Scary Girl

This is actually one of the first hack-and-slash/beat-em-up sidescrollers I ever followed and got excited for, back before I ever even knew Steam, or anything like it, even existed - and, before I even knew there to be a bilithbook this is based on.

Now obviously, it's apparently relatively mid to everyone. Thanks for ruining me with standards, established game world. But to me back then looking at what few screenshots and videos I could find, this looked interesting and exciting to me, and like exactly the kind of weird I wanted to sample.

Luckily for me, it's here now... and, while I can tell it's rough around the edges, it's actually really satisfying to me.

The look of Scaryworld is just honestly impressive to me. It is darkly beautiful, and each environment looks like it at least whispers of a world that could be lived in, explored, escaped into. It's enough that I even was inspired to order in the Scarygirl bilithbook, although there's supposedly a whole trove of other comics about her that I don't know how to find.

Scary Girl's origin manages to be a silly sort of dark, and a dark sort of silly. It may be very simple, but it makes me both laugh and scowl enough that I'd rather you experience it for yourself. If nothing else, know there *is* a story, complete with a recap of how Scary Girl came to live the life she does.

As for fighting as her... it's very satisfying to me. It is flawed- controls are not always tight and they can be unintuitive- but when you get the hang of it, it is fun in the true way of fun, and I for one really feel like a cutesy, macabre manifestation of rage. This Frankenstein'd toddler's moveset is impressively well made, actually using her design- a stark contrast from other licensed, lower-budget games I've seen that would basically ignore the unique body parts or tools of the character you're supposed to play as in favor of ridiculously generic and unfitting moves.

That tentacle arm with the hook at the end? You get to use that. A *lot*. You strike with it. You grab with it. You can even hold onto, carry around, and throw enemies with it like Klonoa's little sister- and it is *awesome*. There's another ability or two, but I'd rather not spoil them.

The combo game in this... game is actually well-made and satisfying. Credit where it's due, I actually feel like getting a combo in this game is a successful use of the tools given us, and when I fail a combo, it seems in most cases like it's my fault.

__

But there are flaws, make no mistake. Again, controls aren't the tightest and there is room for mistakes.

The animation of almost all the creatures in the game- from Scary Girl herself, to enemies, to background characters- is in many cases (albiet less so for Scary Girl) stiff and the more awkward ilk of drifty. This is both an aesthetic setback, since it takes away some of that sense of surreal aliveness of the world and its denizens otherwise have; and a gameplay one, as it means that Scary Girl and her foes don't always broadcast their swifs right. The animations are a pretty good indicator of what's where, make no mistake, but not great, and for a fighting game where contact is key, that's a significant setback. Despite my liking for this game, I wouldn't blame any veteran fighting game enthusiasts for choosing to pass on Scary Girl based on that alone.

Another setback is enemy variety. Now, having bought the bilithbook, I can tell you that the beings adapted therefrom are beautiful, easily the most impressive in the game, but to awend the original road-trip adventure tale into a beat-em-up, they have to make up new foes for Scary Girl... and while they definitely look compatible with the world, they're relatively bland and it kind of offsets the immersion for me. The variety is okay, but I also wish there were a whole lot more different types of enemies with unique gimmicks; you can only kill the same few kinds of animals so many times before you start to want for "Finally, a worthy opponent".

Note: This next thing is only an issue for anyone who really wants to disappear into their game and morally forone with their avatar. For most sane gamers, skip to the next wordblock. I'm greatly bothered by the fact that quite a few levels in this game have Scary Girl attacking enemies first, when arguably her schtick as shown by the bilithbook is that underneath that creepy, undead skin is a gentle soul who just wants to enjoy a quaint quiet life, but also who needs to confront her fears. For her to just start murdering animals like this is like if main-universe Batman picked up a gun and just started capping people left and right.

I really would have loved it if the developers had replaced the generic birds, sasquatches, etc. with robots or other undead sent by the Doctor character who serves as her nemesis and her reason for setting out.

On that note I wish the plot would tie in more with the bilithbook's angle of them setting on a road trip, like maybe having a special fighting sequence on the roof of the car. That'd be epic and tie in just enough to prove the respect for the original work.

However, I have to gainzecker, and I ask this of you too, to judge these flaws softly. To be fair, with this being a tie-in to the bilithbook, there's probably not as much pressure to make the game very tight as there would be for a completely original work- and, the team for this game were probably were as oblivious to their own talent as lactose intolerant cheesemakers.

Relative to its circumstances, this is in my wen a game worth playing. It may not be an experience to truly disappear into and be wonderstruck by, given the room for bettering, but it outright gave me that empowering experience of being a hardcore fighter with an unusual body shape and fighting style, and if a sequel or reboot is ever announced, I guarantee you I'd be among the most eager to get in line for the newsletter and playtesting. Especially if they're the responsive sort who actually talk with their fans and wannabe-playtesters.

while it does look like a game for all ages it has a good story and can be a challenging plat former that makes you use the most out of all your abilities.

