The Ramsey

A "light" Metroidvania that can be finished in 4 to 6 hours, it also qualifies as a puzzle-platformer, as many screens involve platforms, blocks and mechanisms that require wise use of all the guns and their effects. The first and most used gun is very fun, as the cotton bullets become jumping pads that allow to jump higher and climb walls where they can stick, including enemies. Acquiring all four guns, represented as elemental flowers, and learning to manage them is very satisfying. Oddly, the fifth flower is just a double jump. Maps are fairly small, most of them have one or two entrances to mini-challenges to collect the Boltnuts, necessary to craft inventions with helpful effects, provided you found their blueprints. In another odd and funny choice, sometimes the relatively most challenging sections lead to stamps, whose only effect is to give more cute symbols to apply on maps when marking interesting spots to remember. Hardcore Metroidvania fans will chew through this easily. Even if I found the puzzles really fun, beside a few screens there isn't much challenge; I also had no trouble getting the blueprints and Boltnuts to craft all inventions. However, some may like that achievements are strictly locked behind the (relatively) Hard(er) mode, and there are even a few for completing the game without ever making inventions and getting heart upgrades. The controls are very responsive but not super-tight, but as the platforming is very forgiving most of the time, I can overlook that. Pixel art and music are very nice, although I wish there was more variety of enemies, and many of them are very generic. It's a really cute game and, despite the protagonist being a squirrel, the design is such that he looks like a hamster and doesn't seem too different from actual hamsters encountered during his adventure. While the story is serviceable (the twist can be seen coming from miles away), I liked the way it is framed, as Ramsey narrating how he got into the situation he is at the beginning, making clear his adventures are not over. Far from a masterpiece but not to be slept on either.

The game is okay, but aiming the gun for sequential shots is too fiddly. It makes chaining jumps feel like a huge chore, and the amount of chaining you have to do increases as the game progresses. By the fourth island (of 6), I found that I just wasn't having fun anymore.

While searching for good squirrel games, I've found The Ramsey, a tale about the strongest squirrel in the world! Here you can prove the truth of this statement to the multiple species. Good nuts: - Ramsey, a hero with attitude, will show that squirrels are stronger than anyone else! - Lots of funny dialogues, and they're even voiced (although in Japanese) - Interesting gameplay with using element bullets to jump and interact with environment - Good pacing, as your squirrel can run very fast and jump pretty high - Nice pixel graphics, with colorful backgrounds and lively animated characters - Great dynamic music Not very good nuts: - Game length is fine for a platformer, but for metroidvania it's too short, with only a few quests, collectibles and unimpressive little upgrades - Cliffhanger instead of an ending Overall, I've enjoyed all these few hours of gameplay, it's fun and fast, nothing here is long enough to become an annoyance. I really hope to see a sequel one day, where Ramsey will show that squrrels are much stronger than humans too!