Delicious FruitElCochran90's Profile
Send a PMJoined on: Aug 25, 2018
Bio:
About time I updated this bio.
Name: Edgar Cochran
Country: Mexico
Currently living in: Mexico City
-God's servant and one of his blessed sons (John 1:12; John 3:16).
-Lover of the entire animal and plant creation.
-Film lover and reviewer for Letterboxd.com (https://letterboxd.com/elcochran90).
-Adjunct professor and personal tutor of Statistical Inference, Business Forecasting, Marketing Research and Portfolio Theory.
Fangaming experience began in August 2018, so only modest achievements here. However, I'll describe some relevant FAQs here made to me during my stay here since 2018:
Q: Are videogames art?
A: Yes
Q: Are fangames videogames?
A: Yes
Q: Why are your reviews long and unconventional?
A: I am a film reviewer; in a way, I sort of unconsciously dragged my style of film reviewing to the world of fangames. I often involve personal experiences in my writing. Expect that structure; I'm not planning to change it.
Q: How are you rating games? Do you compare fangames as normal games that your ratings are lower than all other people ratings or are you just a critical person?
A: My ratings are not lower than people's ratings all of the time regarding fangames, but they are most of the time. However, this is not my intention. I am rating them as normal games, as in, I don't have a different spectrum for rating "normal", "official" games than fangames. They are in the same scale, because they are all videogames. I don't like to think myself as a critical person; ratings are just subjective numbers. However, I have realized that I rate games more harshly than I rate films/short films, which I do more often.
Q: What are your favorite fangames?
A: I have not played enough fangames to make a comprehensive and representative list, but this can be answered by going to my Favorites list. Anything getting 6.7 or higher will be considered immediately as a favorite.
I've submitted:
378 Ratings!
378 Reviews!
790 Screenshots!
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378 Games
378 Reviews
ElCochran90
For: I wanna Diminish the Colors
For: I wanna Diminish the Colors
For a reason, I always skipped this one during my exploration of the neon games. Perhaps it was the lack of the tag for it and my appreciation and gratitude of how that minimalistic, yet absorbing environment shaped many of the needle stuff I possess now.
I recently came back to this. It's an overall uncomfortable game with no rhyme or reason. The style is constant, but the difficulty is not, and the playthrough is annoying throughout. Soundtrack is also forgettable. For a vanilla needle game, this is not worth it.
I recently came back to this. It's an overall uncomfortable game with no rhyme or reason. The style is constant, but the difficulty is not, and the playthrough is annoying throughout. Soundtrack is also forgettable. For a vanilla needle game, this is not worth it.
Tagged as: Needle
[0] Likes
Rating: 3.4 34
Difficulty: 60 60
Dec 30, 2023
ElCochran90
For: Jingle Jam
For: Jingle Jam
Merry Christmas and many thanks to the Delicious Fruit Community!
Delicious Christmas Spheres!
This fangame is a special occurrence since I remember this coming out when I was only one year active in Del Fruit and logging reviews for all clears. It was exactly in October 31st, 2018, when I beat Spook Jam and the final boss costed me my life (after retrying him this year, it's still hard; I still don't know how that game is below 50 of difficulty). This one is rated properly, but it also brought me back to 5 years ago and made me reflect on how quickly time has gone by. Also, the timing couldn't have been better as I can finally play a Taisa spoof having beaten the original Black and it feels so different, especially when it was hype to make Taisa spoofs without anyone getting tired of it around 2015-2017.
This is a Collab that works exactly as efficiently as Spook Jam, but with a greater variance considering individual stages (sorry for the past Statistics teacher barging in). If you don't know the terms of mean or variance, it's simple; this is important for me to get my views across. Mean is simply the arithmetic average of a quantitative variable (e.g. ratings). Variance is the average of the squared differences between each individual rating and the mean of the data; variance is used to analyze how dispersed the data is with respect to the average. So, a hypothetical fangame with all individual stages being equally good has zero variance, because the ratings are all the same and therefore equal to the variance. A fangame that has the worst (Try a Collab 1) and the best individual stages of all times has a big variance (Try a Collab 2), as the values are too extreme between each other. This was a huge problem with the Try a Collab games.
