Megamagic: Wizards of the Neon Age Reviews

The presentation isn't amazing, and it definitely isn't enough to save the game from its huge gameplay flaws. You deal so little damage with your basic attack that you run out of mana trying to kill anything. Then, you have to wait for your horrible mana regen to kick in. You spend a disproportionate amount of time waiting for your mana regen as you watch your summons slowly auto attack enemies to death. Its a shame that casting spells in a game about casting spells is so incredibly weak.

Fun game, with an interesting setting and compelling story. There's a nice selection of skills with an involved and immersive unlock system. Combat can be approached in many ways: Slow, tactical and thoughtful usage of the right spell at the right time for maximum efficiency, spammy murderfest while your pets (grims) tank, full on petcombat with you as a support character... it's flexible. But my favourite thing has to be the ambience and aesthetic. Music is excellent, visuals are awesome and the general "80's saturday morning cartoon" vibe is fantastic. Mad props to the devs for making an excellent game again (their previous title was Nihilumbra, and was funded with poker winnings, that is the level of commitment these guys have). It's also one of the few videogames that feature Catalan as one of the language options, that is commendable. Solid recommendation for the pricetag it has.

It's a shame when a game comes out that's 100% your aesthetic but does everything wrong. First off, you can't customize your controls. Yeah, that may or may not be a dealbreaker from some but it's just the tip of the iceburg when you get deeper into the game. You start off with a few spells and quickly realize how underpowered you are after the first two or three real fights. You might start thinking "Okay, so I'll get stronger after I level up or get some more spells, right?" Joke's on you. The game gets significantly harder with artificial difficulty and you get stuck running from overpowered and overly aggresive enemies that could really use some hit stun at the very least. All the while, the real enemy is the controls. If you somehow manage to soldier on, you get treated to a very specific stretch of battles that completely test your nerves and sanity. These fights would probably be easier if you could remap your keys... but nope, you got to play the way the developers wanted. Or until they honor their "promise" of adding customization. But it's been over a year. I used to check every once in a while to see if they delivered. Going on over a year, it's pretty obvious this game has all been abandoned. Lesson learned, Beutifun will never get another dollar from me.

Just finished this game, it was pretty fun? Really, really enjoyed the art, and the story line was good, the dialogue was all really funny at times. It had a really cool game design where as you progress, you learn new spells and some other spells become obsolete, so you're kind of always changing exactly how you play the game. (I noticed some people mentioned this as a bad thing in their reviews, I guess it's just personal preference but I really liked it). Overall, I did like the game, there were definitely a few things that let it down though. There were a few bugs, with really crazy spawn rates in some areas, enemies not attacking, the AI of the grims was a bit out of whack sometimes, and sometimes if you haven't added a certain spell before a fight, it can make the boss almost impossible to beat [spoiler] (e.g. Hogan & the last boss. I spent like 20 minutes trying to beat Hogan and getting him barely down to half health) [/spoiler] so you might have to reload the game from an earlier point and then do some things all over again. The game also crashed my laptop when I first tried to load it (not sure what that was about). [spoiler] Also, major spoiler, but i was confused why Fum sacrificed himself to bring back Deimon, when he could have at least sacrificed himself to bring back... everyone that Merklyn had killed? If the magic was supposed to be that strong? Or at least the uncle guy from the beginning too. Something like that. Just thought it was a little weird, not exactly where I would have gone with the plot [/spoiler] BUT, overall, cool game! :^) Definitely would play a sequel if they make one (hoping they do)

Controls are horrible, and coop is a joke. You can't rebind keys. Gamepads don't work (xbox 360 controlers). Game forces you to use pets while making them imposible to manage with bad controls.

Awful controls,, game slowdown happens frequently despite exceeding the recommended specs, fights are not fun when you go out side due to the constant spawning. If combat was turn-based it would actually work well.

It's with a heavy heart that I cannot ultimately recommend this game. It's got a good concept backed by good music and pretty decent artwork, and the basics of the action combat are kind of neat, too. But only the basics. Things go a bit south when you have to switch spells, which with these keyboard/mouse controls are done with the same hand as your movement. I can't tell you how many times I accidentally selected the wrong spell because I couldn't stop moving(or enemies would swarm me) while I did it. And that's before adding summons to the mix, which require you to control even more things at once. I only have two hands, and controlling my pets while casting the right spells, all while moving - because you really can't afford to stop moving in combat - is just not happening. At least, not happening very well. On top of that, regular spells are weak. The game is set up so that you really have to rely on your summoned creatures - which, again, are hard to control - if only to keep enemies from swarming you as you wait for your mana to recharge. You have an attack that'll recharge some mana for you, but it requires you to get dangerously close to the enemies you should be avoiding at all costs. This makes combat drag on a bit since enemies won't go down fast. Then there's the weird spawning system. The points are pretty close together, and the same group can and will spawn multiple times without you even having to leave the area. This makes thorough exploration of any area more of a chore than it should be. I got to a point where my spells were weak, enemies were strong, and my summons were taking a huge beating from a single group. Accidentally triggering an additional group while running was a death sentence. Not fun. I want to like it. I really do. But the controls are too awkward, with too much to keep up with in the midst of an active battle situation when you only have two hands. And the encounter balance is very much not in your favor. It honestly just ended up being an exercise in frustration.

