This is how Pang Adventures should have been done!
Great animations, gameplay and sounds.
Excellent character and level design.

9.5/10

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When viewing the trailers for Juanito Arcade Mayhem (JAM), I saw the various game styles being utilized, yet wasn't sure what the base mechanics were. I thought it would be like skimming through an 80's arcade, but that wasn't quite how this title plays. Despite not being what I had in mind, I found this to be a solid game.


This is a shooter where enemies rain down from above, while you blast straight up, only able to move left and right. I've seen a few games take this approach, but don't think there's a specific term for this style. Having a limited axis to move makes dodging more difficult, yet it doesn't reach the challenge of truly precarious, split-second mayhem. Something that helps with this is how stages have set patterns and triggers, as some stages only spawn more enemies after you finish off previous waves, while others appear after a set time limit. Your other source for help comes from power-ups you unlock after beating each world. These include the ability to charge the gun more, and enemies dropping power-ups, like a shield, and temporary invincibility.

There's two game modes available, Story and Survival. Both of these have three difficulty levels, and allow you to play either alone, or with a friend. Survival Mode specifically changes its spawn system for two players. Also, I think Story Mode spawns more enemies during coop, though I'm not positive about that. As you play through Story Mode, you'll clear eight worlds based on popular, old-school franchises. All of them add new obstacles and features you'll have to overcome. For instance, the Pong stages make you play while a Pong match takes place in the background, with the ball able to harm both you, and the enemies. Other franchises change how enemies work, such as the Snow Bros. world, where enemies get covered in a defensive layer of snow, obscuring what type they are until it's broken off. This mechanic helps change the pace between worlds, and is a nice reference to classic games.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2128691438
You have the option to play with either a controller or keyboard, and I sided with the controller. There's not much to the controls, as you move around, tap the fire button to shoot, hold it down to build up a charged shot, and activate a short-distance dash slide you'll need to dodge enemies and bullets. Since charging your shot uses the same input as rapid-firing your weapon, you might inadvertently mix the two up. It's something I got used to with time, especially due to how useful charge shots are. If you fire a fully-charged shot at the larger enemies, they won't split into smaller blobs like normal, effectively destroying all of them in one blast.


Like most arcade games, there isn't much of a story, but at least this title has something. For whatever reason, a young boy is bosom buddies with an alien, who seems to have similar tastes in games. I wonder if he likes Space Invaders. This shows up at the start and end, with some references to it in boss fights. It leaves open the possibility for a sequel, and I'd really like to see what they do with the premise here in another title. Just thinking about all arcade classics to take inspiration from, it could be fun to see them contrast retro gaming against modern conventions.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2128691661
The visuals for the game are crisp, vibrant, and colorful. Even the Pong world doesn't revert to a black and white motif, but uses a blue/green gradient for the background. Many of the visuals are based on simple shapes, such as the circular enemies, but everything looks great. As they recreated the different releases they were referencing, nothing looked uncanny, or out of place. At times, the screen would be cluttered with enemies, projectiles, stage hazards, and different effects going on, but I never noticed any lag.


From what I can tell about the soundtrack, they took a foundation song, and slightly altered it to resemble the music from each world. This is done primarily through the use of notable sound effects and riffs. Personally, I think the one from Pac-Man most resembles the arcade classic. The unfortunate side effect of this is that though enjoyable, it's hard to tell songs apart, as using similar instrumentation to build the beat leads to the songs bleeding into one another. Furthermore, listening to the songs one after the other, I'm fairly certain their tempos were all very close to each other. It might have been nice to have music that was more distinct from one another, but I like the soundtrack regardless. Switching to the sound effects, I think they're all well-suited for the game. All of them sound like what I'd expect from an arcade cabinet. Laser bullets have a 'pew' to them, slimy enemies go 'splat,' etc.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2128692348
🌟 With the combination of power-ups and enemy variety, the game feels well-balanced, while also providing a solid challenge on hardcore mode.
🌟 A key advantage to playing coop is that if your ally dies, you can stay near their corpse for a few seconds, and revive them with one HP.


❌ It's not exactly clear what the requirements are to get three stars on a stage; it seems to be as simple as getting a high enough score, but I've played stages more than a few times, seemingly the same way, and gotten different results before.
❌ There's no way to know how far into a stage you are, and since their length varies, it's hard knowing if you're close to the end, or only halfway through.
❌ I recommend turning the screen shaking off, because all of the color flashes can be hard on the eyes.


🔍 You can earn three stars by playing on casual mode, which I highly recommend, because even when I'd play it on hardcore, without taking any damage, sometimes I'd only get two stars.
🔍 Survival Mode works like the main stages, in the sense that specific enemies drop at predetermined times. If you know what to expect next, you can prepare for it.
🔍 Many bosses are more survival-based instead of requiring you to destroy them, so if you get stuck, focus your effort on dodging, not fighting.


