"Indie Masterpiece" Platformer 'Horace' Gets Physical Release

It’s so not a masterpiece. Very, very frustrating and flawed in places, but still very good.

It’s absolutely fantastic and I really didn’t expect to love it that much. It’s the game that keeps on giving.

@AmplifyMJ Personally, a 10/10 for me isn’t a perfect game. It’s a game that resonates with me and surpasses its flaws. Perfection is boring. A game that goes for something interesting and exciting is worth a lot more to me even if there’s niggling issues. Horace isn’t perfect but it’s one of only a few games where I’d recommend it regardless of the person’s tastes.

I'm not a huge fan of the robot's voice.

https://www.gamesdatabase.org/Media/SYSTEM/Commodore_64/Box/big/Hungry_Horace_-_1983_-_Melbourne_House.jpg

I read Horace and I thought about this (Thanks Guru Larry for showing me this nightmare inducing character)

@HammerGalladeBro That’s why the game’s called Horace. It’s a whole love letter to the Speccy days. The trailer embedded even shows the Horace Goes Skiing inspired minigame!

@nessisonett don’t get me wrong I really, REALLY enjoyed it in places, but some parts of it really irritated the heck outta me! Glad you loved it!

It was frustratingly difficult in places but I still think it worthy of the 10/10 score. I got to the point where I can activate the ending but I wanted to finish collecting all the rubbish first. I won’t be double dipping with the physical copy but I recommend for first time buyers.

@AmplifyMJ I think yeah, some platforming sections were a bit annoying but then that’s true in even the best of platformers like Super Mario World!

I liked the game but experienced a game-breaking sequence-breaking bug in the metroidvania mansion stage that would have forced me to restart and I realized I wanted nothing less than to ever play those levels again, so while the story was good, the platforming was frustrating enough that if I did buy the physical release I would dread ever starting it again.

Masterpiece??? I got this after NL recommendations and was left sorely disappointed. Not sure why it had such high praise

How much does NL get paid to promote this mediocre game??

I bought it at launch since they gave this a f’n 10/10??? Was so disappointed. I would say 7/10 at best if I’m feeling generous. Probably 6.

Doesn’t seem like I’m the only one who doesn’t get it. Standard platformer with nothing to write home about. Got about halfway through and forgot about it.

I stopped trusting this site after that review.

@AmplifyMJ i thought it was fine but definitely a bit too long and frustrating in places

Tried to play it but abandonned, I don’t understand what the fuss is all about this game, boring game for me.

This game is bonkers, but great. There are almost too many ideas here, and it does feel a little janky and bursting at the seams at times. Maybe not a perfect 10, but fun and unique and really hooked me. Not for everyone, but it's cheap and a lot of content, so not much risk. Lots of weird British humor.

@nessisonett
Ha! I almost thought it was a remake when I saw that. I remember the old screen shots in magazines but never got to play it.

Genuinely shocked the game seems so divisive, at least on this page. It can grow a little irksome during some of the more difficult encounters but the charm and (usually present) polish of the stage design kept me coming back. Greatly enjoyed the variety too and the wild turns the narrative kept taking which persisted right up to the final hours.

The faux Alice in Wonderland section alone was worth it for me.

I own this game and have yet to play it, which is admittedly normal for me. This is one of the better reasons my wife gets on me for buying a new game. Lol

Loved the storytelling, art and British Seventies/Eighties children’s television influences. Thoroughly did not enjoy the 8-bit collectathon platforming. I fell off this hard. Wasn’t a style of game I enjoyed in the Eighties, and no amount of polish could get me through it today. I am not disputing anyone’s 10/10 score - elements of this game are fantastic. I just didn’t enjoy playing it, personally.

Looks interesting with all the retro-inspired mini-games. I'll be trying to snag a physical when it goes live.

It's humour and charm is undeniable, that is if it clicks with you of course. It did with me. Gameplay was alright, because it was driven by surprises and the will to continue the story.

The water sequence really annoyed me for the boss fight and escape, and some platforming areas were unfair without using a YouTube walkthrough. I think the game earned its 10 though because it’s a quintessential British humor game that I enjoyed and story that pulled the heartstrings.

I want to try this game, but idk, something about it is just putting me off, I just don't know what it is.

It is a good game, and quite funny in places. You do die a lot, but you have infinite lives and there are frequent checkpoints so you don’t have to replay the same sections too many times. During the boss battles, it checkpoints when you get to the pinch point which makes them more tolerable.
I found games such as Hollow Knight and Cuphead far more frustrating to play due to their difficulty!

@AmplifyMJ

Agree! This game is pretty good but it’s not a 10/10 Masterpiece. I don’t hold this to the same light as BOTW for example, not really even close. However it is a good game and I’d consider it a unique platformer wrapped in UK culture. I think it’s a game that might resonate more with a Euro gamer as out West… they’d have little to no idea what your talking about when you reference “Coronation Street”for example. It’s a nice ode to gaming but personally not a perfect masterpiece. It’s an 8 at best for me

I’d agree with other commentators that it’s too heavily flawed in some key areas to be called a masterpiece, but is still an incredible piece of art/media.

My main gripe is that it’s simply not tight enough to match the game it tries to become in the latter half. As a breezy collectathon (as in the early stages), the controls work just fine, but as the game morphs into something resembling a twitch platformer, they leave a lot to be desired. If you want Celeste-level difficulty, you should really make sure you have Celeste-level responsiveness.

Nevertheless, it’s still one hell of piece of work, and I’m glad I played it.

It’s funny… I absolutely hated this game.

Nintendolife gave it a perfect score, however… it never appears on any of its “Best of” lists…

Something doesn’t add up.

Never played it, the art style just wasn't eye catching enough

This is one game Nintendo Life and I do not see eye to eye on. I really hated the time I spent with it. Irritating, boring and frustrating.

To this day i have no idea how this game and "Masterpiece" can coexist in the same sentence.
It's telling a story that has been told a hundred times before in the most unappealing way imaginable, it's downright coma inducing.
Neither charm nor character could save this game from being shelved because the pace at which it moved made glacial seem like a slipspace jump.

It's gameplay is perfectly serviceable and it has some really cool graphical shenanigans going on, like using parallax to simulate a 3D cliff platform.

But yeah, everything else is just a collection of really really unfortunate design decisions...

Bought it after NL review and got so disappointed I had to delete the game from my Switch just so I wouldn't have to look at the game icon anymore, triggering my disappointment. And I really tried but damn is this game boring. To be fair, had to do the same with Luigi's Mansion 3...

Wow, these comments. Sometimes the platforming can be annoying, and the game is way too long overall, but the story sort of makes it all worth it. I personally wouldn't give it a 10, but I can see how others would, and it's stuck in my memory even more than some games I personally would give a 10, which probably means that it was a meaningful experience for me.

Utterly wonderful game with a brilliant sensibility. Very funny, but I suppose that the humour depends largely on your age
Not sure how many times I died, it's somewhere in the mid-1000s...

I’m another one that bounced off this. I did like the quirky nostalgia and wanted to find out what happened but didn’t enjoy the gameplay enough to see it through. I picked it up for cheap so don’t regret it, and it was memorable so that definitely counts for something but yeah, won’t be going back to it.

I had so much fun with this game but part of the appeal is the nostalgia for British culture and gaming back in the 80's - I can see if this is something that one bounces off the grind of the game turns this into 'another platformer'.

Not a fan unfortunately. Really wanted to like it but I really don’t. Glad others do though!!