Beeftacular Review: No Beefs Here

<p>I was interested in checking this game out the second I saw the trailer just by how much fun it looked like it was going to be&period; It reminded me of <em>Super Meat Boy<&sol;em> but still looked different enough and seemed to have its own identity&period; The level design seemed a bit reminiscent to <em>Super Meat Boy<&sol;em> at times and of course you&&num;8217&semi;re playing as beef&comma; but that&&num;8217&semi;s honestly where the similarities stop for the most part&period; <em>Retrific<&sol;em> has been inspired by a few other games like <em>10 Second Ninja<&sol;em> and <em>Super Meat Boy<&sol;em> but they have really gone all out in trying to create their own game here and I think that they have succeeded&period; What we have here is some inspiration and a love letter to recent games in the platformer genre and some great new and original ideas that help blend this into a delicious beefy stroganoff&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Beeftacular <&sol;em>is interesting because it manages to not look as original as it really is and I can only imagine how frustrating that is to those that worked so hard on this because I know it frustrates me greatly and I didn&&num;8217&semi;t even work on the game for months on end&period; No&comma; this is a new and original platformer that may bear some resemblance to existing games but is in fact its own game&period; The premise alone is different and creates its own challenge&period; Speed and precision are extremely important and much more so than <em>Super Meat Boy<&sol;em>&comma; where you weren&&num;8217&semi;t timed&period; <em>Beeftacular <&sol;em>manages to differentiate itself greatly here because there will be times where the solution may be simple but actually completing it in the required time can be difficult and&comma; of course&comma; sometimes vice versa&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Beeftacular<&sol;em> has a simple&comma; but tough&comma; premise&period; You have to kill all of the rotten meat on screen that is scattered throughout the stages&period; You can do so by getting next to them and using a melee attack or by using a limited use ranged attack&period; Sounds simple&comma; right&quest; Wrong&period; There&&num;8217&semi;s a huge catch with this&period; You only have ten seconds to take them all out&period; If that still sounds easy then you&&num;8217&semi;re crazy because there are some challenges in knowing what to do or just being able to pull it all off in ten seconds&period; This adds a nice edge to the gameplay and will really work to test your reflexes and on-your-feet thinking which and in turn will try the patience of even the most skilled gamers&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;112088" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-112088" style&equals;"width&colon; 690px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-112088 size-large" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;08&sol;27151019&sol;screenshot&lowbar;10-1024x576&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Retrific&comma; Beeftacular" width&equals;"690" height&equals;"388" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-112088" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Retrific&comma; Beeftacular<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>It&&num;8217&semi;s this back and forth that helps keep this game from becoming rotten&period; Well&comma; that and the overall great level design that is featured in the majority of the levels&period; I enjoyed many of the levels in this game and even found myself replaying a fair few of them after solving them&period; Improving my time wasn&&num;8217&semi;t even the main goal in these instances&semi; I was just wanting to recapture the exciting level design that I experienced within the level&period; I did this a lot in <em>Portal <&sol;em>too as it can be done to replicate what took you five minutes to solve but in forty seconds&period; Some of the levels are even a bit of a puzzle in how they need to be completed and it&&num;8217&semi;s a lot of fun trying to learn how to approach them&period;  A nice cherry on top of this beef-tastic sundae is the fact that your time doesn&&num;8217&semi;t start until you move so you can start to plan your approach before you begin&comma; which really increased my level of enjoyment for the game&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s great being able to just hit the ground running with the first few moves already planned&period; Adapting as I learned the level was extremely satisfying&comma; especially when I was able to complete the level during that first attempt&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>There isn&&num;8217&semi;t too much to the story in <em>Beeftacular<&sol;em> but&comma; like many games before it&comma; that isn&&num;8217&semi;t too important&period; All you know is that you need to destroy the rotten meat so that you aren&&num;8217&semi;t thrown out with it&period; It might not make too much sense but&comma; like many other games in the platformer genre&comma; the story takes a backseat and the motivating factor for playing and mastering it is simply for the sake of gameplay&period; I do wish that the story was bit more developed but at the same time I understand that it just wasn&&num;8217&semi;t