Black Jewel
Black Jewel
Game
Game2017
Mastema: Out of Hell
Developer Oscar Celestini
You don't know who you are, where you are and why you are here, you know just thing, you want to survive and get out of HELL! From the Steam store page
77 reactions from 3 sources (Steam reviews, Bluesky, Mastodon) · newest Oct 29, 2026 · last updated Oct 29, 2026 · How this works
Audience score
61
Fresh
39 positive · 25 negative
95% range 49–72%
| Source | + | − | = |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam reviews | 39 | 25 | 0 |
| Bluesky * | 3 | 0 | 9 |
| Mastodon * | 0 | 0 | 1 |
* shown, not counted in the score (label accuracy below our 85% bar or not yet audited).
Steam's own rating
Mixed
41 of 68 reviews positive (all languages, per Valve)
What players are saying
59% recommend · 39 yes, 27 no
Counted from the reviewers’ own thumbs up/down on the 66 English Steam reviews we collected, not by the AI. Valve’s all-language rating: Mixed (98 of 157 positive).
Players widely praise the retro pixel art, music, and atmosphere. [1][2][3][4] Many reviewers criticize the clunky jumping and unresponsive controls. [1][2][5][6] Some players find the game frustrating due to unfair mechanics like losing weapons on death. [7][8][9]
Liked
Representative posts
- [14]
An otherwise great game ruined by poor controls. Good graphics and sound, but the controls really let this game down. Jumping is just a little too tight and you can't make even the simplest jumps unless you are almost pixel perfect. Not being able to jump into a block if you are standing right up against it, despite the character clearly jumping high enough means you get trapped by enemies or miss easy jumps.
- [17]
Most retro inspired games tried to recreate the NES era of platformers. This took the rarer approach of replicated old DOS or Amiga platformers. They succeeded completely. On that note, I want to say that my "Not Recommended" is NOT a thumbs down on the game but a warning that this was made for a specific player. If you loved Amiga-era platformers this will be amazing. Buy it now, well worth the money. I'm not that …
- [1]
Mastema: What the Hell.... This game has perfect catch of 90s SNES style and taste. However some weird decisions stopped it to become a better game, what a pity. Good: - Really nice SNES style art and character design, especially watching the cutscene is nostalgic - 16 bit style music and sound effect - Cheap and have trading cards Bad: - Control is having bug and cause player fails the stage unfairly due to this. …
- [18]
Am I the only one that sincerely can't understand the negative reviews? I fully understand this game is not for everyone, but it is very apparent what type of game you're getting yourself into, from the graphics and specially the trailler... Controls: Don't expect mario. The controls are 100% fair if you don't mistime your jumps. ...And, yes, it can be quite hard a couple times. In this game, and there will be a few …
- [2]
This game makes me angry. The music is really cool, the aesthetics are awesome, the character design is also nice, the level design is ok, but the gameplay is just... bad. I said the game makes me angry, and it is cause it feels like changing the mechanics just a little bit would make everything ten times better, just reduce the gravity a little bit so jumps last longer, change the way movement while jumping works, …
Summarised from 34 of the 77 public posts collected about this game; every point cites the posts behind it ([n] opens the post) and the split is counted from the posts’ own ratings. Updated Oct 13, 2026. How summaries are made
RottenBot@rottenbot · automated account
The crowd is split on Mastema: Out of Hell: 39 recommend it, 27 don't. Which camp are you in?