I installed this game primarily for the coop experience, and I'm glad I did. Due to its short length, we basically beat it within a weekend, but in spite of some annoyances, we both enjoyed ourselves. The ability to revive one another made the game less frustrating, as other coop experiences allow the one still alive to keep playing, while the other has to sit and watch. Having earned all the achievements, there's not much reason for me to play anymore, but for a while, JAM was my jam. I believe this title was built on a foundation of true admiration for arcade classics, which makes a huge difference, and is why I recommend this game without hesitation.

This game is full of retro-culture things about movie and videogames with typical gameplay from the game named PANG. A little pearl of the category I like to call NEW RETRO.

Questo gioco è pieno di riferimenti alla cultura retro di film e videogames con il tipico gameplay del videogioco PANG. Una piccola perla della categoria che mi piace chiamare NEW RETRO.

If you like Bubble Trouble... you will LOVE Juanito Arcade Mayhem !!

You play as Juanito (obviously) who gets "teleported" into different games.. games that are infected. Your job is to get rid of the infection.
If you (not juanito.. YOU..) are not too young.. you will immediately recognize some.. if not all of juanito's games.
The main goal is the same, but each world (every world has 10 levels) has it's own set of gimmicks.
In Pillman you eat yellow power-ups which will scare the clonocells.
In Snow Sises you will face a horde of frozen clonocells.
In Blockits you must find and eliminate the infection while avoiding some familiar looking shapes that are trying to squish you.. for no apparent reason.

Sure.. you can't complete this tasks witouth some help. You have different power-ups at your disposal.. but sadly.. you can't use them whenever you want.. they are.. dropped (randomly) after killing clonocells. You will unlock different power-ups as you progress further into the game. I find the number of power-ups.. just the right amount.. not to many.. not to few. However.. which power-up you get and when... is totally random.. so you will not always get what you want.. or need :))

I don't wanna drag this to much. So what I liked and what I didn't.

+ The worlds themselves. (Brings back old memories)
+ Each "world" gimmicks. (Maybe.. Wonderworld.. not so much.. I hate that kid :D)
+ The pace of the game. (Quick and funny.. and frustrating at times IF and only IF you wanna get 3 stars all the time)
+ Level X. There are like boss fights but not really..
+ Survival Co-Op (You even have the option to "revive" your brother in arms by standing enough time near him)
+ Power-ups


- No really a BAD thing.. but it would have been nice to have a Co-Op campaign as well.
- Maybe if you had the option to store one or two power-ups in order to use them at the right time.

Well.. that's about it. Cheers !! :)

Arcade Mayhem Juanito is a throwback to the classic games of the 80's and saturday morning cartoons.

Story:

You play as Juanito, who is playing games with his pet alien. When a beam strikes their house and the video games are invaded by bugs, so you have to go inside them and save them. That's the basic set up for the story and it's definitely not the most important part of the game, the game doesn't even have that many cutscenes, but for the most part it works.

Graphics:

The art style is absolutely amazing and is my favorite part of the game. The animation takes after cartoons and honestly with how fluid the animation, I was legit impressed since this is an indie game. There was a ton of effort that went into the art and I loved it.

Everything from the level designs, to the character inspirations and the actual animations I loved it all, however the only minor negative I have about this is the enemy blob designs. I know there's not much you can do to make these designs stand out, but their design was quite lacking, but with how good all the art is, this might come off as a minor nitpick of mine.

Audio:

Each world is themed with a certain game and the music is also a throwback to that particular game. Most tracks are really catchy especially the Tetris one which captures the tone of the original tetris theme and gives it it's own spin.

The only minor nitpick is the blaster noise which does get a little draining on the ears after playing for a while. The other power up weapons also sound kind of weak, but other than that I enjoyed the audio design.

Gameplay:

Ever played Buster Bros, Pang or Bubble Trouble ? Well Arcade Mayhem Juanito is very much like those games. You control Juanito on a 2D plain and every so often blobs will start dropping in and you have to destroy them and the more you progress the harder it becomes. Unlike the other games Juanito has some different gameplay mechanics to keep the game fun as you progress through it's 80 levels or so, like including a dashing mechanic to avoid enemies landing on your head.

Every world that is themed after a different game has it's own gameplay twists to keep things fresh. For example in the tetris world the tetris blocks will drop from the sky, in the Pac-Man themed world you can go into one side of the level and come out the other. Most of these don't change up the gameplay that much, but a few them become annoying, especially slippery walking on the ice level.

