes available, but it also manages to outdo many of the Blue Bomber's own entries.

After some time of peace and after having been defeated long ago, the Virus Army unexpectedly returns, laying siege to the planet in a bid for total world domination. The resistance known as the Guardian Corps have been weakened and spread too thin with no alternative than to call an old hero into the fold: Kai. This robot mercenary wields the fabled Gravity Circuit, giving him the power to take the fight to the Virus Army and hopefully vanquish them once and for all. 

Gravity Circuit's story is one that doesn't meander or mess around too much, but it does throw some surprises and twists here and there. Ideally, it'd be possible to fully skip all cutscenes, if only for the repeated plays the game encourages you to perform, but this isn't always possible. Still, what's here doesn't get in the way too often. The gameplay is the star of the show, and it makes a darn good first impression.

Said first impression puts players into the role of Kai in an opening city stage, sort of reminiscent of Mega Man X's opening highway stage. Here, the basics of Gravity Circuit are taught to the player. Whereas Mega Man X utilizes his X-Buster to shoot foes from far away, Kai prefers a more up, close, and personal approach. 

Eat robot foot, Virus Army!

Kai's Gravity Circuit gives him the ability to punch and kick foes into submission, turning their bodies gray. Upon this, Kai can pick up and chuck the robotic corpse of his opposition into other enemies and faraway objects. He also has a hookshot to utilize, allowing him to attack foes from afar with its much weaker, but somewhat safer penetrating point. Weakened enemies can be grabbed by the hookshot, and then, you guessed it, tossed to oblivion.

The hookshot isn't just a weapon; it's also a means for traversal. Whether to swing across otherwise impossible to cross chasms, lift himself up to higher areas, or allow him to perform some acrobatic maneuvers, Kai's hookshot is an invaluable tool to progress through levels and get through the game. This is alongside is standard dash and optional but super useful burst techniques.

Kai gets into the swing of things, and players will, too, for that matter, 
eventually moving through stages with surgeon-like precision!

These burst techniques give Kai an extra edge in combat. Through using up some energy from a gauge, Kai is able to perform special moves and abilities in turn. These can range from powerful, move-interrupting uppercuts to bosses, lengthy power beams that give Kai knockback upon using them, and even piledrivers, as if he were preparing for a WWE wrestling match against C.M. Punk. Either way, these bursts definitely even the odds, or if you're proficient enough a player, make things even more favorable for Kai in the war against the Virus Army.

After the initial stage is complete, Kai has access to the Guardian Corps base. It's the hub that features various NPCs, though at the beginning of the game it's awfully lonely inside. Like any traditional-style Mega Man game, eight stages become available to play in any order. Each houses a Robot Master--or rather, Circuit, that must be taken down, one that is causing havoc in its particular area of the world.

The Circuits' stages in the game give plenty of variety, offering different platforming obstacles, environmental hazards, and contextual challenges to overcome. From the junkyard's dripping purple goo, that slows Kai's movement down to a total stop if he gets covered in it, to the snowy mountain's propensity to freeze our protagonist in ice at a moment's notice due to its plethora of enemies and hazards, Gravity Circuit presents players plenty of trials and tribulations.

Each stage features unique hazards, such as the boilerworks's penchant for lava, fire, and lasers!

Fortunately, and also unlike its inspiration, Gravity Circuit does not punish players severely in its gameplay. Yes, the game is a challenge, for sure, but players won't be facing instant deaths upon slamming into a bed of spikes, falling into a bottomless pit, or getting crushed like a robotic pancake, either. Instead, Kai is placed back at the safest determined spot (i.e. one without enemies or hazards) in the stage to try the section again, simply with less health than he had previously to work with.

Checkpoints are little repair stations similar to Shovel Knight. There, players pay a fee of the energy chips earned through exploration and defeating foes, to recover Kai's health and energy immediately. Each time the station is used, the cost goes slightly up for the next visit, at least in the same level on the current run of that stage. The developers weren't overly generous with the checkpoints, but they weren't miserly with them either. Folks will have to fight through and endure some grueling and occasionally lengthy sections of stages to reach one checkpoint to another.

Stages themselves are linear in true Mega Man-style fashion, but they're also brimming with secrets and side paths. From health and energy upgrades, to innocent civilians needing to be rescued, there is a lot to find and collect within the initial eight Circuit stages. 

Some civilians are easily spotted but hard to reach. Others are equally hard to find and reach, 
requiring some proficient platforming and destroying certain walls to reach!

Saving civilians helps in not only making the Guardian Corps base feel less empty, but it also enables Kai and the player by extension to purchase new passive parts and chips that can be equipped to our protagonist. Three of these can be equipped at once, ranging from extra energy recovery and less health consumed by falling into hazards, to more accessible assists, like a double jump. 

Gravity Circuit isn't too lengthy of a game, which shouldn't surprise any fan of classic Mega Man style games, but that isn't to say the game isn't one players can't enjoy for a long time. My first playthrough took about five hours to complete, but then there is a New Game+ mode that transfers everything over from a player's previous playthrough. There's also Circuit Mode, which is like the standard story, but allows Kai to tap into his health to use burst techniques when his energy is empty. Then, throw in the just over 50 unique achievements to tackle (some requiring playthroughs without collecting health and energy upgrades or buying extra techniques or parts), boss rushes, and more, and this is a game that all in all took me about 12 hours to earn everything within.

On the subject of play control, Gravity Circuit mostly sticks its landing. The platforming is top-notch, and the impact of punching and kicking enemies into submission--it really gave me the feel of being a badass, powerful rock'em, sock'em robot. Badass and powerful, yes, but invincible and faultless, no. Sometimes I found that using the hookshot, especially on diagonals--something needed quite often to do to swing across gaps and such--was hard to successfully do. Many times I saw Kai helplessly fall into the pit because I couldn't get diagonal to register, either on the D-Pad or control stick, properly 100% of the time. As one can imagine, this was quite the frustration, especially on playthroughs without the double jump ability afforded to me. 

The Virus Army comes in all shapes and sizes, and Kai's foot is currently meeting 
the faces of each and every one of them.

Further, I found dashing and jumping in conjunction to be a bit inconsistent. Holding the back left trigger on the controller initiates Kai's dash, but when I started to dash, I couldn't always just at the same time. This, like the diagonals of the hookshot before it, led to more failures in platforming than I would have liked. Still, overall, Kai handles, controls, and plays otherwise well.

