itch.io

Perhaps you could sacrifice the music in order to claw back the performance needed to texture the models?

That quad reduction on models looks might janky too, with tons of holes in their geometry

I was finally able to set up a dedicated Ubuntu partition on an old laptop, so Linux version now has parity with all the others!

Updated GameJolt today. Thanks for reminding me!
And thank you for your suggestion, but since I'm just one person handling everything, I'd rather deal with fewer storefronts. The only other store I wouldn't be opposed to at this point is GOG, but they made it abundantly clear my games aren't wanted there.

We are now at parity between all (supported) versions of the game - Windows, Linux and Switch, so, hopefully all bugs are fixed.

Sure! Just made the last non-Enchanted Edition versions for Windows and Linux available for download.

Wow - I forgot I even had it hosted on Humble! I'll definitely update it next chance I get. Thanks for reminding me!

It's great to see someone is still making arcade adventures in the year of our lord Dizzy 2026. That said - the demo is incredibly sparse, and I finished it in literally less than 5 minutes. There is a lot of running in a straight line, but almost nothing in terms of puzzles.

How's the rest of the game coming along?

Since up and down directions aren’s used during regular gameplay, it’s possible to map all gameplay commands to just the directional keys and one action button. Map jump to up key, and both interact and inventory to down key. Dash can be performed by a directional double-tap, so it having its own key isn’t strictly necessary.

Unlike all other music, which had full ID3 information, that one had none, and was simply named "music.mp3", making me think it was the only one specifically written for the project. On YT there are two gameplay videos of the original, and both of them have sound completely muted due to content match. You CAN however hear it in the background of this review video.

If you can track down the game's original .IPA file, you can simply open it like a standard .ZIP file and extract assets out of it, including all music in .MP3 format.

Nice job recreating the game in Godot, but charging $6 for an IP that isn't yours doesn't feel right IMO.

Other than that, I'd rather play this version over original any day!

The good:

• Controls aren't nearly as sluggish, with significantly quicker movement, faster attacks, and control over jump trajectory.
• Much improved collision boxes for both, player attacks and enemies. Traps no longer hurt you half-way across the screen for no apparent reason.
• Music and sound effects at the same time!
• Different weapons have different attack power, whereas in the original the difference appeared to be purely cosmetic.

The not-so-good:

• Somehow still can't map an action button to jump!
• Weird collision behavior when dropping to a lower platform. When difference between platforms is less than player height, the drop is sometimes treated as a slope.
• Just one endlessly repeating short music track. I know the original absolutely did this, but holy crap does it get old now.
• Jump-attack gets cancelled when colliding with ground, making jump-attacks quite unpredictable. I'd suggest transitioning an air-attack into ground attack if player lands mid-way through it.
• Enemy behaviors are simplified, and some enemies are removed completely. While this definitely makes the game less annoying, it could've been done in a more creative way.
• There are still tons of bullshit "gotcha" traps from the original.
• Falling into a pit from a moving platform causes instant game-over, as the game tries to respawn the player on top of a platform that has long since moved out of the way.
• The game-over screen looks weirdly artifacted, like it was ripped from a jpeg, and not the original game.
• The game doesn't maintain 4:3 aspect ratio when full-screened.

Quite honestly I am SO much more impressed by this than that  arcade port that released earlier this year. Still really wish there was a 512k or   1mb  OCS version , just to show it up to the original.

This looks stunning! Absolutely phenomenal for a ZX Spectrum game!
Love how you embraced the character space colors to their full extent, making everything super colorful and detailed. And the fact it's got nearly full-screen parallaxed scrolling wasn't lost on me either. Super impressive - can't wait for more of this!

If I was to criticize anything, I'd say I could live without the blue lines on top and bottom of the screen. Not sure if I'm losing my mind, but they are somehow really distracting to me. Also, for a game that's clearly channeling Sexy Parodius with its ridiculously cute main character, the enemies sure are kind of generic robots and geometric shapes. Could've been so cool to have cute over the top enemies as well.

The bug was a complete show-stopper, and I was forever stuck at the boss fight and couldn't progress. Since I wasn't writing down passwords (as absolute majority of people wouldn't, assuming the game is saving their progress... as all PC games absolutely should!) I didn't try to restart from the beginning.

I got to the boss normally - playing from level 1 until 9 dying a bunch. Not sure how the life system works, but I definitely died more than 3 times. Particularly on lv7 I must've died 5-10 times, but lives always stayed at 3. Then I proceeded to lose another two lives at the boss before defeating it. After the boss death animation, player movement control was disabled, but I could still change direction and attack. After being stuck like this for about 30 seconds the boss simply respawned and continued his attack pattern like nothing happened, eventually killing player. Once the fight restarted, I was able to defeat the boss again, but the same thing happened.

It already has a c64 demake. It's called Vixen lol

It's like a significantly more playable Vixen! Even the music theme is pretty much   exactly the same! Nice art too, but I really wish author didn't use AI, as even the thought of it taints the experience a little.

Could definitely use some quality of life features, like a proper title screen with game options and control customization, as well as a pause screen. Passwords are cool and all, but you could also keep a savegame and let us continue.
Also - Level 9 is fatally broken. After the boss dies you lose control of the character, but the screen doesn't fade out. After a while the boss respawns and kills   the player.

Man, now I wonder if I could make something like this.
My last Sinclair Basic venture was a crude attempt at remaking Madou Monogatari: )

Well done! The presentation is truly phenomenal for a Master System game! How was your experience making a game for this wonderfully underrated platform? For a while now I wanted to make a SMS game, but being primarily an artist, coding straight Z80 assembler or, best case scenario, C, seems super daunting to me.

Fantastic job, man!

I think the speed difference between two parallax layers is a bit too much to the point where it looks distracting.

