Delicious FruitLatest Reviews
BoshyGo11
For: RNG Dungeon
For: RNG Dungeon
Edit 24.11.2022: Finished the game, didn't take as much, as I expected, but it was still quite tough. Thoughts are below under a spoilertag, rating before the final boss was 7.6.
Well, it was something. I would say my experience with the first phase of the final boss, the boss part, wasn't exactly pleasant. It's immediately apparent that it's a difficulty spike over everything in the game before, all attacks range from relatively involved to pretty fucking hard, the number of attacks is unfathomable. Most of the attacks are enjoyable and fun, but some I ended up not liking at all, mostly the attacks involving water. I got really lucky on my winning attempt by having to do some of the trickiest attacks first and ending with the easiest. My hands were, however, shaking.
The second phase, the avoidance, is easily the best part of the game though, it just skyrockets the experience up. Interesting attacks, amazing visuals, a lot of small details, great variety, it has it all. Also it isn't as frontloaded as CTC, while the hardest part of the avoidance is everything up to chorus 1 and chorus 1, the following segments are also not free. I don't really know what else to say, it's just really enjoyable and also a good way to end off the game.
I should probably do some kind of final thoughts segment, after reflecting on my experience with most of the game and finally getting through the climax. This game is probably the thing that most deserves the tag "Special" on Delfruit, it's truly a special game that is maybe rocky at spots and inconsistent, but extremely memorable. I am still eager to see what's the next TGCC release going to be, but after finishing the game I'm thinking it'll be hard to top this as an experience.
I'm currently at the final boss and the first impression (two hours of playtime) says that it might be a while before I proceed further, so I might as well write a review for the first portion of the game before I forget everything. Also I'll put the entirety of the review under a spoilertag so I don't have to worry about accidentally saying something that would damage the experience of a player looking to avoid being spoiled. The first portion will be more general stuff, then I'll go through each area and note my thoughts.
I have never been so mixed on a game and I don't even know if I'm supposed to feel this way.
The readme says this is not a game for people who dislike gimmick, avoidance or bullshit and I would say the first two of these are my favorite fangame genres. Yet while some of the saves are now some of my favorite fangame saves of all time it wasn't rare that I found myself being frustrated by some section. Am I allowed to feel this way or this just means "this game isn't meant for me"? It's a very confusing attitude, because as I intrepret it either I like everything in the game and this means I'm the player it was aimed at or I don't like something which means this game isn't for me and my opinion loses value because of that.
Another thing that is throwing me off is the last part of Cthaere's review that as I see it is basically saying "We, TGCC team, have achieved deeper understanding of avoidance and while you might not understand it everything we now create is above average" and if that is what Cthaere is really trying to say, I'm just really confused. Every avoidance in the game ranges from "unoffensive, I guess fun" to "pretty fun" and I'm just not seeing where that avoidance magic formula is. I will go into specifics on all the avoidances in the bottom section, but for now I will just say this, no avoidance in this game up until the final boss was better than Musiclock, Bye bye the bye, CTC or Milky ways.
As for the gimmick and needle segments, because I'd like to put a clear distinction between those in the context of this game, that is the part that's the most divisive for me. This is one of the most variety-packed fangames I've played and it is most likely the reason for my opinion and the overall mixed reception. Every room is different from the last one, but most can be divided into "platforming challenges" and "endurance romps". The romps are all pretty fun and I doubt anyone playing the game would get butthurt or grindy at those, but the platforming challenges are usually a lot more challenging than the romps and some are a lot more demanding of the player's needle ability. Those are the ones I and some other players I have seen playing the game or have heard from strugged with most and usually it wasn't just all needle areas in general but one or two specific saves which were different for different people. I'm not sure whether this game just isn't meant to be played by all those people or it's just a testament to how all over the place the content of the game is (for reference the phrasing "all over the place" in this context means literally being very varied, so not in a bad way)
With that I'll go into talking about each area individually. My final general thoughts would be that I don't know if I can recomend this game to anyone because of how hit or miss everything in it is. For a very high-skilled player there is nothing in the game that could stop their playthrough for too long and for very low-skilled players I'm afraid even if they are the player this game aims for a grind could ruin the fun very fast.
