Wow, this one is fully featured! I wasn't expecting much past the first maze level, but it kept going for a while. Some big Montezuma's Revenge vibes with the overall gameplay, which is a thumbs up from me.
The first maze level was enjoyable to explore since things weren't too interlocked, making it easy to find one's way back to wherever else wasn't explored. The levels got more linear over time, which is fine since the actual platforming was strong.
The music was also great! Definitely an unexpected treat, especially with the boss music. Speaking of, the bosses were a good fight even if the challenge was mostly in the vein of just trying to keep on top of them as long as possible. Their jumps sometimes hurt you or sometimes they just take a bunch of hits in a row, so it was a bit of a crapshoot, but it was never frustrating.
Levels introduced new mechanics at a regular pace so things were always interesting, though there are some parts like the player-chasing projectile in a room full of on/off lasers that felt like it was inevitable to take a hit. Otherwise the challenge always felt pretty fair, especially with the generous amount of health.
Good stuff all around!
Dappertron
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"Advanced Star Shooter" is perhaps the most "Intellivision" name you could've imagined, so good job there. The music feels more like it's from an Amiga game, but whatever.
It's short and simple, and something that I liked about the shooting is how it just crashes through hordes of enemies. Very satisfying to wipe out a big group in one shot, especially when the AI kind of encourages it. Though the shots also go through walls, which enemies don't, so a lot of the planets are trivial if it's designed so that enemies don't gank up on you immediately. The game also could've really used some breathing room between screen, even just a quick black screen to make it a bit easier to parse.
Loved the theming, but it would've been a bit more fun for the brief romp that it was if aliens weren't too easy to dispose of.
Sherman's Quest is a cute little romp! I enjoy the bare gameplay loop on offer, but I did find that some areas were a bit too easy to break; the pillars in round 11 or so onward can be walked over and lead to the outside boundaries. The screen was also much too small, which eventually made it so that I'd rather take a hit and invincibly walk over hazards than carefully walk through them (which often took more time anyway). I think that it's not quite punishing enough, since the only time I lost a life was after the first time I needed to use the axe and couldn't avoid the devil after dawdling too long.
Speaking of, the actual designs for all of the creatures and characters are charming and the time-out devil is something I like a lot more than simply annihilating you on the spot. The music is well made for the period, but the actual SFX is lacking - I suppose that's period accurate too, but it would've been a bit more fun to whack things if it got a bit of noise to go with it.
All in all, there's a promising lead if you ever have the chance to go back and tweak the gameplay a bit. even just fixing the pillars or having the cutscene after you collect an egg not show up every time. The classic top-down gameplay is already there.