Gravity Circuit contains an 8-bit-inspired graphical style to it. The amount of pixelated details in the stages, environments, and backgrounds are truly something to behold. A lot can happen on screen at once, and unlike the NES inspiration that the game takes after, Gravity Circuit does not feature the same sprite flickering or flashing the plagued the original NES hardware for games of this type of that era. On the sound side, the music is incredibly catchy and feels like something out of Mega Man. No notes--besides the obvious and catchy musical ones. 

While Gravity Circuit isn't a perfect encapsulation of everything I love about Mega Man, the devs and designers clearly did their research, or at the very least grew up with Mega Man like I did and know what makes these classics so enduring and endearing. Gravity Circuit is a wonderfully paced, action-packed romp that doesn't outwear its welcome, delivers delightful run and jump gameplay, insanely smart level design, and plenty of platforming, boss battles, and other combat scenarios that will test every player's mettle. A superb effort all-around.

[SPC Says: A-] 

This game was played via the Steam Deck version. Gravity Circuit is also available on PC, Nintendo Switch, as well as the PlayStation 4 and 5.

Kioku: Last Summer (PC) Review

While summer isn't officially here just yet in my hemisphere, we turn our attention away anyway from a private eye mouse to another indie game, one of a decidedly cheerier and more charming focus--that of a young girl's first summer on her new island home. This is Kioku: Last Summer, and this is also the SuperPhillip Central review.

Summer break with a game that can sometimes be summer broken.

Summer holds a lot of special memories for me, especially as a child, and no doubt I'm not alone in that. Friendships could continue to grow and prosper. Summer days spent playing outside from day to night, until the streetlamps turned on and you knew it was about time to return home. It was an era where the only real worry in life was possibly a scraped knee--or dreading the new school year starting, for that matter. 

Kioku: Last Summer attempts to recapture the nostalgia folks have for summer with a decidedly charming game. Unfortunately, like a rural Midwestern summer, it's also full of bugs, and just like the spiders and mosquitoes of the real world, these bugs can bite--though in a different way that does make for a less enjoyable experience.

Starting out, Kioku: Last Summer stars Asti, a young girl who finds herself at a new island home with new friends to make, new discoveries to be found, and new adventures to be had. It begins with the island's ferry docking, and you, as Asti, entering the school where you're introduced to your classmates, the friends that you hope to make.

Summertime is always better spent with friends.

The game follows a day-to-day format, though not in real-time. Each day presents a series of activities for Asti to accomplish to further the story. The first one, for instance, requires her to pick up three lost marbles belonging to a character named Bo, who doesn't take too kindly to Asti at the start of the game. He blames her for having his Game Boy-like device taken away from him by their teacher, calling Asti a "snitch" for doing so. Fortunately, this island is otherwise too kind, so snitches don't get stitches here. ...Ahem. Other activities that further the story can last a whole day, like searching for the whereabouts of a certain islander, or simpler events like bike races, learning to catch crabs from the sea, and various activities that essentially boil down to fetch quests. 

Feeling crabby? Head to the water to catch the clawed creatures, then!

Meeting the locals isn't too rewarding or exciting. They seldom have anything interesting to say when you speak to them, and the lines of dialogue at one time are limited to, well, just one line of dialogue each. This is not Animal Crossing where the locals have myriad things to say at a given point, and this isn't meant to be a sim like Animal Crossing anyway. A bullet point to Kioku: Last Summer is building friendships, and this couldn't be more passive. It's simply completing activities and progressing the story, and eventually Asti is the biggest social butterfly on the island--just like that.

When you're not progressing the story that plays out among a week of in-game days, there's not too much other stuff to do. You can search around the island for stickers, hidden in some pretty crafty locations--to the point where I still can't find the last one I'm missing for 100% completion. You can skip or ride your bike around the island for faster travel. You can head to the sea and catch crabs in a simplistic "fishing" mini-game, and you can even play a surprisingly enjoyable creature-battling, marble-slamming mini-game called Marubi.

Marubi pits three creatures in marble form against your opponent's trio of monsters, as you take turns rolling and spinning your marbles, or creatures, into your opponent's marbles. Each turn you and your opponent roll one marble apiece, and "attacking" another marble causes it to lose health points (or HP) based on their attack power. When all three marbles on one side are destroyed, the game is over and the victor is crowned. Now, sure, the game isn't very balanced in the sense that once I got a certain trio of marble monsters, I found that I was pretty much unstoppable, but the game itself is still fun.

Instead of believing in the heart of the cards like in Yu-Gi-Oh!,
 do we believe in the heart of the marbles in Marubi?

Unfortunately, island life isn't ALWAYS the most fun or the easiest to adapt to in Kioku, and not because of the occasional rivalries and friction between friends. No, island life is difficult because the game, unlike the pristine island itself, is littered with bugs, some of these actually locked my progress for a bit. Kioku: Last Summer is an incredibly unpolished experience currently, and that's even after the developers' patch. 

I've had instances where I interact with one islander, and suddenly I'm speaking to someone halfway across the island. Sometimes interactions don't work at all. The character you're trying to speak to will face you as if to initiate a conversation, but nothing will be said.

Generally, characters and tasks you have to accomplish next are helpfully highlighted by a colorful ring of flowers blooming around them. However, on some occasions I had it where even though I tried to talk to the proper character with the ring around them, they didn't initiate or continue the quest line. Instead, they talked about the weather or how they were yearning for coffee or whatnot. 

Chat with the locales, as they have... well, not much to say.

One very annoying glitch after a second bike race in the game saw me exit the finish line, and then go about my merry way. Unfortunately, as I learned later upon reloading my autosave (by the way, there is no manual save option in case you get softlocked and need to reload a previous save) that there was supposed to be a phone call from Asti's dad that she was supposed to be stopped by, but when I originally played through the scenario, no such phone call or interruption happened. So, basically a half-hour of my time was wasted wandering around like a goofball wondering why I couldn't make any further progress.

Kioku: Last Summer is not a long game by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, it's over faster than my summers tended to feel as a child. To roll credits takes but a handful of hours, four or five, to be exact. Yes, there are achievements to earn, but most of these are time-wasters meant to be filler and little more. Why anyone would want to waste time "kicking" 100 goals into a soccer net is beyond me--WELL, OKAY! I WANTED THE ACHIEVEMENT!!! 

