I'm probably going to get some flak for this, but I'm probably in a group that just "doesn't get it".

Pretty darn okay. It's a blatant 8-bit reference right back to Zelda 2, Faxanadu and similar games, but slightly simplifed from even that. All characters have a single palette (blue, orange, green, red etc) and while this is a bit bland, it makes enemies and characters stand out great from the background. You never get surprised by an enemy out of nowhere (aside from sudden spawns outside screen while you are running) which is good. I'd say for the style they went for it's an a-ok for me.

Really good. Nice 8-bit style soundtrack with some really memorable tunes. Extremely well done. Only annoyance is that it keeps changing track everytime you go through a door (and you do that *a lot*) so it starts to feel very disjointed after a while.

Bog standard 8-bit platformer. Gives you some variety in that you can use different styled weapons, but I really never saw much use it using anything but the giant axe, as splatting everything in 1-2 hits is superiour (although not as fun) as going nuts with a dagger. The ranged spark weapon sounds like a great idea, but without massive investment in ammo, it's pretty darn poo. Also you get stuck with a sword in the end anyway.

Combat is about as simple as it gets, and with the very limited air control you have (even after the item that increases your air control) you can't do many fancy maneuvers so the up- and down-strike ends up barely ever being used in favor of just blindly mashing attack straight forward.

Subweapons are a nice addition, but generally never really come into play, aside from the upwards-spear type of weapon to clear sections where you need to move upwards, or to remove spitting enemies.

Platforming is sorta solid with very few gripes. There are occasions of you falling through platforms if you land at their edge. The sprite makes it looks like you would hit it, but you'll fall through as your hitbox is smaller than the sprite gives the impression of. There are multiple cases of areas where you will fall down without options to return, so even if you spot a secret area you cannot go back to seek it out, leading to you having to either die or replay the game to get back to that area. Not ideal.

Lots of these around, and almost every single one of them walk straight towards you and you can just mash attack to win easily. A few (like the ocular thing and the pink grub) requires some strategy, but beyond that they're a matter of spam attack, dodge the occasional attack.

Probably the most forgettable part about this game. Ultra-generic village-dude gets off on adventure, gets told off by friends that are "more cool" than him, ends up saving the world. I do appreciate that they changed the age old "your father's sword" and "your brother" with mother and sister. It's a welcome variety, but no less generic and bland. It's also hilariously short. I played through this game in less than two hours. I mean it wasn't expensive or anything but holy crap that's ... *really* short .

Eeeh maybe. If you're a hardcore fan of 8-bit style platformers this is not a bad two hours to throw away. At €6 it may just be worth it as it's cheaper than going to the movies. But overall I was left with a strong sense of "meh" after having finished it. There is nothing that makes me want to go back and play it again as the gameplay certainly wasn't good enough to warrant a replay.

My personal opinion is that it's far too generic and "lowest common denominator" as far as gameplay goes to be worth spending your time on. It's not a bad game, it's just incredibly generic.

Alucard from castlevania became an tech-elf and hero of this game?

That was my first impression as I play though this game. Same type of graphics, Same type of control, Same type of main weapon + Sub Weapon.

Jumping control of this game feels just right and small enemy are much more annoy then the boss/subboss of this game.

You start with 3 Hearts.(most enemy damge you by half heart each time) but you can gain more life as you defeat boss and get upgrades. The coin purse, secondary weapon stars and bomb quantity can also be upgraded as you proceed though this game.

What made this game difficult is the later level there are too many disapearing platform jumping + instant death pit and spikes. Since you can only autosave at the end of each stages it became quite annoy to lose life too quickly until you slowly learn the stages. Another minor things I don't like this game is the boss design and I believe it can be done much better.

7.5/10 would be my rating. Achivements didn't pop for me when i finished the game without steam connection last night so I will go back and play though everything again. Probablly won't do a speedrun since it takes too much level learning.

- If you haven't found this review helpful or if you have found a mistake please leave a comment below -
- If you want more reviews check my links at the end of this review -
- Note1 : I got this game on Humble Bundle inside the Yogscast Jingle Jam 2016 Bundle for $30 -

My Family Rating
Everyone (10+)
Game style
Action (+); Platformer (~); RPG (~);
Rating
Between Good & Must Play
Play time needed (perfect)
About an hour
Playthrough
One or Two.
Environnement
Linear levels
Controls
Keyboard or Controller
Gaming/Achievement level
Casual mostly
Size
About 140 Mo
Worth
Discounted Price


Pros
Awesome 8-Bit soundtrack (Gimme more)
Several ennemies and bosses
Nice equipments and figthing features
Speedrun and New Game +

Cons
No difficulty - Easy game
The game can be beaten in less than 30 minutes if you rush
Ennemies and bosses aren't a real threat

If you have played The Adventure of Link (AoL the 2D side-scrolling game), well it's like this universe but in a smaller world, not that polished and much shorter to finish. I recommend it while discounted if you like the 2D old school side-scrolling action games and also for its nice 8-bit soundtrack.