an important factor in the development cycle&period; Retrific wanted to focus on the gameplay and just deliver a fun experience&comma; and they certainly succeeded&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Beeftacular<&sol;em> looks great and I didn&&num;8217&semi;t experience any frame rate issues or drops either&period; If&comma; for some reason&comma; your graphics card can&&num;8217&semi;t handle it then you could always lower the settings if you want but the system requirements are low enough that I don&&num;8217&semi;t think any still functioning computer is going to have any issues running this game at high settings&period; It makes me extremely happy that the frame rate is so consistent because every frame can count for these types of games and it&&num;8217&semi;s much more enjoyable to have such a smooth experience in such a fast paced game&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;112089" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-112089" style&equals;"width&colon; 690px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-112089 size-large" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;08&sol;27151110&sol;screenshot&lowbar;1-1024x576&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Retrific&comma; Beeftacular" width&equals;"690" height&equals;"388" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-112089" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Retrific&comma; Beeftacular<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>The sound effects are definitely forgettable in that they don&&num;8217&semi;t really add anything to the game but they aren&&num;8217&semi;t bad or distracting by any means&period; The music makes up for all of this though as it brings ambience and atmosphere with a kicking beat that will propel you forward no matter how frustrated you get with a difficult level&period; I enjoyed the music quite a bit and played with headphones throughout the majority of my time with the game&period; It feels like the developer put a lot of time into making sure the music matched the tone and atmosphere of the game while also ensuring they picked the perfect tempo for the action&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>I had a great time with <em>Beeftacular<&sol;em> and am excited to see not only the game grow but the developer as well&period; There are a lot of great ideas here and I&&num;8217&semi;m excited to see them developed further&period; Many of the levels feature some great design choices&comma; for example&comma; but there are some that feel a bit lackluster&period; There are definitely more great levels than poor ones though and the in-game level creator will undoubtedly help the community create some great content as well&period; This isn&&num;8217&semi;t a slam against the original levels by any means but rather a hope that the rays of brilliance that manage to shine throughout the game get to brighten more of Retrific&&num;8217&semi;s next release&period; <em>Beeftacular<&sol;em> is mostly good but there are aspects of it that are just great and I&&num;8217&semi;m hoping this release is successful so we can see more of that brilliance in future updates and future games&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;112090" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-112090" style&equals;"width&colon; 690px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-112090 size-large" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;08&sol;27151211&sol;screenshot&lowbar;9-1024x576&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Retrific&comma; Beeftacular" width&equals;"690" height&equals;"388" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-112090" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Retrific&comma; Beeftacular<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>It&&num;8217&semi;s obvious that <em>Beeftacular <&sol;em>took some inspiration from some other games&comma; such as <em>Super Meat Boy<&sol;em> and <em>10 Second Ninja <&sol;em>but it&&num;8217&semi;s what they do with it that is entertaining&period; It doesn&&num;8217&semi;t feel like they copied design choices or borrowed too heavily at all&period; It just feels like they took some inspiration for the direction they wanted to go &lpar;and that&&num;8217&semi;s been happening to music since a little band called The Beatles emerged and there are still plenty of great bands that I also enjoy listening to&comma; despite The Beatles doing something similar first&rpar;&period; I feel that <em>Beeftacular<&sol;em> definitely stands on its own and is worth taking a look at if you enjoy platformers that require a little problem solving and don&&num;8217&semi;t mind a bit of challenge with a time constraint tossed into the mix&period; There are some difficult levels that may stump you at times but with some extra patience you will move onto the next challenge with some extra knowledge from the experience&period; The game is priced very well and I think that&comma; with a sale or two&comma; it will sell enough to make a good return for the developer and hopefully some more great games for us to check out from them as well&period; This is a great start though and I&&num;8217&semi;m personally looking forward to seeing what&&num;8217&semi;s in store next from Retrific&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;