Was unable to get it to load without crashing on any of the 3 emulators I tried for Mac :( shame cos it looks awesome, and the fact you actually did a .gb file is incredible. Nice job for getting it done! I'll have another go on PC later and see if I can get it working on a diff emulator.

edit: Ok so I got it working now, for some reason it works perfectly on anything on my PC but my work mac did not like it.

Biotic Limit is a horizontally scrolling shooter that sees you playing as a white blood cell that has to patrol blood vessels and exterminate infection! There's quite a lot of variety of enemies given the short timespan and the fact this is on an actual gameboy, the death animation is really cool and an interesting use of the 8x8 sprite sizes.

The antibiotic power could be a little more powerful I guess, but the screen isn't filled with enemies all the time so it's not that big an issue. Some of the multi-hit enemies don't make a sound or indicate that they've been damaged.

Really cool game! Nice work!

Kitty Quest is mine! /jam/gbjam-5/rate/90133

Kitty Quest seems really decent. I like that it plays really smooth and the visuals are pleasant. Sadly the UI bugged out when I died once.

Gave you a very good rating, good job!

This is mine /jam/gbjam-5/rate/89913

Panzermann vs Spielejunge! It reminded me of the old good times playing Battle city on my Gameboy! Also I'm experiencing a bug with the Unity's webgl builds here, the input axis is always pushing the player to the right so I have to hold left to stop it, no idea why! still had fun playing it!

Here is mine -> /jam/gbjam-5/rate/89228

Nightingale: Dying Commander is a Fire Emblem-esque tactics game in which you control a small band of warriors fighting their way through enemy territory. The game features perma-death, so if one of your teammates dies in battle, they are lost forever.

The visuals in this game are stellar. The title screens feature detailed pixel art, while the combat sections are clear and straightforward. UI and sound effects are all nice, too.

The perma-death is a really excellent addition. The characters in your squad all have names, and you really feel an emotional gut-punch when one of them dies. The game is quite hard as a result, but the difficulty curve is pretty smooth.

One gripe I have is the game doesn't explain its combat systems very well. You can attack enemies adjacent to you, but I didn't realize you could dash over an extra space to hit an opponent. Knowing exactly what you can and can't do in the game, rather than having to figure it out, would have spared me some trial and error that cost me precious team members. Enemy AI is a bit inconsistent, but is overall very strong.

Overall, I think this is an exceptional entry, giving a great GB Jam spin on tactics games and managing to deliver an emotional experience in a very short time.

Here's mine: What Was Left In The Arena:

/jam/gbjam-5/rate/90341

I like this idea. I look at all the entries and I get overwhelmed, but seeing just the 1 above me makes it easier to find something to play.

REVIEW OF WHAT WAS LEFT IN THE ARENA

Well you have the resolution correct, but I question the choice of yellow and black. Maybe your GameBoy screen is just so old or contrasted sitting in the sun that this is what it turned to. I suppose in a sea of green, it will help you stand out.

Anyway, the game is a fight simulator with a point and click game visual aesthetic. There is a good amount of talking as the story revolves around you being stuck in a dungeon and forced to fight other prisoners.

The fighting is simple, up and down to block respectively, left to dodge an upper cut and right to punch. Think of it like a side view of Mike Tyson's punch out with different controls. In a way its like simon says. You follow the foe's movements, although a few times I was lead to believe there would be a high punch and it was a low punch.

When the player gets hit I feel it, I can see him get knocked back and forth and that's good. However, the lack of effect of your punches is my real sticking point here. My punches aren't even hitting their target, yet I guess they're hitting? On the plus side, what did feel good was knocking the opponent down and the mounted punching. Having to left and right. The red on yellow color scheme accented things nicely for the blood while still maintaining the four colors.

I do like the feeling of progression, winning fight after fight unlocking the next area just beyond a guarded door. Its a nice detail. One thing that did bother me is how close to the edge of the screen I need to be in order to push the map forward.

Overall, its a fair little game that I think polish and improving how the fighting feels will go a long way.

If anyone would like to review our little MetroidVania here it is:
AlienVania
https://sitebender.itch.io/alienvania

AlienVania Review

This was a fun little game. The shooting was satisfying and I liked how the particle effects were done. The ending was pretty funny, I was fooled and didn't think there was going to be a boss but there was! Also I read everything after that, if you care to know. The music was really nice, it wasn't banging or interesting enough that I'd want to actively listen to it on repeat but it was nice for background music and gave the game a cute ambiance.The art as a whole was very nice although I think the default palette should have been the 5th one I believe it was? One of the available palettes towards the end that has nice contrasts, definitely better than the default!

