izigame.me

The short of it:
Absolutely and utterly NO, unless you like arcade action run and guns with an analog stick, AND 3/4 of the stick's movement each way (left/right) being a dead zone (no exaggeration), AND no user configurable controller options at all in game.
In a nutshell, horrid controls ruin a potentially brilliant game.
I didn't even make 10 minutes and it was already a chore rather than any kind of fun. That said, I can't comment on the music as I didn't go deep into the game, I was only practising the controls on the first stage, but I CAN say I liked the pixel art style quite a bit!
Now, the uber long version:
"Another potentially awesome game, RUINED, due to terrible controls".
Once again, someone has done that rare but ridiculously short sighted thing of releasing a run and gun action game and disabling the d-pad (I mean, seriously)?.. but of course, the character movement is NOT analogue, in fact there is a massive dead zone, AND he only moves at the one, DIGITAL, speed. We are losing SO much response time just moving the analogue stick from left to right, instead of an instant reaction d-pad. The mind boggles with these ridiculous developer decisions.
Strike one.
You can almost work around it by playing it as a twin stick - almost - but the aiming on the right stick is infinitely variable and very precise, i.e. not always suited for heat of the moment action, whereas aiming with the left stick is a few quick preset directions like diagonal, straight up, down etc. The way most will play, IMO.
Really, the game is designed primarily as a single control stick run and gun (and the tutorial instructions say as much), yet without d-pad support, and designed as such that it fights the player every step of the way, instead of giving crisp, insta reactive and low lag controls.
AND THEN:-
If playing in twin stick configuration, there is no "hold the analog trigger down to continuously discharge weapon" function, you need to pump the right analogue trigger for each and every shot. So fatiguing. Do you know, only about a single percent of twin stick shooters and run and guns behave this way? Most don't do it, cause it outright sucks. Combined with the unbelievably important umbrella dash/fly move being on the right bumper, this game is downright horrible to play as a twin stick shooter.
Strike 2.
Not a single input option in game, in fact an input options section doesn't even exist.
It's an exercise in a finger decathlon, *incredibly* poorly thought out, and makes me wonder if the developers have ever even played this type of arcade action game before. I am still surprised. I mean, seriously, devs?
Strike three.
I already returned it before I wrote this review, as it was not fun to me at all, rather in just a few minutes I KNEW I'd be fighting the controls the entire time, and to me, that's zero actual fun.
Instead of making it organic and natural for the player, it's as if they have purposely coded it to feel frustrating and downright compromised no matter whether you play it as a single stick or twin stick - artificial tacked on difficulty due to horrible controls, is *never* a good kind of difficulty. In other words, each control scheme is severely hampered by not having any adjustability, nor rapid fire in the case of the twin stick configuration (as well as the horrid analog stick dead zone), and no d-pad support in single control stick operation. You could use an arcade stick, as most good sticks have a toggle to chooser whether they transmit as the d-pad or analog stick, but the button mapping for everything but movement is then wrong, hence, it NEEDS an easy to use in game remapping option if they are going to stubbornly stick to the idea of no d-pad support. So there's literally no way to make this game good, unless you are comfy with Steam control setup (I am not, at all) and deep dive to create a Steam custom control scheme.
I always say, if a dev can't be bothered to code their own game properly, I don't spend my time doing their job for them. I already paid for the game at that point, and that's all I should have to do to play it and enjoy it, other than change some IN GAME options. But they aren't there in this case.
I was really looking forward to this one, truly, and snapped it up at the first sale.
What a shame. For me, this has the worst control scheme of any run and gun I have played since I first used Steam in 2020. Period. It sucks.
How they can fix it:
1) Allow d-pad for movement, so we can play with A for jump and X to shoot like a regular run and gun, and therefore completely ignore the right stick.
2) Allow some input changes in game, so we can say put direction lock on left bumper and dash on right bumper (OK, dash is already on right bumper), but this way, by not playing it as a twin stick but rather as a regular run and gun, it will feel totally natural as two fingers will be permanently sitting on the bumpers and not interfering with shooting or jumping on the X and A buttons in any way shape or form.
3) Allow an auto fire of some kind, especially for those playing as a twin stick and using the right trigger. Less important if using the X button to shoot.
So really, what it boils down to is, by locking out the d-pad, they created a ricochet effect that ruined the rest of the game, as every single control setup suffers from it.
Never in my lifetime will I understand why a developer locks out the d-pad on an action game with digital character movement. Make it make sense.
And it's not as if they aren't aware of the d-pad, as it can be used for options and journal/inventory browsing in game.. it's as if they purposely locked it out for movement, to make the character feel sluggish with a massive dead zone on an analogue stick. It really feels like, "we have ruined the controls on purpose, muuuuuuuhahahahha".
They sabotaged their own game.
Sigh. Sigh. and sigh again.
Of course, one could play it with the left analogue stick and ignore the right, and use A to jump and X to shoot, just as the game instructs, but due to the ridiculously large dead zone, it's a no go for me (and anyone else who likes responsive main character control).
This one is not hard to fix, but will they? That remains to be seen. I will indeed bother to re-buy it and spend my money on it again - if the dev bothers to fix it;)
I have decided to add a final rating to all my reviews from now on.
As it stands, this is a 3/10 at best, as the current control scheme is truly horrid. 'Nuff said.