A very satisfying and surprisingly addictive experience, so far! Upgrades come along frequently and pose some interesting choices -- lots of fun to mow down armies of baddies. Relaxing to start up and easy to get into.

The most mega powered mega upgrade video game ever!

Great characters, awesome music, deeply satisfying game mechanics. Production levels and presentation are superb.

SATISFYING.

I am feeling VERY positive about what is happening here; mostly that we are getting to interact with, what is basically, a video game pitch. Something like this would mostly be shown at a meeting behind closed doors, and maybe leaked YEARS later online with a few articles written about it.

I think it's really cool that we get to play around with it. I love Gothic 1 to bits and pieces and was VERY excited to see something like this surface.

This being a prototype, it's damn impressive. I got sucked into the game world after the (clumsy) intro sequence, once I was able to start interacting with the other NPCs and doing the handful of quests that are available. It started to feel like GOTHIC.

The environment art is fantastic, the character models are great (though I could do without Nameless's man bun, ha!), the creature animation is really cool --

-- The combat is... well, I can see how it could be sort of an "evolution" of Gothic 1's combat - it's clunky and unpolished (because PROTOTYPE), but once you get the hang of it, it becomes pretty engaging. Not sure if I am ultimately a fan, though. I'd prefer something lighter on the UI, less busy, and less nauseating; the camera is SO CLOSE and shakes, bobs and weaves ALL over the place! I feel like this particular method of handling combat might get old in the long run. Something a bit more free form and less "locked in" might stay fresher in the long term.

I could also do without the Nameless Hero commenting on EVERY LITTLE THING -- I am generally not a huge fan of his overall personality. The prologue is also very heavy with cutscene-itis.

The general color balance could also be a bit darker/more desaturated. I loved the brooding, gloomy highland look of the original Gothic, and felt like this was a little too much on the bright side.

I am a little on the fence with Diego. I had always sort of seen him as a Ramirez type dude (Sean Connery from Highlander), and the way he is depicted here is not totally far off from that.

What's on offer here is a lot of fun once you get around the wonky intro - a fair amount to see and do (and to miss!!) for a prototype thing-a-ma-jig! I'm looking forward to a Gothic 1 remake being pursued and developed further.

And THANK YOU for letting us have a peak (and sorry this is so dang wordy)!!

Go back to the glory days, where men were made of steel, doritos and too much soda. Light up the high score boards with a CRAP ton of awesome arcade content. Good music, great pixel art, VERY fun iterations on old classics. Local couch co-op and VERSUS play?! Best played in the dark with your crusty pizza greased face illuminated by the monitor ONLY.

FULL DISCLOSURE: I am good friends with the developers and have been watching the progress of this project for quite some time. They also used some music of mine I had lying around - was very happy to contribute! Other than that, I had nothing to do with the development - just a fan and friend.

Boss 101 feels like something Nintendo might have cooked up. The feeling you get when you play it is like taking a trip to Disneyland while playing Earthbound on the lookout for packets of Z-Bots (remember those?), Monster-In-My-Pocket, and M.U.S.C.L.E - lots of love and TONS of effort went into creating an adventure (and SERIOUS unlock-a-thon) that has no right to be as damned charming as it is.

The hat store alone will leave you in tears (the "holy crap I'm in the bestest toy store ever" kind).

It looks like a shooter, sure, but it PLAYS more like a hilarious adventure/RPG beneath the surface. The shooting bits are still tons of fun (especially when you get to see what insane assortment of boss parts are glued together to create some of the most imaginative and hysterical giant killer robos ever), and can be pretty brutal late-game if you aren't equipping the right sort of gear going into the battle (poison resist, health buffs, using a gun that the boss is weak to).

And the dialogue. THE DIALOGUE. The dialogue, one-liners and character interactions caught me off guard so many times I was afraid to drink anything while playing.

Yeah I got it for free. Yeah I want my friends to do well. And yeah, that might skew my perception going into the thing (especially since I am not a big shooter guy) -- but that doesn't change the fact that I enjoyed the hell out of this adventure, nor does it change the game's wit, charm and heaps of originality. I wish I could play it all over again, not knowing a thing about it. At 9.99, this thing is a steal.

Oh yeah, and there's an arcade. HAVE AT THEE!

Without a doubt, one of the most DROP DEAD gorgeous 2D games out there -- the amount of parallax layers all over the place gives me a nosebleed (the good kind).

Music is fantastic (I've been listening to it in the background non-stop while working, doing laundry, making lunch, practicing kung fu), controls are tight, hitting evil bugs in the face with your sword/nail is super satisfying.

So far, so SUPER good.

GO. PLAY.

I always look forward to trying out a new Flump Studios shooter -- look forward to, and dead. I dread having my fragile mind blasted into tiny mewling fragments while trying to come to grips with the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ crazy mechanics I come to expect from these games.

Flump Studios' games always demand your brain be running on more than one core. You're gonna need those extra threads to handle all the bizarre, out of context, new and fresh tasks they relentlessly pummel you with.

Hyper Bounce Blast is guilty of all of the above -- and it's freakin RAD. My favorite thing about this developer is his ability to subvert the shooter genre. Sure, this is kind of a 'vertical shooter'... but it's also a twin stick shooter, a platformer (with walljumping... WALLJUMPING) and a puzzler.

Throw all of that in a blender with a super slick presentation and an awesome soundtrack, and you wind up with this... infuriatingly gorgeous video game that has (probably) "for adrenaline junkies only" plastered all over it.

I salute Flump Studios for bringing me one step closer to a straight jacket being mandatory and therefore eliminating wardrobe decisions... AND giving me an alternative to caffeine. <3 <3

Ok - I am not very well versed with shooter or bullet hell games, but for what it's worth, I have NEVER played anything like this. It's like if Robotron, Arkanoid and Space Invaders got sucked into a Tempest brand blender and this GLORIOUS thing came tumbling out to give you a swift kick in the ass.

This game demands that your brain be carved into three different parts - each one cooperating with the other while fighting its own frantic battle for survival.

Top notch arcade-y presentation with all the polish and control you could ask for - SO GOOD!

Games like this that come around once in a blue moon ought to be celebrated. Especially if you are an arcade junky - get it!!

The polish is rock solid and the amount of content so far is staggering - if you dig games like Secret of Mana, original Zelda and Diablo, you'll love this!

Brutal, but so satisfying! Atmosphere and combat work together to provide quite the white knuckle ride, despite the slow and deliberate pace (which works in the game's favor). Gives me a sense of ACTUAL peril, creating a lot of tension that you don't find in many games these days.