Reactions
60 of 77 · most liked firstA Mastema-class Liner, a spaceship for my Mothership TTRPG game. Drawn in Ibis Paint X on my Samsung Galaxy Tab 6 Lite tablet. #art #illustration #winnipeg #canada #noAI #イラスト
neutral · AI labelView post →I've just requested a refund for this game as I'm really disappointed with it. First, I'll say that the artwork and overall style/atmosphere is quite good. I like the 80's DOS/arcade vibe and the music fits well. Character designs are cool, as are the monsters. Aside from that I didn't really find the gameplay enjoyable. I was expecting a difficult platformer, something like Slain or Spelunky or anything like that. Instead it felt a bit more like Sonic the Hedgehog. In the levels you're just…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →An otherwise great game ruined by poor controls. Good graphics and sound, but the controls really let this game down. Jumping is just a little too tight and you can't make even the simplest jumps unless you are almost pixel perfect. Not being able to jump into a block if you are standing right up against it, despite the character clearly jumping high enough means you get trapped by enemies or miss easy jumps.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Mastema: What the Hell.... This game has perfect catch of 90s SNES style and taste. However some weird decisions stopped it to become a better game, what a pity. Good: - Really nice SNES style art and character design, especially watching the cutscene is nostalgic - 16 bit style music and sound effect - Cheap and have trading cards Bad: - Control is having bug and cause player fails the stage unfairly due to this. Such as the sword sometime stopped shooting for no reason, or player has…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Verus and Mastema mecha designs from Xenoblade Chronicles X by artist Takayuki Yanase. More art from the game: www.creativeuncut.com/art_xenoblad...
neutral · AI labelView post →Ran straight into the lava pit to end my suffering.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →First of all I like the 80's DOS/arcade vibe and the music fits well. Character designs are cool, as are the monsters.. The gameplay on the other side is awful , the jumping mechanic is very bad and sometimes i even fail to do some simple jumps because you have to be pixel perfect every time . Also at every stage you have to collect some useless "coins" You cant attack your enemies , only when the player picks some pick ups and they are temporary , mostly you run from the enemies... The game…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game makes me angry. The music is really cool, the aesthetics are awesome, the character design is also nice, the level design is ok, but the gameplay is just... bad. I said the game makes me angry, and it is cause it feels like changing the mechanics just a little bit would make everything ten times better, just reduce the gravity a little bit so jumps last longer, change the way movement while jumping works, fix the collisions of the dude and you'll have a game that's way more…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →LRP I like when SMTV Vengeance came out, someone joked that Mastema was probably hanging out in America, eating hotdogs while watching a football game or something before being interrupted by the activities of the Qadistu and forced to go to Japan
neutral · AI labelView post →Weird connection I’ve made over the past few years: The Synthetics in the Alien franchise are the closest you get to the angels in MegaTen. If I had to describe Mastema to someone who had never played an SMT game, I would say, “Imagine Ash from Alien.”.
neutral · AI labelView post →Most retro inspired games tried to recreate the NES era of platformers. This took the rarer approach of replicated old DOS or Amiga platformers. They succeeded completely. On that note, I want to say that my "Not Recommended" is NOT a thumbs down on the game but a warning that this was made for a specific player. If you loved Amiga-era platformers this will be amazing. Buy it now, well worth the money. I'm not that audience, and I don't think many people are. This game looks and sounds…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →a good game, with bad realisation style, pixel graphics, retro feelings... all those are in good shape, but... movement, jumping... that`s a really weak part of Mastema, so i can`t recommend it
