Kero Blaster - New game from the creator of Cave Story

[Vexorg]

http://www.destructoid.com/kero-blaster ... 2696.phtml

Coming to PC and iOS on May 11th. It doesn't look quite as nice as Cave Story did in my opinion, but the gameplay looks pretty close.

[beatsgo]

Huh, Pixel is finally to going to release his own pay-to-play game. Cheers to it!

[GaijinPunch]

I wonder how this would play on iOS.

[evil_ash_xero]

I like the way the game looks, but not too hot on the main character's design.

[EmperorIng]

I like that it's just a frog instead of some cutesy anime boy/girl. Even if the entire game looks pretty cutesy anime already.

Came looks very similar to Cave Story - jetpack, weapon like that flame weapon, etc. Should be fun, and it's good to see the guy making something new instead of rereleasing Cave Story until the end of time.

[BORIS]

Looks pretty rad, I hope it has some open world elements to it like Cave Story, maybe something with more depth than his other games.

[beatsgo]

I wonder if this game relates to the Ame comic he created sometime ago.

[Formless God]

I hope you can at least turn the damage display off.

[ptoing]

Just wanted to let people know that the game is available now.

Also I found a small bug. Seems that when reassigning buttons the buttons for swichting weapons left/right get flipped after you assigned them. Nothing huge. Pretty fun game. Very oldschool.

[Drum]

I am very much looking forward to playing this game.

[evil_ash_xero]

Hrmm....looks kind of like a more straightforward Cave Story, without the nice characters.

Say what you will about the characters in CS(that they are generic anime or whatever)...I always thought that was one of the main reasons people liked the game so much. I always found it overrated, but it has characters that make people like it more than they would otherwise.

Here you just have a frog. I dunno.

[Drum]

shut up

[evil_ash_xero]

Eat me.

And my little frog too.

[EmperorIng]

I don't think it's unreasonable to say that a large part of Cave Story's success lay in its chibi anime characters, rabbit people, and cutesy-ness. Hence comments such as "Pixel started the indie game scene" and "Cave Story has one of the deepest storylines I've ever seen in a video-game"

Though I like the look of the frog myself. At least it's a much bigger sprite than Quote, and as such I can actually make out what it is.

[Drum]

i like frogs and cave story is cool

[Lord Satori]

Yeah, not too keen on the characters, but otherwise, this game looks pretty cool!.

[Moniker]

Well, finally bested Pink Hour.. that really didn't give you enough time to learn the physics before expecting expertise. Anyway, I guess I'll take the plunge for Kero and report the results.

[eebrozgi]

I love this game, beaten it like three times already and dug up some interesting glitches while searching furiously for secrets. I should probably google around a bit if someone has found the same things and report them to Pixel if not, but I'm too scared of being spoiled by further secrets.

I like the characters/story, the sprites, the feel and especially the soundtrack. 5/5. Though take that with a spoonful of salt because I'm a total Pixel-fanboy. Shorter & more straightforward than Cave Story, if you care, works for its own right.

[WarpZone]

Say what you will about the characters in CS(that they are generic anime or whatever)...I always thought that was one of the main reasons people liked the game so much. I always found it overrated, but it has characters that make people like it more than they would otherwise.

The moment Cave Story really impressed me was the moment I first fired the machine gun downwards. The possibility space of the entire game instantly changed, and the level/boss design scaled to match. There's just a wonderful agility to shooting and movement (especially aerial positioning and tactics become really nuanced) that's pretty rare in run 'n gun games.

Partly what excited me about Kero Blaster was Pixel cutting out CS's Metroid/adventure/exploration bits pretty much entirely (which were always overstated outside the early game and not great when they did show up) to focus on what made CS great/unique, but the running and gunning just isn't as good as Cave Story, at least up to stage 6. There's no mechanic as inventive and fun as CS's machine gun, there's a simple double-jump instead of booster/flying, and level design feels a bit too conservative as a result, with too many areas where there's static hazards that you just trivially shoot. There's a simple money/store system that encourages becoming stronger by replaying areas to gather more money, in contrast to CS's more unique and dynamic EXP system where yellow triangles were bouncing all over the place and dashing in for them was an interesting risk and made you change priorities during bosses depending on your HP/weapon status.

Not that Kero Blaster is bad at all -- it's very polished, and I think the graphics and music are actually more appealing than CS -- including the main character (though for being a frog, it's awfully hard to jump out of the water).

[null1024]

I'll probably pick this game up eventually.

The moment Cave Story really impressed me was the moment I first fired the machine gun downwards. The possibility space of the entire game instantly changed, and the level/boss design scaled to match. There's just a wonderful agility to shooting and movement (especially aerial positioning and tactics become really nuanced) that's pretty rare in run 'n gun games.

Oh man, this. Immediately after obtaining the Lv.3 machine gun, I opened up Game Maker and tried to make a game based entirely around the concept.
of course I didn't get anywhere because I'm a lazy sod (and this was ages ago)

That was the coolest weapon ever though. I can't actually think of any cooler ones off the top of my head.

[Blinge]

I don't think it's unreasonable to say that a large part of Cave Story's success lay in its chibi anime characters, rabbit people, and cutesy-ness.

Games should be judged on the whole experience they provide, so your point is in fact unreasonable. Reducing games to specific elements and trying to draw such conclusions from them just seems like a useless exercise to me. What's the point.
There are myriad factors determining the legacy of any creative work.

[Moniker]

Finished the main story of Kero Blaster. Game doesn't ever really take its gloves off, platforming or combat-wise. Still a lot of fun. A couple bosses gave me some trouble until I learned their patterns, only took one retry, though.

After the main quest you go through it again as a 'golden' frog, with all your weapons at the power you ended with, but with heart-count reduced to 1. At first I was thinking it was a no-miss challenge, but you do get to upgrade your health again. You also get access to another weapon, all of which makes the second run through even easier than the first. I just now made it to a timed boss-rush and died my first time out. Hopefully more content will follow.

I guess I'd recommend it, but it's definitely not a must-play like Cave Story. Might be more interesting to do some sort of self-imposed challenges, like not buying upgrades.

Edit: Nope. The boss rush is the end of it. All you can do with that save is try and beat your best time. Still a good time, I sappose.

[Wooph]

I played both Pink Hour and Kero Blaster in their entirety today. It never really gets difficult, but it's still a very enjoyable game. I think the game could have benefited from a twin stick shooter style control scheme.

Pink Hour has an extra ending if you beat it on hard mode, but I don't have a clue what it means and it doesn't seem to be connected to Kero Blaster. Any ideas? Here's a link to the ending.