Platypus Reclayed

[m.sniffles.esq]

Is coming on everything

[SavagePencil]

Is coming on everything

get a towel

[m.sniffles.esq]

Is coming on everything

get a towel

Here all week, folks... Tip your waitress

[BulletMagnet]

get a trowel

Fixed.

[Daytime Waitress]

Is coming on everything

get a towel

Here all week, folks... Tip your waitress

I'll take the tip, but none of the barbs, thanks, gents

On topic: the screenshots had me worried about the amount of BLOOM, but it looks fine in motion.
The waterfalls are beyond adorable.

[Sturmvogel Prime]

If Art Clokey made a shmup that's what it would look like. A nice breath of fresh air after all the pixels and CGI.

[m.sniffles.esq]

On topic: the screenshots had me worried about the amount of BLOOM

Dev addresses this in the comments, they took the footage from a build where he was fucking around with the bloom by accident. By the time he realized, it was too late.

(I'll direct link after I wake up, if you think I'm a big fibber)

Edit: as an aside, I kinda of love that there's finally a game that can tout 'handcrafted graphics' and he doesn't!

[BulletMagnet]

Steam demo is up.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

The Steam demo of Platypus Reclayed is a 685.4mb d/l. I recall seeing Platypus as a PSX game for rent at the local Blockbuster Video back in the late 1990s -- never did rent it to see how it played/fared out.

If Will Vinton of Will Vinton Studios (famous claymation artist and creator whom came up & designed the famed "California Raisins" {& even the classic "Yo Noid" character shown in the Domino's pizza commercials} claymation-based characters for commercials & as a stand-alone animated TV special back in the day) was still around, I'm sure he'd lend his expertise towards making a clay-animated stg while pushing the envelope with what's possible with the kneadiable clay medium as it is.

The actual Steam demo Platypus Reclayed plays just fine on the Steam Deck without the need for any Proton booters whatsoever and runs at an arcade-spec silky-smooth 60fps framerate -- the "ideal" benchmark expected for PC based stgs these days. Gameplay is quite awesome in shooting some of the bigger enemies nets you spinning yellow-colored stars -- grab one and you're powered up. I like how the foreground scenery is presented as "out-of-focus" for greater immersion (not that it adds anything new to the already well-establish gameplay afforded of the earlier released Platypus 1 & 2 stgs). The enemies' bullets should've been claymation animated as well instead of using colored sprites (but that's just my own opinion/suggestion of this new-fangled Platypus stg as it is).

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[Daytime Waitress]

Completely agree on the faded foreground, PCEFX - it's a very nice touch that gives a bit of detail to the world, without sacrificing visibility. Visibility is something that it does very well overall - bullets are very clear (without being lol pink and blue), with just enough bloom/sheen on them to pop against the backgrounds and ships (although I can definitely see a case being made for having them be claymation, too); and while enemy explosions are a little anemic, they also don't get in the damn way.

I also had to note that the controls were pretty smooth. Nothing exceptional, perhaps, but that's definitely something that's gonna stand out if you screw it up more than if you get it right

The little zeppelins in the background with tool-tips were a lovely touch for the demo, too - a neat diagetic touch where a lesser developer would have paused the action and smashed the player over the head with a pop-up dialogue.

I definitely had to crank the difficulty and choose the advanced ship, but.
Whilst the regular ship has a decent damage output against most everything except the bigger craft, the "beginner" one takes an age to kill anything other than the lowliest zako.
I guess it gets the beginner tag because it has shields, but... are you gonna care if you live whilst everything just plain stays on screen because you can't ice it? Isn't that more nerve-wracking for new players?

I'm very much a casual shmup fan, but I definitely felt more comfortable upping the number of bullets because the game seems to have a bit of a pacing/level design issue.
It does introduce enemies and their patterns well, then gradually mixes them in to the wider roster so you've got different shot types coming at you.
But then the climax of every wave seems to just be "avoid these new enemies while you take out this cargo ship and try to catch all the fruit(?) it vomits".

This is exacerbated by the final fight of the demo, which feels like a couple of sub-bosses interrupting your attempt to gun down a health pool - I mean, oversized cargo ship.
Basically, whatever "narrative" escalation there is doesn't feel all that great, there's never a huge sense of urgency beyond the bullet patterns themselves, and the final fight of the demo is, well, a bit of a wet fart to be honest.

Maybe I'm missing the point and it's more geared towards getting a 100% kill rate through each section and maximising those fruit pickups.
But between that and the power ups never going beyond their basic level, it unfortunately all felt a little bit... sleepy? Rather than cosy and comfortable and befitting of the visuals.
Which it goes without saying are absolutely bloody adorable (still loving those 'ickle waterfalls).

Despite having played and been charmed by the demo, I think I'm gonna stay on the fence for this one until I see a more thorough playthrough :c

[Bassa-Bassa]

I recall seeing Platypus as a PSX game for rent at the local Blockbuster Video back in the late 1990s

You must be confusing it with the Windows version as it never had a console release?

[Jonpachi]

I recall seeing Platypus as a PSX game for rent at the local Blockbuster Video back in the late 1990s

You must be confusing it with the Windows version as it never had a console release?

Got a physical release on PSP, and was also released digitally on Xbox 360. Maybe he means the PSP game was for rent.