This game has the same mean than Spook Jam, but a much smaller variance. For the record, Spook Jam is still much more organized than Try a Collab 1 & 2.
As it is proper, it is time to address each stage:
-Aolan and Mr. Butterfingers: Uneventful stage, annoying boss. It is a cool introduction difficulty-wise, but not theme-wise. The gimmick is simple and fine, but a particular screen demands quite the precision for being an intro.
-Patrickgh3: Cute and that's it. That's all I got. It's a nod to the Sunspike sphere attack. I appreciate the consideration of being able to try two difficulties; I recommend both considering anyone that is willing to conquer the whole game (no pun intended). It has very nice visuals, for the matter.
-EchoMask: Good stage with decent Celeste-like platforming and an interesting concept of an avoidance. One of the highlights of the game.
-KittyGame: Average stage. Spotlight platforming with nothing special except for some puzzle routing required to clear certain screens; the spotlight shenanigan is just there for dramatic effect, thank God, as the whole screen is still visible. Boss is funny but gets tiresome really soon; the coding of the last attack is very uncomfortable.
-AlejoFangamer: Another highlight that you can totally say it was made by a Latin American due to the atrocious grammar, lol. You can aim your shots, the humor is good, the stage is well built, the sprite is adorable and the gun is based. It can get confusing where to go sometimes and the bombs have to be too close to the walls to make an effect (also, the fact you have to do this is never explained in the game), but the quality of the gimmicks makes up for most of it. I wish this stage also had a boss.
-Lovey: Visual design reminds me of 3200min, but more polished. It's very difficult to identify the "vines" in the stage, and the vines that change your speed are not intuitive, but hey, it's a colorful stage. Not that sure how much Christmas-y except for the candy canes throughout. It has often fun platfoming. Boss, however, is creative and has sufficient margin for success.
-Haegoe: Standard background, generic traps, delicious fruits here and there, and red blocks can be mistaken with death blocks. The cart coding is whatever and its weird use is intended: you have to discover this by yourself. Boss is whatever. Didn't like this stage.
-Pieceofcheese87: The gimmick is questionable; it takes time to get used to it: you throw gifts on the ground to be able to stand on them. This is used in a variety of ways: getting over spikes, getting an extra jump, or infinite jumping. I didn't like the last two: the height you get with an "extra jump" by throwing a present is something you understand by trial and error. Also, you may think your presents will run out with every screen you enter, but no, you discover each new screen gives you two by default. Not cool not saying this since the beginning. Ok visuals and pretty much a mandatory song choice which fits very well. Platforming is ok, but the third screen (second one after the mini-tutorial) has a first jump that is too exaggerated. The jump refresher screens are quite bad. However, breakfast boss is back! Best moment of the stage.
-Desticler: A very large Metroid-like stage that will most probably have you going in circles as items are required. "Metroidvania" normally refers to a stage that uses the Super Metroid gimmick onwards, but this one has no map. Last item can get really confusing and requires full exploration of the stage. Also, the design is whatever. There are vines underwater that serve no purpose. It's a deliberately confusing stage, but it's an absorbing one atmosphere-wise.
-Chrisay: My second favorite stage in the entire game. Funny introduction of a dumb story that doesn't really matter; it's just for the jokes. What matters is that Kid goes wheeeeeeee, platforming is terrific, the total amount of items to collect for progress is 75% of the ones available, and it's totally worth the hunt of getting them all. There are differentiated stages that will remind you of the design ideas of the original VVVVVV. You might encounter gimmicks before you're explained how to use them, so this caused confusions here and there (such as shooting targets for teleporting, or the white snowflakes that change the jumps gravity). However, it's a great ride worth it's length. Also, no need for a final boss; the nature of the stage leaves it clear the focus is 100% adventure platforming. I do wish there was a special event or prize for getting 100% of the presents. Still, good job.