When I first started this game I felt that Saturday morning cartoon magic like when I was a kid, but there was a difficulty spike that I could not get past and it unfortunately killed the game for me.

Yet another example of why [b]Steam[/b] reviews system doesn't really work. [b]Megamagic: Wizards of the Neon Age[/b] is one of those games that can't be rated by simple “yes / no”. I mean, just by looking at all those negative reviews, you may think that it's pretty bad. But the thing is... it actually isn't. It isn't bad at all. Well, aside from a few minor bugs here and there, lack of balance and the fact that controller support is a lie. But is it actually good? Well... I don't think so. See, [b]Megamagic[/b] is one of those indie titles that you can skip without missing much. Just because there's nothing really special about them. It's an action game (yes, I know that it looks more like an old school RPG, but still, it's a pretty generic action), where you can attack your enemies with spells, or summon some creatures (called “grims”) to support you. That's pretty much it. You follow the mission pointer (almost no optional goals here, aside from some optional challenges), you kill everything, you solve some basic (really, [i]really[/i] basic) puzzles. Repeat until credits will roll. “Leveling up” is kind of fun, since you'll need to collect some parts from the enemies and also learn their behavior to unlock the new summons, but all that is way too straightforward (you kill enemies for parts, you avoid their attacks to learn about them) to be called a thing. No, seriously, even though it sounds like a fun thing, it's hardly even worth mentioning, since most of the time it'll just [i]happen[/i] without any effort on your side. And aside from that, it's a pretty generic [b]2D[/b] action game, where you either shoot, or dodge. The story is also way too generic (it's just yet another “evil priest” thing with some stupid humor mixed in), while the entire nostalgia thing is... Well, to be honest, I don't know why it's even here. I mean, sure, [b]80s[/b] / [b]90s[/b] can sell stuff. Add [b]LukHash[/b]-like soundtrack, [b]SNES[/b] sprites on background and neon lights, and people will pay. The problem is – in this game... it doesn't really feel like there was a need for all that. Neither writing, nor gameplay actually call for such things. As the result, it really does feel like the retro motif was added just for money, to make it easier to fund the game on [b]KickStarter[/b] (yes, it's a [b]KickStarter[/b] game, no, it isn't as bad as some other [b]KickStarter[/b] projects). So, despite all those negative reviews, [b]Megamagic: Wizards of the Neon Age[/b] is totally playable. If you'll get it cheap during the sale, or as a part of a bundle on one of those “[i]get a lot of games cheap[/i]” websites... I don't think a single playthrough will make you feel bad. It's just, like I've said, it's a pretty generic indie game that fails to provide enough motivation for you to actually care about it. There's so many generic indie games in [b]Steam[/b] at this point that it's all about you and what you come across. You come across this exact title – you may as well finish it without feeling bad about wasting your time (it's not that long anyway). You come across any other game of this kind... it won't even matter. Even though [b]Megamagic[/b] tries to be different here and there, it isn't nearly enough to make a real difference.

I enjoyed a lot of this game, and tried to stick it out until the end, but unfortunately my irritation with the controls tipped me over the edge. I'm saddened to give this game a negative review, but give it a go if you're less picky than me. Pros: [list] [*]fairly unique fighting system [*]amusing dialogue [*]fairly standard trope, but satirical and interesting [/list] Cons: [list] [*]can't rebind keys [*]very hard to control minions, especially while dodging and fighting [*]hitboxes are very hard to target if you're casting and moving – ie any time things get a bit rough [*]It can be very hard to survive in fights where you are seen by a group of enemies and they all go for you instead of your minions. This happens with cutscenes, as minions disappear for a time. [/list] Devs: [list] [*]When ordering minions to attack, make them default to the nearest enemy [*]When casting a spell on a minion, make it default to the nearest minion [*]all minions should be selected by default. You have specific controls to order minions around, but after summoning minions they do nothing without first selecting them. Selecting just one is needed on occasion, but there is never a time where having none selected is useful [*]allow players rebind keys, and tweak how we control minions (a long press of two buttons, while dodging enemies and projectiles is quite complicated, when a single alternative keypress would suffice [/list] Thanks for the game regardless, I'll look forward to your next endeavour.