Since I did not realize AlienVania was already reviewed, I did two reviews!

AlienVania
AlienVania is a nice platformer featuring super-juicy pixel art, a wide selection of weapons and enemies.
After few istants playing this game, you will realize it is very polished, from the game menu to the gameplay.
I particularly enjoyed the splatter effect when killing enemies and totally loved the music.
The size of the map and the quality of the graphics is impressive for a jam entry.
If you really need to find a small flaw, maybe a few things like explosion particles are not pixel-aligned, but that's not a problem to me.
What to say more? Try it, and you will have a nice surprise near the ending.
Music: 4/5
Visuals: 5/5
Gameplay: 3/5
Design: 4/5

Overall: 4/5

Wild Goose Chase
Wild Goose Chase is a nice meat boy inspired platformer, you play the role of a very nice character in his task of rescuing a goose.
Controls feel very balanced, graphics are essential but stylish and it's very fun to play.
I enjoyed how the tutorials got inside the level art: I would recommend it to give it a try!
Music: 2/5
Visuals: 3/5
Gameplay: 4/5
Design: 3/5

Overall: 3/5

My game is called Phone Throttle (https://santarcade.itch.io/phone-throttle) it's an HTML5 game where you do wheelies with a scooter, controlling it with your phone gyroscope but watching the gameplay on your desktop browser.
Unluckily, it requires an Android phone with gyroscope in order to play it.
Give it a try and let me know!

Review of Phone Throttle

The first blocker was the fact I have an iphone. The game does not work with one. I tried with a nexus 10.

The main menu doesn't say anything about the game, just a couple of images with the game's logo above. The QR code disappears to fast for my skill with the QR reader app.

Once I got the game running, my first impression was that the motorcycle was moving randomly. After a couple of minutes figuring it out, I found the correct positioning for my device. It's a hard game tho. I manage to get 48 points somehow. But I got bored after a couple of minutes trying & failing.

Technically the game is awesome, the developer achieved a simple way to sync two devices. The graphics are just ok, they work. The same for special effects. The game doesn't have music, just the main menu.

• Music: 1/5
• Visuals: 3/5
• Gameplay: 3/5
• Design: 4/5
• Overall: 2.75/5

My game is Le Gatuno: https://itch.io/jam/gbjam-5/rate/88875

Cheers!

One Strike review

Was looking at this for a while. Totally got into the mood and style when I saw screenshots.

The graphics are amazing, the animations very nice. Although I wished that the main characters were better visible against the background. Using the the mid color for the faces and sky only may have been wasteful. The outlines help a lot though! I just wonder if the overall visual was a bit easier to read if the background was one tone brighter.

This 2 player mode is addictive. It is a very basic concept of movement but it gives enough possibilities to develop strategic moves. The tension when waiting for your opponents move really fits the overall theme of the game. Good job, you totally deserve this!

The hit animations help motivating for a clear strike. Too much gore for my friend but I loved the reference to Japanese cinema gore in Lone Wolf And Cub style.

We had trouble distinguish a clear win of a session some time. Kind of felt a info screen was missing, sometimes on a rushed round we would almost oversee that the session was over. Also a winning screen, sound etc. might help motivating for the next round and gives the winner opportunity to cheer. Compare Street Fighter II and any other fighting game.

Also sad it did not have music or minimalist sound design to accomplish the stage. The sword hit sound was a bit too much if you ask me. Too loud and deep. I expected a "slice" instead, but this may be me. Please work on the sound, that would add a lot to the atmosphere of this game.

I hope this review was helpful and you find some time to address issues that you find apply.

Here's my game Beat-Up-Boy: https://itch.io/jam/gbjam-5/rate/90271

Demi-God Review:

I'm not sure how to categorize it, but I'll try: Demi-God is a side-scrolling beat em up/shooting game where you have to advance forward while beating waves of enemies.

The game is very short with only around 4 waves, but it's just the right length for the amount of content present and doesn't overstay it's welcome.

At first, I just clicked the game window to get the focus, and it automatically advanced the title screen with the controls, if you wouldn't have had the controls on the game page, I would have missed them.

The transforming was a nice touch, although I'm still not exactly sure, what the animation is supposed to represent. The bullets you can shoot felt IMHO too weak, it could help to make them faster and bigger.

Killing the bats felt much better, than killing the aliens(?), because they died within one hit. And hitting the aliens the first time, did not really give any audio/visual feedback.

The music was a noticeable short loop, but nevertheless it did not get annoying.

I just saw that the art looks crisp in the screenshots, but when actually playing the graphics look blurry. Seems like they get scaled with "Linear" instead of "Nearest" Interpolation.

