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Venture Kid

Venture Kid

Snikkabo AS · released May 3, 2018

ActionIndie

A 8-bit retro action platformer that goes beyond just pixels and chiptunes

75
VGC Score
·No trend datamedium confidence
n/a
At launch
84%
Steam all-time
59%
Press
n/a
Recent sentiment

Screenshots & trailers

Review sentiment over time

Weekly positive-review rate (green) and review volume (bars). Dashed lines mark significant patches; the amber line is the start of the current scoring window. Hover the dots to see what drove a dip or a jump.

How this score was computed

The VGC Score is a weighted blend on a press-comparable 0-100 quality scale. Steam approval rates are first calibrated (95% positive on Steam ≈ 89.5 quality, since Steam approval skews high). Press and tracked creator reviews each count ~2x a player review and share one cap against player evidence (creator buy/skip calls pool into an approval rate, calibrated like Steam approval); all-time sentiment is capped and halved (it's context, not verdict); reviews of the current build carry the most weight when a fresh patch anchors the window; and a 'typical game' prior keeps small samples from pegging the scale. Because press reviews and Metacritic user aggregates describe the launch build, their weight decays as the game ages (3-year half-life after a 1-year grace). That's how a game that launched rough can outgrow its old reception once updates win players over. Reviews under 2h playtime (the refund window), non-Steam activations, and free copies are downweighted.

ComponentPositiveQuality (0-100)Weight (pseudo-reviews)
Press reviews (OpenCritic)596
All-time Steam reviews84%78115
Metacritic user ratings0
Post-patch Steam reviews (trust-weighted)0
Calibration prior (typical game)7250

Scoring window: last 30 days (no significant patch detected) · 0 reviews sampled · 0 total reviews in window · weighted 0 up / 0 down · computed 4h ago · full methodology →

Press & Creators reviews (16)

Individual verdicts from outlets we track: scored reviews first, most trusted outlets first among them. The small badge is each outlet's trust score: how well its scoring history aligns with players.

  • 80
    trust 80May 6, 2019

    Classic NES platforming fans, rejoice. Venture Kid succeeds where even Mega Man’s creator failed when trying to capture that classic Blue Bomber feel. Even with minor flaws, Venture Kid will scratch the itch for Mega Man, and if you’re lucky, scrub the memory of Might No. 9 from your brain.

    read full review ↗
  • 50
    trust 76May 14, 2019

    Venture Kid is the sort of game that understands how blatantly it borrows from previous genre luminaries yet makes no effort at even attempting to surpass them; this is very much a ‘what you see is what you get’ sort of experience.

    read full review ↗
  • 65
    trust 70May 2, 2019

    Making retro games that are meant to emulate the look and feel of key series from platforms past is a tough business...

    read full review ↗
  • 50
    trust 70Oct 3, 2019

    For short, nostalgic blasts of fun Venture Kid succeeds in almost every respect. While there's fun to be had here, it's painfully clear that, just like playing the game itself, everything is just going through the motions.

    read full review ↗
  • 60
    trust 69May 13, 2019

    All in all, Venture Kid is a retro platformer that plays fairly well, but lacks the excitement or inspiration of the Mega Man series it tried to model. With such a wide spectrum of games in this genre that push the limits of what an action-platformer is capable of, something so vanilla is going to get lost and overlooked. Unless this is the first such game you've ever played, you've likely seen everything offered here somewhere else.

    read full review ↗
  • 50
    trust 66Jun 16, 2019

    The intentions of Venture Kid are obvious, to pay tribute to the NES shooters of yore, Mega Man in particular. Via the level design and sound track, the game does this admirably. Unfortunately, at only 6 or so hours long, with bosses that are vanquished easily and with additional weapons divorced from the level design themselves, Venture Kid is a shade of the game it attempts to emulate, resigning it to an “also ran” in a genre that is seeing genuine innovation elsewhere.

    read full review ↗
  • 80
    trust 65May 22, 2018

    I think in the end it comes down from how Venture Kid just focuses on providing a fun time to the player, rather than thinking of a billion ways to throw cheap hazards at them or worrying about copying the limitations of the NES and having the game suffer because of it.

    read full review ↗
  • 95
    trust 64May 22, 2019

    EXCELLENT - Venture Kid is a true retro gem for the Nintendo Switch. Fans of the NES Mega Man games and lovers of 8-bit chiptunes will find a ton to like here. Why aren’t you playing this yet?

    read full review ↗
  • 50
    trust 64Apr 30, 2019

    Venture Kid tries so much to pay tribute to the old 8 bit games, starting with Mega Man, that it got lost along the way. Without any original content to show, this mobile game delivers nothing new on PC or Switch, and lacks the length or level design of the great games it constantly quotes.

    read full review ↗
  • 70
    trust 60May 23, 2019

    It only took me about an hour and a half to finish Classic mode on normal, then another half-hour to get the other secret items and finish the final stage. That doesn’t sound like much, but there’s enough to do in Venture Kid that I played through it a couple times and went through Survival mode too. Also, there’s next to no downtime in this game; it’s almost constant action, and it just feels good to clear a room of spike pits or avoid flame jets and the like. It’s a pleasant retro-styled experience, one worth the $10 price tag if you’re planning to do all there is to do. Whether a veteran of the genre or just getting into it, there’s room for both to enjoy this.

    read full review ↗
  • 69
    trust 59May 22, 2019

    The title of Snikkabo and FDG manages to revive, in a veiled way, a classic long ago given for lost and it does so in an honest and respectful way, looking for the fun of the player with a simple and direct game.

    read full review ↗
  • 60
    trust 58May 18, 2019

    If you are looking for a stroll down Mega Man-memory lane, Venture Kid offers a solid nostalgia trip down the side streets of the genre's general neighborhood. Platforming feels tuned to the best examples of the era. Taking heavy influence from classic NES titles, Venture Kid captures the 8-bit age with pitch perfection, even if it misses the mark in other places.

    read full review ↗

…and 4 more tracked reviews.

Patch history

No patch announcements found on Steam yet.