Story

As the young elf Vireo, you will heed the call of adventure: choose a weapon, choose a side, and rise to be the hero your city needs as a monstrous enemy approaches as well as a horde of monsters. Hopefully there are 2 factions that are the protectors of the city : The Gunmetal Vanguard for the Strength and Honor and the Seekers of Arcadia for the Intellect and Knowledge.

Graphics

As an Old-School player you may like the colorful pixelised 2D-side-scrolling.

Gameplay

As mostly any old 2D-side-scrolling adventure game, you will heed the call of adventure. beginning with a low health and a basic weapon.

At the near beginning you can choose your faction, and it have a few effect on the game actually. To describe the factions the Vanguard with the strenght are close combat fighters and the Seekers with the Intellect are for medium and long range combat.

Adding to that you can manage your inventory with equipments and items and can buy and sell stuff from various shopkeepers. You can earn coins by defeating foes, opening chests, destroying stuff and selling some worthy collectibles. And you can also find ammunitions, keys, bombs and sub-weapons. You can only have one sub-weapon at a time, and can swap it for a new one. All subweapons require ammunitions to be used as well as one peculiar weapon.
The story and game are set in 6 chapters which are more or less 10-15 minute long. (shorter if you rush) In each chapter you have a sub-boss at half of the level and a boss at the end. You game is saved after beating any sub-bosses or bosses. Each level have fighting, bosses and plaforming parts. You can die in two ways : from getting a fatal blow and by falling in spikes. If you die you loose one life and start over at the last checkpoint. (I think you have like 3 lives)Hopefully you can also feint death by Escaping during your death and loading again the game and so you won't lose any life.

Sounds, Music

If you have already loved some 8-bit musics in the past, you may also love that nice soundtrack of Gunmetal Arcadia. The sounds are nice too.

Achievements

There are mostly 3 kind of achievements : story related, factions and speedrun. Only the speedrun is a little challenging but not that much. You can check some speedrunners on internet : they rush the game taking advantage of one powerful subweapon to beat every bosses.


http://steamcommunity.com/groups/M123-GR

http://store.steampowered.com/curator/29521492/

Work In Progress
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=964304642

Initially made for Humble Bundle as a Humble Original by J. Kyle Pittman (known for Super Win the Game) and Minor Key Games, this game never crossed my radar. Perhaps this was due to the fact that I’m not a monthly subscriber to Humble Bundle or perhaps it appeals to just enough of a niche crowd that nobody I know that does subscribe caught it. Either way, I was sold after watching the trailer and bought the game immediately. Only afterward did I find out that Gunmetal Arcadia Zero technically serves as a prequel for the yet-to-be-released Gunmetal Arcadia (set to release on February 7, 2017).

The game is set in the city of Arcadia, amidst a conflict between the soldiers of a group known as the Gunmetal Vanguard and a league of scholars called the Seekers of Arcadia. You’re put in the shoes of a young elf named Vireo, who follows two elves from his village into combat against a monstrous force known as the Unmade. The plot, like most platformers of the generation Gunmetal is paying homage to, simply exists for you to know why you’re doing what you’re doing. There is no intricate plot with multiple endings or any of that nonsense, just a simple story to give the game a purpose. This may be due to the fact that this game serves as an intro to the universe and could change in the continuation of the series, but either way I do not see this as a negative.

Upon starting the game, I immediately noticed that it felt like a classic sidescroller. The controls were tight and responsive, but not too tight and responsive. It’s difficult to put into words, but old school platformers could only achieve a certain level of precision and this game nails it. For me, part of the charm of a platformer is figuring out how that game specifically feels and in the age of near-perfect controls, it’s become a rarity. Accordingly, I was elated to have to take a moment to get a feel for Gunmetal.

