The second game from Colorgrave, the studio behind Prodigal, Curse Crackers is a large improvement over what that game offered. While not a classic game, it's a pretty damn good one, and shows hints of a formula that could easily turn into one with another entry.

A 2D platformer with GBC/NGPC inspired spritework, Curse Crackers mixes short but varied levels intermixed with hub worlds littered with NPCs and story-related sub quests. The sprites are colorful, with each character having their own palette and every "world" maintaining a unique aesthetic. What the animations lack in frames they make up for with personality. The platforming feels solid for the most part, you have a lot of control over Belle and she has a good sense of speed. There are some minute issues, such as input errors due to your two (radically different) special jumps being a down and down-forward input respectively, and some weird hitboxes that don't make a ton of sense. Perhaps the most annoying part, especially in the endgame, is the amount of screen space. The 16:9 ratio coupled with the large sprites and top screen bezel results in a lot of leaps of faith or unseen enemy projectiles, which can be grating. Still, the game's checkpoint system is extremely forgiving, making any unfair deaths quickly forgotten.

The world's lore centers around 8 monstrous sisters and a godlike mother who created the world in their image, before ultimately conflicting with one another and bringing about a massive war before they all ultimately vanished from the world. Unlike Prodigal, which threw all the lore inside hidden tomes and expected players to hunt them down, CC mixes the worldbuilding naturally into the gameplay through NPCs and specially designed locations on the map. It's not perfect, but it's a much better way of piecemealing such a dense game world and maintained my interest through the ending. Overall, NPCs are fun and relatively unique, and Belle develops interesting relationships with the majority of them throughout the game.

Musically we get some solid chiptunes, with some strong standouts such as the hub world music and the first platforming world's main track. There were a few that will stick in my memory for a while to come, enough that I bought the OST alongside the game.

My biggest issue with the game is the pacing. Though levels are short, they're *littered* with collectibles. Too many, I would argue, with some having as many as 5, with all the different types being mandatory for some form of post-game content. It's a lot to keep track of, and becomes very tedious by the end. The post-game itself is jarring, too. The game's difficulty spike is wild with how much harder the final two worlds are compared to the three prior, and then the post-game 2x's that initial spike. I probably put 25-30 hours into the game (which I'm not sure why they didn't all register) but at least half of that were fetch quests and pixel hunting for collectibles that wore thin in the last inning stretch.

Curse Crackers gives me the same ultimate feeling Prodigal did, where internally I'm going "Man if the devs just had a bit more time or experience, this could've been an all-timer." Even if it doesn't reach it's potential, it's still a very fun, charming platformer, and I'm glad I spent time with it.

TLDR: Buy it, it's worth the price even if not on sale.

I almost never write reviews, but it's criminal how little-known this game is. The aesthetic is on point; there are plenty of 8-bit and pixel art games out there, but surprisingly few that go all-in on the Game Boy Color style. It also oozes charm and personality, from the NPC dialogue and idle animations, to little touches like how Belle does a short bounce animation after landing from a jump. The controls are fluid and just feel right, which is really all you can ask for in a speed platformer à la classic Sonic games.

And do you like secrets? Because oh boy does this game have secrets. I'd be surprised if you were to finish the main story with more than 50% completion or so, and that's if you're thorough. Did that enemy projectile just go through a wall? Oh look at that, it's a secret tome. Does that platform look suspicious? Oh god suddenly I'm in a brutally difficult platforming gauntlet trying to earn a late-endgame collectible. And so on. Exploration and a keen eye are rewarded.

None of this even touches on the story, which at first glance is pretty vapid; essentially you're trying to rescue your boyfriend from Bowsette. But then as you go through the game you get lore excerpts and you start to see hints of much deeper worldbuilding. Seriously, some of the final things you can unlock are cryptic riddles setting up things for a sequel that your favorite theorist youtuber would have a field day with. I, for one, am looking forward to the dawn.

There are some valid complaints that other reviews have touched on, such as screen crunch; however, the impact of that is minimized with levels intended to be replayed and memorized when looking for secrets or gunning for that speedrun medal. Rings also sometimes feel like they have wonky hitboxes, but usually it's not a problem and at this point I'm nitpicking.

It took me 30 hours to true-100% Curse Crackers, and I fully intend to pick up this developer's other game(s) soon to scratch that secret-seeker itch. I get the feeling Colorgrave is getting added to my shortlist of developers who I eagerly follow going forward.

What a delight! Fun, engaging platformer with a surprising depth of secret content and optional (but delightful) story and lore.

Kloana meets GBC, its fun, pleasing to the eye and an all around good time with well hidden secrets with a easy to pick up hard to master system. I love it.

Play this game, it’s fun!!!!!

Absolutely amazing platformer with an immaculate Game Boy aesthetic. The moveset is fantastic, and so is the level design, in perfect marriage. Figuring out and pulling off moves to reach secret areas and perform skips feels extremely rewarding, and the game is filled to the brim with such opportunities and lots of fresh ideas. An instant classic that's begging to be explored and mastered.

An absolute blast, fluid and fast movement paired with excellent level design make for some of the most fun i have had with a platformer in quite a while.

Very charming and tight controls platformer with loads of secrets to find and a pretty sizable amount of levels and overworld to explore. I beat the story, but I feel like I only scratched the surface of what's here. Great amount of content and worth the money, in my opinion. The only downside I can think of is that with the awesome level design comes a lot of trial-and-error when you can't see enemies and hazards off screen that cause me numerous deaths until I learned they were there. This happens VERY frequently in the later levels.

Still, it's an 8/10, very solid game all around.

One of the best platformers of all time. Get it!

Fun game with amazing music.