Lament

If you didn't live during or enjoy the NES era, this game could be a very hard pill to swallow.

Back when gaming was in 8-BIT quality, they made games that could be beat in like 30 minutes, except they make it exceedingly difficult with low life, one hit kill traps, janky hitboxes, and controls that are slightly off. This game literally feels like it was on the NES. Almost no game does this now, and it's something that people either don't get when they play games meant to mimic that era, or make wrong so it just feels terrible to play.

Imagine it's the early 90s and you're on a good run in Double Dragon II on the NES. Now you have to jump across the river... 99% of the time there you die because the jump doesn't work well, the hitboxes are off for the platforms, and you haven't been playing games that much because they aren't easily accessible. You make it after dying once, and by some miracle you have 2 lives left. Now you have to finish the rest of the game with those 2 lives. That's only like 4 levels in, and remember the controls are janky. Also remember this is still the 90s, so you don't have the internet to tell you there's a secret code you have to use in order to continue, and you recently found out if you put the game on hard difficulty that there's NINE stages, so you're trying to see the later levels. THIS RIGHT HERE was how games were in this era. Double Dragon is a great example of how they made the game intentionally hard to pad timing to make up for the price point of the game/ farm quarters from people playing games at the arcade.

If you go into this game with the mindset that you will be playing a 90's NES game, this game is on point! This game has the same quirks as regular NES games from weird decisions like knockback being the STRONGEST FORCE IN EXISTENCE, having dash just go off at weird times, and hitboxes having a slight lag which also causes jumping to not work when you're jumping at a ledge since the hitbox under you is also slightly off. This is what we referred to as "hardware limitations", but it's clear that controls were intentionally set to feel like this. It can get rage inducing at times, but it has unlimited continues!

This game is a homage to the NES, and I'm all for it! If you're into retro gaming, this is only $1. If this game was an extravagant price like $10+, I would've torn into it for the time and price point, but it's definitely worth it for the price.

absolutely fantastic. short and simple but it delivers on quality and for $0.99 this game is well worth getting. i hope to see more from this developer in the future, as this is a very promising first title

Pretty fun challenges to overcome, albeit short! Plus, it only costs one bone (excluding tax).

Janky, user-unfriendly Furryvania with nice visuals. Cover art is the best part. Very hard to have fun.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2850694745
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2850695471
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2850703998

The kind of 6,5 out of 10 recommendation.

Lament is a NES-style action platformer that borrows from Castlevania, Ninja Gaiden and Mega Man (with X's wall sliding/jumping). Its gameplay and the design of the 5 levels and bosses (4 selectable from the start) aren't especially great, but everything is still decent and overall I found the game quite entertaining for the short time it lasts. I also enjoyed the catchy music and the rather dark atmosphere. It's a relatively easy playthrough (by NES standards) apart from the knockback that's one of the most horrible ones I encountered in any game. So just don't get hit :D This is doable in this game.

A really cool aspect are the persistent power-ups. There're 4 to obtain: a dash, a shot, a chargable slash and a shield. You end up being very over-powered, especially with the shield.

Finally, an important advice: Don't take the first door at first! It's the strangest and most difficult level in the game and might lead you to an instant ragequit.

For other NES styled action platformers in the same price range you should check out the works of Sinclair Strange and 2ndBoss.

Lists of Niche is dedicated to finding games on Steam with roots in classic consoles, computers and arcade machines. We categorize them in helpful lists that will hopefully grant some insight into gaming's history, too.

Berserk Reader Wolf

First off I want to say I'm a big fan of old NES games and love the challenge that comes with them. So when I saw a NES styled game here for .99 cents that had me playing a werewolf with a giant great sword I had to get it. To start Id like to say the 8-bit graphics are pretty good. Areas don't look all too rushed and enemies had different designs and acted the way you expect. It looked as if the designer took time in making them which is good to see as some designers. Gameplay wise Id say the protag moves really good. Sort of how Ryu plays in OG Ninja Gaiden just you know if Ryu was a furry bara with a big ass sword. Speaking of which I thought my character would attack sluggishly but his attacks are a bit swift if with a little weight to them so you do need to time them correctly but this isnt really hard to master. Music isnt bad but I wouldnt see myself jamming out to it anytime soon but it has enough of that old NES style to make me bob my head a little. Now time for the bad. The one thing that really pisses me off is the knock back. Why in Gods green earth would you make the knock back so horrific. I wouldn't care so much if the first level wasnt made around platforming with instant death pits. Also why are the checkpoints so spaced out? Every time I die no matter how far I get I have to start over from the beginning. The levels are probably not that long but still its annoying to get far only to die and start from the start. I can understand if its due to a game over but come on. I haven't played long but I can tell Ill come back to beat it as though I kept dying I found myself jumping back in but then again Im hard headed. If you love games like Ninja Gaiden,Castlevania or Mega Man Id recommend picking it up especially at its very low price.

This game is "so good" that after 6 minutes of gameplay I had suicidal thoughts...
The controls are horrible (like I'm steering a battleship instead of humanoid).
The graphics looks worse than NES era games.
I would not recommend this game even if it would be for free.

Beat the game in 30 minutes, but it was honestly a very fun experience.
It felt like I could slowly piece together a sort of story for the game bit by bit as it went along, especially after finally facing Lament. Dark story, but still wonderful.

I hope there's a sequel to this game someday, because it honestly was a ton of fun and brought me right back to my NES roots of Ninja Gaiden, Castlevania, and Metroid.
PLEASE continue this game!

Its a great little pixel game but its pretty hard 8/10

A fun retro style game. Gives a bit of a challenge but nothing too outlandish. I enjoyed it.

