Spud's Quest

I was so excited when I discovered this game on here. The screenshots looked really charming and the description really sold me. It draws inspiration from Zelda and Metroid, woohoo! So when it was on sale I immediately got it. And at frist, it seemed like it was the perfect game for me. It was a nice, dream-like fantasy world and I very much felt like I was a little kid again. So Spud's Quest is a mix between a Platformer and an Adventure game. You jump around and pick up items to use at other points to continue in the story. There's temples like in Zelda and you gain new abilities like in a typical Metroidvania game. So far the game seems perfect for me. But there's a third title in the description, Dizzy. Which I've never heard of before. Apparently it was an Adventure title where you would pick up items and use them just like in this game. The only problem is, because it was an old game, you could only hold 4 items at a time. For some reason, the developer of this game decided to...

Was really excited to play this game. Absolutely loved the Fantastic Dizzy games growing up which this attempts to pay homage to. I was however quite disappointed once I started playing this one however. The main difficulty of this game lies in its craftsmenship. Really poor hit detection and faulty controls make it very frustrating to play. I made it halfway through the game, 4 hours for me, when an irreversible error left the game unplayable from that point. Items get stuck in the walls with no way to recover them, and guess what? That's it, the game is broken and you can't play any further. I can't possibly reccommend this game. It wasn't fun. It broke. It was unoriginal. And again, it broke. I want those 6 hours of my life back.

While definitely far from perfect, Spud's Quest feels just like a Dizzy arcade adventure game of yesteryear. The art is cute and colorful, with plenty of unique locations and one-off NPCs. The dynamic day-night cycle and changing weather occasionally create some truly beautiful combinations. The world is huge, and spans multiple biomes, from forest with a very Dizzy-esque treehouse village in it, to jungle, to frozen mountains, and ocean floor, all rendered with a lot of loving detail. Most inventory puzzles are well design, and rarely require moon logic to solve them. The game is fun, colorful, charming, and on occasion makes you feel really clever. Now, I would be lying if I said there are no negatives - there are, and plenty, but honestly, I'm just happy games like this are still being made.

A great throwback to simpler times of gaming with an obvious reference to Dizzy, the adventurous egg. Simple yet engaging, with high-fidelity old pixel art style and a lot to play around. A lot less fun if you were born after 1985, though. Too bad there are gameplay issues: a few bugs, a dash of illogical puzzles (come on, a crocodile tooth??!!?) and some clunky controls (use Xpadder to map the keyboard with custom sensibility). In a way, those problems constitute a great tribute to old games. Maybe it truly was features.

I've never played the Dizzy games that this apparently took inspiration from, but Spud's Quest does a great job at capturing the feel of old PC games with the visual aesthetic, MIDI music, and gameplay. It's got a pleasant, humorous world to explore in typical Metroidvania fashion, and the dungeons have some pretty solid Zelda-esque puzzles. One thing that many would understandably consider a downside is the inability to carry more than four items at a time, although I found it to be only a minor setback, and it encouraged me to put more thought into how I use the items. Generally, the game is quite good about providing enough information that you won't get completely stuck trying to figure out what item goes where, although I did resort to a walkthrough two or three times for solutions I personally don't think the game hinted towards enough. Before playing the game, I got a little worried by the reviews that said it was buggy, and I can't say that playing the game completely eased...

Nothing but bugs and glitches. I am in chapter 3 and cannot proceed with the game because the climb ability DOES NOT WORK. Went back to double check if I picked up the scroll and I actually did. But no climbing so no more playing. Do not buy this game.

Controller only moved the character before assigning the buttons, and didn't work enough to leave the beginning room after setting them up. No explanation for a keyboard button was given for the action required either. Don't buy this game. I requested (and got) a refund from Steam.

This game is absolutely awesome! It's very reminiscent of the Dizzy adventure games that were on the 8 bit systems and using simple SNES-like graphics. There's plenty of things to do, lots of fetch quests to keep you busy, several easter eggs, red herrings to throw you off, and hidden items that will have you tearing your hair out trying to find the last one. It's an adventure full of traps and treasures like in the Indiana Jones movies. It's equally fun and frustrating at the same time, hardly has any violence, and lots of cheerful ditties which makes it a game all ages can enjoy. The one downfall is that you only have 1 life but there are plenty of save points to save your progress so you can resume where you last saved.

This game is excellent! That's all I have to say.

its cool