Recent reviews by Coconut Head

Incredibly fun! Slick movement and fun power ups. I love the melee weapons so much, and the gunplay is fu ntoo. The graphics hold up really well, and I love the ragdoll/sliced-up-enemy animations. The most fun I've had with a shooter in a while. It's up there with DOOM, also from 2016, and may even surpass it for my taste.

Nice character designs and somewhat fun-sounding premise aside, Kraken Academy is not at all fun to play. Its purported 'weirdness' comes off more millennial-humor-kooky than anything actually bizarre or enigmatic. The "wacky personalities" of the students are communicated via flat dialogue and basically nonexistent characterization (outside of knowing their stereotypical roles like nerd, artist, mean girl, pretty boy, etc). The humor is broad and milquetoast, the pixel art uninspired and unappealing, and the music completely forgettable.

I have a huge appreciation for games like this (runtime of a few hours, story-focused, light gameplay, cheap in a bundle), but Kraken Academy!! left me bored to tears and constantly thinking about what I was going to play next rather than what was going to happen next in the story. Really can't recommend picking this up unless you get it in a bundle of games for like a couple dollars (like I did!)

Honestly, it's not for me. Incredibly frustrating and tedious, which for a 3-4 hour game is shocking. I think it's super admirable that this was a passion project from one or two guys (seemingly this guy and his brother), but I just can't recommend this. The game gets off to a good start; it's super charming with its music, color choices, and pixel art. But it quickly becomes BLATANTLY obvious that you will be bashing your head against the proverbial wall trying to get the ball in the exact place you need to. This isn't a problem on paper for a pinball game necessarily, but when you expereince the mana system this game uses, you will understand.

I hate hitting the thumbs down on indie titles, especially ones made by solo devs, but I just have to for this one. I simply didn't enjoy Pinball Spire, and it's unfortunately one of the most humdrum, dissatisfying, and disappointing games I've played in quite some time :(

A fun little puzzle-platformer romp through a Kafkaesque bug world. Looking forward to the sequel!

Incredible indie gem! The controls are absolutely perfect. There are very few indie games (or games in general) that feel this good to move around in. You really do feel like you have absolute control over every movement, shot, ability etc. Looks great, has a nice little story to keep things moving along, and has an absolute TON of power-ups and upgrades to switch up your play style with. Short and sweet but really lots of replay value. Hope to see more awesome platformers from this team, it's what they were born to do! This was so fun!

HUGE potential. As a huge fan of Guns of Icarus, this is about as close as it gets to that old classic. There is so much to do, so many different tactics to explore, and overall its just such a complete experience for being in BETA. Love this and really hope they can galvanize more hype and community support since they are (deservedly) going with a premium monetization model.

After hearing the endless praise that was heaped on this game's campaign for almost 9 years now, I have to say that it left me pretty disappointed.

The gameplay is smooth and gunfights are kinetic. I love how the game encourages you to actually learn how to move quickly through the environment. The graphics are good for a game this old.

But the story... is so bland. Like incredibly bland. It's every sci-fi action movie from the last 8-15 years. Many at the time of its release (and since) had lauded it as the best FPS campaign since Half Life 2. You can genuinely find articles and reviews drawing those comparisons. Hilarious, considering Bioshock Infinite blows this out of the water, and was released 3 years prior.

Should the game have had that level of hype behind it? Probably not, but nonetheless I was exposed to it, and it influenced my expectations going in almost a decade later. Had I come across this game blind, I probably would've been pleasantly surprised at it.

Probably the most impressive feat in game dev ever. It falls off a cliff a bit after you take the lift from Leyndell to the Mountains, turning into almost a boss rush for the last 10 hours but still, everything about this game rules. Aside from a few bosses feeling a bit unfair, it's a polished masterpiece that I never thought I'd even play, let alone beat and get pretty damn good at.

10/10, I beat Malenia in 5 tries.

Much in the vein of games like Jazzpunk, it's a first person adventure game, though which much more confusing and bizarre puzzles. You investigate a hotel and looks for clues on how to get into the mysterious rave party downstairs. Beat it in just over an hour and I had a good time.
It is completely bizarre without being zany or quirky and has some really solid writing. Will probably play it again at some point to get even more context as to what the hell is going on, but it was okay. A strong 6 to a light 7/10. I've had it for years so I'm just glad to have gotten it over with, especially with how short it is.

It is pretty for what it is and the fact that it's in Unreal 4 definitely helps that. The style is fun and the story is kept very vague, much like Limbo before it. Also like Limbo, this game is your standard-fare 2010s indie puzzle platform era. Obvious puzzles and some slightly janky platforming hold this back from being a great game, but it is good and was only about 3 hours long so I can't fault it. The tedium is cut by the fact that there are frequent checkpoints, for when you inevitable miss a jump or ♥♥♥♥ up a grab or timing of a run away from a monster.

For me, it's a 6. I'm not sure if I'd play the sequel as I'm not really a fan of this era of indie platformers; where you play as a helpless child or animal in a spooky environment. At least this one has completely optional pickups and collectibles.

I get why people would love this though, this is like totally something you would've seen showcased at E3 or The Game Awards not too long ago.