Crim's Humble Opinion Curator

This retro-esque action adventure platformer is a nice and fresh feeling game to emerge out of the endless amount of retro titles on steam. Take over the role of Ravva a young summoner. After Ravva's mother is turned to stone by a cyclops you take the journey to find a way to break the curse. This game has a great balance of difficulty to it. Not overwhelmingly hard and not too easy. You have a health meter that can be refilled by finding secrets that can drains quickly, but you have infinite continues. You have a variety of powerups that you can cycle through that help to clear obstacles or find secrets. The game feels about right in length for the price. There are only ten stages but mastering them might take you a bit longer than you think. If you are having trouble with the titles retro gameplay; there is a kids mode which allows you to play with infinite lives. The music is fun and fitting and the cutscenes are cute.

There are two ways to explore this world. You can slowly go through finding each power up, extra hit, and hidden rainbow stars for maximum points; or you can try to go for no damage speed runs. Two of the harder achievements to obtain is to finish a stage with a score of 50k+ and discover the alternate ending. This can essentially be done in a coupling with a really good speedrun or really good exploration run. I don't have any real cons with this one. A hold to attack opposed to a press to attack would have been nice for longevity for my controller health but it's nothing major.

I played two exploration runs and it took me around three hours to get all achievements and find secrets. For the low price it is worth the experience so I can easily recommend this one.

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Ravva and the Cyclops Curse is a short indie game featuring retro-style puzzle platforming that is quite fun to go through. There are some fun puzzles to work through. The game is all about learning your way through the levels before being able to play through them well. The game is fun and super cheap, which is just as well because the game does not take very long to get through. Once you learn the different secrets within the levels, then it will be up to you to try to score high while still staying alive.

The game gives you the different types of attacks/weapons that you will need to make your way through the individual puzzle stages. The game requires you to shuffle through them all of the time and this can get rather bothersome. For me it took some time to get used to the set order of all of the powers, and eventually I became accustomed enough that it as less deliberately thoughtful just to use the one that I wanted to.

Overall though the game is quite cheap (base $2.99 USD) and fun; the simple stages, mechanics, and short levels make it reasonable for you to keep trying until you have perfected everything. I made a blind first-look video of my first take on the game, and you can see I was clearly having a good time. Once I learned how to make my way through a level, it was all about trying my best to move on and show you a bit of the next stage. (Please ignore my Steam-logged time because I played a few more hours offline while I was out of town to complete the game.)

Video here:
https://youtu.be/brhE0agkwKs

Predictable movement speed (single-speed), with a set number of different powers with all reproducible outcomes, with predictable jumps and enemy movement patterns make everything a learning process in this game. Once you learn the best way to go about doing something, then it's all about doing it correctly.

There is a certain amount of difficulty in getting everything right, as always, and it's interesting to find out after you have done the same thing in the same level several times that there's another way that is easier to go about it. The game saves progress so levels that you have beaten are saved.

The game features a pretty extensive tutorial that teaches you all that you need, and I would recommend playing through the tutorial at first.

There are 3 game filters, so if you can't stand the traditional look and feel of scanlines, you can just give yourself a smoother picture.

A Kids Mode allows you to play with disregard for deaths, so if the repeated dying and needing to reset bothers you, you can just turn this on and still play through the game.

Works perfectly well on a gamepad and I would definitely recommend it for any kind of retro-style games to stick with one. It just feels right to be playing a NES-inspired game with a gamepad using a few of the buttons. As some others have mentioned, it would be nice to have a continuous hold-to-shoot instead of needing to tap again and again.

Retro-style with 3 different display option. Artwork looks nice and there are quite a few enemy designs within a short game.

Music is pretty nice for a small indie title.

Indie gamers and retro-style game enthusiasts will definitely enjoy this game. Plus, if you want another game to try your hand at speedrunning, this could be that next game.

Completely reasonable at $2.99 USD base.

+Great tribute to the traditional NES games with a friendly mode that does allow the player to explore without worrying about dying
+Predictable mechanics allows for progressive learning and improvement in game progress through a series of steps
+Achievements that are not too easy, but not too difficult to manage
+Well-priced
+Well-designed puzzles that will make you think about progression, yet still simple enough to not at all feel too challenging
+Different display options
+Nice artwork, cute cut-scenes, and a pleasant story

-Continual tapping to fire may be improved.
-Secret finding got a little tedious, especially in the beginning when familiarizing myself with the controls. It felt that in order to not miss anything, I had to look everywhere and every-when and it artificially dragged on for a bit longer before I started to just move forward a bit.
-I think it would have been preferable to map different keys to the different abilities, so that you don't have to continously switch. It took a while before this felt more natural.

Ravva and the Cyclops Curse is a fun and short retro-style puzzle-platforming that will keep you on your toes for several hours, trying to find all of the secrets, learning the levels, and to try your best to maximize your scores. It's pleasant to look at, and if you grew up in the NES/FC era, you will feel right at home with the default graphic options. But you can also change the display settings to look more modern but still maintain that old-school aesthetic. The game is about learning the levels first then getting through them in a way that you wish. For a cheap price, you will have quite a bit of fun with this game.

