Colossus Down Reviews

Fun game with a great sense of humor! This plays as your usual beat'em up, but it sometimes spices up the gameplay with occassional puzzles and other genres. Gamepad is totally recommended (but that's true for almost all games). After each level, you can upgrade one of MechaNika's attacks into a special attack that costs you health (well, "overheat"), which you can restore with coolant you get by defeating enemies and destroying everything. You get infinite lives, but you can sacrifice that to get a 4th special attack (but then if you die you have to start the game from scratch, I didn't choose this so I can't tell if it's just the level or the whole game). Levels are beautifully crafted with a quirky artstyle and lots of pop culture references. The music is also very good and aims for a nostalgic feel with retro-inspired tunes. Don't get fooled by the artstyle, this is not an easy game, and TOTALLY NOT for children.

This is one of the best transitions of a world switching genres that I've ever had the pleasure of engaging in. As a huge fan of the two point and click adventures that came before this game, this game pays homage to it's past with such fine attention to detail that it's hard to not appreciate. The dialogue is quirky and superb in very humerus ways, and the character development here is fantastic. If you play the game in two player mode, you get a few extra cut scenes and A TON of extra dialogue between Nika and Agatha. This games writing really surprised me, as Agatha isn't even a main part of this adventure, yet if you include her as a player 2, she doesn't just have throw away lines that don't matter. Her dialogue role is actually just as prominent as Nika's, which was surprising. Even though this is still very much Nika's adventure, Agatha adds a ton of value to the experience. She even has her own move-set that's totally not a copy and paste of what Nika does. I was blown away buy this level of detail. Agatha is so fleshed out as a playable character, that it feels like a waste to not be able to play as her in the single player campaign, but I do get why it was done this way. The writing still caters more to Nika, and just like in Mango Protocol's point and click adventures, there's never had a lazy moment. The game is totally worth playing with a friend just to experience Nika and Agatha together, as It really is that much different with her inclusion, but even alone it's still great. Though the way they bounce off one another as friends (Nika being "the mean one" and Agatha being "the nice one") is something that I enjoyed much more than Nika's dialogue when she's by herself. The banter in this game is on the long side, but it's never boring. I only wish they included an option to skip scenes entirely, as multiple play-throughs will instead have you holding down a single button to fast skip through dialogue, which can still be a bit time consuming. The beat em up mechanics of the game are solid, but there are some odd choices in this department that left me wondering why things were done the way they were. Getting into it, the game features special moves, that upon use, burn through your characters life gauge. Beat em ups from the past did this, but it was in a more situational manner, where you would trigger escape moves to trade a little bit of self harm in order to avoid more damage that you would have otherwise taken. It's not done like that here. Here, the moves just burn through your health without a situational mechanic in mind, which makes me just wish the special moves were tied to their own separate meter. The moves you earn are also unlocked gradually by collecting nuts and bolts, which you collect most of these by building up a combo meter by fighting and killing enemies. The enemies drop bolts worth more depending on the combo you can rack up, but there's a catch here that makes me scratch my head. So here's the thing, if you decide to use any of the special moves you gained, it automatically resets your combo meter, but you can't get any of these cool moves unless you build said combo meter. See the catch 22 here? The game is actually punishing you for using it's coolest moves. Compound this with the fact that the moves also take huge chunks of health away, this inclines players to go through the game using basic commands all the time to collect moves, or use the moves in a very conservative manner. I still very much enjoyed the combat, don't get me wrong, but the way they went about the mechanics had me puzzled. The levels design here is a joy. Each world has it's own personality separate from the others, and there's plenty of mini games mixed into each world (past the first one) that breaks up the regular game-play in varied and interesting ways. This was really appreciated and really kept everything fresh. The worlds themselves are really eccentric, over the top, and full of charm, and they compliment the excellent writing perfectly. Both Nika and Agatha's commentary in each world is always kept interesting and humerus, and I never found myself bored listening to what either of them had to comment on. This game also has branching story paths that impact the outcome of certain scenarios depending on which paths you choose to take, that ultimately effect your available endings as well. I can say, the ending are worth multiple play-throughs, as well as going back and picking options that you didn't in previous runs of the game just to see how differently things play out. The replay value here is very nice. Overall, I really enjoyed this game very much. I will say, there's a lot of attention to detail in this game that harkens back to things previous events in the first two games, and I'd highly recommend playing those games before getting into this one. Not necessary by any means, but definitely worth doing. The combat is definitely solid, and the moves are cool, although I disagree with the way they handled their use cases. The writing is absolutely superb in this game, and it's filled with zany situations, and humor in spades. It even gets a bit touching in areas. The game is great alone, but shines even more with a friend, as Nika and Agatha bounce off one another in a charismatic and charming way. They're two opposites of the same coin, and I really enjoyed them as a duo. I definitely recommend this game to anyone who is either a fan of the series, or a fan of the genre it tackles. You won't find yourself regretting the ride in spite of the games flaws. There's great fun to be had here. Is it the best beat em up I ever played? Not from a pure game-play perspective, but the games charm, world design, and EXCELLENT writing and character development catapult the experience to past its shortcomings. Because of those things, this has become one of my favorite worlds in the indie scene, and I love this game.

