Temps de jeu:
13210 minutes
!!! MASSIVE SPOILERS AHEAD !!! PLEASE PLAY AND 200% THE GAME BEFORE READING !!!
Popgoes Arcade 2020 was one of the main game that brought me back into the fangame community after avoiding it for quite some time. I finished my first playthrough (not 100%) in about 4 hours and I was really disappointed in the end. Not because the game was bad, boring or anything along those lines, no, but because I wanted more. I was disappointed because I knew I couldn't experience the game fresh again. Popgoes and the Dead Forest was honestly an amazing experience, coming close to the best experience I've had with a fangame in general. Even after finishing the game to 100%, I would still find myself coming back to play the game from time to time. I would also frequently try and speedrun the game, which proved to be surprisingly fun (got the world record for about a week before being absolutely obliterated by Multi). After two years, a lot of hurdles and some tough times, the new expansion for Popgoes Arcade, Popgoes and the Machinist, has finally released! This coming October will mark two years of giving my money to Kane (check out Kane's Buy me a coffee page, totally not a shameless plug) and I don't regret giving away a single cent of it. I'm happy knowing that my money has (hopefully) helped finance this incredible game. Just seeing the entry on Steam is amazing on it's own. I know a lot of the people who worked on this game and I'm so happy seeing their hard work come to fruition. I started a whole fresh save before playing Popgoes and the Machinist, which meant I had to 100% Popgoes and the Dead Forest once again. What can I tell you, it was once again an incredibly entertaining experience. Having completely finished Popgoes and the Dead Forest for the 57th time, I could now head on straight to Popgoes and the Machinist. I obviously had expectations, but boy did this expansion break them. From the sprites to the music, the new mechanics to the new secrets, this game was beyond good! Where do I even start... First off, I want to mention how satisfying the fights in Popgoes and the Machinist are. Unlike in Popgoes and the Dead Forest, you cannot rely on simply mashing the attack button to defeat your opponents. The fights are a lot more strategical and actually require some planification, not only because one of the main new mechanics, the overkill, requires you to bring the enemy to as little HP as possible and then SMASH the living crap out of them for scraps, but because the robot variants you encounter are actually a real threat. You've got Robot Blake who bears monstruous claws that will tear you open, but doesn't have much health, much like a real badger. You've also got Robot Popgoes and Robot Stone, who are pretty much all-rounders, with solid stats everywhere. They will absolutely murder you if you don't think ahead. One wrong move and a Charged enemy could ruin your day! On the topic of fights, The Machinist's fight is absolutely the best encounter in the whole game hands down. Not only is his character well-written and the music is an absolute bop, the mechanic of him basically imitating your moveset is really interesting. The fight really like a proper final tussle. And The Mangle's fight, woooo boy. The simple introduction to the character was already quite frightening, the fight itself was a dance between life and death! I cannot porperly put into words how much I loved the fights in this game. To end this review, I'll talk about the ending, more specifically the secret one. The mechanic of having to change your outfit according to the Paintbot you fought in the region and then talking to the corresponding Woodpecker of said region is a well thought out way of implementing a secret without it being too obvious or too bullcrap to discover. The secret itself was absolutely something else. Entering the Dead Forest and seeing the error message pop-up multiple times was quite unnerving, let alone descending through several layers of the game's code. The encounter with the files took me by surprise at first, as I thought this was a way to tease Blake or his mechanic perhaps. I genuinely had horrible shivers after opening the third file. This was actually unsettling, well done Kane. There is so much more I could talk about, like the new quality of life imrpovements, such as pressing E for escape, the Bestiary and Index or even the new paint customization, but I'll leave you with my final verdict; Popgoes Arcade is a game that has surpassed my expectations and set new standards for future Fanverse entries. Personally, with the addition of Popgoes and the Machinist, I can safely say Popgoes Arcade is currently amongst, if not the BEST fangame to date. I give this game a Grungle out of 10.
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