Daryl! Daryl! Daryl!
Day One of Pax East is usually when normal people start the convention season off slowly, not book themselves too many appointments but not this guy! The next appointment of the day was with Dan and Gary Games, showing off their game, Super Daryl Deluxe that will be available for the PS4, Steam, and Nintendo Switch.
The story shows off the school life of Daryl, told in a more daydreaming style, which is fine with me. It has RPG elements and beat-em-up elements as well as side-scrollers and plat forming elements too. You’ll be able to gain attacks/abilities from textbooks throughout the adventure and the more you learn the more you’ll be able to do. The same can be the said for the better level your attacks are as the better level your attacks are, the better they will be. For example, you’ll be able to throw a banana boomerang as weapon but power it up and you’ll be able to throw a more powerful boomerang.
There are cool-downs on the attacks so you can just mask the buttons the whole time but if you learn to combo the attacks wisely, you’ll be able to attack and then attack some more! You’ll be able to have up to three attacks at a time and exchange them in a pink locker that you can find during gameplay. Some of my favorites during the demo were the shark where you ride a tidal wave to attack a large group of enemies and the pink spiny molehill monster thing where three molehills come out of the ground. Going into the demo, I didn’t know what to expect because Daryl doesn’t look a superhero but he does look like the average high school student and graphically the game looks great! It has that mix of looing hand-drawn without being hand drawn. It will be interesting to see how the full game looks and feels in comparison.
It was also giving off the beat-em-up vibe because there were parts of the demo where enemies just kept coming and you needed to be on your guard to fight them off. You gathered health after defeated them but if you weren’t careful, you could be killed. There was also a boss fight that was a large jump in difficulty as well as abilities, thus were you get to play with the shark attack and the low level enemies in this area were a hassle but beatable. The boss on the other hand was really tough and posed a real challenge! During the fight you had to clear all the enemies during that phase and that was another reason why the beat-em-up comparison was in my mind. I was able to play versions on the Switch and on an Xbox One/Steam controller and had no issues with the controller layout. Daryl controls smoothly and the controls felt really good in my hands. If you’re looking for an RPG type game that reminds you of high school that allows you kick a little ass, Super Daryl Deluxe is for you.
Also, if you get to go to the booth during Pax East and see the “@TumsST play this game, doing it for the Hub!” that’s me and you should follow my advice!