Batboy's been on my radar for a while now, and after playing it, I can definitely say it has many of the qualities you might be looking for in a 2D platformer. You play as Batboy, who ventures into another dimension and befriends a boisterous crow in search for his friends who've all been brainwashed by Lord Vicious, who plans to use their athletic abilities to win the trials of darkness. With the plot now out of the way, and to see if this could be a game for you, tune into my thoughts on Batboy. The first thing that initially caught my attention with Batboy was the saturated colors and 8-bit graphics. You can expect to play through a variety of theme levels that each have their own aesthetic, enemies, and song, which probably doesn't surprise most of you with it being a 2D platformer. The enemies primarily make up of pigs, and a plentiful variation of them to keep things fresh from beach pigs to samurai pigs to match the theme. Although I enjoyed the aesthetic of most of these levels, especially the flying armada one for whatever reason, but I was not overly impressed with some of the background elements. When progressing through levels, you'll find that there isn't much variation in design from an atmospheric standpoint. This obviously wasn't too big of an issue for me, but it's unfortunate that the soundtrack doesn't stand out besides maybe a few of them, with my favorite being from the frozen peak. This isn't to say that they're bad, I just don't ever remember thinking to myself like wow I'm really gonna remember this one, which is pretty much how I gauge whether I like a theme. Now something I loved about Batboy was visiting the Groovy House, which is something I've been seeing a lot in 2D platformers since the release of Shovel Knight. It's a communal zone that slowly fills up with characters you can interact with. You can play cassette tapes by finding them hidden throughout levels, and it's where you can unlock your upgrades after defeating the optional but challenging bosses. There's plenty of secrets for you to find throughout your playthrough in the form of vegetables, which can be found behind hidden blocks or through completing more difficult platforming challenges. These can be used to upgrade your health or your stamina. I tell you this now because I didn't figure this out until the final two levels of the game. So I never had the incentive to actually look for them, and to no surprise, my experience was pretty difficult to say the least. Overall, I enjoyed the atmosphere of Batboy, but this is definitely not the high point of the game as that's reserved for the gameplay. On the surface, Batboy is pretty standard. You move in one direction, and you can use your bat to attack enemies and to deflect projectiles which you also have the luxury of aiming. The game plays smooth and it feels great to control But I didn't really get drawn in until I started unlocking all the alternate abilities The first one you learn allows you to throw your bat to be used to defeat enemies or as a double jump. As you progress You'll slowly expand your arsenal of moves and to no surprise It also opens the door for a lot more platforming variety. The first handful of levels aren't overly challenging, but I also played the demo, so I kind of knew what to expect. After the first few stages, you'll notice the difficulty curve. You'll have to begin to use a multitude of your abilities to pass these obstacles, which requires some quick twitch gameplay and some thought as to know which ability to use. Personally, I found myself using the dash and bubble abilities the most and unfortunately ended up not using many of the others too often. However, some of these moves are more combat focused while others help more with platforming. The enemies are sure to make your playthrough more difficult as they stay hurling objects at you so it's on you to either evade or deflect them back. Trying to evade these enemies is where you'll find yourself in the most trouble while you're also trying to overcome whatever obstacle might be in front of you. The difficulty in Batboy is fair. It's not a life-based game so you don't need to worry about restarting a whole level and the respawn times are quick anyway. It's not overly challenging, but it's not easy either which you'll find out pretty quickly. I highly recommend doing the optional levels as they make you test all of your abilities. The gameplay is for sure the bread and butter of Batboy, but the bosses are also a major plus to the game. These primarily consist of fighting your brainwashed friends, as well as a few others. Each fight consists of around two phases, with the first being more of a feel out while the second one ups the pace tremendously. Every boss has their own unique set of attacks for you to memorize and counter off of, with some taking a more aggressive approach and others choosing to keep their distance. In particular, I struggled against Mr. Blitzer who to no surprise spends most of his time hunting you down before splitting into two. I found the bosses to be a great time, and the final boss which I'm not going to show was a great mix up to the gameplay. If you want a bit of perspective on these, I actually enjoyed them more than the bosses in Shovel Knight, and they're definitely some of the more challenging parts of the game, so be sure to have some of your upgrades on deck to use. Batboy is a colorful action platformer that has a surplus amount of abilities for you to utilize, however it does have its flaws such as not having the best soundtrack and having some static background elements. But if you're looking for a game with some fun, challenging boss fights, some smooth, creative gameplay, and some saturated 8-bit colors, then Batboy may be something you're looking for. I had a great time with the game, and although I've seen some compare it to Shovel Knight, I overall found the gameplay to feel unique in its own right. I hope you all enjoyed the review, so let me know in the comments below whether you might be giving Bad Boy a go, and if you enjoy content like this, then please do consider subscribing as you can expect to find plenty of similar content along with videos on various Nintendo games. So until next time. games. So, until next time.