-MegaKid: As far as I'm concerned, the only thing the author ever did. The sprite is funny: you ARE Santa Claus. The stage consists of minigames after a section of mediocre platforming, and the icy floor gimmick is plain annoying, but the visual design is rich. Also, CN save sound! Always pretty. After that, the true meat are last four minigames: a race against the clock with a particular surprise, a section of very smart puzzles also against the clock (although one question completely depends on having a QWERTY keyboard, which is quite exclusive), and a vertical-shooter boss which is mediocre. The stage is fun in average.
-Mastermaxify: A Taisa avoidance spoof. It's whatever. Easily forgettable. If you could, I'd recommend you to let it pass, but you can't choose the stages. Bottom 3.
-RandomErik: The artist that draws his own art. The style is there and the humor is the expected one. When one is on the green metalic tilsets, it's difficult to see if you can go through some: they are just of a darker color, but can be easily missed by the eye. The climbing part is fun but has some precise parts with the wind gimmick. Thankfully, this stage did demand a boss and it's right there; for the note, the last attack is terrific. Fun times. I'm glad this stage is here.
-Zebbe: Ye, Stonk allowed to play as a chair and that is a landmark, but why is no one else talking about the ability to play as a walking snowball with a Santa Claus hat?? It's atmospheric and changes mood, from the intro to the cavern. It then descends into a succesful exploration of an unnamed demon. The CN3 reference is meh; only players of the original fangame will know what to do, and it's overtly precise. There is no boss and no lore given about your creepy encounter. Overall, very disappointing.
-Artimax: Uninteresting visual design, forgettable platforming, and the candy cane gimmick is quite inconsistent: it wouldn't work like 1 out of 10 times (and you have to do it a lot). Boss is bad. Overall, I disliked it.
-shign and dono: Third favorite stage, and it's mostly due to the final sunlaoqq-like final screen, often adopted by Arzztt. It's a stage of two parts: a stage of decent platforming that requires you to collect items, and the second one with a great design that expands the adventure feeling to another level out of nowhere. There are a couple of skips here, but who cares? What I would change from this one is the design of the spikes: their thick, dark brown outline and the color of the background often merged together, so the spike had to be calculated by other visual parameters or muscle memory. It was frustrating.
-Asza: Yeiiii, winter sleigh with the Reach Heaven gimmick of deactivating and reactivating rainbow-colored blocks by shooting. No special analysis here, except: it's bloody fun. The corner jokes had me laughing.
-Kiyoshi: Ok, first thing's first: Beach Boys appreciation. That's based anywhere in the world. Also, adorable visual design, but then again, not that Christmas-y. About the other stuff, for the love of God, how many traps can you fit in a single save? It's quite overdone and this is the heaviest trap-infested stage. I won't deny some are funny, but the palm tree save that shot lasers at you is absolutely maddening. The punishment room is funny once, but not twice. Some traps that expand the horizons are terrific, which are the ones worthy of contemplating. The first save of the second screen requires you to do some illogical nonsense; got stuck there for minutes without doing a thing because it wasn't obvious at all. Mixed fellings about this one; it's one of those stages which is funner to see someone else suffer through.
