Best Buds vs Bad Guys

"Best Buds vs Bad Guys" is a 2D retro pixel sidescrolling arcade shooter with some platforming elements... basically a derivative ripoff of games like Metal Slug and Contra, only there's a kitschy "game developers" fighting theme which doesn't make a lot of sense and isn't a great idea.

Gameplay as always consists of a lot of shooting and dodging, but also some move timing and careful run + jump precision stuff.

One important note is that even though this is an amateur project, it does seem to be sincerely and genuinely made. I couldn't find any flipped assets, plagiarism or any other kind of insincere actions from the developer, but unfortunately genuine intentions alone are not enough to produce a brilliant PC gaming experience.

From a technical perspective, the game doesn't meet basic minimum requirements that most PC gamers expect as standard.

A choice was made to use obsolete, decades old retro pixel "art" as a substitute for contemporary PC graphics. It's unclear if this is due to lack of budget or talent, regardless, the overall visual quality of the game is extremely low as a result. It's worth pointing out this is some of the "better" pixel "art" stuff, but there's no prizes for being pretty tall for a midget. Imagine if they'd spent their effort making quality 3D visuals instead.

There's no option to change the resolution and no useful graphics tweaks. There's no way to ensure this is running at the native resolution of your display. There's no guarantee this game will look right on any PC as a result of this hamfisted design decision.

To make matters worse, there's no mouse input, despite this being sold on PC as if it were a PC game. This is unacceptable and somewhat insulting to PC gamers. It's a good demonstration of the poor attitude the developer has towards PC gamers, and this attitude has resulted in yet another defect in this game.

These technical defects push this game below acceptable standards for any modern PC game.

"Best Buds vs Bad Guys" didn't appeal much to the people who own a copy of the game, either. It has achievements, and they show us a very clear picture that the game didn't really capture any interest from gamers. The most commonly and easily attained achievement is "TRIGGER HAPPY", for shooting 100 enemies, trivial to get, but less than 33 percent of players bothered to get that far before uninstalling the game. Hardly a success story, even the people who own this game weren't interested in it.

The poor quality of this game is also reflected by how many people spent time with it. At the time of this review, SteamDB shows the all-time peak player number was only 5 players. This is a remarkably low number, and now, the only player activity occurs once or twice a month, presumably someone loading it up to see what it is then quickly uninstalling it. Considering there's over 120 million gamers on Steam and well over 110,000 games for gamers to choose from, the overwhelming lack of interest in this low quality game is to be expected.

So, should you buy this game? Is this one of the best of the 110,000+ games on Steam?

"Best Buds vs Bad Guys" is relatively cheap at $5 USD, but it's not worth it. Given the defects and quality issues with the game, coupled with the unrealistic price, this is impossible to recommend. This is also competing with over 14,000 free games available on Steam, many of them far better than this paid product.

Where the hell do I go?

I never quited a game that fast...
-Attrocious controls.
-Imputs delay.
-Where do i go type of deal
-Can i jump on this or is it not a platform?
And so on you got the idea.
Stay away even for the price.

This is one of many terrible contra clones on steam. I am a sucker for these kinds of games so when I saw best buds it looked like the kind of game that I should love, but once you start playing you realize all the flaws.

-Bad controls, unresponsive and aiming is awkward, makes firefights far more difficult than they should be, this is not a problem that I ever ran into in the original contra which came out over 30 years ago. How simple run and gun controls are not perfected by now is mind boggling.

-awkward camera. yes you read that right, awkward camera in a sidescroller. When you press up to aim up the camera shifts up, when you duck the camera shifts down, this often obstructs your view and is also very dizzying. Like for example, I am running through a level, an enemy is flying overhead shooting at me, I aim up at him and now I can no longer see enemies below me/ on the same plane. Very awkward and not needed.

-boring level design, each level is a scavenger hunt for 3 letters that open a door where you fight a boss to get the last letter of the word exit and then you can leave the level. Exploring the levels is not fun, and there are several really obscure pieces. The traps are easy to avoid and there is no good platforming or heartpumping sections to be found. Just wander fighting samey enemies who won't kill you as often as the controls will.

-terrible design choices, when you die the enemies respawn but the power ups dont? wtf?

-you hit a checkpoint once and you can never activate them again, which means if you accidentally hit the checkpoint by the boss but cant fight him yet you will have to backtrack through a large portion of the level when you die on the boss.

-no lock on/aim button (ie: contra 3)

there is just a ton of things to hate in this game and I cannot recommend it to anyone, if the trailer interests you I would advise you go back and replay contra rather than mess with this trash game.

This game really needs some serious fixing. It's an alright game but there certainly are issues. I would give it a neutral rating if Steam actually implemented a grey insignia to state reviews as such. Unfortunately for this case, I will have to go with red for now.

The game is still in a buggy state. After completing a level, you are unable to either retry it or continue to the next stage due to the game freezing. Game over also means the game freezing and you have to restart. Terrible state that the game is in.

I had been waiting for this game to be released, but was surprised local co-op was not available. I initially decided not to buy, but then I read the devs intend to add this feature so I got it anyway.

It does exactly what it seems to want to do: replicate a late 80s or early 90s run-and-gun platformer. The levels themselves are tributes to various classic games of the era. There are some puzzle elements to the game as well, plus a good variety of weapons and other items to pick up along the way. A wide variety of different video options are available, too (raster effects, edge curvature, color adjustments).

I recommend the game for anyone to whom this sort of game appeals, although I personally wouldn't have bought it if two player co-op was not in the works... It would be a shame if a "best buds" game couldn't actually be played with buds.

- Edited - After 30 or so hours played I've updated gameplay paragraph below.


There aren't many reviews for this game yet, so I thought I'd share my position if you're on the fence about buying this.

I highly recommend this game for arcade side scroller shooter fans, also to any people wanting a very charming game.

This game is full of the type of charm that proudly reminds people that videogames are a fun medium. The type of game that wants you to laugh, smile and enjoy its pixel art as a whole package, and doesn't shy away from being exactly what it is. The dedication by the developers is evident - they have put together a joyful combo of fun and great pixel art.

Because charm is somewhat abstract here are some other points.

The story is simple, to the point and (again) charming. It wears its heart on its sleeve and that's awesome. The idea of father and son demolishing everything together is novel and I've never seen a similar idea before. It kind of breaks a fourth wall into the developer's minds while you're playing.

Gameplay is mostly simple, but deep if you want it to be. Run. Jump. Shoot larger than life collectible weapons. Shooting is like contra. Up and diagonal, left and right. Super fun. However hidden depth found in some strategy and planning - especially in latter half of game. Weapon management and a slow measured approach is required. If you play on medium or hard - you are not going to want to be careless with your approach - otherwise lose massive health and 'game over' will be upon you in no time. Control of best buds is really good on the run and in air. Good high jump, with good feeling of flight but solid control in air for landing on platforms. I think Super Icon deliver a superb feeling of movement in their 2d platformers with tight control.

Explore 11 extensive stand alone levels that deviate in different paths full of pickups. Levels are pretty big! A little puzzle orientated to find everything which encourages you to explore the whole landscape.

Difficulty is really well done. 3 options to start off with, something for everyone.

The developers are active in the discussions here on steam, asking for bugs etc. A few bugs have been identified but nothing game breaking and updates are already coming. This is a very very small team and its awesome to see their commitment to the game.

Lastly I just really like the game. I loved life of pixel - also by this developer. Thanks Super Icon for making this! It's awesome to see the game out in the world! Definitely consider picking this up to support a really cool developer.