Lament is a steam videogame featuring curled up volition parts in pretending hesitation weakness crowded with enhanced victory!!!
The airborne music and sound effects are harshly horrible but overall its a solid game with netting curved difficulty in short swallowed stiffness...

i give this game a 8.5/10 love the burrito master ninja selection pie alerted

this game is lots of fun and I love it. I give it 10/10.

Tail wag kinda gansta wit it, i fuck wit da vision

This game contains an extremely difficult level, bringing to the player a great challenge, the game is not expensive,
it has great graphics that are nothing less than the graphics of the NES (Nintendo Entertainment System). If the game had achievements it would probably boost the re-play factor. I recommend this game only for harder players, because this game is very difficult and for a casual player it would be complicated to finish the game.

Pretty good for it's price.
It´s like Ninja Gaiden but you are wolf furry Guts.
Four stages + a final stage, each one with it's own boss. You get some powerups when finishing each stage which let you be a bit more creative when trying other stages, something a bit like megaman.
The music was ok, and the 2D-sprite work was pretty sweet with some nice looking animations.
I was able to beat it in about 1.5 hours I think.

So yeah, I'd recommend it if you like the genre and don´t get frustrated easily.

This game is unplayable man... The movement to the sides is not ok, it stops for no reason, it's like 3 steps, stop,2 steps, stop, and the detection on the colliders for the things enemies throw at you (when you try to hit them back) works just like running, it works, now it doesnt. Not cool...

Lament is, in my opinion, one of the best throwback games I've played. If you love Ninja Gaiden and Castlevania trilogies, you'll love Lament! It is a lot easier than those series but its still challenging. It has some issues when it comes to polish, and the boss patterns are simple(so were the previously mentioned games' bosses) but it succeeds with pure fun factor. Control is perfectly spot on (recommend a gamepad), graphics are appealing and detailed, music is suitably epic and bizarre but the progression system is whats most interesting.

At first you're running, wall jumping and slashing your sword. At each stage's halfway point you grab a permanent powerup (like Megaman without a boss fight). The rest of the stage is then tailored towards that power up in order to get you used to it. Since each stage (minus the final) is selectable from the start, you can come up with many different playthroughs grabbing specific powerups in order, and it keeps replaying the game really fresh. I can see this being a great speedrun game! Like I said, the pwoerups (dash, block, shooting and heavy attack) are permanent, so you go from a pathetic whimp to a powerful badass and it feels great!

I plan on more playthroughs. It's short- 40 minutes on my first playthrough, but coming up with neworders of playing the stages for the powerups will keep me coming back. Even if I just want to relax and play a game, it's simple and pick up n play friendly. All in all, a great game that could be expanded on in a sequel. If you plan on replaying the game a lot, it's definitely worth the money, but if you're a one and done type of player, you'll probably be dissapointed. Awesome game!

Ninja Gaiden-esque. I first found this game on itch.io. I have to admit, I rage quit at some point and had trouble getting back into it but I did really enjoy it up until I rage quit.

Got to mention it, since it'll probably be the sole reason as to whether or not you would want to buy this game. It's very short and doesn't seem to have much replay value over all for something that is 5 dollars. My first run blind took around 30 minutes and I did another run to see if my presumption would be correct, which it was close to, takes about 20 minutes or less.

Unless you plan on doing some niche speedruns of this game, it isn't gonna do anything special for you. Most of what the game's design is to try and knock you into death of some sort, whether it's spikes or a bottomless pit. Otherwise since you have not much else to fear, every other area comes off very tame when it isn't doing this. Enemies just aren't doing anything much themselves to be really threating.

Bosses tend to go this route as well. You may take a hit here or there, but they really don't stand much of a chance against you. One of the bosses seemed honestly confusing to me at first till I just used everything I had which allowed me to damage said boss. This one in particular is probably the best designed with a decent challenge to it. The final boss ends up spamming so much crap I just spam back into him and since I have IFrames and he doesn't, ya, he doesn't win.

Blocking can be a bit overpowered at times since you can block while jumping, which makes you immune to most projectiles. Dashing is a bit off since while it says it requires a double press of the direction, it will also work off of left to right, so you can end up doing things you don't mean to. The models hitboxes are kinda off a little bit, but unless you really get close to it, which isn't necessary, it doesn't really become much of an issue. Tends to be more towards red skeletons and jumping down close to the knights.

You probably won't be buying this game for the story, so don't worry, because it isn't trying to do much for it as well. You pretty much go whichever level you choose and get nothing until you finish the game. Meh.

I'd honestly choose to not recommend this game just based on its length and overall gameplay. It's not difficult enough to warrant any real satisfaction after beating it and would more then likely come off frustrating if you happen to get instadeathed too much. Enemies don't do anything else without being paired with some sort of instakill and a majority of bosses don't require much strategy.

Hi, welcome to the rating comment section where everyboy is a critic and a game designer.

The game truly develops the old fashion frustrating NES difficulty, of Ninja gaiden and Castlevania. why? well, mainly because the game its short i think. The music its really catchy! some levels are actually fun, even if everything its mainly focus on hit you to fall in to your death.

Thing i think would enhance the game:
1-having a dash button or making the double tap less senstive, there was so many times i didnt wanted to dash and i fall to my dedath or a proyectile hit me. Specially because I triedd to play it like Mega man X and at the end it never felt like it

2-guarding while jumping dashing: ... probably not that much of a problem, but i think you could maintain the flow if you could do it

3-even if its a basic plot line, i would love to know what the hell was a i playing...but i finished the game, so whatever?

4- having some kind of secrets, secret rooms, another ending? because there is not much replayability value at the end. Even achivements could help.

At the end, could it be better , couldd it be way worse, but i like it. I didnt regret spending money on this, it was a fun hour and a half