SuperEpic: The Entertainment War

This was a fun metroidvania game that likes to mock the pay-to-play game industry. Some fun gameplay elements include letting you play said pay-to-play game mockups on your phone to help you get optional powerups and money (these seem to all be optional--you shouldn't need to pull out your phone if you don't want to...but the side games are bite-sized and fun). Attack combos help the action from getting repetitive, and the enemy design was fun. I really enjoyed the game from beginning to end.

Whenever I see a new Metroid style game, I perk up. Even with the silly style and premise, I was excited for this. I ended up disappointed. Why? Though the game controls fine and sounds okay, the visual assets are a mixed bag of okay to low end SNES/Genesis quality, and I emphasize low end. The menus, life/rage/stamina meters, and other UI type stuff is quite possibly some of the worst I've ever seen. I absolutely loathe that there are areas locked away unless you scan a bar with your cell phone and play some of the worst mini games on a phone that I've ever played in order to get codes unlocking the area, not to mention the bitcoin mining thing you need to run on your phone in order to earn enough in game currency to not have to tediously grind for new items. The worst part, however, is that the general tone of the game is that of a hate letter to the industry. Overall, a sour experience by a clearly disgruntled team. I say avoid unless you're desperately in love with the genre.