I'll be reviewing every game I got from the Friends of Nintendo Bundle, so let's start with the first one:

Shantae and The Pirate's Curse (3ds)

I had heard nothing but good things from the Shantae series. One of the best indie franchises lately, "better than shovel knight" and "overrated Guacamelee" (I'll get to that point later). Pirate's Curse is probably the most popular, followed by the still-in-development Half Genie Hero. So I was naturally interested on trying it.

And I'll be honest... I'm genuinely dissapointed.

The best of the game is probably its music. Jake Kaufman does amazingly well at capturing Arabic influences and mixing them into a synth-heavy soundtrack which brims with energy. I'll show you a couple of my favorites!
https://virt.bandcamp.com/track/darkest ... lost-souls

Sprite work is rich and the lightning effects are ok. I played the whole game with 3D in minimal, since further 3d didn't really help.

Dungeons and bosses were hit and miss. I particularly enjoyed the dungeon in Village of Lost Souls, and the first boss (a giant eye which reminded me a lot of late Mega Man X bosses). The boss at the ice factory was great too. Other bosses felt very boring, however. Powerups were ok, but I never felt they were used in creative ways, with the particular exception of the Pistol.

The plot was... forgettable? Yeah, mostly. I never felt compelled to follow it, and I'll leave it pass as Guacamelee happens to have the same issue. However, something I can't forgive was the control layout. When you start the game, you jump with the B button, which is ok, but in most platformers (Mario, DKC, Cave Story, Guacamelee, etc.) your jump button also serves as a confirm button, so you can use it to advance dialog. Except in Shantae where A serves to talk (and shoot your pistol). I was genuinely confused during the first parts. Also, items are activate by double tapping in the bottom screen, which isn't the best as it disrupts from the battle at hand (which is where you want to use items the most).

Finally, I thought the backtracking was done very poorly. At some points I felt like I was just going thru trial and error, and was forced to go back just because they couldn't find a better way to justify the new weapons. When I think of guacamelee, I think they did the whole "Linear Metroidvania" thing right, where you backtrack for a reason and all challenges you find by exploring are cool. In Shantae, I never got to feel I was exploring because it was cool. I was exploring because the game wanted me to.

All in all, this is not a bad game per se, but it's definitely not up the hype around the franchise. I would not play another Shantae game again.

you're right about the backtracking

you can use items by hitting L+R at the same time after they're highlighted (I played on Wii U but I'm not sure why the 3DS one would be any different)

Term what happens if they fool you three times

Next up from my Friends of Nintendo Bundle...

Rhythm Thief and the Emperor's Groove (3DS)

Unlike Shantae, whose existance and history I knew about, I didn't know about Rhythm Thief at all. A brief Google search told me it was a rhyth game, and having played some rhythm heaven, I was ready to face a simple, calm casual game, which would help me getting past the bad experience with the half-genie.

Then I opened the game and it asked me for a save file to choose from. Then it went into an ANIME CUTSCENE. THEN INTO ANOTHER CUTSCENE. Then into a minigame. And I had a flashback to one game I approached just like that: Professor Layton and the Curious Village.

Rhythm Thief feels a lot like a Layton game from the DS era. Exact same exploration; a rather small, but cohesive place to explore, with distinct visuals. Interesting music. And, because of the games being rhythm based instead of puzzles, it one-ups the Layton series in its replayability factor. And I had a blast playing it. Beating games, going for A ranks, searching for the Master instrument. I liked it.

The plot was, however, not as strong as one from a Layton game. It had a couple important weaknesses, which confused me at some points. Yet it managed to make me like most characters. Same with the 3D graphics: they are not outright bad, but I've seen better for the console.

The games themselves have been fun. I feel the game difficulty progressed naturally (with some spikes at important games, but that feels ok)
and there's no game I refuse to replay. Added modes also help squeezing more playtime from it.

I'm actually quite glad I played this game. I'd love to see a sequel, as I think a second part, with more time, maybe a better budget, and better writers, could be an amazing followup to a promising concept. And I'm definitely going to beat all the rhythm mini-games - that's what a gentleman would do.

Fun fact: there actually was a sequel to that game.
It was an iOS exclusive.

Paris Caper looked like an spin-off to me, however.

the IOS one isn't really a sequel it's more or less the same game on mobile. it doesn't continue the story or anything all it does is add some extra little features the 3DS version didn't have.

I don't think I've ever experienced a game quite like Heart&Slash. A wet and wild fusion of Devil May Cry-esque 3D action brawling and Binding of Isaac-style random generation, this is a game that wants nothing more than to give you a fun bolt-busting time. It had a brief run on Kickstarter, followed by almost two years in Early Access, but a month ago it finally declared itself finished, and after completing the game 100%, I can honestly say it's like nothing I've ever played before. The question, then, becomes this: is that good or bad?

Plot&Story
The year is the future. A so-called "robolution", led by a mad QA testing machine, has led to the destruction of all life on earth and a world populated entirely by robots of all shapes and sizes, all under one control. Our hero is Heart, a non-conforming machine who finds himself mysteriously reactivated and led by videos of his original creator to hunt down the robot's leader. On the way, Heart discovers Slash, a similarly nonconformist of a robot with mysterious history with the villainous Quality Assurer; together, they may be the world's last hope of ending the mechanical rule.