If you ever need pixel art for this - hit me up! I have a lot of experience working within Genny restrictions.

Playing on FS-UAE v3.1.68, using a DS4 controller set as a CD32 pad in the emulator. Don't remember having any controller issues with other Amiga or CD32 games, but I might be mistaken.

Maybe its more about stair hotspot positioning? Not sure how it is set now, but I feel like it should protrude more "in front" of the step.

Fantastic work! It's definitely "getting there"!
Here are a few minor bugs  and annoyances I noticed in the January 2025 build:

• When jump and attack buttons are pressed simultaneously, the jump command is ignored. This makes the controls feel a bit unresponsive.
• When landing with extended whip,  the animation doesn't immediately switch to ground attack, leaving Simon "floating" for a few frames.
• Stair access hotspots are too small and aren't always placed in natural locations, often requiring finagling.
• Couldn't reliably use sub-weapon when running on FS-UAE emulator with CD32 pad selected. Would it be possible to add an option for UP+Attack sub-weapon use if UP-to-jump is disabled?
• Title screen goes into  attract mode very quickly even if directional inputs have been made, and attract mode goes straight into the game if a button is pressed.

Aw, drat! I thought I have them all, but it looks like I'm actually missing one! It's the entry between Cabin Fever and Unidentified Submerged Objects.

Is there another ending I can get if I somehow find that last entry?

I've been thoroughly enjoying your metroidvania games! Wonderful  games that don't try to stomp you with their difficulty, and don't outstay their welcome!

I do have a bit of a problem here - I'm stuck at 98% and can't find anything else to do. All the pages appear to be filled, and all the items that are "X of Y " are maxed out. I got one ending for killing the final boss. Am I missing something?

I loved the original Olli & Lissa on ZX Spectrum!

Thank you for making the game just a tiny bit less difficult, though not having to backtrack to the first screen after every item feels weird. I absolutely appreciate you getting rid of the evil time limit, making collision less random, getting rid of infuriating fall damage and making the game-over animation skippable!

Lots of effort went into music and backgrounds, some of the later ones are downright gorgeous.

The overall package is a bit weird though:

• There is a huge number of lengthy company logos at the start. Please make them all easily skippable. In fact, please let the player skip all of them at once.
• Please move the gameplay change warning screen to the tail end of the company logos and don't display it every time you start new game. If someone sucks at the game, this warning gets annoying really quick, especially since it requires an otherwise unused key to skip.
• The main menu can only be navigated with numeric keys, and not in-game control buttons (up, down, jump).

• There are no settings whatsoever. In case you might add some, here are my suggestions: switch between 16:9 and 4:3, switch between window and full screen (I know Alt-Enter does it, but still...), allow to use a bordered window (so I can move it to a different area of the screen), and most notably - please, PLEASE add a way to redefine keys!
• Also - no DInput gamepad support, which is a huge bummer for anyone with a Dualshock controller.
  

I am trying to run it on the FS-UAE emulator. Usually when dealing with HD install games it's enough to mount the .lha file as a harddrive, and specify the executable in the WHDLoad parameter line. In case of Shadowmage, I get an error when trying to do this. And yes, the game runs fine if installed on  the real hardware. The reason I want the FS-UAE to be able to start it, is because I'm using an external game library launcher.

Is there a way to launch it in FS-UAE?
I attached the HD image, and set shadowmage PRELOAD in WHDLoad parameters, but I end up with a "Slave is illegal, because consists of more than one hunk" error.

I'm a bit at a loss.

lol - and now it doesn't look like I can donate in anything BUT R$. It just sits on the payment screen and doing nothing: (

I rarely get invested in an mv story, especially if it tries to be serious, but this little game surprised the hell out of me by making me care! By the end I got sentimental and called my bro: )
On a technical side, I wish there was a way to disable analogue input for aiming, as it was jumping all over the place due to my controller's smaller-than-usual dead zone. Had to add the game to Steam and increase the artificial dead zone using Steam Input.

Whow! I never knew this was a thing! That totally worked, though it took a while!

Do you, by any chance, know what NOR memory normally does in EZ Flash, and what is the difference with PSRAM?: )

Sadly doesn't work with EZ-Flash IV - simply not enough RAM on that one to load it.

I'd love to make more Serena games in the future, but must pay bills first lol

As much as I would've loved to see a 512k version, 1mb is still super freaking impressive, especially with this level of artistic and gameplay polish.

Whoah! Such visual splendor, and it runs on a stock Amiga 500! Absolutely phenomenal job!

An amazing  version of a classic. Bravo!

I do have to say though, some stuff is a bit off in a noticeable way. The enemy spawn, for one, is far too high! The arcade original version did have this issue once in a while, but here it's all the time - you literally can't take a step without 4 rats and  3 cucumber-men spawning all around you. This really throws off the timing of a lot of actions.

Occasionally,  powerups can't be collected - you break a stone, and it spawns a collectable, but the player simply can't pick it up. The most upsetting one was a life level 4.

The powerup randomization is off in a major way. It seems truly random here, as opposed to being somewhat predetermined in the arcade.

The mountain background pops up with an incorrect palette for single frame when starting the game.

Not sure how much of this is the fault of my emulator isn't clear.

Demo has been updated.

I am not entirely sure what you mean. Are you asking for the updated demo? If so, it might take me a couple of weeks to get that working again.

Did you play the main game or just the demo? If it was the demo - I will need to upgrade that to the newest version at some point, as it only represents the original 2013 release.

Has this project been abandoned, or is it still going? It'd be fantastic to see this ported to MD!

Please include the MD rom with this release. Will certainly buy it then!  Whoops! The game is free now? Can we still get the MD rom though?

Wonderfully done, but did anyone here have any luck running the game under retro8_libretro?