Developer Showcase: Syaxamaphone
You know how I showcased a Canadian dev team by the name of Drinkbox Studios? Turns out there are more devs out there in my sparsely populated and hellishly cold land. Syaxamaphone has been doing one thing and doing it very well: Making free games that could easily replace what it’s inspired by. They have 3 of them available as well and since that’s what the last showcase had; I think it’s a good time to highlight those games.
Khimera: Destroy All Monster Girls Is a lot like Shovel Knight. The main difference being the story is light hearted. Game play is fluid and responsive. Music is a chiptuney bop that will perk you right up, and most importantly it’s fun. The hub world is fully fleshed out and there are plenty of secrets to find. Honestly, Khimera is one of the better things you can do with 0 dollars.
Mega Serval Is a lot like Mega Man only instead of being a blue robot boy, You’re the serval from that Kimono Park anime. This is a fan game so Little wonder why it’s free but it plays like something you’d spend real money on. Game play is again fluid and responsive with a cool dash ability to speed things up, music is more chip tunes but this one feels more lively than Khimera did. It feels very much like I’m playing a well made NES homebrew game. If you wanted a real retro mega man experience but can’t wait on Capcom any longer to scratch that itch. Mega Serval aint going to let you down.
Mandew VS the Colourless Curse is admittedly not quite as fun as the others. It’s more or less Super Mario Land for the Game Boy but it has a fleshed out story. The level design lacks the polish of the earlier entries; though this was Syaxamaphone’s first game so it makes sense. That said Mandew ain’t a slouch either. It’s fun, it sounds fun, it controls a lil sloppy but you get used to it fast. Overall a decent game worth checking out.
Now Syaxamaphone does have ways to make money. Khimera has a DLC outfit and a sequel that plays like Picross that you can buy to support the dev. So why not pick one of these 3 fine freebies and treat yourself to a good time. Who knows? you just might find a new favourite.