EDIT: I goofed. The images I posted for the game were from an old build and don’t reflect the current amazing look of the game. Also, the game is out on May 27th due to some minor delays, not the 20th.
Causal Bit Games put out a brand new trailer for Insanity’s Blade, which will be vastly improving your life on May 27th when it comes out. I can vouch for it too, having gotten to play a demo of the first level.
Insanity’s Blade is hard. I died in less than a minute in the demo, something that hasn’t happened to me since Contra 4. Why? It’s because when some men see that bloody skeletons have invaded their town and set it on fire, they just go. They don’t grab a weapon, they don’t even grab pants; they just go. The hero of this game does just that, punching skeletons back to death in nothing but a loincloth. That task is about as easy as it sounds.
You really need to watch your distances in the demo for this sidescroller. Your punches have the exact same range as the enemies, so you need to get in, sneak in a hit, and then get out. Enemies only react when you get close, the safest thing you can do is weave in and out. Never get greedy and trade hits, though, as the enemies just chew your health up. Three or four hits sent me back to the beginning of the level most of the time. There are checkpoints, but they are a good ways apart. If you screw up, you’re going a long way back. I liked that, since I became genuinely afraid to get hit.
The game had an experience system, though, so eventually I killed enough skeletons that I got a throwing dagger upgrade. That made life so much easier that I worried that it would unbalance the game. I’d only been fighting the game’s dumb skeletons at that point, though. They just blunder forward without any thought. Once I had daggers, I was fighting much more mobile skeleton warriors with shields. They’d block every shot unless you could trick them into swinging their swords first, once more making me stick and move to survive. You can jump past them to get away, but you will eat a couple of precious hits to do so. Enemies will follow you for a few minutes, but they give up quickly, so fleeing was still an option. It wasn’t a good one, though.
One thing I loved was that downed enemies don’t respawn. Since you have to move around a lot while fighting, I was afraid that I would back up too far and respawn things I’d already killed. A game like Ninja Gaiden would make enemies appear once you passed a certain point, so even if you managed to kill a hard enemy, if you backed up to0 far and walked back to its spawn point, it would be there all over again. This game leaves enemies dead, so you can move around freely without fear of screwing yourself. For a retro-style game, that’s smart design.
Watching those enemies explode when you kill them is quite a visual treat. The game does SNES/Genesis-era gore and visuals really well, with the entire demo filled with burning buildings and background pieces. The enemies looked great as well, practically dripping with blood as they shambled toward me. Screenshots of later levels look even better than the demo level, showcasing snowy tundra and more colorful areas. A lot of red is used in the first level since it was on fire, so while it looked good I was worried the game would be limited in its color use. Even if it had stayed to a limited color scheme, though, the game looks sharp.
Its sound design is great, too. The scream your character makes when he dies is out of control, and actually made my girlfriend jump out of her computer chair behind me. Other sounds, like the splatters the enemies make when you smack them, gives every hit this feeling of powerful impact. It just sounds good to punch things. The soundtrack is pretty good too. I liked the song that played in the introductory level, but I was so worried about dying against the giant monster at the end of the demo that I didn’t notice any of the boss music. Speaking of which, the game has huge bosses, which I have a terrible weakness for. If you don’t like huge bosses in games, I don’t think we can be friends.
The taste I got left me craving more of Insanity’s Blade. It’s challenging, sounds brutal, and has some vicious 16-bit visuals. If you dug Maldita Castilla and are looking for another hard, violent sidescroller, then you need to give Causal Bit Games some money come May 27. It’s also 15% off the first day of its release, so you’d be dumb to wait on it. Yes, I said it.
And give them a Greenlight vote too, you lazy bums. I can’t believe some of the junk that got Greenlit while this game is still waiting to. Get it together, guys.
