Developer: Upper Byte
Publisher: Upper Byte, Neko Entertainment
Platform: PC, Wii U (coming soon!)
Wooden Sen’Sey – Review
Wooden Sen’Sey is a blast from the past with modern mechanics, it feels and play like an upgraded oldschool game and it’s wonderful! This game is made by a tiny team, Upper Byte. But they are a force to be reckoned with! Sen’Sey has a high level of enjoyment and will relax you with its stunning scenery and very fun gameplay.
Story
In the story mode you follow the adventures of Goro, a village chief. You use your blades and axes to slash and kill all the enemies in your path. Why is Goro so angry? They stole all his booze! Yep, that’s right, you are on a quest to get your booze back and kill the monsters who did so! More of a story isn’t involved but it’s a pretty good subject to build a storyline around!
Graphics
The graphics options feature no big variety of options. You have a simple quality selector, ranging from fast to stunning, change of resolution, anti-aliasing, vsync and a fullscreen/windowed option.
Even though this might sound limited and ugly, it’s not. The game is beautiful and doesn’t need any more fancy options to make it more enjoyable. Every level is of top notch design, each with a unique style of graphics. The scenery in every level is very pleasant, full of energy or calming. All the levels are Japan-style, so cherry blossoms and windmills are sure to come your way! In combination with the music, these graphics make for an awesome experience!
Sound
The music in Sen’Sey is very varied. Every level features a new soundtrack which fits together perfectly with the environment. Some tracks are very energetic and will have you jumping around like a madman, other tracks are very calm and work surprisingly relaxing.
Of course the sound isn’t finished without sound effects! Every attack, jump, grapple, monster … has its own unique sound effect which contributes to the feeling and liveliness of the game. Dialogues are even read by a voice actor, which isn’t something you see often in indie games!
Gameplay
The most important aspect of a game is without a doubt its gameplay, and it’s great!
Instead of making a whole new game and inventing the wheel again, the developers have put their own unique twists and mechanics inside the standard action platformers as we know them.
First: the controls! I played it with a wired Xbox controller and it worked perfect! No input lag or bugs whatsoever, this is still one of the best ways to play an action platformer in my opinion. The controls are also very simple, moving, jumping, a standard attack, grappling and using your item. Different key combinations give different result, for example when you jump, press down and attack at the same time, you get a stomp-jump like attack. Instead of just implementing a double jump, you can use this stomp-jump to jump higher! But with this fun mechanic comes a less fun one, you can easily kill every enemy by stomp-jumping, which is much easier than your ordinary attack. So killing can get quite repetitive.
Second: story mode! Each level takes you to new areas where you have to collect your booze, kill enemies and rush through the level. The goal of every level is to collect all of the booze vials, kill all monsters and finish the level faster than the developers, which is not an easy task! If you complete this, you can call yourself a true Sen’Sey!
The earlier levels won’t require much skill or effort in order to complete them, but the difficulty ramps up quickly. You’ll have to combine stomp-jumps and quick grapples in order to complete the levels. Some sections are very hard, so you’re sure to get a bit frustrated at times!
Last but not least: time attack mode. This mode features 30 levels where you can achieve a golden, silver or bronze medal. In order to unlock new levels, you have to achieve a certain amount of golden, silver or bronze medals. The goal is to finish the levels as fast as possible while getting as much points as possible, the higher the points, the fancier your medal!
For the real hardcore players there are about 21 achievements to collect. Can you collect them all?
Conclusion
Overall, Sen’Sey is a very solid and fun game to play if you’re bored. It combines oldschool gameplay into a modern action platformer which is sure to suit every type of gamer! The occasional fun dialogues make it more relaxing and enjoyable as you’re battling your way through monsters to get your booze! The only downside to this game is the short gameplay, the story mode is finished in about 4-5 hours but the time attack mode will have you sweating for at least that time! Sen’Sey is now available on Steam so be sure to pick it up to support this amazing indie team!
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[…] Wooden Sen’Sey, the action platformer that scored a whopping 8.7 on the site is now available on Mac. […]