3000th Duel | "DESTROY ALL FANBOYS!"

Well, that’s true in real life, as well…

What’s in a name? Well, If you take things way too literally, Neopopcorn sounds like a really bad time at the movies if you choose to munch on what’s in that box as a substitute for the real thing (well, minus the nasty, salty fake “butter” glopped on top these days) and 3000th Duel sounds like a straight to cable flick you’d accidentally find on a random channel at about 3 am or so. Fortunately, neither of these are true and you have some shopping to do on Steam or the eShop now.

Got a PC or Nintendo Switch? Go get this game, pronto. Indie developer Neopopcorn’s mostly excellent 3000th Duel ($14.99) is a nice surprise overall and well worth a few plays because you can tailor your hero’s skills to your liking through a deep series of upgrades and multiple weapon choices. The game is more or less, a side-scrolling Dark Souls-like or similar challenge where the smallest foes initially take off large chunks of your character’s health, and bosses? Well, you’re going to be enrolling your hero into a health plan and double dipping on a life insurance policy here until you upgrade weapons and skills.

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Yep, 3000th Duel is out in Early Access for on Steam for PC users, but yours truly is holding out to see if the Switch port is as neat. Well, that, and my Steam library has been really filling up with games I need to get to and a new title that still needs some work is kind of the least of my worries. I definitely want to see if it can keep that more or less stable frame rate up as the trailer shows:

I’m also holding out for a few user reviews that are interesting and reveal people have actually played this one for at least past the opening stages, as while lovely to look at, developer NEOPOPCORN Corp’s game page notes that it needs a bit more polish before it’s ready for prime time.

A “we’ll be polishing and implementing things even after release, of course.” is a signal to me that more work is needed here and I’m currently backed up enough that a new game needs to be thrilling and fun to play out of the gate if it already looks this good. So, I’ll wait. You, of course don’t have to wait, as the developer is more than happy to take constructive feedback, and that’s always a great sign.