Super Daryl Deluxe is a game that I don’t think can be compared to any other game out there due to how unique it is. This game is a Metroidvania like title thats been mixed with a lot RPG style mechanics. Developed and published by Dan & Gary Games this neat little indie game is out now for the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and Windows. So, is this unique game worth the 15 hours you spend playing it or should it forgotten like all those cringe moments during high-school, let’s find out.
Super Daryl Deluxe has you play as Daryl, a boy who is new in town and has transferred to Water Fall High School. While trying to start a contraband textbook business in school, things take a tun for the worst in this multi-dimensional high school. The game is quite bizarre and has really great writing which does a fantastic job with the dry high-school humour that it goes for. With a huge plethora of characters to interact with and a world that is full of surprises, the story of the game never really let me down and kept me hooked from the start. I did not expect this much world building and character interaction from this game but I was pleasantly surprised.
The gameplay is really, really good. While it seems a little confusing at the start, it gets easier to understand especially since every action is remappable besides the jump button. The game features platforming and a lot of combat. The combat system is a lot of fun to experiment and play with. You can’t just spam your attack button, there’s a cooldown for it. Attacks can also be changed to choose from what you want and can also be upgraded which gives you a lot of variety and allows you to experiment a lot.
The traditional leveling up system by gathering experience from enemies and quests is present and you can also equip different items on your character as long as they aren’t a higher level than your character, similar to South Park: Stick of Truth. The save system is one aspect that I did not enjoy since it is not checkpoint based. You can save your game by going into bathrooms and if you die, you lose all your progress and return to the start of the stage at these bathrooms. So remember to save a lot and don’t be afraid to learn the enemy moveset and die before you seriously tackle a stage. Every stage ends in a boss fight most of which are different and feel challenging bar some that just felt really easy.
The visuals of the game are amazing. They’re 2D hand-drawn with a very cartoony vibe to it. It’s wacky, it’s sometimes realistic but mostly it’s just a lot of fun to look at. The various classes and stages that you explore and the different characters that you meet, all do this fantastic job of world building just through the art style which is not often seen. The sheer variety in enemies stops the game from feeling repetitive and the variety in the stages also made me look forward to what the next stage had to offer. The audio and sound effects are also really good and play well with the visual style of the game.
Super Daryl Deluxe is game that really needed a marketing push. It is an extremely fun and enjoyable game with a lot of variety, great visuals, good writing and a combat system that was a lot of fun to play around with. I highly recommend this game since it’s one like no other currently out there.
