Recent reviews by Serrix

Don't Starve Together is a multiplayer standalone version of Don't Starve, with separate content being developed for it only. Developed by Klei, I found it to be a wonderful experience overall, but of course, multiplayer games are not without their kinks.

Let's start with gameplay as usual. Don't Starve Together, as per its singleplayer predecessor, is a survival game with crafting and obtaining resources. Unlike most standard subpar survival games, the way it does this is rather unique in the environment and resources that you utilize. Let's get this out of the way: You will die. Several times probably. But unlike the singleplayer version, you can have other people help you learn the mechanics of the game. The modes of multiplayer can't really be boiled down to essential basics, as factors such as being able to hurt other players or not, or if players decide to be loners or want to team up and create bases will affect how the game will play out. As for more of the game mechanics themselves, they tend to be better off learned through experience or reading it up on the dedicated wiki regarding the game.

In terms of graphics, this game presents a rather well-done artstyle, looking entirely hand-drawn and with many shading effects looking scribbled in. As well, this game should run pretty well on most modern computers, and even some not-so-modern, although if there are many many entities on-screen, several computers will suffer some sort of framerate loss. Along with this is an entirely-cosmetic... cosmetic system. Players can earn drops by playing on a server for somewhat-variable amounts of time, for up to four gifts a week, resetting sometime on Thursdays. The time it takes between each of the four drops of the week increases as each gift is obtained and resets along with the gifts as well. Cosmetics are ranked in rarity, so the usually more-desired Elegant or Distinguished items will be rarer and generally cost more on the market. Also in place is a trade-up system and utilizing nine of the same rank of item can be taken and transformed into one item of a higher rank.

In terms of sound and music, the sound design is also well-done. The sound designer did essentially all of the sounds themself in a practical fashion, which I find commendable in this day and age. As for music, Don't Starve Together features a selection of instrumental tracks which play during periods of working activity, basic mob combat, or combat against large "boss" mobs, and variations dependant on the season currently in place. I personally encourage those that grow to be a fan of the music to find the album by Vince de Vera and Jason Garner and get that, although one will have to find the tracks added later elsewhere.

Being a multiplayer game, I do stress that playing with others online can affect how you might feel about the game initially. Please do keep playing until you've had a proper and full experience! Thank you for reading my review, and if you do purchase this game, have fun! If you prefer a more isolated experience, you could opt to get the singleplayer version, Don't Starve, which also features a new DLC still exclusive to it, Shipwrecked!

Mighty Switch Force! Hyper Drive Edition is a fun little platformer that branches out mostly in the Nintendo area of consoles, but has come to Steam for a neat release as well. I personally quite like this game and its related franchise, as well as the developer company themselves, so fair warning, I may be slightly biased. Please don't let that deter you from purchasing this game, however!

Let's start with the gameplay. It plays well, and doesn't take much to run. The player controls one Patricia Wagon as she sets off to capture, capture, and capture again the Hooligan Sisters, making use of large blocks that switch in and out of the game's playing field, making up a majority of the puzzles and action in the game itself. The concept is relatively simple enough, and is put to use pretty well. Along with that is fairly standard platforming mechanics, with Patricia carrying a gun to shoot enemies with as well, altogether making a pretty good gameplay experience in my opinion.

As for graphics, this is a two-dimensional platformer that uses sprites, but it looks good. The version of this game on Steam and some Nintendo consoles titled Hyper Drive Edition feature redone sprites of most everything in the game, in a nice and smooth artstyle. There is an option to turn Patricia Wagon, and only her, back into the pixelated version seen in the first versions of the game.

In terms of sound and music, I very much like the soundtrack of Mighty Switch Force! Composed by Jake Kaufman, or virt, it's a lovely electronic mix soundtrack, and is available to download for free or pay what you wish on Jake's bandcamp. Admittedly I believe the sequel's music is ever so slightly better, but that can be found in the little spinoff game also present on Steam. As for the sounds themselves, overall the game has good sound design. Patty's voice doesn't get annoying, and the rest complement the actions that occur.

Overall, I find the game great, if a little short perhaps, but still worth the price! If you do purchase and do like this game, I recommend obtaining another entry into its franchise, Mighty Switch Force! Academy, also available currently exclusively on Steam. If you like this type of game, I'd also suggest looking into the Shantae franchise! If I missed anything, please leave a comment below. Thanks for reading, and if you do purchase this game, have fun!

All right, so let me start off by saying I don't know the first thing about Mega Man other than he's blue, shoots an arm cannon, and gets powers from the Robot Masters. And Dr. Wily and Light.

I found Mighty No. 9 to be a charming game, not the most amazing game ever, but not completely terrible. It's good, but not great.

First thing that comes to mind over discussions about it is the graphics. While I do somewhat agree that it would have been more interesting to see in a two-dimensional format or something akin to the Shantae games or DuckTales Remastered, for what it is, it's again, not terrible. On the design aspect of things, I do adore the designs of the Mighty Numbers and the like, even if Call is actually a fan-submitted design. And besides, as I agree, graphics aren't everything and shouldn't ruin a gameplay experience. (Unless it looks so terrible that you can't even tell what's going on.)

As for the gameplay itself, it's pretty solidly built. While our titular Mighty No. 9 doesn't have the most amazing vertical movement, I don't believe the titular Mega Man did either earlier on. Beck makes up for this with a dash move that utilized in both faster horizontal movement and finishing off foes. If you even start falling down a pit past the point of grabbing onto a ledge, you're not recovering though. The use of instant death spikes and the like isn't egregious barring specific and presumably intentionally-difficult segments of the levels.

The bosses are pretty good, and most have a decent variety of attacks. The function of each one having some sort of weakness to a power gained from another, carrying on from the Mega Man series, is useful and sometimes creative. You may be spending some time on the final boss, however.

In terms of sound, the music isn't bad, but isn't especially noteworthy from what I heard while playing. I have yet to specifically listen to the soundtrack, so bear with me on that. The sound effects are fine. And then another one of the hot topics to criticize, the voice acting. Admittedly, I actually did highly prefer the Japanese voice acting in tandem with English subtitles. I do recommend keeping it as such as well, and the way to change it is fairly simple: Go to General Options once ingame, go to the Others tab, and switch the voice effects to Japanese, which will appear as Japanese text in the option. You can do this from the main menu as well, so you can start the game right with them.

Overall, I liked this game quite a bit, although perhaps more for the characters themselves. I do wholly recommend the game regardless. I have not played the Ray DLC at the time of writing this, but I do hope to get it soon enough and then do a review on that. If I missed something, comment below on that. Thanks for reading, and have fun, should you purchase this game!