I honestly don't really remember what order I did the areas in so I'll probably just go clockwise starting from the first one:
- Up-left hub:
Nothing I can say about it other than it was fun. It's by far the easiest hub part. I chuckled at the Eminem easter egg.
- CN2:
It was fun, if I were making something like this I'd maybe make it so the yellow worms don't kill the player at the top-right part of the screen, but you can avoid dying there by stalling until weather changes to cold so idk. Meth gave me some motion sickness but it's unavoidable with this kind of gimmicks.
- This, is not meth:
Nice and easy, the attacks are all pretty standard, but anything out of the ordinary probably wouldn't work with meth. I liked the end of the avoidance because it's the funny kind of scummy while making great use of meth.
- Squid games:
The jump refresher part of the entrance made me sweat a bit, but it's fine because the section is mostly fair and strategic. The actual squid games screen went by fast, don't have anything bad to say about it besides the hitboxes of Gi Hun and the soldiers being really uninituitive. Thanks for not making those literally square, I guess?
- The Pyramid of RNG:
I didn't go in blind so I knew what to expect, but I did think of my own strats for all attacks (for my memory is not the greatest). It went by relatively fast, but I can imagine the fight becoming frustrating if you grind it for a long time. Also the non-gimmicky attacks felt a bit generic, thought the fancy visuals salvage the avoidance a bit.
- Up-right hub:
The first screen is a lot of fun, it was actually the first thing I did in the game (after the intro of course). The FTFA screen though is total bullshit. It would be bearable if the player was given a view of the entire room when rerolling, but as it is right now you just pray not to have any hard jumps on any screen after the first one. On my first try with the game I would roll a corner or a double gate on the second screen every time I got there so when I got to the third screen and was faced with more FTFA bullshit I just restarted, leaving this path as the last one. And it's a shame because inside was one of my favorite areas of the game.
- K3:
The level design at the chaos section was for the most part utilising the gimmick in really cool ways, however the final section gave me some despair from getting stuck in the ceiling after getting the joker at the end. If I were making something like this I'd program it so no sticking would occur.
The K3 section was really great. The audio-visual aspect landed perfectly and doing K3 screens with HP lead to a really fun game of "strategise spending HP on specific spikes to avoid danger from other spikes". The emperor section afterwards wasn't as interesting, but there is not a single bad thing I can say about it either.
- Mayumushkatri:
As expected from something derived from Mayumushi, this little avoidance showcases a bunch of original strat-based attacks. The platforming section at the end was also a lot of fun and wrapped up one of my favorite avoidances in the game nicely.
- Grandma:
Same general criticism and praises regarding the chaos gimmick. The grandma joke didn't really land, but nothing was lost because of it either.
- Something familiar:
For the most part it's a nerfed start of MHC's "RNG hell" (kinda fitting for *RNG* Dungeon tbh) followed by a relatively generic skelly barrage, btw I died two times at the very end to not being able to outrun the Skeleton. I must say though, dying to some stray apple and restarting to hear "man ur so BAD at avoidance" is some next level of meta humour, absolutely brilliant.
- Down-right hub:
The first screen was fun and easy, but then the next one, jeez. I didn't get particularly upset at it, but the CN3 golden save is the platforming segment that took me the longest by far, about an hour actually. Also I died to the gate once.
- Dogwater:
The dogwater save is fun despite it being one of the hardest things in the game and me spending a lot of time to get good at doing the spiral. The IP save is nothing special, just some more needle with a bit of Butterfly-like backtracks.
- IP grabber:
One of my favorite avoidances in the game, the mapping is absolutely insane and I love it.