-WetWookie: This is a controversial one. Not everyone faces happiness during Christmas times, and this sadness can be exacerbated during festivities, where everyone seeks to have companionship or gather with their families if they are lucky to have one, incomplete or not, and I know about this. My family has no father, and my mother has been in several hospital to count for 5 years; that has drained 65% of my yearly income for said five years, since I'm the one that receives an income for supporting my mother and younger brother. I mentioned this because I don't want to sound like a soulless brute. WetWookie's incorporation of drama and story elements into his games is a special trademark that almost no one does. However, do we really need to experience this, especially as the penultimate stage? Why must it be so disheartening and depressing? Why does the ending gives you the feeling of "you did this for nothing; life sucks; face it"? And why on Earth do this during Christmas Eve? This is a horrible idea, and to make matters worse, leaving the story aside, the stage is absolutely ordinary, boring, stale-looking, with a very bad song choice, there is no Christmas sprite (I pressume due to the story), the Kid looks worried as hell the entire time... It's something you want to end soon. Appalling stage that I wish didn't exist, especially in a Christmas-themed game.
-Lss: Best stage of the game. Deliberately leaving the best for last, a Christmas miracle happens: we have a Magic Tower stage where it is impossible to softlock! What is this wizardry?! Anyway, terrific design, cool bosses, great power-up strats that will make subsequent fights easier, and a terrific hub system. Also, final boss is present here. It mostly follows the final boss of Collab 2, as there are avoidance sections as well as shooting sections. Still, it is quite fun to do, except for one transition where it is not clear how to avoid dagame, resulting in a very weird timing. Still, a proper closure for the game.
Thanks to all for making, and blessings to all!
[1] Like
Delicious Christmas Spheres!
This fangame is a special occurrence since I remember this coming out when I was only one year active in Del Fruit and logging reviews for all clears. It was exactly in October 31st, 2018, when I beat Spook Jam and the final boss costed me my life (after retrying him this year, it's still hard; I still don't know how that game is below 50 of difficulty). This one is rated properly, but it also brought me back to 5 years ago and made me reflect on how quickly time has gone by. Also, the timing couldn't have been better as I can finally play a Taisa spoof having beaten the original Black and it feels so different, especially when it was hype to make Taisa spoofs without anyone getting tired of it around 2015-2017.
This is a Collab that works exactly as efficiently as Spook Jam, but with a greater variance considering individual stages (sorry for the past Statistics teacher barging in). If you don't know the terms of mean or variance, it's simple; this is important for me to get my views across. Mean is simply the arithmetic average of a quantitative variable (e.g. ratings). Variance is the average of the squared differences between each individual rating and the mean of the data; variance is used to analyze how dispersed the data is with respect to the average. So, a hypothetical fangame with all individual stages being equally good has zero variance, because the ratings are all the same and therefore equal to the variance. A fangame that has the worst (Try a Collab 1) and the best individual stages of all times has a big variance (Try a Collab 2), as the values are too extreme between each other. This was a huge problem with the Try a Collab games.
This game has the same mean than Spook Jam, but a much smaller variance. For the record, Spook Jam is still much more organized than Try a Collab 1 & 2.
As it is proper, it is time to address each stage:
-Aolan and Mr. Butterfingers: Uneventful stage, annoying boss. It is a cool introduction difficulty-wise, but not theme-wise. The gimmick is simple and fine, but a particular screen demands quite the precision for being an intro.
-Patrickgh3: Cute and that's it. That's all I got. It's a nod to the Sunspike sphere attack. I appreciate the consideration of being able to try two difficulties; I recommend both considering anyone that is willing to conquer the whole game (no pun intended). It has very nice visuals, for the matter.
-EchoMask: Good stage with decent Celeste-like platforming and an interesting concept of an avoidance. One of the highlights of the game.
-KittyGame: Average stage. Spotlight platforming with nothing special except for some puzzle routing required to clear certain screens; the spotlight shenanigan is just there for dramatic effect, thank God, as the whole screen is still visible. Boss is funny but gets tiresome really soon; the coding of the last attack is very uncomfortable.
-AlejoFangamer: Another highlight that you can totally say it was made by a Latin American due to the atrocious grammar, lol. You can aim your shots, the humor is good, the stage is well built, the sprite is adorable and the gun is based. It can get confusing where to go sometimes and the bombs have to be too close to the walls to make an effect (also, the fact you have to do this is never explained in the game), but the quality of the gimmicks makes up for most of it. I wish this stage also had a boss.