But seriously, heck to the no, if you think I'm riding this bike ad infinitum for that last achievement.

The game itself graphically on the presentation end of the equation is rather lovely. The anime aesthetic given to each of the islanders and characters in the game is suitably charming, and Kioku's color pallet is pretty and pleasant on the eyes. I especially enjoyed the lighting, specifically when the sun sets, blazing a bright ball in the sky over the horizon, sending its beams onto the island. 

The sound design is a mixed bag in the sense that the default settings, at least when played on Steam Deck, are ridiculously low. It took me an hour to realize there was supposed to be sound in the game other than little fanfares here and there! Seriously, bring all the audio levels up to 100% if you want to hear anything. What I DID hear was nice and serviceable for this type of game to elevate the cozy atmosphere the developers wanted to give the player.

Kioku: Last Summer is a short experience, as stated, and unfortunately, it's one that I would have a hard time recommending in its current state. Perhaps once the bugs and glitches I experienced on a consistent basis are ironed out and some additional polish is included, this would be an easier recommendation for breezy and cozy summer game. As is, though, you'll suffer some frustrations that are ironically the complete antithesis of the cozy vibes the development team intended. That said, I still overall enjoyed my time on the island, but if I didn't have a review to write, I would have most certainly held off until next summer.

[SPC Says: D+] 

A code was provided by the publisher for the purpose of this review.

Kalanaro (Multi) Preview

We haven't done a preview of a game in such a long time on SuperPhillip Central. Do I even remember what a preview is?! Well, let's find out that answer together, as well as look into a game from my favorite genre, the platformer, with Kalanoro.

Kalanoro comes from Red Raketa Studio, an indie developer based in Madagascar. The entire game centers around Madagascan culture and Malagasy folklore. If you're completely ignorant on what any of that entails like I was when I was introduced to the game and demo, here's some quick background. 

The name "Kalanoro" refers to the human-like cryptids, beings believed to be spirits watching over Madagascar itself, said to bring good luck. Appearance-wise, they're small, short, bare fangs, and have unkempt hair that covers up their bodies.

Red Raketa Studio's Kalanoro begins with Kalakely, a Kalanoro creature, keeping to herself and enjoying life when suddenly a caravan of trailers fly by. They're all flying to start up a massive concert for a witch named Raneny, a self-celebration, as it were. Kalakely sets off on a bus to travel the island far and wide, rescuing and assembling a collection of lemur musicians that were captured by Raneny's troops, with the main goal of crashing Raneny's giant musical to-do.

Kalanoro is a top-down 3D platformer with nothing in the way of manual camera movement. It's somewhat similar to Super Mario 3D World with its perspective and level design, where Kalakely moves from point A to point B, bashing foes with her fists, hair, and weapons, as she performs various platforming feats through obstacle-filled levels.

The demo currently available to play offers four levels. The first level is a brief tutorial that sees Kalakely set off on her adventure and take to the bus. It teaches some basic moves, like being able to quickly dash around, either on the ground or in midair, phasing past objects like gates and fences in the process.  

This first level also introduces some of Kalakely's attack options, chiefly the ability to pick up weapons and use them on enemies. These come in the form of footwear like sandals, vegetables like carrots, and heavy tools like sledgehammers. Each weapon type has its own strength as well as its own durability. After a set amount of hits, it'll break on you, but there is an immense number of weapons strewn and sprinkled about stages that losing a weapon is never a bother. It just forces you to improvise further mid-battle and pick up another makeshift weapon, for instance.

The second level is the first real platforming challenge without safety nets and with things that can actually harm Kalakely. It brings forth collectibles in the form of scrolls and blue gems. Each level has a specific number of these to optionally collect, which can in turn be used to purchase helpful one-time or multiple use items in various shops throughout the game. The demo just had one shop available.  

The Kalanoro demo's third level brings Kalakely to a tropical beach and cove. The main mechanic introduced here was using Kalakely's hair to channel and transfer electricity from a working generator to a non-working one. Transferring power means opening locked doors and gates that would otherwise be impossible to pass. The earliest locked generator door revealed not only a treasure chest but also a little lost koala kid. Through picking the child up and taking them further into the level to their home, Kalakely earned her first five "fans". 

As Kalanoro deals with music and building an ensemble of musicians to combat Raneny's concert, it's important to not only build a band but also a following, too. This is where the "fans" mechanic comes in. The fourth level, a trek in and out of mines, is all about vandalizing posters featuring Raneny and putting Kalakely's crew's posters on top of them instead. Each poster placed in a level rewards new fans. These fans are not only used to build a following, of course, but they also act as ways of unlockable new areas/levels in the game. 

That's how the final area in the demo unlocks, after all. This final area is less of a level and more of a glorified rhythm game followed by a preview of a boss before the demo ends. It's as simple as hitting the correct button with proper timing when the prompt presents itself, all the while knocking away Raneny's goons who wish to disrupt the Kalakely and friends' mini performance. It's not much to look at--the performance, that is--from the beginning, but all bands have to start somewhere. I'm eager to see in the final version how large of a band and massive of an audience the end-game performances get in Kalanoro. 

Intermissions between levels put players back on the bus with Kalakely as she plays host to her lemur musician guests. It's not just as simple as saving or rescuing a musician and calling it a day for them. No, they're pretty high-maintenance, usually requiring food made from found ingredients in the platforming levels. Ignore a guest's desires at your peril, because as the game notes, ignored requests can make a musician become captured all over again. 

I'm hoping in the final version of the game that we won't have to babysit the characters too much, or that the timer for when a character will get captured again isn't too strict. I can imagine it getting tedious to repeatedly rescue characters that were already saved. That said, you're given a bounty of ingredients in levels just by simple exploring and playing the levels, so at least in the demo, running out of or not having a given ingredient was not an issue.

Speaking of issues, playing on my Steam Deck saw little in the way of performance problems. This was both in docked and handheld forms. Pausing mid-cutscene or mid-dialogue sequence, however, did cause the HUD to show up during these scenes, which I imagine is an unintended oversight. Otherwise, the game looks great, colorful, vibrant, and I really dug the music as well.