- Soulless:
The butterfly save was a lot of fun, I love Noesis circles and I'd love to see what the version that sucked balls looked like. Annoying orange didn't bring me as much joy as Eminem did, because I was immediately faced with the grim reality of having to sit through the Team TGCC logo again.
The mini Soulless save is by far my favorite thing in the game. Not only is it just very fun to play and also really funny with the literal gates, but THE gate 5 attack is there. Makes me wonder what a full Soulless avoidance in a small room would look like.
- Soulless 6:
Probably the hardest avoidance in the game, but also one of my favorites. Really hectic, really original, really fun. I'm now a bit better with fast-paced barrages.
- Down-left hub:
The first save is definetely one of the toughest saves in the game to do blind. A lot of strat-based needle, a lot of jumpscares and on the first go I doubt anyone would remember the touchable apple colors. The platforms are arguably wacky tho, also maybe a bit keyboard-dependant with the relatively strict jump timings. The second save is just Razzor flexing his math skills. Whan a hypocrite, given the avoidance tournament prefinals...
- Crimson:
The timed section is just a bit of fun, that's it, the gimmick reminds me of Ocean princess a bit actually. You know, the castle stage.
The Crimson boss is fun, but spamming is absolutely impossible and even landing one shot on a wrong boss can ruin a run. Patrick's post-death homing thingy was a bit hard to dodge when bullets would arrive from outside the screen border, but it felt more like skill issue rather than unfair. Squidward's rings sniping the kid on spawn did feel really unfair sometimes and while you can strategise around it by seeing the letter B appear above your head and moving away from Mr. Squidward, it's too convoluted to be an excuse.
- The formula:
Once I understood the hitbox is a dot it was very easy. I don't know what I can say about the quality, it's very obviously not supposed to be taken seriously, and if it is that's where I think a problem arises.
- Destination:
Again, the timed section is pretty fun, nothing special.
The Destination boss looked imposing on video but went by a lot quicker than Crimson when I was playing it. A pretty fun boss, maybe green's a bit garbage sometimes, but that's probably it.
- what:
A very fun avoidance, the attacks were all cool. Firsttried everything past the intro lol.
Misc nitpicks:
- I think the game would benefit a lot from a warp out system and some sort of more involved hub. Some of the avoidances are genuinely something I'd maybe occasionally reopen (if Milky Ways or Musiclock is erased from my hard drive ig), so something like "jumping into the cube and pressing up warps you into the avoidance" would be a treat. I also feel like a warp out system would fix most of the issues stemming from players getting stuck and frustrated at an unfun area they stumbled upon.
- Also a thing that would work well towards acessibility would be a HP system or even a whole "low diff mode", as is the game is really tough at times and it's not Vandal or something where grinding a save doesn't feel bad, this game's design, both in the plaforming and the bosses/avoidances, is really grind-unfriendly. I do understand that would be a ton of work to implement and balance though.
- Block buttons and reroll blocks both being called "reroll" just feels... off, I don't really care if it's changed or not though.
That is probably all I can say right now, but if I think of something else I'll add it in an edit. Sorry for the long post, but I just felt like I need to say what I feel about the game. It really feels very mixed, I adore some of the sections, but not others as much and also the attitude of the devteam doesn't really vibe with me.
All in all I think I'd describe this first impression of Team TGCC as "solid, but not outstanding", so I'll be waiting for the next release with a lot of hope, perhaps it will be a thing that will absolutely blow me away and open a whole new level of avoidance design to the community.
Edit #1: I immediately forgot I wanted to say that the game's biggest strengths are production value, which sweetens the pill on otherwise memey and/or lackluster avoidance or platforming, music and visuals, which are just really nice throughout the whole game including the final boss, and humour, not every joke landed, but when it did, it really did.