I reckon this might have been one of your first games? Don't be discouraged, if I sound overly negative/critic, I hope you see it as a way to learn how to improve the next time around.

Our game Pixel Soldier

Pixel Soldier review:

Difficulty scales up quickly but effectively; with simple sound and graphics, it looks like you were able to focus on developing interesting/satisfying mechanics, and on that front this game really delivers. The effect of hopping around the screen to dodge bullets is made to be a bit more rewarding because it also improves the speed with which you can dodge enemy missiles, making a skilled player able to avoid taking damage while knocking out the challenges set before them.

Supports a waves/ boss style; I'd say something a little clearer in the game itself about what the controls are might be helpful, the first time I was sure what all my options were was after I decided to try remapping them to see if I was missing anything. (They are in the gamepage though so that is helpful as well).

Music and graphics are a bit on the simple side but I feel like that suits the game's style and contributes to the overall gameboy feel. Bosses drop health boosters but I didn't see any power-ups along the way, I'd say that's what I want out of potential future additions to this game's development: the ability to shoot different projectiles, more of them, etc, as a direct result of the bosses killed and such to keep the gameplay robust as players progress.

Overall I'd give it a 4/5 stars, especially considering it's a GBJam game but looks rather polished.

My game is The Curse of Talon Cyphyr

The Curse of Talon Cyphyr is a collect-a-thon styled platformer where you play as a little dog named Talon and collect berries.

The game didn't feel too long or too short which is something that I always appreciate. It appeared to have five different levels to the best of my knowledge, with an intro room and a central hub.

The first thing that jumped out at me was the choice in the color palette. Rather than being monochrome, the developer decided to broaden the palette a little with purple and orange, giving it more of an early GameBoy Color vibe- and it looks nice.

The game plays with you going through each level collecting berries in order to activate an NPC who then opens a barrier in the level which allows you to collect some... stuff. When you pick up berries, you need to howl which turns them white and allows you to gather/eat them. I'm honestly not quite sold on this mechanic, as it tends to unnecessarily slow the game down. I think that having either howling or pressing down to collect the berries would be sufficient, rather than needing to do both which ends up feeling redundant. Perhaps some other uses for howling would alleviate that issue as well!

The sound overall is pretty good. The sounds are typical GameBoy sounds and the music is pretty enjoyable to have in the background. More variety in the music would be welcome, however. Since there is a stage or two that just continues playing the hub music, I suspect that the developer simply ran out of time or didn't have more music prepared which is to be expected in jams.

The player control feels a little rough around the edges and could benefit from a little more polish. Jumping essentially teleports you in the air rather that actually jumping you, and the jump itself could probably stand to be given a little more height. Nothing too aggravating but worth noting nonetheless.

Now, I'm not sure if there's an ending. I (at least I think I did) collected all the items, berries, and spoke to everyone. When nothing happened, I noticed that the levels reset themselves when you leave and renter along with all of their items. Of course I could have just missed something and if I did, I apologize.

I think the level design could use a bit more variety as the obstacles are pretty much the same through all the levels with the exception of water in the first level and the spikes in the last one. I understand this is because of the jam (I know I wanted my game to have more variety but such is how it goes), but with the future in mind some gimmicks would be interesting.

Overall I had fun with it. I think with some spit-shine, the game could be pretty interesting. It gives me a castlevania vibe from the aesthetic with some collect-a-thon style things going on, which is a good thing.

P.S. to the developer: Please don't take my criticisms too personally. I tend to critique much more easily than I compliment, so if the ratio of compliments to complaints is off, I apologize.

My game is Super Skater Kid.

Super Skater Kid Review

Oh my, what a fun game!

The concept is pretty simple: You're a bold skater on a suicide mission to be the best avoiding bicycles, jumping over cars and collecting coins. While you do that, you can and should be even more daring and perform radical maneuvers to win more points.

The music and sfxs are perfect for the game. Also the presentation.

The gameplay is where this game really shines. Its super fun jumping over cars, doing tricks and avoiding bicycles at the same time. The level progression is very well thought. Even though the game is difficult, you want to play more.

Where i think you could improve:

- Its kinda hard to see when the skate tricks are finished and sometimes you lose lives wondering why. A more visual effect could better tell this moment (maybe a action circle?). This should give the player more control of the jump and to better decide when to do a trick. Also, the maneuvers could be more flashy, its hard to see what he is doing since you have to pay attention to what is coming next.

- Background looks rushed.

Overall, i really think you should continue developing this game.

• Music: 5/5
• Visuals: 3/5
• Gameplay: 5/5
• Design: 4/5
• Overall: 4.25/5

My game is One Strike: https://inc4nus.itch.io/onestrike

If you gonna review this one, PLEASE play with someone, since its a 2p game.