Nice game, good graphics.

Disclosure: played with C.E.

Scary Girl is an uncanningly refreshing experience with levels varying from somewhat intermediate to tough with critter bosses in any side-scrolling platform adventure game. It might take a lot of deaths and preserving health till end strike is a way to not give up on this game and continue till end to divulge deeper into this breathtakingly stunning world of a not-so-scary-girl lookalike fantasy world and bring back the old buddy, the keeper of tree kingdom back from kidnappers. Every 5 levels or so you would have to defeat bosses that gets increasingly tougher , and you lose health quite easily in this game which makes this game slightly challenging and not unlike any easy-peasy platformer games. The art of this game highlights the journey of this risk-lover girl in an aesthetically pleasing way. Get this game and I guarantee, more than the game, you will forever be in love with the personality of the main female protagonist of this game, Scary Girl. In fact, I can say, scary girl is now on top of my favorite females lover list of all female player games I ever played with alice of alice in wonderland in second and gasha from aquaria in third.

Come on, I won't believe you if you still ignore this game.

bought the game ages ago, but only now decided to try and play it, and it doesn't start so that's a bummer.

So my PS3 stopped working a while ago and one of the games I had was this little indie game that was published by Sqaure Enix. I remember it was good but thought the flash game of it was better(Which I don’t think you can play anymore) and I even gotten the graphic novel of it cause I liked the art of it. Too bad the story just stops after the city and doesn’t conclude the whole mystery man thing. Wanting to play it again, I got it on Steam so lets see if it’s good?
Story:

One night, a garbage truck dumps a little girl on a peninsula where she is founded and adopted by an Octopus named Blister who finds her clothes, builds her a house and names her Scarygirl. Lately she starts having dreams of a strange man and finds a Guru Bunny under her house who tells her the answers are in a place called Bad City.

And that’s all the plot from the book we’re getting as the actual plot of this game is that the forest is dying and Scarygirl looks for the Tree of Knowledge for answers.

If you never “read” the book, you probably won’t mind the story that’s presented here. But if you have, then some story bits may leave you confused or annoyed . First is that we have to help Tree of Knowledge or the forest would die. Problem is that in the book he was a villain who was going eat Scarygirl before Blister kills him.

The second was the placement of the sewer level cause in the book, she meets a giant in the sewer who gives her a helmet to breath underwater. We don’t get this helmet until after the ocean level which makes no sense for both story and gameplay. Don’t see why we could just go through the gate to the city normally and do Bad City first and save the sewers for later.

And finally, that mystery man in her dreams is never properly explained. We meet the guy at the end of the game, but the reason he appears in Scarygirl’s dream doesn’t come up. Instead we have to make a deal with him which leads to a different ending and a toy being unlocked in the shop. And since there are three endings, you need to do the last level three times to buy the last few extra toys.

I think it would’ve been better if they just stuck to finding out who the mystery man was cause that was the interesting plot hook. Not finding out why the tress are dying.

Also there was a pair of DLC levels on consoles about Scarygirl getting possessed by a ghost but they weren’t on Steam.
Gameplay:

Ever played Earthworm Jim? The basic controls are similar to that game with using your tentacle arm to swing with hooks and hover to slow down your descent. That’s where the similarities end as instead of shooting things, it’s a 2D beat-em up with combos, block and maybe counter if timed well, a grab for stunned enemies and even a rage mode that can kill almost everything in a few seconds. There’s even a few swimming sections and they aren’t too bad either.

Combat is simple enough for the most part with some simple combos and enemies that have a gimmick or two like giving you poison or flying around. Sure you are forced into combat a few spaces but it only gets annoying later when enemies with more health start showing up, but sometimes you can just use your rage mode to clean everything up.

Until we get to Guards. These are one of the worst, most annoying enemies I have ever faced and they are almost everywhere in the second half of the game. These blue jerks have long swords, spears, etc, have lots of health and can block you. In fact they are the only enemies that block your attack in the entire game. And if you think you could just hover over them and attack them from behind, they’ll hit you in the air so that’s out. If this was to encourage me to engage in the combat more, it failed as I was never thought how to guard break and I just spammed the combo that summons a bunch of tentacles from the ground since it has some reach.

Levels are the simple get to the end variety, though it since there’s no exit sign or anything, some level might feel like they just end. There some bull-crap in some levels like not having the air helmet for the underwater level or the instant death traffic in the city, but those are few mainly towards the end of the game and very early in those levels. To help, you find gems in every level that you can use in shops to buy new moves, hooks with their own buffs like longer glides or slower attacks for more damage, and little figures to display in the tree-house. Though you might want to hold off getting the figures until after beating the game as playing normally, you’ll barely have enough to buy all the moves or even all the hooks.

