EN EL AÑO 2022, LA BASURA CHOCARÁ CON LA TIERRA
Trash gaming is still rampant on the forum.
Today's review is El Gancho.
The Nanoscopic version of Bionic Commando
El Gancho is a side scrolling platformer focused on one thing: Grapple hook/beam and swinging across the area and even to perform walljumping. ¿Remember Super Metroid's Grappling Beam, Super Turrican 2 and Bionic Commando? No problemo, you have an idea of the main feature and weapon of the game, because the grapple is also your main weapon. How's that? Simple. The grapple beam leaves fairy dust, I mean a trail of particles which kills enemies. Its "range" depends on how large the grapple beam is. You are also granted a gun which can be aimed with the right analog button for 360° fire kinda like in Cybernator/Assault Suits Valken, but it has one single defect: Ammunition is very limited. That's a problema. Even for a game where grapple hooks are the main mechanic, you ALWAYS need a full frontal weapon with unlimited ammo. Super Metroid and Bionic Commando are perfect examples of what I mean. You can also get extra HP by eating food within a row and without getting hit once, otherwise you'll regain the lost HP. Keep in mind, your maximum is of 7 HP, if you fill the "Food Gauge", it will stop once its full and when you're hit, you'll only need to pick 1 more food item to recover the HP.
The food order goes like this: Cookie > Chocolate > Ice Cream > Donut > Taco > Chicken Leg > Hot Dog > Pizza > Burger > Soft Drink. You'll be utilizing both regular jumping and assisted beam-rope wall-jumping to get them, along with the Cocos which are the main objective of each stage, there's a certain number of them scattered across the stages, and they also unlock extra characters that have unique skills.
There's also the Challenges mode where the objective changes from completing the stage and picking everything to complete the stage within a time limit. being less than 25 seconds the limit for the gold trophy. Speaking of trophies and achievements, Challenges doesn't grant you rewards. Only jumping 300 times, killing 60 enemies, freeing 70 Cocos, getting 3000 points and eating a total of 400 food items.
Welcome to "La Tienda".
After two levels, you'll be entering an "Upgrade Room" where you can pick an item. No money? don't worry, the item can be picked for free. Also, the availability varies due to the procedurally generated mechanics of the game. Regardless of the roguelite layout, the stage structure goes like this: "Level-Level-Shop-Level-Boss-Level-Level-Shop-Level-Boss-Level-Level-Shop-Level-Boss" A total of 15 stages mostly based on rescuing cocos, 3 shops and 3 boss fights.
Time to fight the Big, Dreaded "Ojo Malo".
The fifth room is the Boss Fight, which requires to destroy "Switches" to destroy the boss rather than fight it. As you push a switch, the boss' fire rate will increase, making you to move and swing faster, making you prone to errors.
Estás acabado. You're done for.
In this game, you only have one life, once your energy hits zero, you're dead, se acabó. To make things even worse, the HP suffers from the infamous Turridamage keeping you from taking a breath after taking a hit, making things difficult and even fatal on boss fights. Since this game is a roguelike, the "Restart" means go back to the title screen, select your Coco and start from level 1.
Well, stage progression doesn't matter in this game, since the trophy progression requires to do specific things that I've mentioned before. Yeah, another Gamerscore/Trophy Milker. "Comida chatarra", Junk food for consoles, and really I have zero tolerance to this kind of games since they're a waste of money which could be spent on a much better game like Ginga Force, CrossCode, Super Cyborg or R-Type Final 2.
Well done! "La Puerta" is now open.
After completing the 15th level, you'll probably think "Time to see the ending of this game", but the game's about to throw you one final surprise for you...
SON OF A BASTARD...
Looks like the game wasn't going to give up after that, throwing you four more stages, increasing the game to a total of 19. The final boss was basically impossible and with the Turridamage and the die once and go back to the beginning was the last straw for me. Sorry, but my patience for idiocy has its limits.
Se requiere microscopio para jugar.
The graphics...Oh, mis malditos ojos!, It was really necessary to be that small? Looks like you're gonna need a microscope for playing this. I know they're trying to be "Retro 8-bit", but that doesn't mean they had to be that atrociously bad and it makes a lot of contrast with the background and platforms which look overpixelated while the sprite is almost invisible.
If you've played Task Force Kampas, you'll probably be familiarized with the Cocos, those Agumon ripoffs that you had to rescue. In this game you'll play as one of them rescuing his tribe. One thing that I've noticed was the use of a Sombrero on the Mexicoco. I'm a mexican and I don't find that offensive, but nowadays something like that could spark controversy due to the stereotypes and offensive imagery (Speedy Gonzales removal from Looney Tunes for instance).
EL GANCHO: LAS CURIOSIDADES
- El Gancho means "The Hook" in spanish.
- This game is a spin-off or "Gaiden" of Task Force Kampas.
Gracias, Nina.
It was about time to hear those words.
To put things simple: El Gancho "Es Basura". Another trash game waiting for your cash in return of easy achievements and trophies. It could be a fun mix of Pitfall, Super Metroid and Bionic Commando, but it falls apart with its critical flaws and only serves as a quick way to get achievements, 1000 Gamerscore points and a few PlayStation trophies, once you're done, A la basura! uninstalled, destined to live for the rest of the times in the "Ready to Install" or "Hidden" folder of your consoles.
Genial! Hiciste llorar a Lea.
¿Estás orgulloso de eso, Eastasiasoft?