Thanks to Agelvik for the Steam review key!

Apple Slash is a short hack-and-slash adventure released to gauge interest in a potential expanded game. It is about half an hour long to give a taste of the mechanics and characters involved.

A father’s son has gone missing after going out on his daily routine of harvesting apples. Your goal is to bring the son home. Meanwhile, you’ll find other characters that’ll give you different fetch quests such as a sentient chest that needs you to find its eyes. There is very little to the story, but it is enough to give you a reason to cut through the hordes of enemies.

By default, you have a sword that can power up with enough of a combo. As you progress through the game you can expand your arsenal. There are 3 spells that each do something different. You can throw your sword and have it act like a boomerang, cast a large sword down as an area of effect attack, and throw several blades. Your special ability makes your sword shoot out electric waves that do a lot of damage but takes time to recharge. You would think all this would make the combat variety strong, but unfortunately, I hardly noticed the abilities and ended up just mashing spacebar to use them. Combat consisted of me just waiting for the cooldown on my various attacks and spamming them when they’re ready. Despite being repetitive, it all felt very satisfying.

Aside from the single boss fight at the end of the game, there are only a few enemy types that mostly end up being cannon fodder. There are two types of slimes, one of them simply being bigger with more health, and an enemy that sits in the rivers and shoots projectiles. Combat is necessary to get credits, but all these credits are used for is health. Enemies respawn in waves and are a constant presence you can’t get rid of, meaning at some point it just makes more sense to ignore the hundreds of slimes.

The pixelated isometric forest has simple visuals using nothing but whites, blacks, and reds. There’s not much color to Apple Slash but it makes good use of its color choice making sure the important things pop out. The retro sound effects are satisfying on the ear and are a big part of what makes the combat feel so good. The music is upbeat to match the gameplay. Controls were very simple and can be completely rebound with full controller support. A lot of what makes Apple Slash something I would recommend is the audio and visual quality.

A lot of killing slimes occurs throughout the game. There is no gore or blood involved and the worst that happens is the slimes make a sad sound and sort of melt away. A curse word is used once by the father character. Spells are a constant mechanic and magical things happen throughout the game, although they aren't portrayed as real witchcraft.

Apple Slash is a game that I would like to see expanded upon, and I think it’s worth trying out the half an hour of content available. The gameplay isn’t the most engaging ever but it makes for a good mindless coffee break.