For Mobile Friday this week is i tried out Bacon's Revenge, from CloudOcean Star, on my iPhone 14 Pro.
The screenshots on the app store looked nice but it was the description that really piqued my interest. It said Bacon's Revenge was a roguelike but one that also had merge gameplay mechanics. i was really curious how this would work together and after this hour, i think it worked really well.
Bacon's Revenge is a simple game, but it does get the basics right. there's a decent tutorial, too. But it could be a little better, there were some things on the home screen not tutorialised and maybe it could be a bit more aware of what the player is doing, or not doing, and offer some advice. But it is more than enough to get the basics across, and the first chapter we play through is simple enough so that the game isn't overwhelming.
The Roguelike elements of the game are generous so that helps lower the difficulty of the game. each time we fail, we still get gold, items to use when upgrading, and experience. It took me a couple of tries to get past the first chapter, but i learned something each time i failed and when i did succeed in finishing the 10 waves of chapter 1 there was a good sense of accomplishment.
The Merge aspect of the game does give Bacon's Revenge a sense of luck and randomness. i thought that it wasn't too inconvenient because the Roguelike elements were so generous, so progress however slight was always being made. we can choose which weapons we want to take into a chapter, but we don't start with all of them. we get a choice of 3 at the start and then each time we finish a wave. we have to choose weapons and place them in our bag. each weapon has a space requirement. if we get two of the same weapon, at the same level, we can merge them together and the weapon's now more powerful. but space is limited, so there's a tactical element to not only the weapons we bring into a stage but which ones we have equipped. we can add more bag space and we can also merge items outside of the bag. but if we get nothing we can use, we're able to use the silver coin we've collected from the waves to refresh the selection.
If i had to pick some faults with the game, it'd be that it's too obvious when the music loops. the music itself is fine, but the end and start are different when they loop. i mentioned the tutorial could be better, but the text could also be improved as on occasion it's too small or outside the boundaries of the art it's on top off. but these are fairly small faults in comparison to what the game gets right.
I would prefer there be a speed up option that wasn't locked behind Chapter 5 or a paywall. but other than that, i'm happy with my time with Bacon's Revenge. i do recommend it, Bacon's Revenge is easy but there's a lot to unlock and progress. it's also possible to play the game one handed so it's also recommended for commuters.
Version 1.1.1 Played.
