Don't you love it when your initial view of a game is negative and the end result of your experience is positive? Blink the Bulb follows in the footsteps of Khimera: Destroy All Monstergirls in this regard...lo' and behold, both were made in GameMaker: Studio. It's projects like these that show the heart that devs have in their games.

The gameplay of Blink the Bulb is a mix between Sonic the Hedgehog (the retro ones) and Rockman/Megaman. It looks decent and feels decent. It may not be as good as its sources of inspiration, but it does not dishonor nor disrespect their nostalgic memories. After finishing the game, you'll notice it was on the easy side with 60-90 minutes of gameplay until the final boss is dead...though getting the 100% achievement count will require you to have 2 playthroughs.

The main problem with this title is that the main character doesn't seem likeable and feels generic as do quite a few of the monsters. It's not a major problem, but it is off-putting.

If you want a nostalgic game to enjoy for a few hours, look into this game. It's free just like Khimera: Destroy All Monstergirls, so you're really not losing anything by looking into this game. After all, this game is about a super fighting robot character in a world of chili-dog eaters...more or less...

6.5/10 A tribute to old gaming that feels lacking, but is still quite well-done.

My wife (nongamer) just tried this game out and loved it. Thank you to the devs for making something the two of us could enjoy together. Double thumbs up!

Pros:
+ Free
+ Different Paths to Reach the End of the Level
+ Different Items to Use and Upgrades
+ Good Amount of Challenging Bosses
+ Good Amount of Levels and Enemies

Cons:
- Some Bosses Make You Rage Quit
- Some of the Controls and Options Are Weird

Review
It is an interesting platformer game that has a Sonic feel about it. One of the few platformer games that I enjoyed and rage quit many times. There is alot of levels with day and night cycles. The enemies make the game interesting and each one has a certain fighting style about them. The only thing that I found annoying was that the controls during the game and for the menu just feel odd and unnatural. The graphics are suppose to be retro and it brings a charm to it. I played the game for the achievements, but was pleasantly surprised. I recommend this game to people who like platformer games and games that are free.

This was Curated for PC Beta Gaming if you would like to follow us the link is below:
http://steamcommunity.com/groups/PC-BetaG#curation

This review is just my opinion. If you liked this review please give it a thumbs up. Thank you for reading my review. If you would like to see more of my reviews the link is below:
http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198120632907/recommended/?p=1

󠀡

Hoo HOO! Now this one is excellent. 2D platformer that is styled after Genesis games, or at least the way that people remember them after many Sonic hacks. Hero isn't slow, he can charge shots and shoot, runs around, collects the sparks which work as money to open chests that will either have active or passive item. Heh, I found it fancy to find out that health is actually floating point or so after getting one of damage type resistance items. You also can't get Game Over, there are no lives to count, you just lose half of sparks on death.

But well, despite all the excellent visuals and music that makes me feel jolly this one does feel amateur. And talking of music, most tracks feel a bit samey. I am sure that Genesis games had more varied tracks in games most often. But yea, amateur. For example, difficulty is a bit all over the place. Then I feel that game would benefit from this little trick that indie devs use of "for 2 or so frames after seemingly falling off ledge you can still jump normally", albeit I had trouble only at a start of a game. I wish that double jump ability would reset everytime I interacted with bounce pads. Or that the duration of high jump powerup would reset everytime I went back into lazor that gives it, before the powerup runs out by itself.

And then depth devs tried to give it some depth that I don't think work out that much. Well, there is day-night cycle. This one is nice, combined with ability to select any level which sometimes get random effect in them, bad or good. Night or day impacts behavior of enemies, which miniboss you fight in first levels and some other things. This one is nice, albeit night should be darker, haha. Not sure about items however. Passive resistance ones are fine. But then there are passive ability stuff "shoot shadows when you jump, recharge in 20 seconds" that were kinda there. Kinda not good enough and then you can't control when to activate them. Perhaps they were good at boss fights when you spam everything you've got but then enemies have temporary invincibility after getting hit so I am sure it wasn't so excellent there. Could go without bosses having those.
Active items that heal health are fine too. Can't say for heads that give additional ability. I actually spend my time holding attack button all time in order to charge it up beforehand, which somehow led me to occasional confusion of "which of these two buttons to press to jump". I know, silly, but somehow I was confused this way in the game. And having third button to think about for head abilities while you keep charging... Yea, didn't find many use. You also don't need them much in platforming sections, just in boss ones. Sometimes.
Plus, some randomization that I didn't care about.

