8days (Playstation 4)

8 days is a tidy little 8bit, twin stick shooter, developed by SantaClara Games and published by Badland Games. Lets see if this game gives us a nostalgic feel or is just one to add to the collection.

In 8days you choose one of two mercenaries; Mike ‘Ghost’ Doe or Lola ‘Wasp’ Cruz and you fight for G.O.D inc (gold, oil and diamonds incorporated) that is one of the world leaders in private military affairs. Your objective is to bring peace to the world, complete daunting tasks and to break the worlds current rice embargo?..

The visual style is reminiscent of retro 8 bit games, so old school gamers should find themselves right at home. The bright colour pallet is also enough I believe to make it a good looking game for those who didn’t experience these old school beauties. This game presents us with cute and charming sprites and pleasantly nice environments that hold your attention whilst your playing!

The audio in 8days is nothing overly special as it is much like other old-school retro games, this is true for the sounds effects as well. To me they are pleasing to listen to and I enjoyed them, however they quickly got very repetitive and boring… all for one very good reason!

The reason I say that the audio may get very boring and repetitive is because this game is hard as nails. Each mission consists of several small maps that you need to navigate and slaughter your way through to complete the mission. Simple right? Wrong! The enemies in this game feel like they are smart and they can hit you hard, so you need to think strategically when entering each zone. Some enemies can kill you with a simple swipe of their sword, others however will simply just blow you up with rocket launchers! To me the difficulty of this game was appealing as I was almost pushing myself to see how much I could take, but after a while I got to the point where i couldn’t do anything.

This is due to the auto save feature. Much like other old school style games that are around, every time you enter a new map it’ll automatically save. This is all good and well when you are on a roll, however any damage you take carries over between maps which can make some of these levels seem impossible – especially when you have enemies coming at you from all angles!

Overall I enjoyed my time with 8days and will keep returning to it to try and conquer it. However for many casual gamers I personally believe this is a bit too unforgiving and will definitely test some peoples patience. Saying that, if you’re in to punishing games with a retro vibe then this game is perfect for you!

  • 6/10
    8days (Playstation 4) - 6/10
6/10

Summary

Pros

  • Enjoyable and challenging enough to keep you playing
  • pleasant sprites and art style
  • Getting a warm sense of accomplishment after every mission

Cons

  • Autosave feature can be annoying as hell
  • Enemies hit like tanks
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Straight from the streets of SouthTown, all Dunks Powah'd and ready to Bust A Wolf. Catch me on Twitch/YouTube.

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