I recently played the game Swordswinger "to completion", and might I just say, for a completely free game it was a great experience. I thought the game was so good in fact, I decided to make a review post about it.

		
			ART-STYLE
		
	

The biggest praise I have for Swordswinger is its unique and inspired art style and colour palette. I absolutely love the green and black colour scheme used throughout the game, it is very reminiscent of GameBoy games, which is always nice.

The retro pixelated art style is simple but extremely effective. The art in Swordswinger is phenomenal, especially the background art, which really brings life to the world of the game. It would've been so easy to just have plain walls and skies throughout the entire game, so seeing all of the little details and props in the background were a joy to see throughout my playthrough. Well done!

		
			GAMEPLAY & MECHANINCS
		
	

Swordswinger wears its Castlevania inspiration on its shelves, including obtaining items by destroying background props. Just like the art style, the gameplay is simple but extremely effective.

The movement, combat and items are all responsive and intuitive. I never felt like the game wasn't reading my inputs.

The level design is great. I really enjoyed the platforming and puzzles littered throughout the game.

One of the best qualities of Swordswinger is its enemies. The enemy variety for this game is excellent. I swear there is a unique enemy for every level in the game and they all do different things, even if only slightly.

Some enemies even INTERACT WITH EACH OTHER OR ENVIRONMENTAL TRAPS!! So sick man! I wish more games did this.

No foe in Swordswinger feels like canon fodder, all of them are a threat whether it be because they themselves are hard to deal with or because of their placement in a level. Well done!

And the bosses, OHHH LOOOOOORD THE BOSSES!!!!!!!!!!!!! The boss fights in Swordswinger are decent at worst, and A S T O N I S H I N G at best!

All of the bosses have great designs, are incredibly formidable, and have compelling attacks. I love how every boss is representative of an enemy/enemies in the game (with the only exception being The Forlorn King. I guess that's how he got his name huh?). It is one of my favourite tropes in video games and works really well if done right, which Swordswinger succeeds at.

All of them are difficult enough to where you feel a sense of pride and accomplishment when you finally fell them, but not too cheap or frustrating where you just feel like rage quitting. Swordswinger hits the boss fight difficultly sweet spot nicely.

While I do have complaints about some of them, I wouldn't call a single boss fight in Swordswinger bad. Bravo in the boss department!!!

		
			SOUNDTRACK
		
	

Like I discussed with you in an earlier post, I wasn't able to listen to the game's OST while playing the game for whatever reason. However, I can still listen to some of the soundtrack thanks to the songs on the Game Jolt page. It sucks that I want be getting the full and authentic experience, but it is what it is.

The soundtrack is pretty good, very standard and typical for games like this. Nothing really to go into about, just okay.

		
			FEEDBACK
		
	

Although I did thoroughly enjoy my time playing Swordswinger, I do have some player feedback that I think would improve the game. Here's a list of my recommendations.

First off, I think the secret passage way to the "God of Pain" area should be more well hidden. With how it is now, I feel that it is a bit too obvious that there is a secret in the pit.

I think the first step to the secret area should be much lower, just slightly peaking above the bottom screen in the screenshot below. I also think that the steps should be on the opposite side of the wall, that way you can only see the first step by hugging the wall right after the checkpoint.

This would make the entrance to the secret area one of the few parts of the game where falling below the screen doesn't kill you.

I wish we could keep the health and stamina bonuses we can get in levels and carry them on into other chapters. Dying would reset health and stamina back to normal and we can only keep bonuses from new levels that we clear.

It would be interesting to see just how many health and stamina points you could rack up if you played through the entire game without dying or getting hit.

Enemies that fall into a pit and go off-screen should die, and we should receive points for their death. I've only had this happen to me a few times in-game and I wish it were much more consistent.

I say that only enemies who fall into a pit and go off-screen as a result rather than just all enemies who fall into a pit for reasons I'll go into later.

Enemies should have unique death animations like the bosses and the player character. All of the enemies having a skull drop to the ground for their death animation is boring and a bit lazy (except for the skeletons of course, since that's apart of their gimmick).

There should be an extra reward for having keys when you clear a chapter. There are certain parts of the game where you can circumvent doors without using a key, and thus you can finish the chapter with those keys still equipped.

It'd be such a cool easter egg if you get bonus points at the end of the chapter, or maybe even a secret that you can unlock in the overworld with the extra keys you have.

Flipboards are a bit wonky in the game. When the stone part is facing up, the spikes on the bottom can't hurt you. When the spikes are facing up, the stone part no longer acts as a solid surface, meaning you can clip through the bottom and hurt yourself on the spikes above.

This should be changed to where the stone part is always a solid surface, meaning you can land on it when facing up, and hit your head on when facing down. The spikes should be able to hurt you wether they're facing up or down.

The enemy pathfinding on stairs and slopes need to be improved. Enemies that pursue the player tend to stop following you once you go up or down a slope, even if you're right in front of them.

The input buffering for vertical attacks should be increased. There were many times throughout my playthrough where my vertical attack inputs didn't go through just because I was a few frames off from the next input window.

The trajectory of great axes shouldn't change mid-air. I've noticed that whenever Great Axe Knights throw their axe, the trajectory of the axe can change in mid-air depending on where the player moves.

I don't know if this was intentional or not, but the result is that certain areas in the game are unnecessarily frustrating to pass through and makes an already difficult enemy even harder to deal with. The great axe's trajectory should be constant once it leaves the knight's hand, just like the regular axe knights.

Although, the trajectory of the great axe changing mid-air based on where the player moves would make for an interesting mechanic in the "God of Pain" mode.

There should be a death counter that you can see in-game or in the settings, detailing how many times you've died in total, in each individual chapter, and to which enemies, traps, or bosses

Death counter

game encyclopedia