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Imagine if in Super Castlevania IV that you lost your whip whenever you died. "Well that's not a big deal. You can just find the upgrades again in the candles, which are usually really close to where you start out on your next life." No, not the upgrades. Literally, the entire whip. And your subweapons. "That doesn't make sense, though. It's an action game. How could you not have a default weapon? That would mean you'd have to purposely walk, run, or jump around enemies.…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Just from playing a few stages I can already say that considering how cheap this game was, its pretty damn enjoyable. The presentation is fantastic, and I'm glad to see that this doesn't suffer from the usual indie platformer flaw of using nostalgia as an excuse for less then stellar graphics or music. While the character sprite is small and simplistic, his animation is very fluid and reminiscent of games like Prince of Persia where the character animations were based off of motion captured…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Some closer detail on a section of the Mastema-class liner from my Mothership TTRPG game. Drawn in Ibis Paint X on my Samsung Galaxy tab 6 lite tablet. #art #illustration #winnipeg #canada #noAI #イラスト
neutral · AI labelView post →Well, just like pretty much everyone else says, this is a title that nails looks and sound aspect of games of yesteryear, but is ultimately ruined by unresponsive controls and weird gameplay choices. First major problem is the jumping - you can clearly see the sprite of your character making contact with a ledge only to discover that you missed it and die. The second problem is that after dying you lose your only weapon and have to finish remaining levels of a stage by before-mentioned crappy…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Wow, I feel like this is a peice of gaming history or something. I didn't think it would be that cool, I just was thinking some cheezy retro stuff. This actually feels like amiga, like shadow of the beast or something, something so old school. The sprite work is AMAZING, thats actually why I bought the game was just for the retro graphics but it really does feel like the real thing. The diamond shaped pick ups, the music, the art.. I read a review and someone was complaining about the death…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The design is great and I love the feel of the game. Unfortunately he jump mechanics are very clunky making it far more difficult than it should be. Other than that it's pretty nice.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Not bad for a cheap game. The jumping mechanics seemed flawed in this game, causeing needless deaths. It does have some cool kill animations.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Am I the only one that sincerely can't understand the negative reviews? I fully understand this game is not for everyone, but it is very apparent what type of game you're getting yourself into, from the graphics and specially the trailler... Controls: Don't expect mario. The controls are 100% fair if you don't mistime your jumps. ...And, yes, it can be quite hard a couple times. In this game, and there will be a few "omg so unfair" deaths. What about it? The Actual Difficulty: "Nintendo hard,…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →"Mastema: Out of Hell" is a platform game with retro late 80s and early 90s aesthetics. Pros: + 80s and 90s look and feel + A beautiful retro sound design + Good pixel art + Monster design is cool Cons: - Level design: There's too much pixel perfect jumping. - Controls: Its bad... really really bad - Animation frame rate: Not enough smoothness and it effects overall controls 3/10 And all points goes to its art. Gameplaywise it is only a frustrating game with abysmal controls. Theres a good…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I love this game. Takes me back to the 80s/90s. At the price, it's a real steal!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Mastema: Out of Hell is a short, beautiful game - but its clunky controls and unfair mechanics drag it straight down to Hell. Pros: - Incredible pixel art: Looks like something straight off of a Genesis or SNES - in a good way! - Good enemy and level variety. - Forgiving difficulty: some levels are incredibly hard, but even if you lose all your lives, you can continue endlessly from the start of the world you got to. Cons: - Awkward controls: If you use a controller, your character will jump…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I don't really feel like anyone should go out of their way to play this. It's got a really nice Amiga-esque ("meegy") aesthetic but the physics are bad (every jump feels 2 pixels too short, interaction with platforms is sort of wonky), the attack feels unresponsive and many enemies have way too much HP, to get the game in a window you have to run it through DXWND, you basically have to trick it into recognizing an Xbox 360 dpad with joy2key, and the player's death sound is one of the most…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →just as every review says the controls are literally hell with no way of changing them W artwork though
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →my feelings on the character Mastema kinda sums up my feelings on the game. there is unavoidable anti-semitism rooted in how that character is presented and it's incredibly nasty. he's also a delightfully smug fag with one of the most fun boss fights i've ever played in a turn based rpg. so it goes!