Some enemies will drop power ups and it will give you a different type of weapon like a flamethrower which one hits most enemies, but you have very little ammo for it. Also at the end of each world you fight a boss and these bosses for the most part these bosses are easily the worst parts of the game. They are often either way too easy or way too difficult. The Pong boss especially is really poorly designed and required a lot of luck to get through, but it never detracted my fun I had with the game.

Verdict:

Arcade Mayhem Juanito is absolutely a hidden gem among the heaps of trash Steam has to offer. It's gone under the radar and honestly for the price you can have a blast with this game. It's fun and there's a ton of love that went into making this game, so I highly suggest checking it out.

Final Rating:
8/10

Pros:
+ Absolutely amazing art style
+ Incredibly fun gameplay
+ Soundtrack is catchy

Cons:
- Boss fights are pretty bad
- Some of the world mechanics are more annoying than fun

NOTE: This game was reviewed with a code provided by the Developer/Publisher for the group Imperial Reviews. This did not impact my opinion on the game.

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

An absolutely fantastic game, so much fun I couldn't put it down had to have that one more go.

Well-made I suppose, but too luck-based for this sort of game. Too many times I lost a life to things that felt unavoidable, such as random falling blocks edging me into a corner or an enemy that fired a shot across the width of the screen. With no way to jump and a dash that doesn't let you avoid damage. In other hard arcade games such as most shmups, when I die I feel like I can at least see what I should've done if my skill or reflexes had been up to it. Not so here. The drop rate of powerups and extra lives also seems very random.

Game is awesome retro fun, anyone older than 30 should buy this game for few bucks and have some fun with games from their youth. Younger players should buy it to see what we were playing with in those Dark Ages of home computing. 3 suggestions for developer: option to skip intros for the bosses, auto fire while holding button (my hands are literally in pain after playing the game), make game work with generic controllers as this is the ONLY game I can't play with my generic controller, other games just work or work with emulator www.x360ce.com/default.aspx. Pls pls do it, it shouldn't be hard. Other than that, give us some DLCs to play with.

Boycott steam until they remove censorship which leads to 1984: https://steamcommunity.com/games/593110/announcements/detail/1808664240333155775

Somehow I knew i would love this game too much.

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Juanito Arcade Mayhem:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This is a call to all gamers! The Clonocells have started their invasion and have infected our classic arcade games. It can’t be happening, we need to do something! Can someone help . . . Anybody? You, what’s your name, young man? Juanito! Well get on with it before it’s too late. This is going to be Juanito Arcade Mayhem!

Juanito Arcade mayhem is an action / 2D arcade game where you control Juanito and his Alien friend, Gluk (in local Co-op), and your goal is to save eights classic arcade games (parody) which have been infected by the Clonocells Mutants.
I have to tell you up front, this game is a gem. It’s fun, fast, addictive and bloody hard! As I mentioned above, you have to save eight arcade classics by being teleported within the arcade machine. All world names are parodies of famous and classic games. Pillman, for example is the almighty Pacman and Arkadroid is one of my favourite games of all time, Arkanoid. Each of the worlds have ten stages to clear, including a boss fight. That will give you eighty levels to beat and plenty of replay-ability. You must collect as many points as possible and avoid losing any health (hearts) so you can score three golden stars at the end of each level. These stars are extremely important as you will need to have a certain number of stars to unlock the next world.

There are different types of Clonocells. The basic ones are green balls, and they can be small (easy to destroy), medium or large. The other ones shoot projectiles from different directions; the yellow one shoots one projectile downward, the blue shoots two projectiles diagonally and the purple is a combination of the first two. You can imagine having six of these at once on the screen and it is absolute Mayhem for our poor Juanito! Speaking of him, what does he use to fight these aliens? A tiny laser which can shoot one shot at the time. However, our dear friend can dash his way around the screen shooting like a madman until a power up comes down. Well, you’ll have to shoot at one of these big balls and manage a combo to hopefully get one power up. He can gain hearts too, and boy, he needs them! Depending on which difficulty you’re playing, death can come quickly as you have only four hearts available at the start of each stage. Quite simply, Juanito will lose a heart when he is hit. That’s right - four hits and your dead, so grab these hearts as soon as you can!

The 2D graphics are fabulous and well-polished. Soundtracks are from the original arcade games. Control-wise, they are extremely responsive, either with the keyboard or a gamepad.

Positives:
~~~~~~~

- Great, polished 2D graphics
- Super fun, superfast and super addictive
- 8 Worlds with 80 levels to beat
- Original Soundtrack
- Great controls
- Stack of achievements
- Trading cards

Negatives:
~~~~~~~~

- Can be frustrating if you get stuck on the same level for a while

I was absolutely blown away by this game – it’s just a GEM! Now let me back to it!

9/10

Key provided by developer/publisher for review purposes. Any opinions expressed are entirely my own!

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