{"id":20155,"date":"2020-05-27T00:01:30","date_gmt":"2020-05-27T00:01:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/?p=20155"},"modified":"2020-05-14T12:51:14","modified_gmt":"2020-05-14T12:51:14","slug":"knights-and-bikes-switch-ps4-pc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/2020\/05\/27\/knights-and-bikes-switch-ps4-pc\/","title":{"rendered":"Knights and Bikes (Switch, PS4, PC)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>One of the things that I like about reviewing games is the opportunity to try out titles I otherwise might have missed.\u00a0 Such is the case with Knights and Bikes.\u00a0 It actually came out last year but I didn\u2019t know about it, or else it just slipped under the cracks for me.\u00a0 But I got a second chance to take a stab at reviewing it, so here we go!\u00a0 Anyway, Knights and Bikes is set on the fictitious Penfurzy British island in the mid 1980s.\u00a0 A girl named Demelza lives there with her dad, who owns a trailer park and mini golf course.\u00a0 Demelza has her head in the clouds and likes to use her imagination a lot, as kids tend to do.\u00a0 Recently, Demelza\u2019s mother passed away and she\u2019s been taking it pretty hard, and now they can\u2019t afford to keep their land.\u00a0 One day, a homeless runaway girl named Nessa sneaks onto a ferry going to Penfurzy Island (don\u2019t worry, the game isn\u2019t as depressing as it sounds).\u00a0 Nessa is a bit more down to earth, and she and Demelza run into each other and become fast friends. Along with their pet goose Honkers, they set off on a treasure-hunting, bike riding adventure to save the island.\u00a0 Knights and Bikes is a 2-D co-op action adventure game for 1 or 2 players, and it\u2019s available on Switch, PS4, and PC (reviewed on Switch here).<\/p>\n

In the game you\u2019ll play as one of the two girls.\u00a0 A second player can join in, too, but it works just fine as a single player game as well.\u00a0 You\u2019ll run around the island talking to people and gathering clues while exploring the trailer park and mini golf course, amusement park, harbor, scrap yard, quarry, and more.\u00a0 The game kind of has a Goonies meets Gravity Falls vibe to it.\u00a0 When you\u2019re not searching for clues, you may have to fight enemies to progress.\u00a0 A bulldozer on the island unearths a curse of ghosts from medieval times, and the spirits possess all sorts of things in the game.\u00a0 So you\u2019ll fight biting golf balls, evil mascot costume heads, and more.\u00a0 Defeated baddies will leave behind money and bandages.\u00a0 You\u2019ll use the money to upgrade and customize your bikes (more on that later).\u00a0 And you can use bandages to heal yourselves with a \u2018high five\u2019 if you take too much damage.\u00a0 If both girls lose all their energy, you must start at the last auto-save point.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ll do battle with silly weapons that kids would use, like flying throwing discs, water balloons, a Power Glove spoof, among other things.\u00a0 The two girls have their own specific weapons, and gradually get more as the game progresses.\u00a0 You can even combine some attacks for different effects.\u00a0 For instance, the water balloons that Nessa throws leave puddles in the ground.\u00a0 Demelza can then kick with her rain boots in the puddles to do extra splash damage.\u00a0 The weapons also can help solve puzzles and bypass obstacles as well.\u00a0 Nessa\u2019s boom box can clear out the cursed fog that frequently blocks the way, and Demelza\u2019s Power Glove can charge up electric devices, to name a few examples.<\/p>\n

The two girls also love riding their bikes, and their pedaling vehicles play a big part in the adventure as well.\u00a0 You can visit a bike shop and customize your bikes with various parts and paint jobs.\u00a0 Most of the time these are unnecessary, but there are a couple of instances where you need to get things like special tires so you can cross muddy areas and such.\u00a0 Bikes also help you solve puzzles and get you where you need to go faster.<\/p>\n

The game is fun, but it does have a few annoying problems here and there.\u00a0 Most of the time, they try and do a good job of letting you know where you need to go next, either by Demelza\u2019s imagination lines or Honkers the goose leading the way.\u00a0 But sometimes goals and puzzles can still be a bit unclear, and it\u2019s occasionally hard to know where to go next.\u00a0 A lot of this has to do with the graphics.\u00a0 I do like the paper cut out collage style visuals, but the darker tones make it a bit hard to know where you can and can\u2019t go sometimes.\u00a0 Combat isn\u2019t bad, but it does feel a bit sloppy sometimes.\u00a0 Some may say the game is too short, but I don\u2019t think it is.\u00a0 It just doesn\u2019t overstay its welcome by being too long.\u00a0 Otherwise, this is a heartwarming and charming unique adventure that gives off a bit of a Psychonauts vibe as well (it was published by Double Fine so maybe that\u2019s why).\u00a0 I\u2019m glad I got a chance to check it out after all.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Kid Factor:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Knights and Bikes is rated E-10 with ESRB descriptors of Alcohol Reference, Crude Humor, Fantasy Violence, and Mild Language.\u00a0 I really didn\u2019t notice any alcohol reference or bad language in the game, so it must be used very sparingly.\u00a0 You do attack silly enemies with goofy kid weapons, and enemies disappear in a ghostly fog when defeated.\u00a0 Since the game stars kids, of course there\u2019s going to be some crude humor here and there.\u00a0 Most notably is when the two girls travel through a windy crevice, and Demelza imagines they\u2019re going through a farting dragon\u2019s butt!\u00a0 Reading skill is a must for the text, and while younger gamers can play this game with older ones, I think this game would be best enjoyed by older kids overall.\u00a0 There are some serious moments where parents may have to discuss topics like parental mortality, for instance.\u00a0 But there are also a lot of good messages and lessons about friendship and family in the game as well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the things that I like about reviewing games is the opportunity to try out titles I otherwise might have missed.\u00a0 Such is the case with Knights and Bikes.\u00a0 It actually came out last year but I didn\u2019t know about it, or else it just slipped under the cracks for me.\u00a0 But I got […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":20118,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-game-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20155","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20155"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20155\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20156,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20155\/revisions\/20156"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}