neutral · AI labelView post →I love getting to see my babygirl in another SMT game,,, Archangel Mastema
positive · AI labelView post →The game is about precision jumping, the controls are terrible making this a terrible game. No wonder only 5% of players have gotten through the 1st stage.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Nice Mastema Out of Hell 5/10 Heisen
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Unplayable. First level, main character's jump isn't high enough to reach any platforms. I tried everything, it's just too short of a jump. I can't jump over the enemy, I can't grab the coin on top of the screen, I can't jump from one platform to the next, I can't jump from the ground to the closest platform above it and I can't jump over the acid pit. I'm using keyboard btw.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I'll start off by saying this game is incredibly hard. That being said its also fun and quite addicting. It really leaves you no room for error. Love the games horror design. Would reccomend to retro gamers/ horror fans.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is a great game based on the Amiga classics following the system limitations! Good artstyle, excellent music and difficult right on point. Don't listen to people comparing this to snes games, because they're just accustomed to Nintendo "walk on a park" platformers from that period. You have jumps with 2 pixels of tolerance, lose your weapon after lose one life and must pass some stages using only the secondary powers until found another one and returns to the beggining of each world if you…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →First of all, unlike many other retro style platformers, this one isn't really bad. At least, it's not among the worst ones. It totally isn't. It has very strong Amiga / SNES vibe, the visuals are nice, music is great, the story is charming... Unfortunately, there are three problems that don't let me to give it a thumb up. The first problem is my usual complain. Why? This game is exactly like mediocre platformers from early 90s. With totally nothing special about it. Back in the 90s, I would…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A lot of effort was spent on making a game look like a format that went obsolete 25 years ago. Unfortunately if the game was released 25 years ago, it would have flopped, the competition is better. We have exchanged lazy 8 bit graphics for slightly less lazy 16 bit graphics, but the general theme is the same as the rest of the retro dross choking the Steam catalog... a low effort copy of an ancient kind of game that isn't as good as the games it's copying, just to make a quick buck on Steam…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Looks great, sounds decent...but the controls are just unacceptable. Will ask for a refund. Might rebuy as some point if they do a big update on the game.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I had a really tough time deciding, if I should recommend this game or not. It's the first game on steam I actually can't recommend at all. Let me talk about the positives first: The game has quite a unique and very well done atmosphere. The music is great, as are the sound effects. The visuals support the eerie (albeit a tad cheezy) feeling the stages offer. It is really well done and some of the backgrounds and specials you can perfom look really amazing. But sadly, I have some big gripes…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I wanted to like this, visually it's appealing but it feels bad to play. That said it's sad to hear that this game is being delisted.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →https://steamcommunity.com/games/595550/announcements/detail/669504028414051287 Mastema: Out of Hell – Upcoming Delisting Notice Dear Players, We would like to let you know that Mastema: Out of Hell will soon be removed from sale on Steam. We would like to thank everyone who has played the game and supported it over the years. It has been a pleasure to have 8infinity as part of our catalogue. If you already own the game, it will remain in your Steam library and you will still be able to…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is honestly kind of a gem if you can get past some of the more perplexing decisions and janky game design issues. It feels very much like one of those "cookie cutter" side scroller action games from the SNES/Genesis era, but with the difficulty cranked up and tons of forgiveness with continues after each main level. The graphics are definitely the highlight. I thought "Mastema" was the protagonist (The bloody maskless Deadpool looking guy) but actually his soul is trapped by…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I adore the "demon" design in SMT but especially every Angel to come out of or be featured in strange journey (and smt 4) is so fucking bad I've never played the game but hafta respect it for having so many baddies Mastema, Zelenin Then Merkabah Transfem Gabriel is hot too but she's nowhere near new
neutral · AI labelView post →I love Strange Journey, it's like SMT meets Doom or Event Horizon and that's unique for an SMT game. I especially like how Lucifer and Mastema are characterized and the wild ass story behind the Mothers too. Jimenez is probably my favorite Chaos rep in any game and Mem Aleph just oozes cool
positive · AI labelView post →I went and wrote down all the materials I was gonna need to craft the Mastema White Reaper skell, completely forgetting that the game can track that for me now. I love Xenoblade Chronicles X Definitive Edition.