I received the product for free. I did not receive any compensation to write this review. The opinions represented here are entirely my own and were not influenced in any way.

Ravva and the Cyclops Curse is a neat little puzzle adventure game in the same vein as Kero Blaster. And in many ways this is actually a score chaser because the real goal is to find all the secrets and maximize your score in each level. The game proper is quite short if you just want to get through it, but again that isn't really the point. I would describe the mechanics as kind of inverse MetroidVania, because instead of exploring to find powers to allow further exploration - you start with all the powers and need to choose which one to use to overcome obstacles and continue on.

I would describe the whole affair as 'simple', albeit satisfying. The pixel artwork is charming, and nothing ever gets rage-inducing - which is refreshing in it's own right. I do have a few nit-picks. I wish I could hold down the button to autofire instead of tediously pressing for each shot. I also find using the bumpers to scroll through my powers tedious at times. Finally, sometimes the rules contradict themselves a bit; you can freeze some of the smiley spikes, but not the moving ones. Obviously this is intentional, but a better way to do this would be to have a different smiley face to clearly show a difference.

Pros:
+Fun little puzzle adventure game that has replayability if you aim to maximize your score
+The artwork is charming and crisp
+Nice layer of polish with a good tutorial and some screen filter options
+It's fun and the price-point is more than fitting
+Universe setting feels unique, and I value that

Cons:
-I wish I could just hold down the button to autofire
-Sometimes cycling through the powers gets tedious when things are more frantic

Easily worth full price for those that are into bitesize adventure games.

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If there’s one thing we came to appreciate in today’s video-game industry, it’s the huge amount of indie developers from all over the world working and publishing their games. Despising the genre, in the past years, games have been reaching out to most people through Steam and several other digital distribution stores, including those old school-inspired titles that we all love!

Ravva and the Cyclops Curse is an appreciation piece of work, dedicated to those classic gamers who first got their hands on a NES and enjoyed those 8-bits like they were the most amazing thing in the world. Today, 8-bits bring many of us nostalgic memories of enjoyment, but also an opportunity for new generations fall in love with those colorful 2D visuals, and simple yet complex gameplay. If anything, Ravva and the Cyclops Curse is more recommended to newcomers rather than those classic hardcore gamers, but all alike will definitely love this title.

Ravva is just a small child summoner, but already strong, strong enough to follow his mother's footsteps and becoming powerful. Like every good story, evil always finds a way to disrupt a happy family. The Cyclops Lord, a fearsome creature emerges to deliver chaos and the poor summoner was barely any match for the beast, who unleashed a curse, turning her into stone. Now, it’s up to little Ravva, to save his mother and possibly the world.

Ravva and the Cyclops Curse doesn’t need a huge deep concept of storytelling, but still delivers the necessary background, just like in the old days, where gameplay was definitely the main reason to pick any game, expecting large doses of platforming action! Players can jump straight into the main adventure, or complete a tutorial, that will introduce the most basic functions, using our cute companions as faithful guides.

Little Ravva’s adventure won’t be complete without his trustful minions, a pack of strong and special creatures, each with a unique powerful talent. These summons can throw elementary projectiles, such as fire or ice, but also a green toxic slime that happens to be my favorite. There’s even one to spot hidden secrets, now that’s surely handy! Players travel across the map through 10 different stages, in three distinct areas; The Forests, Deserts and Dungeons, before reaching to the very final Boss, located in his evil Castle. Each stage is not particularly large, but has some hidden secrets that may extend your stay in each one.

Gameplay itself is fluid and simple, players move Ravva and select different power-ups (which are unlocked from the very beginning) to traverse through the level, or just unlock secrets to earn extra coins or massive bonus points. At the final of each stage, there’s a score, which sums the total amount of coins collected, enemies killed and time saved. That’s right, there’s a timer, but don’t worry, if the timer goes out, you just lose a life and carry on. Isn’t that nice? Not like those old school arcade machines that ate all your lunch money.

Little Ravva can also upgrade his shooting skills, with a more powerful one, which can and will be handy to fight big monsters. Although there are only two bosses, some beefy enemies will surely test your jumping and shooting skills. As expected, jumping and platforming is an important part of the game, but it’s completely fluid and very responsive, which is always a pleasant factor in any game, but more specifically in 2D side-scrolling ones. Dying is still a part of the endurance, and although there are some lives scattered around the levels, it’s still a challenge not to underestimate.

Developed with Unity, players have the choice to select the desired resolution, enable V-Sync and even Window or Fullscreen mode. In-Game options are more basic and not so technical. Gameplay is overall a nice surprise for those who aren’t used to 2D gaming, and since there’s a “Kid Mode” available, will be perfect for those who have young gamers at home, you might want to teach them what real games are all about!

