Jetboard Joust Reviews

Well.... many things wrong with this game design. Visually.. .doesn't matter how it looks so much as that... it is HARD to read the screen. There is just too much confusion about where you are and what things are. The ground obstacles that you "run into" are annoying. The enemies that match your vertical heigh and keep shooting at you so that you can barely get off a shot without being hit, are annoying. Too many weapons without any seeming explanation of how they work or why you want them. Very elaborate quite bizarre 'level selection' screen which seems to make no sense other than for you to just choose an option at random. Awkward player movement when trying to enter into the warp gate thing which is also confused with an underground cave thing. The visuals just don't read well. You get lost. You just end up shooting a lot and getting hit a lot. Enemies are too trigger happy. You just lose track of where you are quite often. And then you ram into an object on the ground. And then you pick up some random powerup with novelty value. Then you get hit. Then you repeat. Bleh.

Played only for an hour so far, game isn't so bad although some bosses are kinda stupid. I feel like some more random attacks, far more challanging moves and more phases would do the job, but oh well, I'll see what other bosses have in it as well. Also nerf joust attack dmg on mini bosses - u need to shoot them 2 times, joust them and they are dead.

I'm very much enjoying this game. Progression is forgiving by way of unlocking teleporters to later levels. Lots of variety of weapons and the gameplay is fast and frenetic. Some frustration arises from abductions seemingly happening instantly without warning and so much happening at once can lead to almost instant death at times. Otherwise it is a very well made game and can see myself putting upwards of 100 hrs. into it.

Jetboard Joust pros: //fast game with modern day graphics with easy controls that moves from location A to B to C and so on //good amount of action and special effects cons: //a lot of difficult battles/boss battles //some enemies are overpowered //upgrades cost a lot of resources //weapons loot rng system are mostly bad //some weapons are better than others //unobtainable health/ammo that drop through the ground //losing is a grindfest //good game Personal Suggested Purchase Price: $0.49 Or Less During Sale

This is not a good retro action game. The only reason I'm not feeling ripped off is I bought it during a 90% discount sale for less than a pound, but even then I still can't recommend it.

Been following this game's development through #IndieDevHour for as long as I've been making indie games myself. The premise alone makes this my perfect kind of arcade style shooter with a retro aesthetic and fast-paced quick reaction gameplay, but the extra details like the random colour palettes on each level and the clever references to other arcade shooters like Space Invaders really adds to the challenge. One thing I have learned while playing is that while the most limited, joust is really advantageous. Save them up for the bosses of each level. Only minor issues I have is that controlling the jetboard is really awkward in diagonals because horizontal and vertical acceleration are vastly different, not to mention the level bosses have really awkward hitboxes in the first and second stages.

I'm surprised the game gets such praise with such horrible controls. It's floaty in all the wrong ways. Take the ice blocks in platformer snow levels/biomes. Crank the slipperiness to 500% and set it in all 8 directions. Put some arbitrary limitations like not being able to move up and forward at the same time and you've got this game's controls. It's a jetboard that constantly falls down unless you're going up, but with awkward momentum added. Coupled with the pathetic range and a very disorientating dash, makes for a... not fun bullet hell. Not that there's much bullet or hell, more control hell than bullet hell.

Love it. Retro aesthetic, garish colours, and hordes of aliens to blast through. Noisy and fast, I can highly recommend it for anyone that likes old skool SHMUPS, or just the idea of tearing around on a jetboard. Full disclosure: I played the game for free in beta, but brought my copy on release day because it's awesome.

[b]Introduction[/b] Jetboard Joust is a pixelart roguelike shmup. It's the sequel to a ZX Spectrum game the developer made as a teen 30 years ago which in turn was inspired by Joust. The sequel has game elements from Defender as well. A major improvement overall. [b]Gameplay[/b] You're on a jetboard equipped with a pistol, your task is to protect the babies, clear the level of bad guys and destroy the world bosses. You jetboard is capable of jousts, temporary boosts you can use to quickly get away from a fight or destroy multiple enemies at once. Certain enemies try to abduct the babies and mutate into something stronger, you can prevent that from happening by shooting down the kidnappers in mid-air after which the babies will safely fall to the ground. Destroyed enemies either leave jetboards and/or cash you can pick up. Cash can be used in the shop or to buy continues. Picking up a jetboard will boost your shield and repair your weapon a little bit. Once you've cleared a level you can either go through a portal or initiate the treasure chamber sequence. When activated guardians will appear which you'll have to destroy to acquire a key to the hidden chamber. In the treasure chamber you'll find either one or two of a total of 40 special weapons, cash, weapon/jetboard/suit upgrades, teleport/world keys or boosts. [b]Levels and worlds[/b] There are five different planets each with their own boss. Each world consists of multiple levels. Before entering a new level you can look at a tree diagram of the levels of a world and what goodies can be collected from them. You can use that knowledge to choose your path to the boss. Every new game the tree diagram will be different, the weapons you can pick up will be randomized as well. [b]Shop[/b] After you've completed a level you can enter the shop to upgrade your weapons, jetboard and/or suit. You can also repair your weapons once they get too damaged. Damaged weapons will spawn less ammo drops. Cash can be used to buy continues as well so you may not always want to spend all your hard earned money. [b]Video[/b] Here's a recording I made of earning the Gatling Maestro but it also shows a decent strategy on how to defeat the first boss. youtu.be/9rhiKvmJFFA [b]Conclusion[/b] After finding the game in development I started following the game in Steam and on Twitter because I liked the art style and all the particle effects. The gameplay spoke to me as well. I bought it the weekend it came out. The game is lengthier than I expected for a shmup like this and it doesn't disappoint. I find it fun and challenging, it did take me a while to learn how to play it properly.

Really strong overall style and visuals, but the core gameplay is just a bit clunky and simplistic. Played it for about an hour and made it about halfway into the 2nd world before calling it quits out of boredom. Difficulty is extremely low, I didn't die a single time in the hour I played. Maybe it just has an extremely slow ramp up, but at this point I've lost interest in mindlessly flying around shooting basic enemies and collecting gems. When the game does introduce "challenging" enemies/bosses it is basically just bigger health bars and a different appearence. Actually dealing with them is identical to every other enemy, you just have to play at more of a distance and it takes longer, that's about it. Aside from the visuals the game is just extremely barebones and uninteresting from both an arcade and rogue perspective. Would not recommend unfortunately.