Blade Kitten Reviews

Kit looks like a mid 2000s newgrounds oc, peak

Decently fun game, cute character.

The last third of this game is paid DLC due to the extended development time. The team dropped the price of the base game, so they’re offering better value, but it’s also meant to lure in unsuspecting buyers, which is kind of sneaky, so I guess it’s a wash. Just know that the full game is worth $7-8 at full price, not $3. Is the base game worth buying? I mean, against the multitude of options in this store and others, all of the possible discounts, not really, but as a bargain bin hack-and-slash platformer with a bunch of collectibles, it’s decent value. The story is paper thin. You’ve got your typical Sci-Fi setting with aliens, bounty hunters, and space marines. Kit, our protagonist, does some jobbing then we’re suddenly confronted with a planetary threat and Kit being a survivor of a genocide, which hits with all the impact of an empty plastic bag. Any potential for engaging writing is crowded out of the plot by Kit’s banter. Her delivery isn’t annoying, but her shtick is repetitive, and it makes scenes that should have different tones just melt together. It’s not like the game is trying to have a deep or exciting plot, but that doesn’t stop it from reeking of genericness. The presentation is a bit better. They haven’t aged all that well, but the designs and animations are fine for the year this came out. Skiffy is cute. The proprietor with the racist Asian accent isn’t. The other designs are just kind of… well… generic. The environments are fine, but they lack personality: the bazaar, the tenements, the fortress, the temple, the factory… I’ve seen it all before. Maybe I’d get more out of them if the world were more fleshed out, but as they are, they’re long and visually repetitive. That brings me to the gameplay. It’s functional, but it’s very uneven. Searching for hidden collectibles is pretty fun, but the sparse use of direction indicators makes it hard in some levels to tell the main path from side paths. Since I prefer to search for collectibles before taking the main path, this meant I had to feel things out by the use of checkpoints, which was annoying and time-consuming. The combat and platforming are pretty easy, but they don’t feel fluid. There’s a tiny delay between attacks and jumps that might not seem like much, but it slow things down quite a bit cumulatively. There are also a few glitches: I got stuck in a few places that made the character model blink and twitch, and the screen turned completely white in one small section of one level. Nothing broke the game for me, but be wary. I can’t say I really like this game, but with twelve substantial levels, collectibles and time trackers, I think it’s just worth it to grab on sale. However, I would not buy the DLC unless you came off the base game truly hungry for more.