But the tributes to older platformers don’t stop there. Visually, the game is a throwback as well. Beyond just having the retro style, Gunmetal also boasts a customizable CRT mode that makes the game look like it came out of the same era that brought us Castlevania and Zelda II: The Adventure of Link. I didn’t spend much time customizing the settings but was able to find a preset that reminded me of the old CRT I started playing video games on and stuck with that for the rest of my playthrough. I’ve played other retro-themed games that have tried to pull this off, but Gunmetal is by far the best I’ve seen. CRT mode isn’t your thing? No worries, it’s totally optional.

The gameplay itself is exactly what you would expect from a game in this genre and while that might sound like I’m writing it off as average, believe me, I’m not. Platformers suffer from a few different problems. There are some where the gameplay itself stays the same throughout and accordingly gets stale. In other cases, the difficulty ramps up too quickly and makes it unenjoyable for players who aren’t total sadists. With Gunmetal, the difficulty ramps up almost perfectly. The first couple of stages are simple enough to get you acquainted, while still presenting a challenge. Then, as you get more familiar with the game, it starts throwing stronger enemies and more challenging stages your way. To make sure you’re better suited to handle this increasing difficulty, you’re also able to purchase upgrades that allow higher jumping, more damage with your weapon of choice, or give you more bombs and secondary weapons.

On that note the secondary weapons, which are ranged, may very well be my favorite part of the game. I’m a big Castlevania fan and the secondary weapons in Gunmetal are remarkably similar. You’re given “ammunition” that dictates how many uses your secondary weapon has. You can then obtain items that change its trajectory. Some of the options include a dagger that flies in a straight line and an axe that is thrown at an arc. I found myself thinking about which was most appropriate to use at multiple points in my playthrough and all are viable options depending on the circumstances.

The soundtrack while not necessarily remarkable, does its job well. Each song serves its purpose as a backdrop for the level without becoming annoying or repetitive. I only found myself getting tired of a song when I’d gotten stuck on a level, but that’s on me for being bad. I can’t think of any tracks that struck me as memorable, but each track fits exactly where it’s supposed to and sometimes that’s all you need.

Overall, Gunmetal Arcadia Zero is an enjoyable experience for any fan of side scrolling platformers. While it doesn’t exactly break any new ground, it’s packed with everything I look for in this kind of game: tight controls, challenging gameplay, hidden areas, and 8-bit, nostalgia-laced fun. I’m very excited to see where this series goes and will be counting down the days until Gunmetal Arcadia comes out on February 7th.

Being a big fan of You Have to Win the Game and Super Win the Game (I've got 60 hours into it and have speedrun it many times) I was apprehensive about trying a game that appeared to control like Zelda II. My apprehension was assuaged soon after playing the demo. As usual with J. Kyle Pittman's games, the controls are as tight as can be, the character's velocity and friction feel just right, and the general difficulty ramps up at a nice gradual pace unlike games like Shovel Knight.

The graphics and soundtrack are even more reminiscent of NES games than his prior games, and the songs are so catchy I'm glad to have purchased the bundle with the soundtrack. The game offers a new game+ replay, where enemies take progressively more hits with each subsequent playthrough. A speedrun mode is also available that not only runs a tmer for you, it performs the splits for you as well. For Mac players with far fewer options for speedrun timers, this is a welcome addition, and one I personally hope will be patched into Super Win as well.

My only criticism is regarding the speedrun mode. Once you've run the game enough, you know when you need to bail on a run and start over, but this is a little more cumbersome than it seems it should be. The player needs to exit the current game and delete the save file. This, unfortunately, also deletes your PB on that save file. This means that in order to retain your PB you need to complete every run.

Overall, an amazing game and a great intro to the mechanics for the upcoming Gunmetal Arcadia.

Feels like an old school 2d action game. A lot like The Adventure of Link, but not nearly as brutal. Lots of different weapons and some secondary weapons Ninja Gaiden style. Also the CRT simulator from Super Win The Game is back, and it really completes the retro feel.

Great game, will totally tide you over until Gunmetal Arcadia comes out.

Really well put together 2D action adventure in the style or Zelda II: The Adventure of Link or Battle of Olympus.

Clearly made with love, care and respect for the NES!

A rough quest.

Story:

You play as Vireo. A tech elve he finds himself called by an adventure when your kingdom is attacked by an enemy which is called The Unmade Empire. Feeling the need to help your people, Vireo grabs his mother sword from the basement and sets out to defeat the enemy.

That's the basic gist of the plot and overall it's incredibly mediocre. The thing is for the amount of game there is, there's quite a ton of storytelling and it's all just incredibly light and not very interesting. Every character you meet just babbles on and on and says nothing interesting. It's quite disappointing, cause there's an interesting set up with a kingdom being divided and just nothing really done with it.

