Popful Mail for SFC
Review #2276
Popful Mail
The mid version of Chibi Red Sonya
Gameplay
So this plays a lot like the Wonder Boy titles. You've got a short sword that you can swing or do a down thrust like Zelda 2. Most enemies die in one or two hits and aren't very aggressive. They also don't have collision and only hit you when they attack. The short reach on your sword is the biggest downer here plus enemies hit hard which makes the game very difficult. The game's biggest sin though is the very short draw distance. You've only got about 20% of the screen in front of you. It's almost as bad as the Exile games. I want to enjoy it a lot more than I do, but there are better options out there in this genre.
Level Design
I never felt lost in the levels, but there's a lot of branching paths that go nowhere and seemingly endless pits that just circle back to an area you've already been. So I don't think the areas are poorly designed, but they're not exceptional in any way.
Theme
There's a lot of Japanese texts but as near as I can tell you don't have to do much with it. So even though there's shops I'd say this is a game that's mostly playable without knowing Japanese.
The setting is a mix of fantasy and steampunk with some enemies being robotic. You play as a red-haired sword lady. I assume it's a chibi Red Sonya to be honest.
Art Style
Again, I want to like the graphics more than I do. They're fine but don't stand out amongst the crowd. All sprites are very tiny. Like maybe 50 pixels tall. I don't know. And there aren't very many of them. Enemies are reused constantly.
Audio
There's exactly one song. It's great but it's the only song after an hour of playing. I just wish there was more of this soundtrack.
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