neutral · AI labelView post →The platforms are bad placed, if you die once you lose your weapon and the controls are so non-intuitive
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It could be a fun game, but the pixel perfect jump mechanic totally ruins it. Because of that it is not fun to play, just stressful. You have 4 lives to complete every 3 levels, but 99% of the time you will lose all of them because you didn't jump from the last pixel of some platform. That is not something I can tolerate in a game. If you would be able to jump just little farther it would be much more fun to play.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game was pretty good. While it does have some frustrating jumps at times, which I believe is kinda fixed by a bug, since I don't think some jumps that save you are intended, is still pretty good despite this. Due to just remembering about it, getting off ladders is quite awkward, going all the way down doesn't drop, but pressing left or right after this will drop you. You have branching paths, though the only thing I noticed is one path tends to be harder then the other, with no real…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Very good, old school game!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →An at-times great, at-times frustrating homage to Genesis and Megadrive classics of yesteryear, Mastema can feel more like playing a "runner" style game than a 2D platformer. Pairing its morbid, retro, pixelated graphics as chunky tunes churn out, Mastema: Out of Hell wears its inspirations on its sleeve. If you played any of the darker Genesis titles you will know its aesthetic out of the gate. The spritework is well done, as you platform and fight your way through plenty of challenging…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Little, but pretty awesome oldschool game with great retro soundtrack. If you like classic platformers, this one is highly recommended by me.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Nice old school arcade game, with many different levels and multiple ways to get to the end. Great pixel art and great music. The jump mechanics are a little rigid but this is in tone with the old school type of gaming. Very fun and very enjoyable for a cheap price!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Nice neat interesting fun game. It reminds me of an old amiga title.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Sorry to see this is being delisted. If you like merciless games and dig the style, grab this on sale before it goes. I literally made more selling a trading card from it than I paid for it in the first place. Everything else is a bonus. And I'm genuinely enjoying it messing with me... some people just don't realise that games have become seriously easy over time, in order to include more people. This game, not just visually, is harking back to an era when there was no mercy. They didn't…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Demons and Medicine Coexisting in Jubilees We assume that if medicine works, the supernatural explanation has to disappear. Jubilees sees no contradiction at all: a hostile spirit can cause the illness and a plant can treat it. And notice what that means about the Watchers — the problem was never knowledge itself, it was authority. Who gives it, for what purpose, within what boundaries? More at southerndemonology.com. #jubilees #watchers #mastema #demonology #ancientmedicine
neutral · AI labelView post →Mastema was one of the best fights in the game and actually had mechanics, I think the game could have ended there since they built up Lucifer so poorly
positive · AI labelView post →all i want to know is who traumatized the developer positive review is a meme btw, i just don't want to upset the poor guy even more
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I absolutely love this game. Beautiful graphics, great soundtrack. Ive seen a lot of reviews complaining about the controls, but they are absolutely fine, so I imagine that must've been an issue that is now fixed.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Beat this one the other week with 100% achievements! Worth the while with nice graphics and music, to go along with the gameplay of varied challenging levels, bosses, and worlds! The jumping can be a little short range jank, so you really need to check your footing before executing most of the platforms.. Gamepad highly recommended. I personally used a xbox one controller, nice and responsive. Hint for jumping; (You can hold down jump while attempting a gap to make sure you get it down…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It's a hard recommendation; the overall mixed rating is quite fair. Limited to the visual aspect, it's a masterpiece: even so many years after its original release, I'm still impressed by the pixel art, looking like something out of the golden years of the Amiga and Mega Drive, including a CRT effect. There is a wide variety of enemy sprites, all finely detailed and animated, and the protagonist presents subtle details like looking back or stumbling from time to time. The special attacks, some…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Mastema: Out of Hell is a retro-inspired action platformer developed by Oscar Celestini and published by Forever Entertainment S. A., and it positions itself firmly as a love letter to the unforgiving 16-bit era of side-scrolling games. From its opening moments, the game establishes a bleak and oppressive atmosphere, casting the player into the depths of Hell with no exposition-heavy introduction or guiding hand. You awaken nameless and disoriented, driven only by survival and the instinct to…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Flop of a platformer, trying to be retro, old school cool makes it more cringe. This game is just frustrating, period.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Art Appreciation! This is Mastema! This may be a familiar name to those who like SMT/Persona! He is filling a similar role in my Persona game! :3c toyhou.se/25159584.mas... Original Artist: toyhou.se/Limerami
neutral · AI labelView post →
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