[7] Likes
Well, it was something. I would say my experience with the first phase of the final boss, the boss part, wasn't exactly pleasant. It's immediately apparent that it's a difficulty spike over everything in the game before, all attacks range from relatively involved to pretty fucking hard, the number of attacks is unfathomable. Most of the attacks are enjoyable and fun, but some I ended up not liking at all, mostly the attacks involving water. I got really lucky on my winning attempt by having to do some of the trickiest attacks first and ending with the easiest. My hands were, however, shaking.
The second phase, the avoidance, is easily the best part of the game though, it just skyrockets the experience up. Interesting attacks, amazing visuals, a lot of small details, great variety, it has it all. Also it isn't as frontloaded as CTC, while the hardest part of the avoidance is everything up to chorus 1 and chorus 1, the following segments are also not free. I don't really know what else to say, it's just really enjoyable and also a good way to end off the game.
I should probably do some kind of final thoughts segment, after reflecting on my experience with most of the game and finally getting through the climax. This game is probably the thing that most deserves the tag "Special" on Delfruit, it's truly a special game that is maybe rocky at spots and inconsistent, but extremely memorable. I am still eager to see what's the next TGCC release going to be, but after finishing the game I'm thinking it'll be hard to top this as an experience.
I'm currently at the final boss and the first impression (two hours of playtime) says that it might be a while before I proceed further, so I might as well write a review for the first portion of the game before I forget everything. Also I'll put the entirety of the review under a spoilertag so I don't have to worry about accidentally saying something that would damage the experience of a player looking to avoid being spoiled. The first portion will be more general stuff, then I'll go through each area and note my thoughts.
I have never been so mixed on a game and I don't even know if I'm supposed to feel this way.
The readme says this is not a game for people who dislike gimmick, avoidance or bullshit and I would say the first two of these are my favorite fangame genres. Yet while some of the saves are now some of my favorite fangame saves of all time it wasn't rare that I found myself being frustrated by some section. Am I allowed to feel this way or this just means "this game isn't meant for me"? It's a very confusing attitude, because as I intrepret it either I like everything in the game and this means I'm the player it was aimed at or I don't like something which means this game isn't for me and my opinion loses value because of that.
Another thing that is throwing me off is the last part of Cthaere's review that as I see it is basically saying "We, TGCC team, have achieved deeper understanding of avoidance and while you might not understand it everything we now create is above average" and if that is what Cthaere is really trying to say, I'm just really confused. Every avoidance in the game ranges from "unoffensive, I guess fun" to "pretty fun" and I'm just not seeing where that avoidance magic formula is. I will go into specifics on all the avoidances in the bottom section, but for now I will just say this, no avoidance in this game up until the final boss was better than Musiclock, Bye bye the bye, CTC or Milky ways.
As for the gimmick and needle segments, because I'd like to put a clear distinction between those in the context of this game, that is the part that's the most divisive for me. This is one of the most variety-packed fangames I've played and it is most likely the reason for my opinion and the overall mixed reception. Every room is different from the last one, but most can be divided into "platforming challenges" and "endurance romps". The romps are all pretty fun and I doubt anyone playing the game would get butthurt or grindy at those, but the platforming challenges are usually a lot more challenging than the romps and some are a lot more demanding of the player's needle ability. Those are the ones I and some other players I have seen playing the game or have heard from strugged with most and usually it wasn't just all needle areas in general but one or two specific saves which were different for different people. I'm not sure whether this game just isn't meant to be played by all those people or it's just a testament to how all over the place the content of the game is (for reference the phrasing "all over the place" in this context means literally being very varied, so not in a bad way)
With that I'll go into talking about each area individually. My final general thoughts would be that I don't know if I can recomend this game to anyone because of how hit or miss everything in it is. For a very high-skilled player there is nothing in the game that could stop their playthrough for too long and for very low-skilled players I'm afraid even if they are the player this game aims for a grind could ruin the fun very fast.
I honestly don't really remember what order I did the areas in so I'll probably just go clockwise starting from the first one:
- Up-left hub:
Nothing I can say about it other than it was fun. It's by far the easiest hub part. I chuckled at the Eminem easter egg.