Kalanoro is shaping up to an enjoyable 3D platformer with lots of heart and better still, it's one that showcases the demonstrably rich culture and folklore of part of the world that doesn't get much representation in and even out of gaming. We'll find out how it all turns out when Kalanoro steps onto the stage for some platforming action on PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch in Summer 2026.

A code was given to me by the developer for the purpose of this preview.

Demon Tides (PC) Review

From last week's review of the Zelda-like Under the Island, we're returning to an indie island theme with my review of Demon Tides. Instead of just one island, though, it's an entire archipelago! Let's dive in and explore!

Demon-strably fun platforming ahead

3D platforming fans are eating well in 2026. We've had Big Hops already earlier this year, and just recently we've also seen Mr. Sleepy Head release this month, too. That's not to mention games like Dracamar and Bubsy 4D coming down the platforming pipeline, as well. To say that 2026 is the year of the indie 3D platformer would not be speaking out of turn, methinks! Now, the much anticipated sequel to Demon Turf is here and ready to set sail on the open seas with Demon Tides. With a new, fully 3D look, a much more ambitious take on the genre, and plenty of spunk and charm thrown in for good measure, will Demon Tides be enough to "tide" 3D platforming players like myself over until the next game in the genre from indies arrives?

After becoming the Demon Queen in the previous game, Demon Turf, Beebz receives a letter from her absent father, the king of a massive chain of islands known as Ragnar's Rock. She opts to take her merry--and decidedly quite eccentric--crew of friends to her father's kingdom, where she quickly discovers his "mad king" rule. The denizens are suffering, the islands are in disarray, and Ragnar rules with an iron fist. Beebz decides to join the resistance, offering her expertise in trouble-making and butt-kicking to help put a stop to her father's tyranny, find out why he sent that letter, and discover why he's been absent for so long in Beebz's life.  

The gang (...crew?) is all here!

If I had to describe Demon Tides, it'd be a combination of Super Mario 3D World's Bowser's Fury half and The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. Our heroine Beebz traverses the wide open seas--well, mostly wide open, as they're divided up into three separate sections--in search of various islands with plenty of platforming to be found. Successful platforming finds Beebz earning new cosmetics, new talismans, and of the utmost importance for her adventure to meet Ragnar, Golden Gears. 45 of these are spread out across Demon Tides' world, and these are essentially the Power Stars of Super Mario 64 in Demon Tides' terms. As Beebz's Golden Gear collection grows, a new third of the overall map opens up for exploration. Of course, before being able to travel to the next section of Ragnar's Rock, one of King Ragnar's three right-hand villains overseeing the havoc caused in that particular region must be routed.  

Feet, don't fail me now!

Earning Golden Gears is accomplished by completing tasks across the dozens upon dozens of island locales in the game, all involving platforming of some sort--as one would expect. These tasks or challenges range from racing through rings and going from point A to point B, doing plenty of jumping, running, climbing, wall-running, wall-jumping, rail-grinding--you name it, to approach the treasure chest where the Golden Gear or other goodie (talisman, cosmetic, or otherwise) lay in wait. Other times a chest will be completely locked, but the nice thing about seeing such a locked treasure chest is that upon examining it, the camera will focus on the character whose problem you must solve in order to have them part with their treasure chest's contents. 

Feel that ocean breeze while grinding on those rails. You'll feel like a new demon!

Beebz has plenty of prowess to perform the platforming required for most of these challenges. Being a demon queen, she has the ability to effortlessly and virtually seamlessly transform into various forms while running and jumping around. A double jump will automatically see her transform into a bat, able to then enter into her spin form to gain some extra distance from said double jump, or perform a cannonball maneuver to get some quick speed and elevation before plopping downward towards the ground. Meanwhile, the snake form grants super speed, though a bit unwieldy to control at first, especially when precision is the aim of the game. I had to learn that movement was dependent on the direction where the camera was facing and make corrections as needed to go where I wanted to without as much frustration. Regardless, this snake form is the best means to jet around the waves, get to destinations in a hurry, and better succeed in the previously mentioned races.

Of course, Beebz could be perfectly fine with just this set of transformations and base abilities, but to better help players, the inclusion of talismans is available in Demon Tides. Talismans are essentially game and moveset modifiers to assist in making the experience easier or more difficult depending on the player's wants and wishes. Some affect Beebz's health, giving her an extra heart (pill capsule) to work with or one less to make the game harder. Some grant boosts to Beebz's wonderfully wide repertoire of moves, from giving Beebz's bat form a triple jump as opposed to just the double jump, to allowing for more time in Beebz's spin form to... well... spin! 

Protip: Red and black goo is bad for Beebz's health.

These talismans are unlocked through normal play, hidden in treasure chests from completing platforming challenges much like the Golden Gears (though talismans aren't progress gates like the Gears are), but they're also available to purchase on the traveling hub ship of Beebz and the gang's. This is done through the collection of floating purple eyes cleverly called Eyetems, the currency and secondary collectible of Demon Tides. The ship also houses a shop for cosmetics, from different hairstyles, to full clothing sets, to color variants for Beebz, as well.

As a collect-a-thon-style 3D platformer, Demon Tides is great for attempting to 100% the entire game through literally 100%-ing each locale in the game. That's collecting all Eyetems at each locale, completing each task, and opening up every treasure chest. Not every locale houses Golden Gears, Eyetems, and such, but each is worthwhile enough to scope out. I often found myself saying, "one more island", "one more discovery" in my head before quitting each gaming session I had with Demon Tides, and of course, that led to three more islands I'd play before actually being done with said session. There is an addicting quality to discovering new islands and locales, as that's a whole new series of potential Eyetems, Golden Gears, talismans, and cosmetics to find.

Levels offer lots of verticality and unlockable shortcuts so you don't have to repeat climbs!

That said, I pretty routinely found myself as well quickly seeing a lot of asset and locale-style reuse. A fair amount of the discoveries are crow's nests, which aren't too terribly exciting--and they're not meant to be--but moreover, the similar discoveries of dilapidated, sinking cities with the same building types to meander over, through, and under got somewhat old relatively fast. Fortunately, the other discoveries of islands were more exciting to find. Though, that isn't to say that the platforming in the sunken city locales weren't enjoyable. It was less that and more that the environmental variety was lacking.

Otherwise, the variety in environments in general is rather pleasing. For one, I had to remember this was an indie effort, and a 3D platformer with a vast world to explore, at that. Expecting each location to be brand-new and wholly original was not realistic. And the locations overall are different enough either in design gameplay or appearance-wise. 

