Penarium

this game crashes every 5 minutes

It gets quite hard fast. Will put to the test skills of average players. Will test memory & ability to react quickly while under pressure. I'm not good at this sort of thing so I'm not far in & not sure if I will get much further than I am in now, especially because of the memory puzzles that work like doing a Simon Says press lights over & over while trying to stay alive. I HATE memory puzzles (and timers!), mostly because my memory sucks, especially under pressure. Some will enjoy the challenges, even if infuriating, while others that aren't able to just "git gud" will uninstall or put in backlog. Demo for this should have included more than 5 levels because it's starting at level 7 that you start to see what you are gonna have to endure. Only 1 crash so far. Would rate it higher if many little things would be done to it and why can't purchased powerups be used on campaign mode, only arcade? BTW, text font is quite bad & ultra pixelated look is ugly but still a fun little game.

keeps sending me to the main menu mid challenge really irritating

This game is great and a great challenge for anyone who enjoys a good platformer. Poor ratings stem from two issues: The game crashing which may be a reflection on the game, but also the players own Xbox because 100% clarity and smooth gameplay here. The other issue is that I imagine it is to tough for some and they review it poorly in response to their own patience or lack thereof. Don't let the low review scores spook you. Perfect game for what it is and it's price. Here is a whale if you made it this far and I love you 🐳

I picked up Penarium on sale and had a ton of fun with it. It's a challenging, largely single-button game, but you'll never feel that you suffered a cheap death. Going for all of the achievements provides a pretty decent challenge. If you cannot handle failure, this is not the game for you. You will die, and die often. Otherwise, I highly recommend it. If you are going for all of the achievements, this is a 6-7 hour game, 4-5 if you're playing casually. There is a horrible glitch present, though. A few minutes after you start the game (it seems like 10 or so minutes in), the screen fades and you will be booted back to the title screen for no reason. This only happens once after you boot up the game (ie, once per session), but it is really, really annoying and I have no idea how this was not caught in testing. If they patch that out, the game is a 5/5 in my eyes.