Colossus Down is one of the best Beat & Up games I have played in the last few years. Great history, fun, a lot of mechanics and game feel. Do you like Beat & Up games? Purchase this game now!

honestly, a little boring. lot of repetitive combat, not really much of anything else

This game continues the story of MechaNika, changing completely the genre to a beat'em up but keeping the same narrative, dialogues and dark humour. There's variety in the levels with some puzzles, shoot'em up and platformer sections, and also some decisions you need to make that affect the gameplay and story. You can appreciate the team's effort and hard work seeing that the game has more and better graphics, animations, music and different situations than in their previous games, with great animated cinematic custcenes to top it off. If you enjoyed the characters, crazy story and over the top humour from MechaNika and Agatha Knife (and even if you haven't played them anyway) you'll definitely enjoy this one! Pros + More Nika crazyness + Branching levels/endings (and with extra stuff in multiplayer) + Better graphics and animations, with animated cutscenes Cons - Nika crushes some kinder choco-bons during her mission, something I don't appreciate... :(

This game has quite a few flaws to it. First up, going by just the game mechanics, it's a pretty basic side scrolling brawler. Not even a particularly good one. Secondly, you spend way too much time punching shit to get "scrap" for upgrades. It gets really tedious, really quickly. Thirdly, this game was obviously made to be played with two people. There's tons more story/interaction, and Agatha is just a far more interesting/likable character than Nika all around. Which is a problem because solo mode is just Nika. For whatever reason, the devs didn't add in an AI player to control the other character for you. I really can't recommend buying this in terms of entertainment. PS. They didn't even get the details of their own mech right. They have its left and right side armaments swapped.

This was a lot of fun. I really like Nika but I like Agatha more, personally. This was a good game overall, even if some parts were pretty difficult. I'm going to have to play it through a few times to get all the endings.