I noticed in the options menu a little oversight, it checks for inputs down every frame rather than checking if a key was just pressed down or released, which means it cycles through the options very quickly when you press left or right. There were some issues with the climbing mechanic as you remarked at the end but it wasn't overly annoying.

I think the biggest issue in this game is a big combination of weak proportions and controls. First off, your character is very tall compared to the monsters, and the speed at which they and bullets move compared to the space you take, makes the game harder than it should be. However that is not the only problem, because this issue could have been avoided if you could crouch and aim up as well as diagonally. On the other hand, it wasn't that bad because you had a lot of health to offset it, but still was kind of dull.

The level design was nice but not always, there were some level design choices at certain places but nothing major. Also, it was hard to discern where you could walk and what was the scenery sometimes.

Finally, one nitpick I could add on weapons is that the muzzle flash should render over the gun, not behind.

All in all, it was a good entry. Some issues for sure but it was fun and all of the weapons were very satisfying to use.

Since no game was suggested, I will take a look at both Worldwide Weirdos and One Strike.

Worldwide Weirdos

I found myself questioning whether or not this game was made with four colours...if I'm not mistaken, black and white also count as colours, not to mention shades. I mean, if that was some good use of the colours simply being dispersed around the palette to look otherwise, colour me impressed. The graphics themselves, however, are actually pretty nice and fitting for a game with this sort of idea. I liked the globe, too.

I can see why such a game like this would come off as offensive. After all, it plays off of stereotypes with the voices and the premises, etc. But as a Canadian, I found the first mini game to be kind of hilarious. Can't say exactly how I felt about the other ones, though. It would have been ideal to include a tutorial at the beginning of each mini game. Even just a bit of text that says which keys to press and what actions they do. While the first two games were pretty self explanatory, I couldn't figure out how to play the snake charmer one or the fighting one (which I read was broken, but still would've been nice to know).

That was probably my biggest issue with the game overall, along with the questionable palette and uncompletable stage 4. The audio and graphics, even the gameplay premise, are fine.

One Strike

I didn't have another player available to try this out with me, but I was definitely reminded of Yojimbrawl, except in this one it's a 1 hit KO. The thing that stands out most to me about this is the detailed background, not to mention the design of the players themselves. I think it's interesting that there's no jumping involved, just fighting and dodging. The sounds were fitting; I like them. There really isn't much to say about the game besides that, since you basically just play endlessly until you quit it seems. So a next step for a post jam version could be to incorporate a points system, perhaps. (And maybe change the player count on your page to 2 instead of single player :P )

I'm going to pick the game I helped contribute to during the jam, Angler. :D

REVIEW OF ANGLER

Angler is a challenging and engaging game that puts you in the water as an angler fish. You need to eat 42 lesser fish in an undersea maze while dodging sharks, urchins and jellyfish. Oh the jellyfish. I enjoyed the game, the music is soothing and the blue four tones make it stand out from the pack of other GameBoy games. It took a lot of calming skill navigating the west half of the map with the tight tunnels and spikes.

There's a good variety of hazards to keep you on your toes or cudals. The only real issue here was the screen size and abundance of jellyfish in the southeast quadrant. Since the jellies dash at you there's not that much reaction time, but you do have plenty of health. Otherwise there are health heart fish you can touch to replenish a heart on your five heart health meter.

I think the details are great, the waving grass, the scuba diver among the sharks. Its good to just explore and relax until you find big angry predators. If you wanted to push the game further I can only recommend a timer and even percentages of how many feeder fish you can eat in the time.

There were a few issues, such as going to the map, I couldn't always get back without using the mouse. Sometimes I would go to the map and then press enter to get back out of it just fine. The other odd issue happened only once and that was touching a feeder fish for the first time with my angler seemed to freeze the game for half a minute, but after that, there were no problems.

I like the game.

Since I've already had my game reviewed in this thread (AlienVania).... I went to the submissions page and just found the first game.

The Visitors

/jam/gbjam-5/rate/90385

I think its a good game to suggest, because the default image shows nothing about the game and there are no screenshots. You're going in blind!!!!