-Lovey: Visual design reminds me of 3200min, but more polished. It's very difficult to identify the "vines" in the stage, and the vines that change your speed are not intuitive, but hey, it's a colorful stage. Not that sure how much Christmas-y except for the candy canes throughout. It has often fun platfoming. Boss, however, is creative and has sufficient margin for success.
-Haegoe: Standard background, generic traps, delicious fruits here and there, and red blocks can be mistaken with death blocks. The cart coding is whatever and its weird use is intended: you have to discover this by yourself. Boss is whatever. Didn't like this stage.
-Pieceofcheese87: The gimmick is questionable; it takes time to get used to it: you throw gifts on the ground to be able to stand on them. This is used in a variety of ways: getting over spikes, getting an extra jump, or infinite jumping. I didn't like the last two: the height you get with an "extra jump" by throwing a present is something you understand by trial and error. Also, you may think your presents will run out with every screen you enter, but no, you discover each new screen gives you two by default. Not cool not saying this since the beginning. Ok visuals and pretty much a mandatory song choice which fits very well. Platforming is ok, but the third screen (second one after the mini-tutorial) has a first jump that is too exaggerated. The jump refresher screens are quite bad. However, breakfast boss is back! Best moment of the stage.
-Desticler: A very large Metroid-like stage that will most probably have you going in circles as items are required. "Metroidvania" normally refers to a stage that uses the Super Metroid gimmick onwards, but this one has no map. Last item can get really confusing and requires full exploration of the stage. Also, the design is whatever. There are vines underwater that serve no purpose. It's a deliberately confusing stage, but it's an absorbing one atmosphere-wise.
-Chrisay: My second favorite stage in the entire game. Funny introduction of a dumb story that doesn't really matter; it's just for the jokes. What matters is that Kid goes wheeeeeeee, platforming is terrific, the total amount of items to collect for progress is 75% of the ones available, and it's totally worth the hunt of getting them all. There are differentiated stages that will remind you of the design ideas of the original VVVVVV. You might encounter gimmicks before you're explained how to use them, so this caused confusions here and there (such as shooting targets for teleporting, or the white snowflakes that change the jumps gravity). However, it's a great ride worth it's length. Also, no need for a final boss; the nature of the stage leaves it clear the focus is 100% adventure platforming. I do wish there was a special event or prize for getting 100% of the presents. Still, good job.
-MegaKid: As far as I'm concerned, the only thing the author ever did. The sprite is funny: you ARE Santa Claus. The stage consists of minigames after a section of mediocre platforming, and the icy floor gimmick is plain annoying, but the visual design is rich. Also, CN save sound! Always pretty. After that, the true meat are last four minigames: a race against the clock with a particular surprise, a section of very smart puzzles also against the clock (although one question completely depends on having a QWERTY keyboard, which is quite exclusive), and a vertical-shooter boss which is mediocre. The stage is fun in average.
-Mastermaxify: A Taisa avoidance spoof. It's whatever. Easily forgettable. If you could, I'd recommend you to let it pass, but you can't choose the stages. Bottom 3.
-RandomErik: The artist that draws his own art. The style is there and the humor is the expected one. When one is on the green metalic tilsets, it's difficult to see if you can go through some: they are just of a darker color, but can be easily missed by the eye. The climbing part is fun but has some precise parts with the wind gimmick. Thankfully, this stage did demand a boss and it's right there; for the note, the last attack is terrific. Fun times. I'm glad this stage is here.
-Zebbe: Ye, Stonk allowed to play as a chair and that is a landmark, but why is no one else talking about the ability to play as a walking snowball with a Santa Claus hat?? It's atmospheric and changes mood, from the intro to the cavern. It then descends into a succesful exploration of an unnamed demon. The CN3 reference is meh; only players of the original fangame will know what to do, and it's overtly precise. There is no boss and no lore given about your creepy encounter. Overall, very disappointing.