Colossus down is what you get when you take a bunch of great storytellers and get them to make a game outside of their element. It's actually pretty good, but it does have some glaring flaws that I feel are worth mentioning. Still, the game gets a lot more right than it gets wrong: Pros: - The story is phenomenal. - Tons of humor. - Excellent writing. - Very interesting characters. - Great enemy variety. - Dynamic boss fights. - Very interesting world/universe. - Very good soundtrack. - Excellent stage design. - Very fun and meaningful minigames. - Excellent fan service, with references and callbacks to the previous games. - Multiplayer adds Agatha Knife into the game (Play Agatha Knife please) who adds a ton more value to this games story character development. - Multiple story paths that dictate your games events and available endings. - Multiple endings that are all satisfying and not at all cheap. Cons: - The coolest moves in the game require large chunks of health as a resource (which makes you not want to use them). - The basic combat leaves something to be desired. - Certain bosses could be a real drag. - F THIS GAME'S FINAL BOSS. In my opinion, this game does a ton right, but it gets certain things wrong inside key category of the gameplay department, and it does hurt. It's no enough hurt to dismiss this entire game, but it is worth bringing up. My biggest gripe was that all of the special moves require tons of health to fuel them. You also rarely get to control how much health you use up on these moves. This basically forced me into a gameplay style where I found myself using these moves VERY sparingly, leaving me with mostly the basic combat, which is alright, but nothing special by itself. The combat would be a lot better if the devs allocated the special moves to their own energy bar. I understand that they wanted to create a risk vs reward factor to the gameplay, but sometimes certain things just go against fun. I think it would have been way more fun to be able to use these moves in a more liberal manner, especially because they're all actually really awesome and fun to look at. Agatha Knife is in the game as well, but only as a player 2 option. This was an odd choice being that Agatha has her own set of moves that are totally unique in visuals and utility from Nika's kit. I actually can't believe that Agatha isn't just straight up selectable with how much detail they put into separating her from Nika. She feels like a paid DLC rather than a mere player 2. What a weird decision to lock her into second player only territory. I understand that this is still very much Nika's story, but Agatha adds SO MUCH to the overall package. When she's present, her dialogue completely changes the dynamic of the whole game, and this goes on from level one, up until the final boss. Agatha always has something interesting to say. She bounces off of Nika in a very dynamic "opposites attract' type of manner, where Nika is the mean spirited and sour one, while Agatha is innocent and sweet. I highly recommend anyone with the means to play this via local co-op to have their first experience that way. Agatha's presence shines a huge light on the dynamic of her and Nika's relationship that the player would otherwise never get to see, and after experiencing her as a sidekick to Nika, playing without Agatha just kind of feels wrong. It's like Sonic without Tails or Ratchet without Clank. When they aren't together, it's as though something vital to the formula went missing. No spoilers here, but the worst boss in this game is the final one. I'm not going to reveal who it is (who it is is actually pretty great), I'm just speaking on the mechanics of this particular boss, which are pure frustration. The final boss hinges on a pattern of ping ponging a projectile set to a timer, to which you have to time your returns at JUUUUUUST the right distance for the projectile's timer to go off in connection range of the boss (it is a VERY small range). Its super tedious, requires you to fail a certain amount of times until you memorize and measure out a winning strategy, and it gets faster and more frustrating as it goes onIt just plain isn't fun, and it makes for a terrible curtain call to conclude an otherwise fantastic experience. I went into detail about some of my cons, but that's not to say that I don't like the game. I actually love this game. I mean, come on, you see my list of pros. This is a fantastic game. Is it the best beat em up ever made? Not from a gameplay standpoint (although still very serviceable). Where this game's value shines is in its humor based storytelling, diverse cast of zany characters, colorful worlds, and multiple story choices to be made. This is a beat 'em up made by storytellers with sensibilities towards humor, and it shows. There's so much character, humor and charm oozing out of this game that it'll put a smile on most anyone's face. Each world you visit even has minigames that break up the flow of gameplay, so just when things start feeling long in the tooth, bam, here's something different. The devs were very considerate in respect to the average players attention span. Even in spite of the aforementioned gameplay flaws, I would still highly recommend this game. This is my favorite indie title of 2020.

A side-scrolling action game where Nika from MechaNika and Agatha from Agatha Knife join forces to destroy everything that isn't cool in this world. This thrilling adventure brings together the quirky personalities and imaginative worlds of both characters, promising an exciting blend of action and humor. If you’ve played the previous games, MechaNika and Agatha Knife, and enjoyed their unique charm, distinctive storytelling, and dark humor, you will undoubtedly find this continuation of their saga equally captivating.

[h1] Kid goes into a temper tantrum, mounts a mecha and kills the president of the United States. [/h1] AND THAT'S JUST THE FIRST LEVEL I'll be updating the review as I play, but for the moment, is this a good game? -> [b] Yes. [/b] It's an absolutely ridiculous odyssey bursting with personality and a pretty damn good beat'em up. [i] (Playing Agatha Knife and MechaNika beforehand is recommended) [/i]