But hey, I suggest you to beat this game anyway. It's jolly, OK?! And good. You will enjoy collecting and platforming over challenges. I am surprised that dev got the levels size just right, big mazes but not to the point where I was getting impatient.
Dev should add very cheap OST DLC so I could keep it in my Steam library.

This game is fun and challenging, it even has a day and night boss mode (boss challenge varies in day or night)
it's like Sonic games where you just go right all the time and you will still end up going to the boss Area never getting stuck
and like Megaman for the Charging Weapon,
their are annoying stages but it doesnt affect how challenging it is
but once finished you can only redo Final Stage
so you need to keep on doing a New Game

Minor problem: New game is kept highlight even with a saved game

Blink the Bulb is holiday themed platformer which is sure to bring everyone their memories of playing platformers during their childhood back.

Sounds are really nice and festive, they fit well with the levels they are placed in.
There are 5 different areas which have multiple stages, and you can access each one of them straight away. There is also additional area called "?" which is the end of the game i suppose. I think that each stage has the unique boss on the end, but i didnt test it.

Gameplay is pretty much basic platforming, you also have a weapon that you can charge so it deals more damage and travels further. Interesting fact is that the coins you collect around the map arent useless or just used for scoreboards, instead you use the coins to open the chests around the map which drop active (potions) and passive (buffs and upgrades) loot.

One thing that did bother me is that it doesnt have a story, i know that developer has put one or two frames which are supposed to be like intro, but it would be at least interesting to write dialouge before the boss battles so we know whats going on


Pros:
- Nice festive platformer
- Good music
- 6 different zones to explore with multiple stages and unique bosses
- Loot
- Simple
- Has a tutorial

Cons:
- Could use more story details
- Lacks steam achievements
- System requirements seem to be high for a platformer
- Could use more options (resolution or screenscale for graphics)

⠀

It's not that I think this game is bad, it's just... Not great.

There's some good ideas here and there, but I couldn't enjoy it much. The bosses are either ridiculously easy, or really hard, there's no balance.

Each level are made with multiples routes in mind, making each possible run unique. That's good, but, I don'T know how many times I died because I didn't know one thing was hurting me.

The enemy placement is quite atrocious, I died way too many times because I couldn't see an enemy or some spikes. I was really getting frustrated by it, especially when there's no hint if I'll die if I miss this jump, of if I need to go down and then right before touching the ground.

It's fun for a while, not for a single session.

Back when I first founded Khimera: Destroy All Monster Girls, I found several free games on Steam. Some were pretty good, others also good but not my cup of tea and others that I just couldn’t stand. Blink the Bulb was one of the good ones I found but I forgot to do a review so I made a response about how forgettable it was even though it is pretty forgettable despite how good it was. But you know what, that’s beneath. I admit, I make a bad review at times but dang it, some games deserve a proper review and now I’m gonna give it one.

We can skip the story since there really isn’t anything to say there.

Gameplay:

So we got a cute little fella here with the regular platformer moves and for the main attack, you charge up a shot to do the most damage. While there are no lives, the small sparkles you get can be used to open chest which contain power ups like health that can be used form the pause screen, passive kills like defense and attack increase and extra attacks like a two orbs acting like a shield that hurts your enemies.

One of the more interesting things about this game is that there is a day and night cycle. You can choose what time to start in the options and it changes some parts in the levels like in the Christmas level, in the day, you can go underwater and in night, the water is ice. Besides in the Halloween level, I didn’t notice any other changes but I think they are their. Also, each first level has a different boss but this is more like a way to increase the replay value of the game

Presentation:

I think the clear inspiration for the art is the Mega Drive. I don’t mind it and some of the enemies look pretty good. I be honest, the Valentine world looks more like a birthday and only the o=hearts stop that line of thinking and I have no idea what Terra Land is suppose to be. As for the music, it exists. Don’t really have anything to say.

Verdict.

So there it is. The redone review of Blink the Bulb. Not one of the best but still one of the best free games on Steam.

7/10