Micro Mages Review (DL)
So yes, it's an hommage to NES games, and it is, in fact, a genuine NES game made in 2019 apparently. Only that fact is already impressive. And impressive is what they did here, a very efficient concept for a game, it's fun, it runs super well, and the gameplay works! It might be an NES game, but it's also a 21st century video game too. In fact, I think that the gameplay feels modern enough that you don't need to be an NES nerd to play this either.
It's a bit short, but it's faithful to the games of that time. The levels are well designed. There is no save feature, but you have a password system (and the password is NOT 40 characters long, thank the lord).
The NES difficulty is also on point : it's not impossibly difficult, but they game will make you restart the chapter if you lose all your lives (like in Mario Brothers). I don't mind it, I'm fully on board with that, especially since the game isn't too long in the end.
The couch-coop works super well. We used 2 controllers, we mapped the buttons, and we were ready to go. You can't choose your color in the game, but it's fine. We did not try 4 players, but 2 players is already a bit chaotic, but in a fun way! You work together because you need at least one player alive at all time, but you also race each other.
The developer made a PDF manual for the game, look it up, you can find it. It's great!