TENSEI

Платформеры это совершенно не моё. Но эта игра настолько красивая, атмосферная и затягивающая, что платформинг совершенно не напрягал и я просто кайфовал от процесса, видов, фоновой музыки и конечно же от формы ДРАКОНА!

your black balls jump like a bunny, froggy, fishy, birdie and little butterfly..... then transform into big ass white dragon

Ya like jazz? I'm honestly not sure what I expected this game to be, but I may have come across a hidden gem here. Before I get into what Tensei is and why you need to buy it, let me start off by explaining what it isn't. The words "soothing" and "Zen" are plastered all over this title, which I wouldn't say describe my experience very accurately. In fact, I'd argue the exact opposite. Not only does the very light atmosphere turn dark and menacing quite often, but more importantly: the gameplay involves jumping from platform to platform, most of which have a rather small surface area (especially beyond 10,000 meters), the place is loaded with hazards wanting to kill you at every jump, and it's not uncommon to find oneself on a platform too far away from anything to progress, forcing a treacherous back-tracking adventure. I do not feel calm while playing Tensei — I feel an adrenaline rush fueled by my desire to climb higher and higher at all costs. So much so, in fact, that I've gone significantly beyond the initial ceiling of 10,000 meters, finishing my most recent run with almost 600K points. Unless you're not very good at the game, it's also not one of those "Let's just hop on for 5 minutes" titles, as these runs can very easily turn into 45-minute adventures, or even longer. Casual? To an extent, but it's not a game I'd recommend while waiting 5 minutes for dinner to finish, which I have other titles I opt for. We've now covered what Tensei is not, so let me answer the question of "What is Tensei?" Doodle Jump, pretty much. I'm not kidding. Out of every game I've ever played, that's what it reminds me of the most. Even some of the visuals are somewhat reminiscent of it, maybe with some Patapon sprinkled in. It's really it's own thing, though, and that's what I love about it. Tensei has great gameplay in a Japanese-inspired world lightly touching on eastern philosophical concepts. It delivers in everything it aims to, except for that Zen part I've already discussed at length. Missed the mark on that, if that was the goal, but I'm actually kind of glad it did, since what Tensei actually is is phenomenal. What I'd still like to see from this title is: • additional purchase options in the shop, since you can cap out on purchases quite easily, such as maybe skins, visual changes (everything white turns green, for instance), and maybe additional background tracks • an in-game leaderboard, both drawing from Steam & personal top ten • additional clarity of how this game works, because I ended up dying from jumping onto a platform that wasn't very far from my jump-off point Seriously, that last part peeved me off a little. Was on a great run, and then my little fella just kind of...perished, even though I had made similar jumps perfectly fine before. A more robust tutorial, some tooltips, or whatever else the devs can think of would be much appreciated. I thought I had a good grasp on the game, but it turns out I was wrong. Regardless of how annoying Tensei can be at times, I can tell it's a labor of love, very replayable, a nice visual treat for those seeking constant self-improvement, and absolutely worth the full list price. Still not sure why they've opted to play jazz in the background instead of something more traditional Japanese, but I vibe either way. EDIT: This game freaking sucks you in, man. You think you'll hop on for maybe an hour, tops, and end up going on a two-hour generational run. I am now ranked #13 globally, with ~143K meters & ~4.3M points or so. How? Because the moment the player unlocks the mobility adjustment feature, it's time to start jumping like four times as far, and the game becomes both more fun and absolute cheese. It feels like a cheat code. I wasn't even in the top 200 before. It's absurd, but so amazing all at once. Tensei is love, Tensei is life. And now I must go to sleep way too late, for I miss my wife.