Reviews for Running VoltGun

[shinobody]

Almost perfect.

Everyone who follows your work for any amount of time will notice you have been working on 'figuring out' adapting run'n'gun formula for modern design for a long while now. Jet Gunner, Sole Gunner, Alien Splatter, Steam Heart - each of them an interesting experiment, but each of them was missing something.
I think ironically, due to having to abide by theme of Ludum Dare contest, you have actually figured it out.
The thing that was missing, the thing that everyone loved about Contra and Gunstar Heroes - speed and flow.

I think this is your best game so far. And I'm dead honest here. It's amazing. Definitely your best work so far. Oh, it's flawed, definitely, for sure.
Game on my computer runs with a terrible slowdown and while it's pretty old, it runs other indie games without a problem - including Freedom Planet which is a *standalone Windows* genesis-like. Controls are a bit wonky. Some weapons like Fire are almos useless and relatively hard to avoid. Explosions and flicker combined with slowdown sometimes make it impossible to understand what's going on, and you can damage a boss when they're offscreen and in a "Warning!" (maybe this was issue with Missile weapon I was using?)

But the thing is, those things can be fixed. Underlying design, of a Sonic-like speedrunning game where your timer is your health meaning that mistakes are perfectly forgivable without making game easy, the satisfying dash mechanic that cancels enemy bullets, the interesting and wacky enemy design that remind me of Noitu Love or WayForward games, the controls that don't need more than 3 main buttons, mixing - it's all great.

I'm giving 4.5/10 because it's the last grade below perfect, but consider it more of a 10 but needs polish/10; It's definitely the single most satisfying game you have made so far, and I liked your old games a lot.

[protoMAGE]

A great action game with decent platforming and elements from many known games. The protagonist's design slightly reminds me of Sparkster, the bosses look like Sonic boss fights, music sounds a lot like what you would expect from a Genesis/Mega Drive game and all in all the game is awesome, especially considering it was made in under 72 hours.

I loved the battery system and how it worked not only for the player, but also for the bosses, as they spend battery even when they attack you, in a full game with more levels, this mechanic could be explored and expanded in many interesting ways, so I love how you chose to implement the LD39 theme in that regard.

I didn't experience any of the lag people commented on, but I had a few issued with some design choices. First level was 10/10, great introduction to the game and how it worked, but level 2 has too many colors in the background, making it hard to tell not only where you are, but also where enmies and enemy shots are. On level 3, right after the rising lava section, there's a drop where you can't clearly see there's gonna be more lava right below you, and it can be frustrating not dashing out of it right away because you were not aware of the danger below. Also, customizable controls would have been nice, but that's just a minor rant, the default controls were fine (although, a double-tap dash could also have made dashing better for a lot of people).

All in all, awesome game, and I'm giving it 4.5 for making it so good in such a short deadline, loved it.

[squidly]

needs more explosions

[caramida9]

Well, this was a pretty decent experience. A small side-scrolling platformer and shooter that puts you under stress continously as your power slowly drains... as such being quite fitting for the Ludum Dare theme. Luckly you can recharge it by killing enemies and grabbing cristals. Adding to that we have multiple levels, weapon upgrades and even a boss fight which made it quite enjoyable. However it unfortunately doesn't bring much more in the terms of originality from a gameplay standpoint. Also the Dash and Power Toggle where not immediately evident that they could be used or what purpose they served. For more details, I have included it as the first game in my Ludum Dare 39 video: https://youtu.be/uE77-kUNssM . All in all, while I will always have nostalgia for these kind of games, it just falls slightly short of being a perfect masterpiece. Still fine work and keep it up for the future.

[KayYZ]

Amazing work. Good graphics, good controls and a pretty good soundtrack. It feels very much like Gunstar Heroes.