Last game offered the "turf", so it only makes sense that Demon Tides brings the "surf" part.

There is a Mediterranean-style area in the first section of islands where Beebz has to navigate across windy, narrow paths, scurry across walls, slip and slide down a chute of water, and scale up a tower of platforms to reach a broken windmill. Another locale is unassuming at first, but upon venturing underground, there is a vast network of moving mine carts riding over hazardous lava that Beebz has to jump back and forth on to advance. One last highlight to mention--but there are plenty more--is a science base in the arctic area of the game, which features extreme frigid temps. Only through Beebz staying near lit lanterns can she stay warm, otherwise outside of these sparse sections of heat, she'll slowly lose health from the major cold. This is all the while she needing to find and collect five pieces of a broken Golden Gear spread around and across the open area campus.

An island completely frozen in time thankfully makes these mortars safe to jump on and off of.

Less thrilling, but totally optional unless you're aiming for 100%, are the Mr. Mint trial levels. The "loved by me, hated by Beebz" character is hidden away on many islands, and opening up a teleporter for 100 Eyetems sends Beebz to a Super Mario Sunshine-esque challenge stage. These are ones that require total concentration, revolving around different platforming gimmicks seen throughout Beebz's adventure, generally the gimmick of a given Mr. Mint level is similar to the one upon the island where you find his teleporter. At any rate, while these stages could be fun challenges, they're mostly overlong in length, and you get no checkpoints whatsoever. Nothing like making it three-fourths of the way through an otherwise easy four minute stage only to continually mess up in the final fourth, having to redo everything easy leading up to that one, difficult part. 

It doesn't help that oftentimes I found myself fighting the controls and especially the dang camera. Depth perception is a strong issue I had with Demon Tides, particularly a lack of proper awareness to where Beebz was in relation to tiny, narrow platforms. Outside of these challenge stages, I didn't mind so much. You can usually place a really nifty manual checkpoint at pretty much any moment there is a non-moving surface or platform. Perish? You'll wind up back at that checkpoint automatically. Miss a jump, fall, but don't want to redo all of your previous platforming handiwork? Then, you can manually send Beebz back to that checkpoint, too, with a hold of a specific direction on the D-Pad. There are just some occasions a checkpoint is simply not possible to use--Mr. Mint levels being one of those occasions. This makes sense, but because they're so lengthy in duration, that makes for an annoying issue.

Another slightly annoying issue is that of combat. It's just not very good in feel nor in practice. Beebz uses a homing attack sort of similarly to Sonic the Hedgehog's in Sonic Adventure and beyond, but this has about as much consistency as Sonic the Hedgehog (2006). That is to say, it doesn't have much at all. Trying to hit moving targets in the form of fast foes is an effort in minor futility and major frustration. The boss battles fare better, whether they're the main baddies that take up one of the three sections of Demon Tides' world, or the optional Gearserker mini-bosses. Though, the latter suffers from a lack of variety in the encounters. Honestly, I'd have preferred combat be limited to bosses and have little peon enemies not be a thing at all. It doesn't work well in Demon Tides, whose focus is better served on the platforming action.

There are plenty of Gearserkers to battle, but if you've seen one, you've pretty much seen most of what they have to offer.

And when the platforming action works, it works like an absolute dream. There is so much freedom to be found in chaining Beebz's large arsenal of moves, transformations, and jumps together to flow so well and wonderfully. When things like combat, the camera, or sometimes even the controls get in the way, Demon Tides is less of a dream and more of a nightmare.  

Mostly, however, Demon Tides' nightmare moments are fewer and further in between than the dreamlike portions, fortunately. The game all-around took me approximately 18 hours to 100% complete. I am relatively competent at platformers of this style, so that's important to note with regard to completion time. Even with my aggravations, I found the game overall a winner.

Beebz is the captain, now.

That extends to the presentation as well, for the most part. There are some early areas, especially the boss-controlled areas, that are incredibly, ungodly garish in purple and pink colors. It's a sight to make sore eyes, as it's just egregiously bad and a bewildering artistic design decision. Thankfully, an upcoming patch (and it might even be out already before this review's published) plans to mitigate the obtrusive colors on display in these sections. Otherwise, most everything else graphically is rather lovely. Some geometry and graphical glitches are present, though. I noticed on the island with the giant lighthouse that I could go under it in Beebz's snake form because said lighthouse's foundation wasn't entirely grounded. I also saw trees that didn't stick firmly into the ground, only partway, which looked quite off. 

On the sound side, Beebz and the cast sport charming dialogue and partial voice work. I say "partial' because only the really important to accentuate lines of dialogue are spoken out loud. Everything else is silent. Musically, the compositions and tracks are serviceable. They work for Demon Tides in the sense that they fit the areas they play in, but they're also missing that special something and not really anything I'd run to listen to outside of playing the game.

Running off my Steam Deck, Demon Tides mostly held up well, with some frame-rate spikes and dips in later areas.

Demon Tides is a superb and ambitious 3D indie platformer that casts a wide net of adventure. The ability to customize your playing experience through the helpful talisman system is a pleasure to have. It truly assists in making the game more enjoyable and less frustrating when control and camera quibbles try to ruin the fun. While these problems do rock the boat a little bit, making for a non-ideal experience, all in all, Demon Tides offers more of a smooth ride rather than one in abundantly choppy waters. There's more fun than frustration to be found in Demon Tides. And like many of the locales in the game, there are clever level and gameplay concepts and a robust repertoire of moves that are mostly well executed to discover throughout Demon Tides, making it one I recommend 3D platformer fans to play.

[SPC Says: B] 

Lovish (Multi) Review

Lovish is a game that releases tomorrow on all major current platforms, including Steam, which this review is based off (specifically the Steam Deck version, which while Lovish was not Steam Deck-verified at the time of this release, the game ran and worked well on default settings). Here's the SPC review of Lovish!

A game you might just love to 8-bits.

Fresh off the heels of indie delights Astalon: Tears of the Earth and Castle in the Darkness, developer and designer Matt Kap and the team at Labs return for a new, prospective darling in the indie scene: Lovish. Immediately, the 8-bit art style invoked such warm nostalgia for me, but beyond that, it's a game that manages to blend old and modern sensibilities while also not being above making light of itself and poking fun at the industry, too. 

