Review Information
Game Reviewed Regular Toad Game, by Hypernova
Review Author justin7885
Created Nov 21 2021, 8:18 AM

General Commentary and Game Overview
Regular Toad Game is a type of a game I've never seen come from Hypernova. I'm only familiar with their turd fest series, so seeing them try to make a game with a more serious plotline initially got me pretty excited.
That excitement fell apart by the time I got to the time machine.

I don't know why, but it feels like there was a serious drop in the game design once you reach the sewer level.
Suddenly, the platforming felt unfair, the enemy placement turned annoying, and even the story itself became very predictable. (oh, I'm in a coma? and I have a dead wife? and the final boss is a physical representation of my depression? do the coins represent the mourning for my dead parents too?) Moreover, the checkpoint placement was merciless, making it so if I died about 2/3rd's of the way through a level, I'd have to do the entire chapter again. Why couldn't this game maintain it's quality the whole way through?

One very aggravating thing about RTG in general is that you can't save it. there's no save files, you HAVE to beat this in one sitting. if you quit, you get sent allll the way back to the start.
granted, the game's about 2 and a half hours? (At least that's how long I took to beat it, I think.) but come on, at least give me a password or something.
Not to mention the final boss, god. It took me three tries, which meant I had to go through the hoard fight, and the mini boss, three times. You really couldn't just put me before the final boss phase?

Now, Hyper mentions in the readme that "Due to restricted time and I have a strong considerations about the game jam, part of the game will feel rushed". Why couldn't they just hold onto this for a bit longer then? You didn't HAVE to submit this, you could've taken some time and polished it up it up a bit more. I wouldn't have minded waiting...

Once I beat the final boss, I didn't think "Man, that was really fun!" I just thought "Oh, thank god it's over. I'm going to rate this a 6 out of 10. This wasn't very fun."

Like how my dad expresses his frustrations with me: I'm not mad at hypernova, I'm just disappointed. I'm hoping they'll learn from their mistakes and make something better than this next time, because I really do like their work. This just didn't do it for me, though.
 
Pros Graphics look good
Controls are alright for the most part
Game's dialog is a bit funny
Solid platforming for the first half of the game
 
Cons Story, while intriguing at first, ends up being very cliche and confusing. I still don't understand the ending. Was any of that real or what? Not to mention the several grammatical errors in the dialog, But maybe English isn't Hyper's first launguage? So I'll let that one slide.
Again, this game really could've benefited from more checkpoints. having to restart an entire chapter because of dying in one part of a later stage was extremely frustrating.
No saving, you have to play through the whole thing in one session. This sucks. I have things to do with my life.
The tanuki power up was a bit hard to control.
 
Impressions
Gameplay
5 / 10
Toad felt pretty alright to control, if not a bit sluggish. I found myself wishing for a "run" button often. But damn, were some of the enemies annoying as hell. Those piranha plants and bullet bills are going to haunt me. See earlier for my thoughts on the level design.
 
Graphics
8 / 10
Hypernova's graphics are always charming, and that stays true in RTG as well. The backgrounds in particular were pretty nice this time around.
 
Sound
7 / 10
I guess most of the music fit. I really liked the space stage's theme.
 
Final Words
6 / 10
While Regular Toad Game starts off strong, it's charm gets worn down quick with the lack of check points, vapid story, and questionable enemy placement.

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