21) C is for... Crypt of the Necrodancer
The challenge: To play through each of the games on my Steam library.
The rule: I have to play at least 1 hour of each game, in alphabetical order.
Usually when I'm playing my Steam Challenge game, I'm thinking of interesting things to say about it. I'll mentally point out to myself the weird way a unit moves or how the background music just seems...off. With Crypt of the Necrodancer, however, I had literally no time to think. It's pretty intense!
Crypt of the Necrodancer is a rhythm-based rogue-like game, and it's like someone opened up my brain and said 'Chibi, what's your favourite two genres of casual games? OK let's Frankenstein them together!'
You play an adventurer travelling into the eponymous Crypt, which on the face of it looks like your standard rogue-like 2D dungeon. The twist is that every level has its own background track, and every move made by you and the monsters is done in time to this track.
Before anything, I need to talk about the music. In a rhythm game, it's the first thing you notice so it needs to be good. Thankfully the music for this game is rad as heck. It's catchy and groovy and you'll find yourself bouncing up and down to it which is good, because you really need to feel the music to get anywhere in this game.
The main trick to gitting gud at CotN is learning the enemies patterns. Each boogying boogeyman (sorry) has its own way of trying to kill you. In the earlier stages it might be something like the blue slime, which will bounce once upwards or downwards, every other beat. Or the minotaur, which will charge at you for every beat until it hits a wall, where it will be dazed for a few beats. It's not too bad when it's just you vs one enemy, but fill the screen with different creatures all moving in different ways and it becomes a puzzle you have to solve very quickly. It took me most of the hour to unlock stage 2 (of 4), and I'll admit I have played this game before.
The bosses are even more interesting. Each one has its own background track and corresponding music-based gimmick. The one I fought today was King Conga, who had a couple of looooong conga lines of zombies dancing all around their arena. Not only that, but their background track would only let you move 7 beats out of eight, with you having to pause of the eight beat. It's both simple and clever and I love it.
The game has an upgrade system which nets you better drops in the dungeon over time, and a whole bunch of other characters to unlock, all of which play very differently to each other. There's stacks of content here, and it's currently on offer at £2.19. Seriously, go buy it if you like rhythm games!
As a quick recommendation - if you want to see the most stressful way of playing this game I'd highly recommend this speed run shown at AGDQ this year. The runner plays the game in the hardest mode at double time (thought to be impossible by the devs of the game)! Link is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPG6JBUfR44
Anyway, this is 100% a GG, although I wouldn't recommend playing it more than an hour, or your arrow key fingers start really aching!
The rule: I have to play at least 1 hour of each game, in alphabetical order.
Usually when I'm playing my Steam Challenge game, I'm thinking of interesting things to say about it. I'll mentally point out to myself the weird way a unit moves or how the background music just seems...off. With Crypt of the Necrodancer, however, I had literally no time to think. It's pretty intense!
Crypt of the Necrodancer is a rhythm-based rogue-like game, and it's like someone opened up my brain and said 'Chibi, what's your favourite two genres of casual games? OK let's Frankenstein them together!'
You play an adventurer travelling into the eponymous Crypt, which on the face of it looks like your standard rogue-like 2D dungeon. The twist is that every level has its own background track, and every move made by you and the monsters is done in time to this track.
The dungeon floor lights up like a dance floor. It's amazing.
Before anything, I need to talk about the music. In a rhythm game, it's the first thing you notice so it needs to be good. Thankfully the music for this game is rad as heck. It's catchy and groovy and you'll find yourself bouncing up and down to it which is good, because you really need to feel the music to get anywhere in this game.
The main trick to gitting gud at CotN is learning the enemies patterns. Each boogying boogeyman (sorry) has its own way of trying to kill you. In the earlier stages it might be something like the blue slime, which will bounce once upwards or downwards, every other beat. Or the minotaur, which will charge at you for every beat until it hits a wall, where it will be dazed for a few beats. It's not too bad when it's just you vs one enemy, but fill the screen with different creatures all moving in different ways and it becomes a puzzle you have to solve very quickly. It took me most of the hour to unlock stage 2 (of 4), and I'll admit I have played this game before.
Monsters Inc. 3 looking p good
The bosses are even more interesting. Each one has its own background track and corresponding music-based gimmick. The one I fought today was King Conga, who had a couple of looooong conga lines of zombies dancing all around their arena. Not only that, but their background track would only let you move 7 beats out of eight, with you having to pause of the eight beat. It's both simple and clever and I love it.
I just wanted to conga with you guys :(
The game has an upgrade system which nets you better drops in the dungeon over time, and a whole bunch of other characters to unlock, all of which play very differently to each other. There's stacks of content here, and it's currently on offer at £2.19. Seriously, go buy it if you like rhythm games!
As a quick recommendation - if you want to see the most stressful way of playing this game I'd highly recommend this speed run shown at AGDQ this year. The runner plays the game in the hardest mode at double time (thought to be impossible by the devs of the game)! Link is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPG6JBUfR44
Anyway, this is 100% a GG, although I wouldn't recommend playing it more than an hour, or your arrow key fingers start really aching!
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