Momodora II

4 So Touhou and Castlevania walk into a bar...
It’s a pity that I can’t find Momodora one. I’d like to see where this came from, because Momodora II sort of came at me from left field and smashed my head in.

Without giving anything away, Momodora II is a Metroidvania game that takes the Tohou approach to game design – not as in ‘BULLET HELL ALL THE TIME FOREVER’, but as in ‘solid bones with cutesy girl characters everywhere’. If a character isn’t a cute girl, it’s a one-eyed enemy, and the character designs are all clean, iconic-looking, and pleasantly pixelly. About the only thing that’s unclear in the game is the main character’s weapon, represented by a streak of white and red. I just imagined that it was some sort of badass-uber-scarf, and left it alone.

The game’s plot, without giving anything away, is simple, but fairly solid, unfolding in NPC interaction through the various areas. The soundtrack is excellent – easily one of the most surprising audio treats I’ve found this year, exceeded only by the Homestuck albums.

So why does this only rate a four out of five? Well, the game’s a bit short, for one. Level design is always solid, but never really wows, and I would have liked to see a little more enemy variety. All small complaints, but with Cave Story out there as the perpetual Arch-Viscount of the Metroidvania indie scene… well, you get the idea.

Definitely worth a download. And check out the soundtrack at the creator’s homepage as well.

5 Great, but Short and Easy
What a great game! This game does not support joystick input directly, so do yourself a favor and set up JoyToKey. This makes the game much more playable.

Graphics: 5/5

Sound: 4/5

Control: 5/5

Gameplay: 5/5

Challange: 2/5

Total: 21/25

The graphics are great! Very cute, non-repetitive, inventive. Music and sound are very good quality and non-repetitive, but nothing spatacular. Controls are superb (when using a joystick), very usable with no rough edges.

The gameplay is very basic, with only a few changes in the for of power-ups. However, for the length of the game it is quite balanced. Combat and platforming remains interesting over the course of the (short) game.

The challange of the game is very low. In the early part of the game there is a sense of being the underdog, but you will quickly dominate every enemy you encounter. Save points are plentaful and fully restore your health, removing any fear of dying outside of a boss fight.

Speaking of boss fights, they are somewhat of a challange, althought the biggest challange you will have is figuring out how to harm the final boss.

Definately a great game, and well worth your time to play. I look forward to another game from these folks, or perhaps a content extension of this one.