Letting it rip on to a whole new audience comes Slayblade by Henry’s House and Oscar Brittain. The game is also a rogue-lite game where we will hit the streets and battle it out to see who’s the best. If you wanna talk a long walk down memory lane yourself, Slayblade is on Steam, with a demo available as well.
Time to spin it out at the speed of sound!
Gameplay
Once you start a run in Slayblade, players can just begin battling the local youth to prove you’re the best Blader. Battles only require the mouse to play, which makes battling a lot simpler. Although it did take me a couple of tries to get used to how it works. All battles will offer money and XP for you to earn so that you can purchase parts to create your ideal spinner. Money is also lost on some battles, and once you go into debt, game over! For the parts side of Slayblade, each one will offer pros and sometimes cons to your spinner. These will usually affect weight, RPM, and aura, which may increase or decrease your opponent. To activate and use them, though, you must acquire the power cube that appears in the arena. Parts are collected in two ways: one is the Gachapon machine, which offers a random part for $10. Or the shop that changes stock daily and usually has a part on sale for 30% off, with two other parts full price.
After each battle, time moves forward a little, but luckily nothing is on a timer. In the day, you can battle normally or choose to use an outside gym to level up your spinner. At night is where the game made me laugh, as players can face off against criminals, and there are illegal battles for you to do. They will offer higher rewards with greater risks, so be prepared. Another downside to battling criminals is that they cheat. I’ll let you figure out in what way. Finally, when you think you’re the best you are able to be, players can then take on the tournament!
Graphics & Audio
Slayblade is brimming with 2000s, city-inspired Pokémon vibes. Most of the text in the game features a graffiti-style font, and the music feels very nostalgic. This also applies to the art style in battles and with NPC store clerks, heavily giving you Saturday cartoon vibes. The map itself is also reminiscent of early Pokémon games, but instead featuring a 3D rotatable map. I also love the cheesy name tags for the opponents, sporting many celebrity mockings or straight silliness. Some of my favourites include Bin Chicken, Ya Mum and Lana Del Slayblade. It tickled me further when I first booted up the game, however, and the logo behind Slayblade looked similar to the start-up screen for Nintendo DS. All in all, there are lots of jokes and nostalgia to be had.
Longevity
Since Slayblade is a rogue-lite, longevity can vary between players. The game offers modifiers that you can unlock, and these will allow more fun to be had on each run. Slayblade also has 50 achievements for you to unlock, with most being tied to beating specific episodes.
Final Thoughts
Although the game is simple by design, you will have a blast with swapping modifiers and creating your ideal spinner. The mouse-only control makes it a lot easier, and once you’ve played a couple of runs, you get used to it rather quickly. Battles are fast and enjoyable, and the flow of the game never left me bored, adding even more fun to the classic Beyblade-style. I’d highly suggest picking up Slayblade for how good of a time killer it is. So I’m going to be giving it the Thumb Culture Gold Award.
Disclaimer: A code was received in order to write this review.
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