Platform: Xbox Indie Games (Xbox 360)
Price: 400 MSP / $5 USD


First of all, this game does not involve anything disgusting or "nasty" although one of the enemies kind of does look like a pile of vomit with sharp teeth. Instead, Nasty is a fairly good 2D retro platformer with familiar elements from childhood classics.

Gameplay:
Initially, I thought this game was going to be a side-scrolling Contra clone based on what I saw in the box art but it turned out that there was no side-scrolling at all. The whole level is displayed on the screen and the design of the level is quite similar to that of Taito's Bubble Bobble. Out of the 95 levels played, none of them had the classic Mario falls where if the player fell down, they'd lose a life but instead there were some hazards such as lava or this acid substance that if the player fell off the platform and into it, a life would be lost. Other levels on the other hand, had these space gaps present but if the player went into them they'd fall back into the map from above similar to some of the levels found in Bubble Bobble.

Well that's enough for level design, as for the core gameplay: shoot every enemy and don't get hit in the process. You can't reach the next level unless you've eliminated all the enemies in the level. Also, while there is no formal time restriction, there is a "penalty" for taking too long. A warning sound clip is played alerting the player to hurry up and then an angry sun will appear that will cause you to lose a life if it touches you therefore, it's a good idea to clear the enemies as fast as possible. There's technically several weapons in the game but to me the other weapons were just merely power-ups that enhanced the default gun. Before I get into the power-ups, I will state that it's extremely useful to utilize the steady aim shot in the game which allows you to hold still and shoot at a particular angle which is essential for taking down certain enemies, especially the aerial ones. Getting back to power-ups, one of them will allow you to shoot faster while another will shoot triple bullets along with some others and aside from weapon enhancements, there's one for increasing speed and jumping as well.

As for enemies dropping items, they don't drop power-ups but they do drop fruits that can be collected for points, it's not necessary to pick them up though. That reminded me of Pac-man as similar fruits were found in it. The ghost enemies found in Nasty reminded me of Pac-man as well. Also, speaking of enemies, most of them move in a "scripted" pattern meaning that they go in a predefined direction however, there are some, like the ghosts that once you've been spotted, you will be hunted down so keep that in mind when confronting them. All the bosses encountered followed a certain pattern, once the pattern was discovered it was just a matter of proper timing and a bit of luck to defeat them.

As for game modes, the main story (100 levels long) can be played alone or with one other person locally. There's also a battle mode where 4 players can battle it out in an arena. I did not test the battle mode/co-op due to time constraints amongst other things so unfortunately, can't comment on that but I imagine that at least co-op is fun.

In terms of difficulty, there are 3 difficulty modes: easy, medium and hard. I got to level 95 via easy difficulty but I did play several levels in medium/hard difficulty. There is a significant difficulty spike from one to the other so "hard" is indeed hard and will probably only appeal to those retro fanatics who love getting their ass kicked or who are actually skilled at these kind of games. Easy isn't all that easy either though as I had to use my continues up several times mainly due to the bosses or carelessly approaching certain enemies.

To give you an idea of how the difficulty is increased, in easy for instance, once the green ghosts are killed they simply die whereas in hard, 3 little ghosts emerge from the bigger ghost. Some of the enemies who normally did not shoot back in easy, did so in hard. Also, the amount of lives and continues is reduced in hard. There is a level select option though that allows you to start from the 10th level of your overall progress which means that if you've completed 50 levels you should be able to start playing again from level 10, 20, 30, 40 or 50 but not level 22 for instance, you'd have to start at 20 and work your way up to 22 if you wanted to play that one.

Graphics & Audio:
The graphics definitely had that 2D retro look but still looked decent on my HDTV. As for the sound effects, they were effective especially the warning tune and while the music wasn't anything memorable, it got the job done.

Replay value:
Unless you're really good at retro platformers, you'll probably be starting on either easy or medium which means that once you've completed the game on that you could give it a try on hard. The main draw is probably the co-op/battle though as those modes potentially could provide hours of replay. But even if you're not interested in playing with others, you could always challenge yourself by seeing how far you can go without using any continues or try to beat the previously achieved high score.

Overall:
If you read everything I mentioned in the gameplay section of the review, you probably noticed that there wasn't really anything too innovative in this game. Essentially, it seemed that the game's main purpose was to bring back memories from the past and it did just that. However, that concept can only go so far and while the game was found to be enjoyable for the most part, from the 100 levels, several felt "recycled" but this is understandable due to file size limit constraints amongst other things.

With that in mind, it's easy to recommend Nasty to anyone who's a fan of retro platformering shooters and who will enjoy the scattered memories of classics from "back in the day" found throughout the game, on the other hand it's hard to do the same to someone who's looking for something with a retro look but "new" gameplay especially at 400 points as there's some tough competition out there. Do give a trial a shot though and if it didn't impress you, then the full game probably won't either. I will say that the developer definitely deserves recognition for acknowledging problems with the game and actually doing something about them as originally the game suffered from some minor faults such as the jumping being off at times and the collision detection being a bit too accurate which were fixed in a recent update. The developer also addressed the pricing issue amongst other things which can be found at his blog, HERE.

Pros:
+Difficulty selection
+Co-op/battle (offline only)
+Fair amount of replay value
+Retro gameplay was well executed

Cons:
-Level designs could have been better
-A couple of more enemy types would have been nice (this might be addressed in the next update)
-Not much innovation
-No online play (wasn't essential but would have been nice although these kind of games are usually best played with a buddy offline)

I'm giving Nasty a 7/10 which I think most retro platforming fans looking for some reasonably priced nostalgia will agree with. For more info about the game, check out the official site @ http://www.funinfused.com/nasty/

This game was obtained from the developer rather than purchased, for review purposes.

Even with the 1.5 version update I still have not been able to win. I can't get past a few of the levels alone and my friends would rather play other games.

What level are you stuck at? I can maybe give you some tips (I made the game after all).

Too bad your friends won't play, Nasty is the most fun played with another person IMO. And easier too.