The Tiny Pixels series seems to feature simple graphics and gameplay, and I’ve already reviewed the first one, a vertically scrolling shooter.  The second one is a beat ‘em up where you play as a knight out to save princesses from goblins and such, and you fight one enemy at a time until you reach a boss, and when your game is over you can use the coins you’ve earned to upgrade your skills  Stormy Knights is available on all current consoles and PC, but reviewed on PS4 here.

Your knight can move left and right and use the face buttons to attack with a sword, block with a shield, dash backwards to dodge attacks, and use a limited powerful magic blast.  You’ll fight one enemy at a time, learning their attack patterns so you can dodge and attack effectively.  It kind of reminds me of an old Taito game called Gladiator, or an old PC game I barely remember called Swashbuckler.  At the end of a group of enemies you’ll fight a boss, save a princess, and take on the next group of baddies.

When you defeat an enemy, your knight turns into a ball of energy for some reason and you can control it as it flies around collecting coins hanging from tassels.  The game doesn’t tell you that you can do this, though, so it took me a while to figure out what was going on.  On the main menu, you can use those coins to upgrade your skills, giving you better attacks, more life, and more uses of the magic blasts.  But when you get a Game Over, you must start over at the beginning, and it just got too repetitive for me to stay interested for long.

Kid Factor:

Tiny Pixels vol. 2: Stormy Knights is rated E-10 with an ESRB descriptor of Fantasy Violence.  You swing swords and blast magic at pixelly, cartoony enemies that disappear when defeated.  Reading skill isn’t needed, but younger gamers may find it too difficult.

Tags: Game Reviews