Shing! Review: A lively ghost game

How many people in their childhood, played such an arcade game - "Three Kingdoms". Compared to horizontal 2D games like Metal Slug and Contra, it was very eye-catching at the time.

Unlike games that only have vertical and horizontal axes, The Three Kingdoms references the concept of vertical axes. The player can move not only backwards and forwards, but also vertically. This change broadened the entire battle scene, making it into a three-dimensional space. Players can use more space to move, avoid enemy attacks, and their own attacks need to be more accurate.

For a game born in 2020, Shing is still using this pseudo-3D graphics, which is pretty retro. The game is also labeled "arcade" by players on the Steam platform. My mind was suddenly transported back to the arcade with the sound of coin drops and fingers floating between the joysticks.

Shing can be said to be a very "simple and rough" game.

"Simple" means that its content is very clear, an Oriental style ghost killing game. No matter in the opening animation, imitation ink style landscape painting, or the movement of characters and storyboards, they are very distinctive.

After entering the game, the main interface is very simple, without overly complicated colors to decorate. For the map, replace it with a whole long landscape. Dense mountain, stone boardwalk connecting between the two peaks, there is a pavilion standing on the top of the mountain, like the scene described in "Shu Road Difficult".

So, "rough" is the fighting part.

Refreshing sense of attack, smooth combo, giving people an immersive combat experience. Weapons cut on different objects have different effects. When attacking the monster, the spilled blood gives the feeling of a knife cutting into the flesh. The light of the knife, as well as the sparks that burst out on the metal weapon, remind the player of the days of "blacksmithing".

Compared to other action games, Shing does not have an extensive skill and weapon system.

Although there is no skill choice, you can kill different types of monsters to get their BUFF balls. The balls are divided into six colors, representing different properties. Such as red fire property damage, blue thunder property remote attack, green blood and so on.

Buffs are used for a number of times, not a time limit, attack buffs are used once for each swing of the weapon. The same balls can be picked up, the number of times can be added, and will not disappear with death or switching roles. The same character can have multiple buffs at once.

Due to the difficulty of the game, it is impossible to effectively kill small monsters, which will cause the accumulation of monsters. How to use BUFF effectively becomes the key. For example, the Thunder attribute attack can break the shield, and the Fire attribute attack can cause higher toughness. So when there are no special monsters, you can pick up the item, switch characters to retain the BUFF, to avoid causing waste.

(The number of uses of the BUFF will appear on the right side of the blood bar)

Weapon systems are replaced by switching roles. Aizi, who uses two blades, has a fast attack speed and slightly less attack range and damage, while William has high damage but lacks attack speed. Although there are different roles to use, the differences between them are not obvious enough.

If, you can enrich the difference between the characters, can increase the playability, but also for different enemies, using different playing methods. For example, while Aiko has the characteristic of attack speed, she should increase her flexibility so that she can jump higher and run faster. As well as fast out of the knife, reduce the use of weapons generated after the shake, convenient for players to adapt to the situation.

Moreover, due to the vertical axis, many of the skills of the monsters are not only horizontal attacks, but also have a certain vertical range. In other words, skills like "lightning ball" and "protective shield" are three-dimensional. At this point, the player's character is at a relative loss. Both Bitchi and William have a bit of vertical attack ability, but it's still not obvious. A polemic weapon. It should be used to its full potential.

Although the mechanism is somewhat mundane, the operating system is quite distinctive.

The main attack action in the game is achieved through the right joystick. Rocker left, right, oblique up, oblique down, respectively represent six attack directions. Up is to provoke, down is to defend. At the same time, you can turn the rocker and use the "big windmill". Dodge, jump, and kick are arranged on the fixed keys.

Using the right rocker instead of the traditional operation mode, the first hand will not adapt to, but after getting used to it, there will be a different sense of comfort, and the operation is more flexible. One thing to be reminded of is that the keyboard and mouse are more accurate than the handle, but the feel is not good.

This mode of operation, there are still some problems. In the game, there is a small monster that randomly generates shields on the top, middle and bottom three parts of its body. At the same time, there are small monsters, which require very precise, oblique up or down attacks. There are still some problems in determining the direction of the rocker.

Blindly combo, change of moves is not the key to clearance, some levels, need to master the bullet back. The game is very encouraged to bounce back, you can bounce back attacks, there will be obvious flashing tips. Counterattack deals damage to all enemies in a straight line, and drops increase for enemies killed by counterattack.

If the projectile is not skilled enough, it will be difficult to deal with when facing the double "sky dog". "Heavenly Dog" and "big guy" will also make mocking actions after knocking down the player, increasing the psychological level of difficulty for the player.

However, don't worry about the difficulty, there are a lot of checkpoints in the game, each battle will be saved. After death, you can start again at the checkpoint, and after repeated practice, it is not difficult to clear the customs.

In addition, in addition to the combat part of the game, there are also some very brilliant places. In particular, the light and shadow effect on this section of the tower is visually stunning.

The sun falls on the horizontal plane in the distance, and the afterglow shines on the tower where the protagonist is located through the gap between the buildings. The distant town, due to the backlight can only see the outline, the fire everywhere, reminding the player of the grim situation.

In the rambling (story) mode, you can understand the character and the past through the dialogue between the characters, and guess the relationship between them. At the same time, "appreciate" the ridicule of the clown Iron Lang.

For now, the balance of the game is still up for debate. For example, the simultaneous appearance of "Heavenly dogs" and protective cover monsters makes the combat experience very poor. The elevator level has appeared, repeatedly by the enemy protective cover bounced down the ladder situation. And some strange bugs, I hope the producers can quickly improve, fix.

(The little monster is stuck on the edge of the elevator)

Although there are still some shortcomings in the game, if you want to experience the pleasure of blood splashing and ghost head separation, Shing will be a good choice.