Recent reviews by jp_lowtierhero

Excellent! Not much to say that others haven't said.

The game has great netcode and a simple jump/weak/heavy control scheme.
Easy to play, hard to master.
Special moves are done by holding down+forward or down+back and then holding A or B.
Only 2 characters, but they seem well balanced thus far. Naomi is a terror at close range that can murder you for panicking while Tenchi is a standard Ryu-esque go who thrives on spacing with fireballs and then hitting you with his plethora of anti-airs.

Kicking rad tunes, well polished animations. What else is there to say?

A long time player of the fantasystrike.com version, Yomi is a game very near and dear to my heart. Sirlin, the creator of this game, has slaved away for years to polish it to a mirror sheen.

The game is based on a simple rock-paper-scissors formula. Attacks beat Throws, Throws beat Blocks+Dodges, which beat Attacks in kind. However, the game goes beyond just throwing out options and hoping you win every time. Every character has special abilities and attacks that make some wins more important than others. One character has low combo damage, but every turn that passes slowly ticks away his opponent's life. He's quite content to sit and block all day! But that means everyone wants to throw him, so maybe he should attack in an attempt to beat those pesky throws. What to do? Every decision is tough, but success is so very rewarding!

The game features 20 characters, all very well balanced and have very unique playstyles. The blazing fast Jaina will stop at nothing to rush you down, while the calm Argagarg will slowly and methodically grind you down. The patient Master Midori will stand against any attack, but once he can turn into a Dragon, it'll be your turn to take the beating! And of course, the community has a large number of guides for learning characters and is always willing to help. So come on and give it a try!

Excellent roguelike which utilizes the permadeath element to tell its story in an interesting and innovative way. At $4.00 it's worth every penny and then some.

Underwhelming. Qora is an exploration focused game in the vein of Knytt or Proteus, but fails to engage like the aforementioned. A crippling lack of interaction causes this game to rely on it's (admittedly very pretty) visuals and sound. However, silly "random" humor and recycled jokes kill the atmosphere at every turn. The aforementioned lack of interaction makes this game struggle to define itself as a game as opposed to a movie, with most input from the player boiling down to walking in the appropriate direction and pressing Space to activate cutscenes. If you're a fan of exploration oriented games, it may tickle your fancy, but at a $10 asking point, it feels difficult to justify.

Don't let the early access tag fool you, this game is the real deal.

Crypt of the Necrodancer provides a unique blend of rhythm games (featuring the sick beats of one Danny Baranowsky of Super Meat Boy and Binding of Isaac fame) and old school dungeon crawlers like Nethack and ADOM. Each move you make has to be done in time with the beat of the music. The game finds a balance between the time constraints of a rhythm game and strategy of a dungeon crawler by making every enemy highly patternized, making every room a sort of mini puzzle for you to navigate. These highly patternized enemies also give the game room to be stern, but fair. Dying in one hit is a very realistic possiblity even on the first floor. However, when you lose, you can always attribute why you lost to a mistake you made and learn from the experience.

The visuals are simplistic, with a certain whimsy to them. The art design takes advantage of the game's musical emphasis, with enemies ranging from river dancing gremlins to headbopping dragons, including some clever bosses for whom I won't spoiler the surprise.

And if you aren't a fan of Baranowsky's music, theres good news! This game allows you to import your favorite songs to use as ingame BGM! I admit, I haven't used this feature, so I can't say for sure how well it works, but I have seen online resources for recommended songs, so presumably it works fine.

Lastly, as I said before, don't look down on the game despite its early access status. The core game is largely finished (with only the final zone locked off), and the developers are very involved with the game's community, releasing somewhat frequent content patches and listening closely to fan feedback.

Crypt of the Necrodancer is one of the most innovative and interesting games I've played in a long time. It won me over its amazing audio and visuals, and it can only go up from here. I can heartily recommend this game to anyone.