Tiny Barbarian DX | Cheerful Ghost

Tiny Barbarian DX - Why Did It Have To Be Snakes?

If any of you have memories, fond or otherwise, of games like Mega Man or Ghosts 'n Goblins, you'll feel right at home in Tiny Barbarian DX.

You are a Conan-esque barbarian, muscling through dungeons and temples, and an amazing amount of snakes, to rescue the girl from a quite powerful wizard (who seriously has a thing for snakes…). Gold coins are collected and enemies slain to increase your high score, while a timer haunts from the top right of the screen, measuring your progress, or mocking it, as the case may be. There is no leveling, no gained abilities, no upgrades, none of that RPG nonsense here. No, its just your phalangeal dexterity, a trusty sword, and a mean... Read All If any of you have memories, fond or otherwise, of games like Mega Man or Ghosts 'n Goblins, you'll feel right at home in Tiny Barbarian DX.

You are a Conan-esque barbarian, muscling through dungeons and temples, and an amazing amount of snakes, to rescue the girl from a quite powerful wizard (who seriously has a thing for snakes…). Gold coins are collected and enemies slain to increase your high score, while a timer haunts from the top right of the screen, measuring your progress, or mocking it, as the case may be. There is no leveling, no gained abilities, no upgrades, none of that RPG nonsense here. No, its just your phalangeal dexterity, a trusty sword, and a mean elbow drop.

The thing that I love to hate about these types of murder platformers, I mean games, is that I get this feeling like they really do know me. They know that I secretly love to fail a lot in my interactive experiences. Like, A LOT. Try to jump from that chain to the ledge, and there's an incoming snake ball. Dodge the snake ball next time, then there's the flying spear. In one area where I had already spent way too much time memorizing patterns of flying death, and changing strategies in some vain hope of moving forward, I had managed to make it to the checkpoint. With one block of health left, a short sigh of relief turned bitter when I hadn't gauged that final leap, and I landed right into a pit of spikes, the exit a mere few blocks away. Now that's the childhood agony I remember! My successful play through netted a total of 73 deaths. I think I started swearing out loud at around 46, unless it was death by snake which usually triggered it's own set of expletives. Thankfully, Michael Stearns knows how to make it all worthwhile. Even in my many deaths I couldn't wait to see what was coming next.

I played through with a gamepad, and while support for that is a recent feature, the controls were tight, which is essential in any platformer, but more so in one that punishes players who lack precision in their execution. There were one or two instances where I thought there was an issue with not being able to move or attack how I intended to, but I don't know how much of that is bugs, or just my rusty hand eye coordination. I noticed it most in the brief animal riding sequences, which I didn't much care for anyway.

I need to say a quick word about the soundtrack, and really the sound design of the whole game. Good, good stuff here. Jeff Ball is working some serious magic, and I totally dig it.

There is a lot of fun to be had with this first chapter of Tiny Barbarian DX. It's beautiful to look at, and fun to play, with a good amount of challenge. While it is a short ride, there's a king-of-the-hill style Horde Mode to keep us busy until the next chapter comes (how long can you survive?). Three more chapters are planned, part of the game purchase bundle and downloadable when available. They have a great foundation here, and I'm really looking forward to the rest of the experience. One request for the future: Please go easy on the snakes.

Check out the interview that jdodson had with designer Michael Stearns, if you haven't already.

Official website: www.tinybarbarian.com
Jeff Ball music: www.jeffedwardball.com
Cheerful Ghost dev interview: www.cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/posts/1392

Tiny Barbarian DX: Get Barbarian Fever!

Recently Travis and I were able to play the all new game Tiny Barbarian DX. After playing it a bit the last few days I decided to do make a video to showcase the Horde Mode as well as to see how far into the Single Player as I could go. From the video you can see that my Horde Mode performance is a bit lacking but I make it WAY further into the Single Player story than I planned. In fact, I decided to quit where I did because I didn't want to make the video too long. That said, I plan on doing a follow up video where I try and take down the first chapter boss.

I won't try and cover too much of what Travis already said in his review again but I will sort of toss out a... Read All

Review: Tiny Barbarian packs a Big Punch

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/images/2012/07/tinybarbdx.jpg

I'm really quite sorry for the title. I couldn't resist.

From the playable title screen (I managed to stay alive for quite a while once or twice), the game starts you off right in the action. There are no tutorials to help you on your way, but you'll see things that you can only get to by using a skill that you can easily figure out. New mechanics come organically in this way, rather than popups telling you what to do. It's easy to figure out the skills, but not so easy to pull them off every time. The challenge in unashamedly high, but it never feels cheap. When you mess up, you can see what you did wrong, and correct it next time. It's the good kind of Nintendo-hard... Read All I'm really quite sorry for the title. I couldn't resist.

From the playable title screen (I managed to stay alive for quite a while once or twice), the game starts you off right in the action. There are no tutorials to help you on your way, but you'll see things that you can only get to by using a skill that you can easily figure out. New mechanics come organically in this way, rather than popups telling you what to do. It's easy to figure out the skills, but not so easy to pull them off every time. The challenge in unashamedly high, but it never feels cheap. When you mess up, you can see what you did wrong, and correct it next time. It's the good kind of Nintendo-hard where you don't want to throw the controller down, you want to get back in and beat it!

I'll admit, I haven't been able to complete the game yet, but I keep getting further! There is no way to save as of this writing, so if you have to close it you'll have to start over again. So far this hasn't bothered me at all, because it's a joy to play.

The only downside is the keyboard controls, which for my hands don't feel natural no matter how I remap them. This game needs a gamepad, but the controller settings are in a bit of a pickle at the moment. The team is currently working on a new XInput system to make it work, but for now if your controller doesn't work you'll need to get XPadder or JoyToKey going or just stick to the keyboard. Those programs have never worked well for me, throwing in extra keypresses when I don't need or want them, so I've been sticking to the keyboard. I have a feeling the game will feel much more natural when we get to play it with a controller.

The graphics in Tiny Barbarian are great, just what you'd expect from a retro hack-n-slash from the NES/SNES era. The sprites are all done well, and the animations are smooth.

The music is chiptune heaven. Some of the best music in a retro-styled game I've heard in a while. It complements the settings well, and doesn't get in the way.

Overall, this is definitely well worth the price and will give you tons of fun. Pick it up at http://tinybarbarian.com/ and help it get on Steam at http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=110272647