izigame.me

I have a hard time recommending this game because I can't really say I enjoyed what I played of it. I got to around level 6 or so - past the first set of levels - and in the end I just felt mixed.
The game is energetic, spastic, funny, and a visual/auditory joy to experience. It's also a nightmare to tell what's going on at times. The gameplay can be fast, frantic, explosive, and enjoyable, but other times it can be frustrating, confusing, and annoying. I just kept going from "I'm having fun" to "I'm not having fun" constantly.
I'm graphically challenged
First off, the game is a treat to look at artistically. I love the character designs, enemy designs, and levels. The music also slaps (no complaints about the music at all). The game is so caught up in its explosive art though that it makes it tough to play at times.
This is a game in 2024 where I actively complained about the screen crunch to myself - which I don't think I've done since I played a GBA port of a game. Constantly there are times throughout the game where I felt I couldn't react to a jump, enemy, obstacle, etc, because the screen is simply too zoomed in. Also, because it's so zoomed in the game's graphics feel insanely difficult to parse at times. I like the pixelated look, but blown up on a 1440p screen it feels like I'm looking at an emulated GBA game (which may have been the point tbh). This makes the pixelated art style REALLY hard to read for me personally, and kind of ruins a little bit of the charm. I wish there were some AA, filter, or CRT options in the game to try because I think they'd help with the parsing issue a little bit for me.
I lost where Anton & Annie were all of the time. Often times I'll hit some blocks or an enemy and have to stand around for a half second just to check where I'm at, or risk running into something. The foreground gets in the way during the sections where you jump into the background so much it felt like I had hair in my eyes during them. Anton & Annie flash white when you're spinning around with their weapons making them surprisingly difficult to see whenever you hit literally anything. This combined with the previously mentioned screen crunch and the effects that pop up when you hit things leads to an experience that feels like it wants me to go fast but fights me at every turn visually. I feel like if I wanted to go fast I'd have to memorize the game, which at that point I may as well be a TAS bot if I'm just going to memorize inputs to get through something safely.
The game is absolutely stunning visually, but damn does it make it difficult to play for me. I think all of these problems/nitpicks could be fixed with a patch though. Add an accessibility option to highlight Anton/Annie with a thick black outline or to always keep them in front of the effects and I think most of my complaints will be a non issue.
Gameplay BLAST
Gameplay wise, I do like it, but the visual chaos brings down the gameplay with it. As mentioned, I often felt like I wanted to go fast but HAD to go slow constantly. Hitting enemies from landing would sometimes just launch me up in the air because the attack button also bounces you upwards if done in the air, and the timing is pretty generous for it. Anton/Annie have a surprising amount of inertia as well, meaning you often times will drift slightly too far or too short of where you wanted to land and have to try a few extra times. This isn't a problem most of the time, but the game often has little secrets and such that require you to bounce off boxes successfully, or repeat the entire level to try again. There are also times where you simply feel out of control of the characters. I wouldn't mind a "try to get through a level perfectly" sort of thing, but as far as I'm aware there isn't actually a prize or anything for it, so there isn't a point other than for self satisfaction (this could be user error here, maybe there is something and I just don't know). There's just a LOT of minor gameplay annoyances that I think you'll really feel if you're more familiar with platformers. If you're not, you'll probably only feel the screen crunch. I really enjoy the speed of the game, and I enjoy the general ideas at play here, but often times I found myself annoyed more than having fun.
I really enjoy the chaos and destructiveness of the gameplay, but I feel so out of control sometimes that it backfires and I stop enjoying it as much. TBH all I can really summarize it as is "I feel mixed". I love hitting things, but I also hate how I bounce around like a rubber ball. I love dashing through enemies, but I hate that I can barely see myself after hitting one, so I mash attack and bounce accidentally, or get hit. I love the impact effects, but I can't see anything. It's just a constant back and forth for me.
A quick word on the bosses, I just kind of found them annoying. I ran into two of them. The game is split into (minor structure spoiler) little mini-bosses halfway through a set of levels and big bosses at the end of a set of levels. The first boss I ran into was funny looking, but I constantly felt like I was getting caught by attacks that I reacted to. I felt like I had to give the boss a crazy amount of room or I'd just get locked into a command grab from smash bros. The hitboxes just felt a bit off. The second boss I ran into was, simply put, a cluster fuck. Just constantly smacking the hell out of him while enemies that felt like they didn't belong showed up. I enjoyed the second half of the boss a bit better, but I still found myself annoyed. The bosses look cool, are tough, but a bit frustrating.
I misc'd you
There's also a LOT of little QoL annoyances. I bought the hat for example and legit thought my game was busted for around 10-20 minutes because of the weird black border at the top. It was kind of funny when I realized it, but I was more disappointed like "oh, I just wasted all of that money, and I don't get an actual hat" more than "ha, that's a funny joke". The disappointment left me assuming that all the other items like it would do something dumb to the screen as a bit - meaning they all were worthless in my head now. I bought the TV as well, and it felt like a waste of my in game cash. I don't mind little decorations and jokes, I fucking love decorating, but I guess I was just annoyed that these things were so useless for the cost (maybe they're cooler later).
The additional skins also are in a vertical linear list of like 50-100 items (I don't remember the exact number) which means you've gotta SCROLL to find the one you might want.
Levels are scattered everywhere with no indicators of where they're at other than memory and the initial black fog. This led to me getting a bit lost when I'd look away for a moment after beating a level and not know where the new level just opened up. If you want to change characters or costumes you also have to run back to the doors at the start of the hub every time - which isn't the worst but it's also just kind of a time waster.
Last pedantic complaint, I think one of the rooms you unlock after the first boss is a kickstarter backer avatar area or something? It's huge, I didn't know wtf it was when I was in it (still don't), and it just felt strangely out of place (and glitchy). I don't mind showing off who backed your game, but I was just left a bit confused after finding it - and dissapointed because it wasn't anything substantial for me.
The part where I end it
Overall, I'm just mixed on the game. I like the visuals, gameplay, and music, but there's so many little things adding up to annoy me that it's difficult for me to say I enjoyed it. I refunded the game and plan on buying it after a few patches on a sale, I would personally recommend you wait for a few patches as well. A lot of my issues can be fixed with patches and would easily flip over to positive if done.