Graphics:

Gunmetal Arcadia Zero visually goes for the classic NES style akin to The Legend of Zelda 2 and I really enjoyed the visual art style. It nails it's 8-bit aesthetic and there's genuinely cool designs for both levels and characters, but one thing I'm not too huge on is the color grading.

Not to say this game doesn't have color, quite the opposite. Vireo is bright orange and there's quite a lot of nice colorful designs for both levels and enemies, however the grading itself is sort of drab, almost like it tried to emulate the feel of it being on a CRT screen, but overall I just felt that they just should have made the colors pop a bit more.

Audio:

Just like graphics, the audio design is made with that 8-bit limitation in mind and I quite enjoyed it, but it could have been much much better. One thing I think of NES action games is the fast paced tracks, stuff like Ninja Gaiden immediately comes to mind as one of my favorites and the music here is rather the opposite, even though I did like quite a few tracks.

The sound effects are pretty good and I really enjoyed how the game felt like it could easily be an NES rom game, Don't expect anything incredibly detailed, it's all charming sound pops, like mini explosions, just not grading to ears. I think they definitely nail what they went for.

Gameplay:

This is where the game is an incredible mixed bag for me. I mentioned The Legend of Zelda 2 before and that is what this game reminds me off, except not as difficult. Gunmetal Arcadia Zero is basically a 2D action platformer where you side scroll, fight enemies and explore environments for items.

It's very slow paced, but I quite enjoyed it, but the more I played the more issues I noticed, but let's start off with the positives. The gameplay is pretty fun, I really enjoyed the right amount of difficulty with bosses and levels themselves, never really felt like it was annoying to go through.

Combat although incredibly basic works well and the hitboxes are for the most part pretty responsive. I wish it could have been a little more than just attack with a few different type of weapons like ranged and close, but I felt like it worked well for the most part.

But the one thing that really made my time with the game a chore was the really stiff controls. A lot of times it felt like my character would simply lock in place and not do what I tell him, this was especially annoying during the platforming sections and some boss fights.

Also the level design is incredibly bland. It just sort of feels like you're going through the same type of levels over and over and then the game just sort of ends. There is a bit variety, but not enough to make each level be a standout which is incredibly disappointing.

Verdict:

Personally while I didn't hate Gunmetal Arcadia Zero, I didn't love it either. It's just okay and I think I'd rate this somewhere in the middle. There's some interesting ideas and the presentation is really good, but it just sort of fails at sticking the landing. I'd only recommend this on a sale only.

Final Rating:
6/10

Pros:
+ Really cool visual art style
+ Audio design matches the NES style well
+ Gameplay is pretty fun

Cons:
- Incredibly stiff controls
- Story is incredibly bland
- Soundtrack is rather disappointing
- Level design isn't that great

If you liked this review please consider joining https://steamcommunity.com/groups/completingthebacklog and https://steamcommunity.com/groups/ImperialReviews

It really hurts to give this a negative review because I love this dev's "win the game" series so much - I consider them among my favourite games of all times.
This game, Gunmetal Arcadia Zero, however, I just isn't nearly up to his standard. I'm used to level design from this dev so tight it crackles, with a sophisticated, interwoven metroidvania layout and satisfying and at times hard-as-nails platforming. This game, in contrast, is as linear as it gets, with simplistic and boring level design. The mechanics, largely borrowed from one of my other favourite games Zelda II, aren't given much room and feel under-utilised.
The game is very short, the lives mechanic is uneccessary and annoying, there's few secrets and what secrets there are are easy to find and contain nothing interesting.
Sorry Mr. Pittman. I really hope Gunmetal Arcadia is better...

Look, I'm sorry. I gave the game a chance, and that's all I'll give this game.
I do like the "Win the Game" series from this same developer, much like some of the other reviewers here.

I will also agree that this game isn't up to the same quality standards as his other works, and this is most certainly not worth the $6 price tag. It's missing some much-needed polish to make this fun to play, unlike something akin to Zelda 2, to which this game takes inspiration from.

I do like Zelda 2, contrary to some, but this doesn't really fulfill the same things Zelda 2 does/did/aspired to be. I see the potential, but it is not utilized here. This does not make me want to purchase the full Gunmetal Arcadia, and I am rather disappointed in that.

If the game felt more fun to play, or perhaps wasn't as uninspired, I might have a different outlook. I respect the developer for trying, but I would not recommend giving this a go. If you want to see what he can do, go play Super Win the Game. It's far superior by the same man, and your money is much better spent with that, than this.