Review: Kero Blaster (Nintendo Switch)
You play a bipedal frog employed by the mysterious start-up company ‘Cat & Frog Inc.’. Fend off enemies seeking to stop you and overcome the challenging landscape as you head towards your destination.
Pros:
- Vibrant pixel graphics.
- 55.9MB Download size.
- Action platformer gameplay.
- Three save slots.
- Four-way shooting model.
- Catchy chiptune soundtrack.
- Manual- Tips and tricks.
- Easy to grasp controls.
- Solid level design.
- Big boss battles.
- Many secrets to find.
- Coins- In-game currency, Earned from enemies and chests.
- Game over- Quit or restart the world. You wake up in Hospital and you can buy any health upgrades/items.
- Shop- Can buy upgrades for weapons, hearts, more health and one-time use health regen.
- Weapons- Unlock new ones as you beat the bosses.
- Many enemy types.
- Hearts- How many hits you can sustain until death.
- Hotswap weapons.
- Minor puzzle elements.
- The feeling of getting stronger as you go.
- Addictive.
- Fun to play.
- Maintains the same atmosphere and feeling that Cave Story gave us.
- The shop appears in the game usually midway.
- Lose all hearts and you respawn back at the start of the screen.
- You keep all coins and upgrades after death/game over.
- Autosaves regularly.
- Shows damage numbers.
Cons:
- Can’t change shot direction unless you let go of the button, Hard to describe but you notice it and it does throw you off.
- Difficult.
- Few hit detection dodginess.
- Very basic looking.
- Hard to work out what to do at times, More so on boss fights.
- Enemies respawn when you re-enter a screen, Causes the dilemma that you can farm coins and hearts and really overpower yourself.
The Numbers:
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9/10
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9/10
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9/10
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8/10
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9/10
Summary
A beautiful retro-looking platformer is back! Not since Cave Story has a game that looks so basic and employs so little mechanics really captured your attention. Here Kero blaster is a solid addictive fun shooter platformer with slight puzzle elements. The first half hour will feel a bit flat and uneventful as you slowly get used to everything. Once you beat the first few bosses and get power-ups and rack up some coinage, The game starts to really open up. I fell in love with its charm and atmosphere, Its a game that is just fun to play but still difficult and a challenge. Yes, boss fights will frustrate you but going back to the start and earning more coins and upgrading weapons and health is actually therapeutic as you go back to the boss and absolutely destroy them. Fitting perfectly on the Switch I enjoyed playing the game on the small screen more than the big screen but whatevs. In short, this is a wonderfully charming little game that platformer fans should own.