Lovish sees a warrior knight named Solomon and his companions embarking to the Devil Lord's castle. Their mission? Free Princess Tsuna from the clutches of the heinous fiend! However, Solomon leaves his friends behind after wanting Princess Tsuna to fall in love with him--and not any of his companions--for rescuing her. Needless to say, Solomon isn't exactly the purest, most selfless hero around. 

What follows are more than 50 unique bite-sized levels for Solomon to scramble through. Each of these levels takes place in a single screen-sized room. While the objective of each level stays the same--reach the goal door--the means and methods of doing so varies per level. Sometimes it's as simple as slashing the door open with Solomon's sword after braving the hazards inside, while other times Solomon is tasked with collecting a key or several keys, or activating buttons to open the door. 

Some levels just require Solomon to reach the exit door and slash it open to leave the level.

Solomon is not the most versatile character at the start of the game. He has a simple jump and can strike foes with his sword. However, this is more than enough to tackle the challenges that await him. That said, upon journeying through the Devil Lord's castle, Solomon can stumble, scavenge, and simply also purchase items in one of two shops in Lovish with his collected pennies that are beneficial to his quest for the princess's heart. These range from a cape that grants Solomon the ability to dash both on the ground and in midair. This can be chained to utilize multiple times, as when Solomon midair dashes into a wall, that recharges the ability to be used immediately again. 

Others can require the need to acquire a key (or several) before having access to a level's exit.

Other items include rings that allow Solomon to strike his sword upward and then downward respectively, utilizing a DuckTales Uncle Scrooge-like Pogo jump on enemies to reach higher places or to simply attack from above, as well. Solomon also only gets one hit before dying. There is, however, an item that allows a second hit before his demise arrives. 

Death in Lovish comes often--or at least it did for me--either from fireballs from wall-mounted turrets, colliding into enemies, touching spikes (which honestly felt as if the hitboxes of these were a tad bit unforgiving), or otherwise discovering death in myriad other ways. Fortunately, Solomon's deaths are more inconveniences than anything else. There is a "live" system, in the loosest sense of the term. Solomon has a set amount of HP starting in the low 200s. Every death he encounters knocks off 1 HP, as well as giving him a choice of starting the current level over again or returning to the world map. I never got to a point where I was dangerously low in HP, so I wasn't met with anything in the way of a game over screen. Rest assured, though, the game does not end upon losing all of Solomon's HP. At least that's what I trusted from a scroll I encountered in one of the game's hundred or so events that happen after each completed level.

Yes, a random (and might I say, an immensely charming in aesthetic and presentation) event of some kind occurs as an intermission of sort in between completed levels. These can have positive effects (healing some hearts/HP of Solomon, netting him some pennies for his troubles, unexpectedly earning items), negative effects (losing HP), or just act as comedic relief. Sometimes these events engage a little mini-game, such as needing the player to rapidly tap the jump button to avoid a pursuing boulder, or else lose HP. Other times Solomon gets a choice of two things. One of the funnier instances of this was stumbling upon a well. I could opt to have Solomon retreat from it, or he could yell "YOLO" and leap down it, either finding himself in a room full of pennies to collect or a spiky fate that would earn him some decreased HP. 

Events range from passive to interactive, but they're all full of charm and whimsy.

There are even random, incredibly simplified, old-school RPG battles to do in these events sometimes. It's as easy as hitting the attack or magic command a few times to defeat your opponents, ranging from literal jerks to "AI-created art" enemies (not ACTUALLY made by AI, though, so no worries there) in these turn-based skirmishes (each attack against Solomon does lose him one HP per offensive onslaught by foes). 

Really, Lovish spoofs and satirizes a lot of games and gaming industry elements in its events and levels, too. One event features a character called the Game Publisher, who randomly utters a line that would have plenty of gamers wincing, like needing to add NFTs to Lovish, before Solomon punts him away. And without spoiling later surprises, there are odes to a hefty number of franchises in gaming, from a completely playable take on Vampire Survivors to Game Boy-styled item that allows the playing of a spoof of a "legendary" Nintendo franchise. There's more to Lovish than the basic premise of running, jumping, and slashing through the game's previously mentioned levels.

Though you can't skip repeated events until you've beaten the game once, unfortunately.

There's even more to do within the levels themselves. Each level eventually has three crowns to optionally earn. One is hidden in each level, sometimes revealed through slashing a suspicious block, spawning after defeating enemies, or appearing once other conditions are met. The other two crowns can't be earned immediately at the start of the game--instead once one of two rings are found, Solomon and players alike can earn them from pacifist runs through levels as well as fast time trial-like runs through levels. There are also fabled collectibles that are secured within portals in one of seven levels. These portals take Solomon to super-difficult platforming challenge rooms, which completion upon them reward him said collectible. These are required for the post-game content of Lovish. 

Behold--a crown! But, getting to it AND escaping with Solomon's life is a challenge unto itself!

At a rate of every ten levels, Solomon must contend with a boss battle. These are relatively simple encounters, which is appreciated considering Solomon is one-hit KO'd by default at the start of the game, but like most aspects of Lovish, they're mechanically well done. Usually they involve Solomon hacking away at the boss while avoiding its attacks and other offensive maneuvers in an arena. Really, the only encounter that was incredibly difficult by comparison to the relatively short battles that preceded it was understandably the final boss--a two-phased fight. 

Bird is the word, or at least the boss, this time around.

Lovish does have plenty of content to return to, long after the initial run-through of levels and battled bosses. There are characters to fill up Solomon's social media feed, completing Solomon's inventory of items, the aforementioned crowns to collect (over 250), the collectibles in the portals, post-game levels that were an absolute treat due to their references, and lots more. All in all, it took me about nine hours to reach the true epilogue of the game with every crown earned. That said, I'm still lacking two achievements from my playthrough, but these will come with some extra time and effort.

Plenty of bite-sized levels means plenty of curse words to ultimately utter upon failed runs.
...Or was that just me?

That said, it wasn't always smooth sailing... or I guess in this instance, smooth platforming to be found in Lovish. Solomon has a big head, apparently, and jumps that require him to leap up in a one-grid-wide alcove, usually performed to avoid enemies or fireballs, proved to be a needlessly frustrating challenge. If Solomon wasn't precisely where he needed to be spaced pixel-wise, he would merely bash his head against the ceiling, thus meeting his demise when that previously mentioned enemy or fireball would pass by. Hitboxes don't always seem the best either, and this is most apparent with dealing with retracting spikes and a specific level featuring a giant fireball-spewing dragon. The trails of the fireballs weren't always obvious, resulting in occasionally "cheap deaths" from them. 