Visually, it’s 8-bits to the core, but in a new wave of high quality and good taste. Very strong colors, portraying each stage and area, but thanks to the design of each level, they are easily distinguished, even for someone playing in just 30 minutes. Well constructed levels, with interesting and challenging platforms with a pleasant color palette that comes as a nostalgic wave for any retro fan out there.

Cutscenes are done within the same style, maintaining its original idea of 8-bit generation, but with all the convenience of 16:9, looking absolutely amazing. It’s the simplicity of its details that shine through the pixilated art, in which we all grew so fond of. There are no in-game voices, but text and subtitles are translated in 10 different languages, including English, Portuguese, Chinese, Russian, Polish, and others!

Soundtrack for Ravva and the Cyclops Curse doesn’t come with a surprise, considering how developers treated this game, with passion and care, but it’s just surprisingly good to see indie developers supporting just amazing tunes in their games. At some point, we all expect classic retro tunes, but still, here we have an impressive new age of retro melodies, in an amazingly well produced soundtrack which will get stuck in your head, in a good way. Very melodic, with fluidity and doesn’t add up to whole stressful in-game pressure, but still delivers that emotional kick when the melody kicks in!

Ravva and the Cyclops Curse is an extremely well done Arcade-style 2D action adventure game, with a 3 to 4 hour experience, depending on each one skills, but nonetheless, remarkable as a cute and fun experience, that will most likely make you go back for more!

Ravva harkens back to the day of 8-bit platforming. Now, I know, another 8 bit platformer on Steam, right? Well, this game stands high above the flood. It's controls are solid, it's aesthetic is spot on, I literally have 0 complaints with Ravva. Pick it up.

Gameplay/Review:
https://youtu.be/9AVVrnBiHtE

Love the 8bit Style,

Could use more then one song in-game but other then that it was quite a fun quick game to play

Did you grow up in the NES/SNES era, nearly drowning in platformers? Me too!

I wasn't sure what to expect going into Ravva and the Cyclops Curse, but I've come out of it with a lot of love for a game that I wasn't sure I'd play very long. Yea, 43 hours as of this review, oops, I guess. I regret nothing.

It's $2.99 and one of the best looking, sounding, and playing retro platformers you'll find on Steam or anywhere else.

...so buy it, you dip.

Update: 161 hours clocked in now. In case you were wondering if it was still good, it is. You should totally pick it up.

Update: 182 hours in and just reaffirming, yep, still good! G'on, pick it up!

I'm pretty surprised by the potential with this game. It's pretty short, say an hour for a run if you take your time? But it's got a bit of replayability to it if you're going for the achievements or a high score. Once you've learnt the game (And you're going to have to because it's a pretty tough game until you learn patterns and timings.) the way you play is quite different.

Your first time, you'll be best served taking your time to scan for secrets with the yellow eye shot and nabbing powerups and spare lives while you progress through the levels. The time limit is generous to the point where it's rare you'll hit double digits even combing each level for hidden things so there is no rush except for the sake of points. Speaking of which you'll need 500,000+ of them by the end of the last level if you want to be able to find the secret ending.

After you've learned most of the patterns and layouts though, the game becomes a pretty legitimate little speedrunning game. It's very much possible to get a huge high score just by beating levels without taking a hit, as perfect clears give you 4x the timer points compared to a normal clear. There's even a little thing where the timer at the top is coloured yellow while you've gone unharmed, so you know you're still in the runnings. Little details like that, and the colourful animations and responsive controls are what tell me that this is a game made by devs with pride and love in their work.


Overall I'd say this is a fine little platformer with great potential for a sequel and speedrun/highscore capabilities. I know I'm going to be challenging that butt TemmieNeko to another race at it, that's for sure. :3

One of the worst platformers i have ever played. The basic movement feels off, it feels floaty and the one tiny jump they give you is not very satisfying. The combat is not much better, switching your powers is slow and tedious, and the game basically spams monsters that keep spawning until you can find the hidden way to stop the spam.

Yes you read that right, hidden. The worst part about the the game is that it literally hides half the game from you, you are supposed to constantly use your scanner to reveal platforms, powerups or coins.


If i want to search for hidden powerups and platforms and get bombarded by enemy spam i can go and play mario maker instead.

Don't get fooled by the low price of this gem, this is an awesome game for everyone who had the oportunity to live the NES ages. The retro artstyle and color pallete, soundtrack and sound effects, the simple yet challenging playstyle, and the balance between a short but solid score-based game will give you that nostalgic feeling we all love. However, I'm not only recommending Ravva to oldschool gamers but also for newcomers looking for a little challenge.
The game is well sharpened and smooth in all aspects, can run on any old computer, it's compatible with generic gamepads (you can play on the keyboard/mouse if you want though), it's speedrun friendly, has decent achievements, supports 10 languages and the devs are always attentive to the community opinions and thoughts. Totally recommended.