Looking at the Kickstarter campaign, it's clear that the game was originally set to be much larger in scale. Entire characters were left out of the finished product, and what was set up to be a complex meta-plot regarding the relationship between Heart and Slash was ultimately cut short into a linear path. I'm not going to complain about this; I don't think anyone funded a roguelite spectacle fighter game for the plot. But the way the game ultimately handles the story is, well... disappointing. Character relationships are simplified, to the extent that it's hard to tell what they even are. And at times, the story actually becomes intrusive to the game. Around the end of the story, you're expected to make a sacrifice to help defeat QA. It's nice. It's touching. Once you've reached that point in the story, you're expected to play the ending every time. You can't just fight the final boss normally anymore, not without using one of two other playable characters.

Game&Play
Upon entering the game, you are thrown into a room with three pieces of equipment, one primary weapon and two of anything else, either weapons or armor. Since this is a roguelite, these upgrades are always randomly selected, although sometimes I feel like the game is purposely giving me s***, but hey, that's RNG. You can hold up to three weapons, one primary weapon and two secondary weapons that you toggle with the shoulder bumpers. Some weapons, melee weapons basically, can be equipped to any slot, but projectile weapons can only be equipped to shoulder slots.

Combat is of the traditional sort seen in games like DMC and Bayonetta, with two attack buttons tied to weak and strong attacks, a lock-on function, and free space to just smack robots up however you please. There's a weird simple element-based combat system, where some enemies are vulnerable or resistant to among three different elements; in theory, this is an interesting hook, but in practice, will likely end up a pointless hassle as you whittle down a room full of enemies who have resistance to the one type of weapon the RNG gave you.

By fighting enemies, you are awarded with experience points, and with enough you earn upgrade points. These can be used to up the stats of your weapons and armor, and yourself as well. The upgrades for each item are given colorful comments instead of direct statements of what they improve. For instance, the morning-star weapon has three upgrades: "It hits hard...", which increases its damage, "has decent length...", which increases its range of attack, and "and can be made lighter!", which increases its attack speed. It's an interesting hook that I enjoy greatly, even if some of the upgrade names are incredibly vague as to what they actually improve. Aside from all that, you can recycle equipment pieces for extra health in a pinch, giving you more health if it's been upgraded, and increasing your max health if you recycle at full HP.

All this leads to another contesting issue with the game: it gets so easy. As you progress through the game's plot, Heart earns upgrades that increase its base stats far beyond what it started with. On your first playthrough, Heart has six hearts, one damage modifier and resistance to one element, and by the end of the story that's grown to eight hearts, three damage modifiers and resistance to all three elements. Plus, whenever you die, you restart with all your unused upgrade points, so why not max out your points, kill yourself, and start off the next run with a full piggy bank? It's not like you're in that much danger of losing - the game only has three levels and bosses! And only the first level boss actually tests your combat skill, the rest are all games of dodge until they reveal their weaknesses! I realize that it's a roguelite, but at the very least you could make these bosses more difficult than the first floors of Binding of Isaac.

Look&Feel
Stylistically, Heart&Slash is the most beautiful game I have seen in years. The voxel-based art style is crisp and colorful, giving everything a lovely cartoon aesthetic. One level taking place in the outdoors turned out to have a number of randomly selected skyboxes, varying between night and day, dusk and dawn and even a foggy/smoggy atmosphere. Enemies are clearly animated and stylized, and watching them move is a treat. Every different boss has a unique intro sequence and fight music, even for the variant bosses on the first two levels.

And the music. Oh, the music. It's poppy and upbeat, always keeping you pumped no matter what the situation. I honestly think this might have the best soundtrack of 2016.




Bugs&Glitches
This game is the buggiest thing I have ever seen; in no way was this ever at a state fit to leave Early Access. The geometries of various objects are jagged enough that players can easily get caught on the corner of an edge, or the side of a building, or even in between two platforms. On two separate occasions, I almost fell through a set of stairs and out of the game's map. The camera swings and zooms wildly, almost always far too close for efficiency. By using items that allow you to fly or climb up walls, it's possible to sequence break through parts of the vertical last level and trigger flags that lock you out of necessary rooms, essentially breaking the game. And that's not even going into all the issues I've experienced such as camera freezing, hearts disappearing, and in one infamous memory an entire boss just disappearing from the game. It's so poorly coded it's laughable.

End&Grade
I have never been more conflicted over recommending Heart&Slash than I have ever been in my life. By all meaningful standards, it's a hopelessly broken game; the story is rubbish, the idea is inherently flawed, and the engine has more bugs than a cheap motel.
And yet, I just cannot stop playing. I can't help it, the game just makes me feel good. Even when it's glitchy, the combat still nails that feeling of power and impact that tingles my endorphins. I love the apple-crisp art style and the rocking tunes. I love that feeling of getting my hands on a weapon that I know will smash my enemies into paste, or discovering an entirely new weapon and seeing what it can do. I love hurling myself axe-first into a room full of robots, smashing them to bits one by one all to get that last upgrade point to make myself even stronger. One of the unlockable characters is a robot dog who holds weapons in his mouth, and you bet your bouncing buttocks I love that s***. There's so much feeling put into the game's style that it becomes worth overlooking the problems just to take part in the experience; it's like Deadly Premonition, but without the Twin Peaks. I just can't avoid making the obvious pun - this game has heart.

If you're looking for a game that will challenge you with tightly designed combat and enemies that test all your developed skills, this is not it. Go get Devil May Cry 4.
But if you're in the mood for a piece of dumb fun, something you can waste half an hour on getting bombarded with abstract beauty and wacky weapons, then this is definitely the game for you.
Heart&Slash is a 6/10, but it is the best 6/10 I have ever played in my life.