Overall, though, Lovish is a delight. Its humor and satire of genre and game conventions are most entertaining, its references and guest appearances are delightful, and the game itself plays well and is structurally sound, even if the Devil Lord's castle isn't always--looking at YOU, crumbling floors and breakable walls! Lovish succeeded at getting its hooks into me, and through the now and then frustrations of one-hit deaths, repeated attempts of levels and bosses, and tricky platforming perils, I merrily pushed forth with a smile on my face. Well, in between utterances of curse words on failed attempts, of course. Those looking for a challenge will get one with Lovish, as well as an enjoyable game that doesn't take itself at all seriously either.

[SPC Says: B]

A review copy was provided by DANGEN Entertainment.

Yooka-Replaylee (PC, PS5, XBS, NS2) Review

Yooka-Laylee originally launched in 2017, and now--depending on who you ask--a seemingly short eight years later, a revised remake of the game releases tomorrow. Ahead of the game's launch, SuperPhillip Central has an in-depth review and my thoughts on this newly remade 3D collect-a-thon platformer. Here's my review of Yooka-Replaylee.

 It's Grand Tome Time Once Again.

2017's Yooka-Laylee was an ambitious--perhaps to a fault--3D platformer and a virtual, spiritual successor to Banjo-Kazooie. Like the bear and bird's adventures, Yooka-Laylee featured a pair of precocious protagonists, Yooka, a chameleon, and Laylee, a bat, who took up residence on Yooka's back, essentially serving as Kazooie's role in both a gameplay and sass role. You had endearing gibberish for dialogue, huge, expansive, colorful worlds to explore, and plenty of Jiggies--I mean, Pagies to nab, grab, and collect.

However, as I mentioned, the original Yooka-Laylee was indeed an ambitious game, but one that really stretched too far and too thin to be the amazing game it could have been. For one, character movement wasn't ideal in feel and handling, worlds required players to expand them from their original smaller size to something much more wide open (I realize this design choice was meant to not overwhelm players immediately, but it wasn't as fine-tuned as desired), and many of the challenges in said worlds were a bit frustrating, clunky, and wonky to complete.

No doubt Playtonic Games heard and read all of this feedback from players and critics and took it to heart. Rather than build off the same game, instead, eight years later we have what essentially comes down to a "take two" effort with Yooka and Laylee's remade adventure: the cleverly titled Yooka-Replaylee. The aim of this re-imagined take on the original Yooka-Laylee is to make a bigger, vastly improved, more focused, and enjoyable 3D platformer using the base of the 2017 game. So much has changed, and honestly for the better, too. 

The story of Yooka-Replaylee sees our soon-to-be heroes crash land their mighty vessel, the Bat Ship Crazy (cheeky humor like this abounds, as expected from ex-Rare staff), and find themselves exploring a cavern. Within this cavern they stumble upon a caged up tome, the One Book, and upon rescuing him from his personal prison, he informs the chameleon and bat duo of who locked him up and why. 

The dastardly Capital B and his minions captured the One Book for no doubt nefarious purposes, and soon use a humongous vacuum to suck back up the One Book. Before being able to fully do so, the One Book manages to tear out its Pagies and spread them all across the worlds of Hivory Towers, the main hub of the game, before they fall into the wrong hands. Thus, the adventure begins and both Yooka and Laylee traverse their way into Capital B territory to reclaim the lost, separated Pagies.

Worlds in Yooka-Replaylee are immediately and fully open for exploration right from the word "go".

Yooka-Replaylee keeps in line with traditional 3D collect-a-thon platformers of yore, with the main collectible being that of the previously mentioned Pagies that serve not only as rewards for completing various platforming and puzzle-based challenges within the game's five worlds and one main hub, but also a means to unlock new areas of Hivory Towers. Thus, those five worlds slowly open up one by one.

This familiar challenge from the original Yooka-Laylee is present in Replaylee too,
but so many of the platforming, puzzling, and environmental trials on offer in this game are brand-new.

The worlds themselves are quite vibrant and varied in locales and various in challenges and tasks for Yooka and Laylee to complete for Pagies. As opposed to the 100 or so Pagies in the original game, now there are 300 total, 50 in each world and the Hivory Towers hub. This means that instead of the large but rather bare worlds of the 2017 original, worlds are expansive to begin with, but also are densely packed with challenges to complete, collectibles to find, and things to discover.

Now THAT'S what I call some Pagie Power!

Aside from Pagies, there are plenty of other collectibles within the worlds. One such collectible are the colorful Quills that can be used to purchase goodies from returning intrepid business snake Trowzer (150 in each world), as well as coins called Quids that are used to purchase from Vendi a new mechanic for this iteration of Yooka-Laylee, Tonics, that can change how you play the game entirely. Some are gameplay modifiers that make the game easier or more difficult depending on which ones you equip, while others can provide graphical filters to the game itself like cel-shading or a CRT filter. 

Tonics are worth nothing that they're really nothing new to the series, having been utilized in the incredible Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair, but they're well incorporated into this 3D platformer. Aside from purchasing Tonics, Vendi also has an ever-expanding catalog of cosmetics for Yooka and Laylee. From gloves, pants, jackets, shirts, and more for Yooka, to hats and headgear for Laylee, you can have a lot of fun with these purely aesthetic costumes.

Hey, I'm not your buddy--go away!

That's of course not all for the collectibles in Yooka-Replaylee. Many from the original game return, such as the five Ghost Writers in each world that must be captured in different ways depending on their color and type for a Pagie apiece, specific Arcade Tokens that are used to play the all-new Captain Toad-like retro-style, polygonal-visual, level-based arcade games from the endearing dino Rextro, and Mollycools--one in each world--that are exchanged to turn Yooka and Laylee into various helpful transformations. 

