Reviews - Thexder

On my 3rd level on Standard Difficulty, I figured this game was too hard for my old bones. But once I switched to Novice, I actually started to have fun; the game still requires some hard moves, but now there are so many checkpoints, you feel you are facing only one challenge at a time. I was still missing too many tricky double jumps, but a little persistence got me to "The End?".

Thing is, the game has directional controls, a "jump" button and an "action" button -- that's it. The action button may attack, or dash, or dash-attack, or kick to the side, or kick upwards, or kick-flip a switch, all depending on how long you hold the button AND what direction you are going. At first, I cursed this design, often trying to attack an enemy but instead dashing towards deadly spikes... But going into "Novice", I learned to appreciate its elegance -- once you get used to the controls, you barely move your fingers around, and the game gets into a nice flow of its own. I imagine that good players will be able to pull amazing sequences on Standard, thanks to this.

Also, the pixel art between levels is lovely, cute and creepy all at once. The cutscenes manage to tell the (simple) story with nearly no words.

Pity that the game seems to lock one whole chapter and some sort of true ending behind the Standard difficulty (on Novice, the last screen literally said "The End?")... but that's a reward for players more skilled than me. :D

Anyway, a fun platformer, even if quite hard. Score: 76/100.