Games Worth Getting: Akane
Sometimes I want to review a game, but I just don’t have the time for a video review so I wanted to try something a little different today. A short but sweet written review of a little gem I found on the Nintendo E-shop a few months ago, and have since also picked up during the Steam Winter sale because it was more than worth the $1.29 it costs at that time: Akane.
The Steam store page description of Akane is “Akane is an arena arcade slasher. Take out as many yakuza as possible, slashing and shooting in a one-hit-one-kill fight to the death.” I’d say that sums it up extremely well. Akane is simple but skill-based. Easy to pick up, difficult to master. Its control scheme and combat are addictive, and it’s really easy to pop in, play a round or two, get your new high score or fail miserably, and move on to something else if you don’t feel like sitting there for hours. It’s a really neat time killer at worst, and a great indie pixel art game that you can easily sink dozens of hours into despite its simplicity at worst.
I have sunk more hours than I care to admit into another game with a similar art style and addictive loop, Kung Fury. Kung Fury is a simple two-button game that is again easy to play but hard to master, but this feels much more skillful and varied. There are various moves and combinations of moves that allow for some really interesting combinations. More skills are unlocked by unlocking new items by completing various challenges leading to a variety of play styles.
Akane won’t be your favorite game ever, probably, but what it is a very enjoyable experience that can be had at a very low cost. It plays great on both platforms I own it on, PC and Switch, and with the release of the Steam Deck I very much anticipate this will be one of my go-to games for on-the-go PC gaming shortly. Maybe a video review is something we’ll get around to in the future, but for now, I just wanted you to know about a game that I feel is very much worth the asking price, and is a ton of fun for very little cost. Akane is 100% a game worth getting.
-Tim