-Artimax: Uninteresting visual design, forgettable platforming, and the candy cane gimmick is quite inconsistent: it wouldn't work like 1 out of 10 times (and you have to do it a lot). Boss is bad. Overall, I disliked it.
-shign and dono: Third favorite stage, and it's mostly due to the final sunlaoqq-like final screen, often adopted by Arzztt. It's a stage of two parts: a stage of decent platforming that requires you to collect items, and the second one with a great design that expands the adventure feeling to another level out of nowhere. There are a couple of skips here, but who cares? What I would change from this one is the design of the spikes: their thick, dark brown outline and the color of the background often merged together, so the spike had to be calculated by other visual parameters or muscle memory. It was frustrating.
-Asza: Yeiiii, winter sleigh with the Reach Heaven gimmick of deactivating and reactivating rainbow-colored blocks by shooting. No special analysis here, except: it's bloody fun. The corner jokes had me laughing.
-Kiyoshi: Ok, first thing's first: Beach Boys appreciation. That's based anywhere in the world. Also, adorable visual design, but then again, not that Christmas-y. About the other stuff, for the love of God, how many traps can you fit in a single save? It's quite overdone and this is the heaviest trap-infested stage. I won't deny some are funny, but the palm tree save that shot lasers at you is absolutely maddening. The punishment room is funny once, but not twice. Some traps that expand the horizons are terrific, which are the ones worthy of contemplating. The first save of the second screen requires you to do some illogical nonsense; got stuck there for minutes without doing a thing because it wasn't obvious at all. Mixed fellings about this one; it's one of those stages which is funner to see someone else suffer through.
-WetWookie: This is a controversial one. Not everyone faces happiness during Christmas times, and this sadness can be exacerbated during festivities, where everyone seeks to have companionship or gather with their families if they are lucky to have one, incomplete or not, and I know about this. My family has no father, and my mother has been in several hospital to count for 5 years; that has drained 65% of my yearly income for said five years, since I'm the one that receives an income for supporting my mother and younger brother. I mentioned this because I don't want to sound like a soulless brute. WetWookie's incorporation of drama and story elements into his games is a special trademark that almost no one does. However, do we really need to experience this, especially as the penultimate stage? Why must it be so disheartening and depressing? Why does the ending gives you the feeling of "you did this for nothing; life sucks; face it"? And why on Earth do this during Christmas Eve? This is a horrible idea, and to make matters worse, leaving the story aside, the stage is absolutely ordinary, boring, stale-looking, with a very bad song choice, there is no Christmas sprite (I pressume due to the story), the Kid looks worried as hell the entire time... It's something you want to end soon. Appalling stage that I wish didn't exist, especially in a Christmas-themed game.
-Lss: Best stage of the game. Deliberately leaving the best for last, a Christmas miracle happens: we have a Magic Tower stage where it is impossible to softlock! What is this wizardry?! Anyway, terrific design, cool bosses, great power-up strats that will make subsequent fights easier, and a terrific hub system. Also, final boss is present here. It mostly follows the final boss of Collab 2, as there are avoidance sections as well as shooting sections. Still, it is quite fun to do, except for one transition where it is not clear how to avoid dagame, resulting in a very weird timing. Still, a proper closure for the game.
Thanks to all for making, and blessings to all!
Rating: 6.2 62
Difficulty: 55 55
Dec 26, 2023
ElCochran90
For: I wanna be the SSR2
For: I wanna be the SSR2
Gotta get this out of my chest: never in my life would I have thought that Rukito would use Robert Miles' "Children" as a stage song! I quickly went from disbelief, to awe, to an audible laughter in 5 seconds. That song defined my childhood: I was 9 when it was released internationally and heard it on the radio everytime I could because there was no money to afford music.
Rukito's games are an acquired taste and that is a lesson the last two years have tought me. They are unique and that is something, a special signature, that Rukito will never lose. Love them or hate them, but the stamp is there.
