Devil's Dare 悪魔の挑戦 Reviews

Super fun, side-scrolling, beat'em-up! The nods to video games and horror are fantastic. The perma-death system is unique and really pushes you to play smart and not just rush in to the fight. Definitely recommend this little gem!

Its an excellent games with a bunch of pros, but a few cons: Pros: -fun fast paced arcade action -easy to learn and fun to pick up -great controls -fantastic combo system -integration of a fair permadeath system -great soundtrack -graphics that pay obvious homage to everything great about the 90s -fun refrences to modern day and retro games Cons -somewhat repetitive gameplay -No online multiplayer

The game is well-designed, as far as humor goes, and its one of those brawlers that does not require an xInput controller (a rarity those days for some reason). But good things end right there. Being a pixel-art game, it has a limited resolution and does not seem to scale well to a modern widescreen monitor, stretching instead. Why is that, I have no idea. And the most frustrating part is the difficulty spikes in the game. Get to the first boss and prepare to die A LOT. Every death will set you back to the very friggin' beginning of the whole game. Turbo-mode gamepad fixes that a bit, but you will still die. Don't smash it in frustration. It's a nostalgia trip all right - you get all those bad design decisions from the arcade era, like lives and limited "continues", impossible difficulties and sometimes unresponsive controls. I never finished TMNT on my NES when I was younger. Years later I found out that the game was not impossible to beat, but it had a form of anti-piracy protection (and it turned out I was using a pirated game) that ramped up the difficulty up to 11. We did not know that. We just kept on playing, never knowing that vidogames were not about frustration. This game is all about frustration. It largely reminds me not only of that old TMNT on NES, but also of Strike Suit Zero on PC. That is to say, "cheat if you want to actually enjoy it".

I really like this game, but it is lacking some critical things... It will be great for steam machines and links, because there is no online multiplayer. All local coop. It would be a blast with a couple of friends. It's got a good art style, and controls are pretty easy to pick up on. It's missing 2 mechanics though, which I feel could have added hours of gameplay to it. A jump and a grapple. Could have had all kinds of platforming. It's very close to being a streets of rage or turtles in time. Very close. I hope to see a second one here. And they do update this game still. It feels like it's beta because they update it so much. I think they may be thinking about adding online multiplayer but maybe are working on something else. As is, its a solid and fun game.

A fun little game, especially for (former) children of the 80's and 90's. The Pro's: Great sense of humour Simple control scheme Well executed pixel art style Tying a player's score to their ability to continue is an interesting and engaging mechanic. Comes with a ticket for the nostalgia train. :D The Con's: Still some bugs. I fell off a non-existant ledge in the park level and bounced around for a bit before landing back in the middle of the screen. No online multi-player, though I'm hoping that gets changed in the next update.

The game kinda feels like a beta, but not. It's enjoyable maybe the first couple of playthroughs but it does get repetitive enough that you probably won't try and get all the 4 different epic boss fights. The game is somewhat too easy for single player but as more players join the game it becomes less easy because of a budget now for upgrades and the fact that not everyone is on the same skill level. Things the game needs: Bigger zombie variety More traps/environmental hazards Secret level? Higher Diffculty settings Another SP attack or two. (Standard controller comes with 6+ buttons, needs more love.) Typical secret code to unlock stuff. (Disables achievements of course until the game is reset.) For what it's worth it gets you some enjoyment for a few hours.

As much as I hate to say it, I cannot recommend this game. I've actually had a chance to play it, and I loved it to death (when I was able to play it). The graphics are amazing, the references are nostalgic and enjoyable, and the sound design is wonderful. It plays like an old-fashioned beat-em up, and I loved it. However, recently the controls have become completely unusable. The escape key will bring up the key binding screen when you start the game, but any button pressed will result in the same result - Joypad up. I've tried multiple configurations, multiple controllers, and keyboard only. I've even unplugged all of my extra controllers, restarted my computer, and tried with the keyboard again. Nothing works, and that's up to and including uninstalling and re-installing the game itself.

