Description
Two Korean indie games in a row from Nomary? Sure, why not? "Nyan-Nyan Punch" is a cute and simple "Horizontal Shoot-em-Up" developed with the RPG Maker MV engine. As one of Nomary's first significant finished projects released back in 2022 on Itch.io, the game was relatively popular, so Nomary remade various elements of the game (updating the graphics, story and attack patterns) as well as added more characters, stages and a shop with additional upgrades. This version was sold on Steam in 2023 (almost a year later) as a "Remake". The original game is given away for free on Steam (put in the spot where demos would usually go) and while Nomary has expressed interest in translating games to other languages, they are currently only supporting Korean and Japanese at the moment. I doctored a ~4.5 minute segment after the normal Sample in English at the 24:35 mark... putting those captions in was a lot more work than just translating the text (I rushed a bit, "Hinako" is supposed to be "Kinako", but maybe it'll show a little International interest in these games, lol).
A simple game usually has a simple enough plot, right? In "Nyan-Nyan Punch", you assume the role of a low rusty cat deity, Nyanshin, who spends more time daydreaming about kitty konquest than cultivating charisma... so her Grandma Kinako swiftly berates her then heads out to run a few errands. While she's away, Nyanshin is tasked with protecting their family heirloom, the "Nyan-Nyan Ball', aka "Kitty Kat Cheeks", but there's one problem -- her grandma barely has time to leave the house before it's inevitably katnapped! The level of disrespect (and fear of the repercussions) whips Nyanshin into a frenzy and she storms off to find the culprit responsible for making off with her goods (and everyone else's goods too). Comedy ensues as the story progresses through a series of misunderstandings and hubris, but each encounter also gives her clues and brings her one step closer to the truth. The characters are quirky and cute and a conscious attempt was made to add a bit of personality to each one as you can revisit stages and get additional conversations to add to the lore.
While the intention was to make something closer to a standard scrolling shooting game, the dev didn't have much experience in this area and difficulty getting the engine to cooperate in a consistent manner, so they incorporated a lot of close range and melee attacks seen in action games while using the single screen to give the impression of a boss rush game instead. For balancing, combat was changed up significantly as not only does each character present a new ability upon defeat (like Mega Man / Rockman, different bosses have different weaknesses as well), but the inclusion of money, items and upgrades to the standard "Meow Punch" give more weight and consideration to player purreference. Of course, you can also opt to use just one kind of weapon as well and nothing is forcing you from using other moves (in fact, the "Meow Staff" basically enables rapid fire and disables charge attacks).
The player has spells which are powerful, but they exhaust large amounts of energy which can be refilled from attacking, taking damage and over time. You'll also use up energy performing the "Shadow Dash" once you acquire the Moon Amulet from Battie, so exercise caution as some attacks (especially the warning ones where the character typically goes off screen) can deal considerable, nyasty damage. With eight main opponents to face, you can clear the game in about 30 minutes or so. You'll get an additional achievement if you complete the game extra fast and if you clear the game without saving or using continues. One thing I'll point out about this game is that Steam says it does not support controllers on my end, but it recognized my Xbox controller without any issues. The game is on the easier side, so those looking for a high skill ceiling should look elsewhere.
The game is simple looking, but the characters are bold, colorful and expressive. The music is... not entirely stock? There's people credited for the soundtrack and what's here is pretty good, but I know at least one or two tones have been used in other games. Overall, it's a fun short game that's worth an hour or two, especially if you pick it up on sale, and I ain't kitten! This is a video of the game in action. You can get it at:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2312340/NyanNyan_Punch/
Enjoy.
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