Rextro's arcade games from the original Yooka-Laylee were retro experiences that tried their best to be fun, but ended up being more frustrating, unfortunately, and less than appealing. I dug the variety of the games, but their replacements in Yooka-Replaylee are net positives overall. They're bite-sized adventures, again similar to Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker in an albeit non-1:1 way, but they see you controlling Rextro through progressively more challenging stages where Rextro can lunge his head forward to bash into enemies, use his mouth to grab rails and pull himself up to higher platforms, and acquire up to three gold medals placed throughout the levels, all the while avoiding and evading hazards that can be put him in harm's way. 

Rextro's Arcade games in Yooka-Replaylee, like many aspects of this remake, 
are a marked improvement compared to the original game.

Meanwhile, the Mollycools are given to the tentacled Dr. Puzz, who takes on Mumbo Jumbo's role from the majority of the Banjo-Kazooie games, to transform our heroic duo into one of five transformations, one for each world. Depending on the world, these transformations can have very little or a lot of utility to them. For instance, the first world, Tribalstack Tropics's transformation is of little use, really, outside of one Pagie and getting hints for the world from flowers that won't otherwise reveal their secret knowledge outside of the world's floral-themed transformation. Whereas the final two worlds have more Pagie opportunities and tasks for your transformations than merely a modest or meager amount, which makes for a less of a headache. Speaking of less headaches, players can cancel out of transformations by holding down the right trigger instead of being required to trek back to Dr. Puzz. Very convenient!

The convenient features of Yooka-Replaylee don't end there, either. Playtonic added a talking bookmark character appropriately named Mark who serves as fast travel points throughout each of the game's worlds. He also--for a price of 50 Quids, can reveal the location of an overlooked, missing Pagie, too. Though, I did encounter some glitches with Mark, at least playing on desktop, where talking to Mark completely soft-locked the game. The map never popped up (and it wouldn't ever reveal itself for me even when hitting the Select button, yet other options in the menu would be available), and I was stuck in a perpetual waiting screen, having to force-exit the game. Strangely enough, playing the game on my Steam Deck did NOT result in this issue at all. Opening the in-game map worked so I could see every Pagie challenge, NPC location, and fast travel at will--plus I didn't have to actively avoid speaking or interacting with Mark like I would on my desktop version of the game!

That tongue of Yooka's certainly gets the job done when required!

Yooka and Laylee sport a rather impressive repertoire of moves and abilities to help them out throughout their adventure, and unlike the original game, these are all available almost exactly from the start of the game. Essentially, when the tutorial--the aforementioned cavern section--plays out, new moves are introduced as platforming challenges stand before our heroes. Every move from the original Yooka-Laylee is present, and this time there's no need to track down Trowzer in the game's worlds to purchase new tricks for our pair of protagonists. Whether it's the Glide 'n' Ride, allowing Yooka to grab onto Laylee to temporarily--and literally as the name suggests--glide and ride across chasms and chunks of land, or using the Reptile Roll to move up otherwise too steep platforms a la Banjo-Kazooie's Talon Trot, moves are easier than ever to perform with a lack of needlessly complicated button combos to press.

Take flight with Yooka easily, as all moves are unlocked right from the get-go.

Abilities like changing Yooka's color and powers by tasting various elemental berries big berries in the world are easy to switch between. From lashing his tongue at a red berry, Yooka's body temperature heats up, allowing him to light torches, while lashing at a stockpile of cannonballs increases his weight, meaning he can run through wind currents that would otherwise push him back like he was made of paper instead of polygons. Even flying while holding on to Laylee has been upgraded in this remake, offering Yooka the ability to lash his tongue at a cloud to be temporarily given the power of flight.

Yooka-Replaylee does indeed contain 300 Pagies, of those many are collected through discovering different platforming, puzzle-based, and environmental challenges throughout the game's worlds. Again, worlds are positively packed with more mindful use of space, with something placed practically in every nook, cranny, and around every corner. Some challenges, like boss battles (which as an aside have also been improved), Rextro's arcade games, an ancient mine cart named Kartos' mine cart challenges (some remaining unfortunately as frustrating as they were in the OG Yooka-Laylee), among others reward up to three Pagies upon completely clearing them. Others require finding two sets of four Pagie pieces to put together two more Pagies, and these can be rather overwhelming to find in the sense that it can be akin to looking for a needle in a haystack. This is especially so in the ones that require a Buddy Slam by the duo to reveal them. Sure, there's a faint sparkling spot, but not every spot reveals a lost Pagie piece, nor are they all available to be viewed easily until getting close enough to them.

Moodymaze Marsh's mushrooms shine and glow brightly to impressive effect.

No doubt a massive upgrade from Yooka-Laylee to Yooka-Replaylee is that of the presentation. With vastly improved visuals, all-new texture-work, new objects in the environments, better detail, and much more to make the game's worlds feel and look less bland and sterile and instead appear more colorful and alive, Yooka-Replaylee is a fantastic offering visually. While the desktop version delivers the ability to change up your graphical settings, from resolution to changing up V-sync to varying degrees, it's the Steam Deck version that I also played which lacks such functionality. It's one size fits all here, and while the game looks and runs alright on Steam Deck, in the more expansive worlds starting with Tribalstack Tropics, it's noticeably blurry and fuzzy image quality-wise. Still, it's all the while impressive to have the game running on Steam's handheld-that-could in 2025! 

Meanwhile, Capital Cashino is more golden and garish than ever before.

Meanwhile, the majority of the music has been completely overhauled, this time performed by the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra, save for pieces like Kartos' cart challenge themes, which remain the same. The new arrangements sound positively great and glorious. Though on the other side of the sound spectrum, your mileage will most likely vary with regard to the cast of characters and their numerous grunts and gibberish voices. I found it charming, but I loved it ever since Banjo-Kazooie.

So much of the original Yooka-Laylee has seen vastly superior improvements with this remake. Yooka-Replaylee is a far less frustrating experience, as the more taxing boss battles from the original have been redesigned, there's more thought put into collectible locations, better and more mindful use of space in worlds, and pretty much everything is a marked upgrade. While my issues with Mark at least in my desktop Steam version of the game made for a less convenient and more aggravating experience overall, there's something to be said about how much fun I had with Yooka-Replaylee that seems like just a sour footnote in an otherwise highly remarkable, rewarding, and enjoyable 3D platformer. With more to do, more to love, and yes, in genre tradition--more to collect, Yooka-Replaylee managed to outperform my expectations, making it a stellar and superb experience.

[SPC Says: A-] 

A Steam code was provided by the publisher for the purpose of this review.