In spite of being very basic on paper, the concept can be transformed into interesting visual designs, challenges, save balancing and level designs. With me not being a fan of the overall style, I am surprised at what this game did.
For starters, this is a standout in the overall body of work: six stages with three screens each (plus a final one which has a mind-numbingly unfair trigger that results in an unnecessary grinding of the last screen of the game), there is only one final boss, restarting music is gone, and the traps are scarce, the latter being a huge deal. There are still soul-crushing traps at the end of insane saves, but you can count them with the fingers of a single hand. Overall, it feels more like straight needle in the artist's trademark style, and this amounts in a rather enjoyable experience, one where you explore more the ideas of the level design in a more relaxed way, focusing more on the required challenge of the platforming. The latter benefits from not sticking to a 32px mentality, but exploring the 16px world in very interesting ways and you can tell the instances in which Rukito could have been overtly cruel, but doesn't and gives more air for certain jumps. Thumb up there.
His bosses have always had an infamous reputation, and the final boss is bad in the good kinda way and stands out from his previous ones: it's not luck-based like RZ, it's much fairer than the first SSR, it's not appalling and ugly like PYF, it's not nearly humanly impossible or one of the worst bosses of all times like GR, and overall, it's a funny, dumb concept: a homage to the most classic and emblematic 100F classic franchise with fair RNG(!).
The difficulty balance is a catastrophe from the third stage onwards, and I do have my grudges against the following: the very last jump of Stage 2, transition from Stage 3 to Stage 4, third save of Stage 4 (mostly due to the required fall and the trap at the end which is unholy), third save from Stage 5 (cancerous idea), third save of Stage 6 because screw the jump at the right which you have to do twice in a row (the second being upside down!) and you still dare to add a trap in the backtrack (really?!), and the grinding of the last save. For the record, this is the first time I do a horizontal drop gate buffed in the way the first save of Stage 6 does... that's creative and satisfying to pull off.
So, it's a mix between good and bad, but compared to the rest of his games, this is a Rembrandt painting. The soundtrack choices, save for the last stage which is annoying and loud without the need to be like that, are terrific. I still see RZ as his most emblematic for some reason, and his best music choice personally, besides the one mentioned in the spoilers here, was Mushihimesama Futari in RZ. I'm mentally in one of those instances in which you say: "if there was a game that had the platforming of V, the bosses of W, the soundtrack of X and the visual designs from Y, all from the same creator, then this game Z would be awesome".
Also, definitely easier and much shorter than 256, which makes it less exhausting as well.
Recommended. Best Rukito as of now.
MMM time maybe????
[2] Likes
Rukito's games are an acquired taste and that is a lesson the last two years have tought me. They are unique and that is something, a special signature, that Rukito will never lose. Love them or hate them, but the stamp is there.
In spite of being very basic on paper, the concept can be transformed into interesting visual designs, challenges, save balancing and level designs. With me not being a fan of the overall style, I am surprised at what this game did.
For starters, this is a standout in the overall body of work: six stages with three screens each (plus a final one which has a mind-numbingly unfair trigger that results in an unnecessary grinding of the last screen of the game), there is only one final boss, restarting music is gone, and the traps are scarce, the latter being a huge deal. There are still soul-crushing traps at the end of insane saves, but you can count them with the fingers of a single hand. Overall, it feels more like straight needle in the artist's trademark style, and this amounts in a rather enjoyable experience, one where you explore more the ideas of the level design in a more relaxed way, focusing more on the required challenge of the platforming. The latter benefits from not sticking to a 32px mentality, but exploring the 16px world in very interesting ways and you can tell the instances in which Rukito could have been overtly cruel, but doesn't and gives more air for certain jumps. Thumb up there.
