SAGE 2023 games I enjliked part 5

DONO'S TALE as DONO'S TALE
LOUNY BALLOONY as LOUNY BALLOONY
PANGOLIN CASSOWARY as PANGOLIN CASSOWARY

DONO'S TALE

Title screen for Dono's Tale. The first 'O' is a blue diosaur's face.

Dono's Tale is a cute, highly polished platformer taking inspiration from Yoshi's Island, starring a cute, rotund blue dinosaur. You don't have a baby to cart around and no eggs to throw, but there's plenty of Yoshi's Island's primary verbs here, along with a highly similar cute art direction.

Dono trots around a cute, verdant landscape. Dono uses a wing powerup to flutter about an auburn autumn forest Dono climbs a ladder in a damp, crystal cave.

Something that sets Dono's Tale apart is its rotation of abilities. Pressing the shoulder buttons and triggers swaps between three different attacks (weak fireballs, a powerful claw swipe, and a turtle shell shield) as well as three different movement augmentations (wings, climbing paws, and electric dashes). Dono's Tale seems primed to have some easygoing platforming mixed in with some tight, difficult challenges. To wit, the title screen offered a "kaizo" mode, which for now just redirected to a sadly unsuccessful kickstarter. Still, that didn't seem to discourage the developers of Dono's Tale--they seem to be proceeding full speed ahead with development anyway! What's already here is cute and fun, and I really enjoyed the music in this one too.

Dono trots around a "vaporwave" city, whose background shimmers like a VHS recording. Dono dashes with electricity through a level centered around using it in challenging speedy platforming. Dono stands on a platform set on rotating windmill blades.

LOUNY BALLOONY

The title screen for Louny Balloony. A Victorian Era or Industrial Revolution Era boy with balloons tied around his body and is soaring through the air, holding feathers in his out stretched hands.

Louny Balloony takes the concept from Balloon Fight's "Balloon Trip" mode and the Gameboy Game "Balloon Kid" and expands upon it, creating a fun and challenging spin on the ideas. Protect your balloons to stay aloft and collect necessary feathers from birds and treasure chests to fly about and even spend them to dash horizontally.

The game's tutorial level instructs you to "Hold down to blow up balloons."

Along the way, purple-clad enemies will attempt to pop your balloons and rob you of your feathers! Dash into them to stun them and then pop their balloons--or aim right for their balloons right away if you're skilled! There are even bosses to fight.

The protagonist pops an enemy's balloons with a cartoony POP! effect. The game begins in BON VOYAGE CITY. Taking place over a city skyline with spikes that can pop your balloons and pigeons to replenish your feathers. A giant bank robber busts out of the side of a bank and hops from building to building.

You can only hold 30 feathers at a time; any additional feathers get added to an additional feather bank, which you can spend upon getting a game over for additional help.

Extra feathers being tallied up in a feather bank after getting a game over.

I was a big fan of this game's industrial revolution setting and it's great Sega Mega Drive sounds and music. A great take on the Balloon Kid formula.

PANGOLIN CASSOWARY

The title screen for Pangolin Cassowary, which sits over a tall cityscape with a bright blue sky

Now here's an interesting idea for a game. Pangolin Cassowary is what I can only describe as a mix between Banjo Kazooie and Kirby's Dream Course. It's an odd combination but it actually works really well, and I had a great time with this one even though my fun got cut short by a softlock bug.

A blue cassowary stands with a sleepy pink pangolin on its back. An arrow points to the left.

You control a blue cassowary with a pangolin companion. You can't jump, but you can angle where you want to kick your pangolin friend. After kicking the pangolin, it will roll until it comes to a stop, upon which the cassowary flies over to collect the pangolin.

The cassowary has kicked the pangolin through a hoop, which redirects its pathing. The pangolin bounces off of a green panel. The pangolin rolls along a skatepark-like half-pipe.

It's a bit like Glover in a way, but with more manageable controls. The level I played in the demo tasks you with finding a buss pas on the level's tallest building, though there's optional tasks to complete along the way.

A screenshot of the game showing a huge tower in the background. The cassowary is spoken to over a payphone: "Looking for a bus pass? Try looking on the tallest building!" A screenshot of the pause screen, which shows some optional tasks. "Get the bus pass in one minute and thirty seconds." "Collect all one hundred chips." "Clear the challenge area." "Find the secret tape."

There was even an optional challenge area that limits the number of times you can kick the pangolin, however I fell off the level and after mashing on the kick button, my position was never reset back to the play area.

A screenshot of a dark blue challenge area. A payphone says, "Think before you kick! This is a challenge area. You have a limited amount of kicks to reach the goal. The remaining kicks are displayed in the top left." The cassowary and pangolin fall forever in a blue abyss.

Despite this, though, I really love the concept of this game and I look forward to seeing it polished and complete.

Nadia Rain Chassis

@softchassis

Purpose-built for wrong