pros: - graphic's nice - some 90's reference if that's your thing - a few characters to choose from with different move sets - in-game voice acted and sound effect is nice - there's this ninja kid with sai. he's pretty cool. cons: - control's stiff I'm not sure if I just have bad fist impression because I used some girl in tank for my 1st playtrough, I tried playing ninja kid after beating the game with the girl and it did feel a bit better, but still doesn't feel street of rage remake tight. -you get stunlocked pretty easily and some enemies don't get stunned by combo. and special doesn't give invincibility, nor do you have invincibility frame after getting up. - pickups dissapear after few seconds so you get pickup if you execute 3 or more mobs with special attack, which means bunch of pickup's gonna drop, and you can't get those without getting hit by remaining enemies because taking them takes quite a while, but you can't finish the remaining enemies first because pickups dissapear. not to mention with bunch of money pickups dropping on 1 spot, if there's HP recovery item in that stash, it's gonna be hell to try to pick it up. -no jumping and no grabbing for me thoe 2 are essential in beat em up games. even if there's no jumping AT LEAST I'd like some grab attacks. ninja kid has grab special attack but that's just his special attack, not a grab mechanic, so it doesn't count. -buggy I had to close the game quite many times because I encounter bugs preventing me from going on, like dissapearing from screen or enemy being stuck on air (where it's supposed to fall off the map). a quick goole shows some, or an achievement is bugged too. not sure if they fixed it. unfortunately for me, I can't get a refund because I left the game running when I went to watch avenger movie, and fell asleep when I got back. oh well. I mean, it's not the end of the world, the game isn't shitstain terrible and I DO get some enjoyement out of it, might even end up playing it again after I 100% it from time to time, but to recommend it.. I can't. btw, sorry for my English, it isn't my first language.

This game is a nice idea with a lot of charm, and I'd been looking forward to trying it for a while, but Devil's Dare has too many problems for me to recommend it. First off, money is extremely important in the game but the only reliable way to get a lot of it is killing monsters with special moves, meaning combat is all about spamming them constantly. Feels restrictive, not to mention that some of them just aren't worth using, or can even miss, since two of them are used by holding a direction and pressing the button. If you die in a stage you can only come back if you spend money, and the cost goes up every time. Don't have enough or an item to save you, and your whole run is gone. Compounding this is that everything about the game seems designed to punish you if you make any mistake. Get hit by an enemy, and you're stunlocked for a bunch of damage unless you use a move that drains your special bar, keeps you from using them until it completely recharges, and is pretty unresponsive. Die in a stage and you probably won't get a proper upgrade for it. Even helpful things can screw you over, as a lot of the time I got hit because my character decided to pick up money instead of attacking. It feels like they wanted to take everything from the old arcade beat-em-ups, even the frustrating parts that were products of the time. It does have an easy mode, but even then the game doesn't really feel fun or satisfying to play. This review is done from the perspective of single player, granted, but it's probably not all that likely you'd play it with others, since there's no online co-op. If they added some, maybe it would be more fun, but as it is there are beat-em-ups on Steam already that do grant that option, like Castle Crashers or Double Dragon Neon. I'd try one of them before this game.

Devil's Dare is a love letter to the 80's and 90's kids who grew up playing classic beat-em-ups like Final Fight, Double Dragon and Turtles in Time. The main twist to the formula is roguelike elements, but it doesn't feel as refined as other games in that genre. Players must acquire money from monsters, objects and kill bonuses, and said currency is used to purchase continues upon death, as well as upgrades at the end of a level. There are four stages to choose from, and the order they are completed in determines both their overall length and the boss fought at the end of the run. The combat is standard beat-em-up fare with some modern additions. Each character has three special attacks that can be used as long as the SP meter is full, and the standard combo breaker move at the expense of a full SP bar. Dash attacks round out the moveset, and each special attack can be upgraded via post-level purchases. There is also a unique kill bonus mechanic where killing several enemies at once with an SP attack yields money and/or healing items. Mastery of this mechanic is probably what causes the discrepancy on this review page in terms of players saying that the game is too easy or too hard. A player who mastered older beat-em-ups will be able to use those old tactics here to get an abundance of money and healing items, while someone newer to the genre will struggle to get a run past the first level. The combat is nothing innovative for the genre, but all the systems work in conjuction with each other. Sadly, the roguelike element of this game needs some work. Unlike other games in the genre, there are no unlockable items in this game; everything is unlocked at the start and there isn't a large selection to choose from either. This indirectly means that the game doesn't have as much replay value as the games it will be compred to. Character builds will always end up quite similar regardless of how many times you play through the game, and there's simply not much to do after unlocking both endings aside from achievements. I played this game for three hours and was able to learn the game, unlock both endings and fight all but two of the ending bosses, and there's not much else to see. I feel that it's best purchased during a sale where one wouldn't feel pressured to get tons of hours out of the game, but it's good for a couple runs. Each run is a little over an hour long, so it would probably only take 8-10 hours for the average player to see everything the game has to offer. Multiplayer runs apparently make the game harder since money management comes into play, but your mileage may vary with that as it's local only. Overall, I don't regret my purchase, but I do wish the game had more to offer. I have already seen 80% of the game's content, and I've also tried out the majority of the items in just two full playthroughs. Check it out during a sale for sure, but don't expect to dump dozens of hours into this game like other roguelikes.