His bosses have always had an infamous reputation, and the final boss is bad in the good kinda way and stands out from his previous ones: it's not luck-based like RZ, it's much fairer than the first SSR, it's not appalling and ugly like PYF, it's not nearly humanly impossible or one of the worst bosses of all times like GR, and overall, it's a funny, dumb concept: a homage to the most classic and emblematic 100F classic franchise with fair RNG(!).
The difficulty balance is a catastrophe from the third stage onwards, and I do have my grudges against the following: the very last jump of Stage 2, transition from Stage 3 to Stage 4, third save of Stage 4 (mostly due to the required fall and the trap at the end which is unholy), third save from Stage 5 (cancerous idea), third save of Stage 6 because screw the jump at the right which you have to do twice in a row (the second being upside down!) and you still dare to add a trap in the backtrack (really?!), and the grinding of the last save. For the record, this is the first time I do a horizontal drop gate buffed in the way the first save of Stage 6 does... that's creative and satisfying to pull off.
So, it's a mix between good and bad, but compared to the rest of his games, this is a Rembrandt painting. The soundtrack choices, save for the last stage which is annoying and loud without the need to be like that, are terrific. I still see RZ as his most emblematic for some reason, and his best music choice personally, besides the one mentioned in the spoilers here, was Mushihimesama Futari in RZ. I'm mentally in one of those instances in which you say: "if there was a game that had the platforming of V, the bosses of W, the soundtrack of X and the visual designs from Y, all from the same creator, then this game Z would be awesome".
Also, definitely easier and much shorter than 256, which makes it less exhausting as well.
Recommended. Best Rukito as of now.
MMM time maybe????
Rating: 5.1 51
Difficulty: 85 85
Dec 18, 2023
ElCochran90
For: I wanna be the orbit trap 3
For: I wanna be the orbit trap 3
No real need to reiterate the elements I disliked of the first two games, as this third unplanned installment uses the same stage, setting and score; many traps are recycled and the overabundance per traps in every save is still there.
However, there are some minor upgrades. First, the punishment room abuse is gone; there's only two and one is a funny avoidance. The other is the typical maze design with dancing sprites, but you can skip it with "S" as someone is finally aware that doing them many times does not add to the fun. The roast of the Nekoron engine saves is my second favorite part of the game, as it has happened to many of us before: softlock. Finally, it doesn't overuse recycle traps: there are new sprites and memes here and there. Platforming is the same, but pretty much every save has a trap towards the ending. I also hate the p*rn screaming man, gets on my nerves. Still quite short and repetitive of the trilogy, but it works for the intended purposes.
Also, it gave me a couple of laughs, and I will always thank that.
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However, there are some minor upgrades. First, the punishment room abuse is gone; there's only two and one is a funny avoidance. The other is the typical maze design with dancing sprites, but you can skip it with "S" as someone is finally aware that doing them many times does not add to the fun. The roast of the Nekoron engine saves is my second favorite part of the game, as it has happened to many of us before: softlock. Finally, it doesn't overuse recycle traps: there are new sprites and memes here and there. Platforming is the same, but pretty much every save has a trap towards the ending. I also hate the p*rn screaming man, gets on my nerves. Still quite short and repetitive of the trilogy, but it works for the intended purposes.
Also, it gave me a couple of laughs, and I will always thank that.
Rating: 4.5 45
Difficulty: 40 40
Nov 27, 2023
ElCochran90
For: I wanna be the orbit trap 2
For: I wanna be the orbit trap 2
Copy-paste from the first game: same awful music, tilesets, trap rooms and even recycled traps. However, there are new ones in the meme department. This is still a refreshing take on the trap genre, but not as strongly as the first one. Some traps are genuinely funny, but the amount of traps per save is still over-the-top and the punishment rooms are more frustrating than last time.
There is a boss at the end, which is free. It doesn't add much, but it's there.
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There is a boss at the end, which is free. It doesn't add much, but it's there.
Rating: 4.2 42
Difficulty: 40 40
Nov 26, 2023
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