Though if I can address a nitpick I have, it’s the odd pacing of the bosses as well as the final boss itself. Now for the first two worlds, it seems fine. Got three levels per world and a boss at the end. Then we do world 3 and there’s no boss. World 4 is normal but World 5 has it’s boss on level 2(which is followed by my least favorite level since it’s nothing but forced combat in a small space with some of the more annoying enemies), world 6 is another world with no boss then in the final world, the second level is just a boss fight while the final level has a half-assed boss rush since it’s just the 1 and 5 bosses as well as the most boring boss fight in the game. Not with the guy who appears in Scarygirl’s dreams, who the level is named after and is shown riding a sort of mech suit in one level. But a random enemy spawning machine that doesn’t even look that good. So no final battle against the main villain.
Presentation:

Music is more ambient than anything, but some of the tunes do have a nice melody to them and one or two might get stuck in your head.

The art looks really good. It may be 2D but it’s taking advantage of it’s 3D graphics with it’s camera views and the pathway twisting and turning. And even bland locations like dark woods and sewers look lovely. I don’t know how to explain the character art. I absolutely love it with with it’s skeleton vultures, beggars that look like robot armadillos, octopuses wearing mask and snakes with owl heads. If there’s one reason to play this game, it’s to see the art.
Verdict:

It’s got gorgeous art and some decent platforming, but the odd story decisions, late game combat and the final boss hold it back.

6/10

I got the game on sale hoping for a decent mindless platformer. Unlike other reviews I haven't had any problems with the port, but as a platformer this game is completely uninspired. It's slow paced, the item collection is boring, and combat is extremely simplistic. Give this one a miss.

I really want to like this game but I find the keybinds extremely awkward and cannot find any way to change them. Also cannot change to my screen resolution so am forced to play in windowed mode on a tiny box.

Sorry thumbs down for me since I can barely play it.

Although I like the premise of the game and it's artsyle, this game is so painfully average that it's just not worth playing unless you can get it on sale. The fact that the PC port is terrible doesn't help either (you have to use a fan-made ultility to make it run in widescreen, for one). Also, 30fps lock in a platformer game? Really?

Now, don't let the not recommended icon scare you off. The only reason I'm giving a negative review is that the game is clearly not compatible with Windows 10. But, I will say that I guess it must be a good game for it to warrent its own movie, so I'll probably go see that...But for those of you thinking of buying Scarygirl, I do not recoomend spending the seven bucks here.

This game is so bad it's simply sad, Square Enix what have you done :\

TL;DR: http://www.scarygirl.com/world.php JUST PLAY THE ORIGINAL GAME INSTEAD

Old browser game looks amazing and old 2D girl looks simply adorable, that game IS free and this 3D сrар game is the completely opposite thing:

-Horrendous 3D graphics - and that girl looks like an old psycho woman not like a girl anymore. Maximum resolution is 1280x1024
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=866253767
-Horrible controls - buttons setup is bad and nonremapable
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=866253854
-Horrible camera angles which always changes and that thing makes platforming part even harder.
-Battle part is horrible as well - all mobs are so hard to kill, and there are lots of them, most likely this was made to force more "gameplay hours"

-The worst thing about this game is - Original FREE web browser game is so good, it looks beautiful despite how old it is, it's very interesting to play and it could be easily ported as a standalone nonbrowser game, but no, you have to puke this Xbox abomination instead. Pathetic.

I don't care what others say about this game, the nostalgia of this game for me is overloading, I love this game from the bottom of my heart, the graphics are beautiful, the gameplay is fun, and the mechanics are pretty interesting. I love the music you hear throughout the game, however I wish there were more tracks. The book that Scarygirl is based on is done in a cute and overall unique art style which is well represented in the game, as an artist I can appreciate that. The general environment of the game is awfully nice and pleasant; this may not be the same case for others if they play it themselves, but it's what I personally feel. Despite all the negative criticism, I would recommend this game if you're looking for a general platformer with a beautiful artstyle.

In this game, you play as ScaryGirl, an orphan who was adopted by an octopus. You use one of your arms, which has become much like an octopus tentacle to whip, swing and climb your way through the 21 different levels. All the while trying to stay alive, collect gems, and pull up blackweed in an effort to get "Perfection" on the levels. By collecting gems you can purchase attachments for your tentacle that allow you to accomplish different things: hit harder but slower, hit lighter but faster, attract items to you, fly further, swim faster, as well as buying combos for added attacks. You can also purchase collectible "vinyls" of the monsters encountered in the game. I don't see any purpose in this other than obtaining the achievement where you buy everything in the store.

This is a standard 2D platformer with some isometric views. For the most part the controls are solid. It is when the view changes perspective that the controls go a little wonky. When this happens during a jumping sequence then it is death. There goes "Perfection." My time is clocked on Steam at 10 hours. At least 2 of those were trying to get past this exceedingly difficult area when you are on an airship and there are mob after mob of guards - they block your hits. There is only one checkpoint and no fish to eat and restore health.

Combat is satisfying. You can hit hard or light. With hard hits you throw enemies into the air and can juggle them for extra points. When enemies are near death you can grab them to do other things: throw them into other enemies, smash them into other enemies or use a special ability to squeeze them for health, turn them into a tornado or use them as a pogo to bounce away or to a high ledge. The enemies are varied and different attacks work better on different types. There are three or four boss fights, excluding the last boss fight. Each of these are good and varied. All require manipulation of the environment in order to win.

All-in-all this is a good platform game, but doesn't offer anything unique. The camera and controls feel right except for a couple of areas and this means death. There are a couple of places that are extremely difficult including the aforementioned airship level. In the end, it is worth playing if you like platform games and you can get it on sale. It is fun, but I don't see myself replaying or attempting to get "Perfection" on all the levels.

I'm somewhat torn in the middle of this game.
The game had a cute and unqiue story but the ending was disappointing. I expected a bit more derp give the theme of the game. The game is well narrated, great sound track and great sound effects.

Control wise, I certainly reommend a controller, especially some of the TRICKY jumps you have to do. Overall controll was OK (5 out of 10), it could have been better. Executing combo attacks was sometimes trival.

I wish bosses had a boss meter sometimes it was difficult to gauge if I was hitting the dang thing or not. The game is pretty short rounding to about 6-10 hours game time wise.

Stages and bosses were challenging and wasn't bad overall.

My biggest gripe is the stupid switch at times. You'll get to tough spots where the game just throws nothing but a barrage of BS at you, which is frustarting. Forentualy the game has somewhat decent checkpoint system.

An intersting gem, worth picking up if you get past these flaws, but I wouldn't drop no more than 10$ on it. I spent about 3 on a sale.

Maybe the ultimate example of a perfectly nice-looking game with potential being ruined by terrible decisions in key places. Specifically, the rubberiness of combat, and the awful checkpointing decisions here and there. But it's the combat that's key. I've actually reached the end, there's a long combat sequence to do, and after half a dozen attempts, you know what? I give up. I don't care. I've already screamed at the screen too much and too loudly. I'm going to tell people I finished this game, because according to the walkthrough I am indeed at the end. But I've drunk my fill of this game, and having experienced all of it, I think I'm going to tell you it's not worth the frustration.

Cute stylized action platformer that's fun and pretty to look at with a weird story to top it all off. Very unique artistic direction. However, you may want to use a controller unless you're ok with directional key movement / no mouse control style.

What could have been a charming and endearing little platformer is marred critically by the fact that it's a positively terrible PC port, offering little to no customization, no proper widescreen resolutions, and bouts of random, completely mindboggling slowdown which render the action completely unplayable. The art style and stages themselves are competent, and there seems to be a decent challenge here, but there are other, much better games you should be looking at long before you reach the bottom of the barrel in which Scarygirl resides.

This is a very endearing little platformer. You play as a little girl with a tentacle for an arm who is dressed as a pirate. The visuals are colourful and very stylish. The 2D platforming in a 3D environment works well. The gameplay is for the most part fun although some sections can be rather frustrating. You can use your tentacle arm to attack, fly and swing off things. As the game progresses you find health upgrades and can purchase new attacks. The story is entertaining although the ending is a bit weak. However I bought this game as I was looking for decent local co-op games. The co-op in this is akin to playing as tails during single player Sonic 2. Player 2 cannot do all the tentacle related moves player 1 can and they just end up getting left behind and respawing. This make playing as player 2 rather annoying. So I would recommend this if you are looking for a fun, quite challenging single player game not as a local co-op game.

This is a really good platformer. Very atmospheric 3D sidescroller that is both challenging and evocative. A lot of platformers try to affect a retro-look or feel that often falls short, but this game has an overall consistency--music, mechanics--that taps into that feeling of platformer nostalgia without specifically harkening back to an earlier era. It's fresh. Get it.

Scarygirl is a side scrolling 3D action platformer that has a novel heroine and a fun tongue-and-cheek narrative. Fans of Psychonauts will enjoy the Beetlejuice-esque graphics, and the inclusion of controller support contributes to make the gameplay light and fun. Sadly, while the Steam Overlay is supported, users with widescreen monitors will be limited to 1280x760 graphics. The total package is enjoyable and certainly worth it's discount indie price. I would highly recommend this game to individuals who enjoy casual platformer play in a bizzare fantasy world.