- CN2:
It was fun, if I were making something like this I'd maybe make it so the yellow worms don't kill the player at the top-right part of the screen, but you can avoid dying there by stalling until weather changes to cold so idk. Meth gave me some motion sickness but it's unavoidable with this kind of gimmicks.
- This, is not meth:
Nice and easy, the attacks are all pretty standard, but anything out of the ordinary probably wouldn't work with meth. I liked the end of the avoidance because it's the funny kind of scummy while making great use of meth.
- Squid games:
The jump refresher part of the entrance made me sweat a bit, but it's fine because the section is mostly fair and strategic. The actual squid games screen went by fast, don't have anything bad to say about it besides the hitboxes of Gi Hun and the soldiers being really uninituitive. Thanks for not making those literally square, I guess?
- The Pyramid of RNG:
I didn't go in blind so I knew what to expect, but I did think of my own strats for all attacks (for my memory is not the greatest). It went by relatively fast, but I can imagine the fight becoming frustrating if you grind it for a long time. Also the non-gimmicky attacks felt a bit generic, thought the fancy visuals salvage the avoidance a bit.
- Up-right hub:
The first screen is a lot of fun, it was actually the first thing I did in the game (after the intro of course). The FTFA screen though is total bullshit. It would be bearable if the player was given a view of the entire room when rerolling, but as it is right now you just pray not to have any hard jumps on any screen after the first one. On my first try with the game I would roll a corner or a double gate on the second screen every time I got there so when I got to the third screen and was faced with more FTFA bullshit I just restarted, leaving this path as the last one. And it's a shame because inside was one of my favorite areas of the game.
- K3:
The level design at the chaos section was for the most part utilising the gimmick in really cool ways, however the final section gave me some despair from getting stuck in the ceiling after getting the joker at the end. If I were making something like this I'd program it so no sticking would occur.
The K3 section was really great. The audio-visual aspect landed perfectly and doing K3 screens with HP lead to a really fun game of "strategise spending HP on specific spikes to avoid danger from other spikes". The emperor section afterwards wasn't as interesting, but there is not a single bad thing I can say about it either.
- Mayumushkatri:
As expected from something derived from Mayumushi, this little avoidance showcases a bunch of original strat-based attacks. The platforming section at the end was also a lot of fun and wrapped up one of my favorite avoidances in the game nicely.
- Grandma:
Same general criticism and praises regarding the chaos gimmick. The grandma joke didn't really land, but nothing was lost because of it either.
- Something familiar:
For the most part it's a nerfed start of MHC's "RNG hell" (kinda fitting for *RNG* Dungeon tbh) followed by a relatively generic skelly barrage, btw I died two times at the very end to not being able to outrun the Skeleton. I must say though, dying to some stray apple and restarting to hear "man ur so BAD at avoidance" is some next level of meta humour, absolutely brilliant.
- Down-right hub:
The first screen was fun and easy, but then the next one, jeez. I didn't get particularly upset at it, but the CN3 golden save is the platforming segment that took me the longest by far, about an hour actually. Also I died to the gate once.
- Dogwater:
The dogwater save is fun despite it being one of the hardest things in the game and me spending a lot of time to get good at doing the spiral. The IP save is nothing special, just some more needle with a bit of Butterfly-like backtracks.
- IP grabber:
One of my favorite avoidances in the game, the mapping is absolutely insane and I love it.
- Soulless:
The butterfly save was a lot of fun, I love Noesis circles and I'd love to see what the version that sucked balls looked like. Annoying orange didn't bring me as much joy as Eminem did, because I was immediately faced with the grim reality of having to sit through the Team TGCC logo again.
The mini Soulless save is by far my favorite thing in the game. Not only is it just very fun to play and also really funny with the literal gates, but THE gate 5 attack is there. Makes me wonder what a full Soulless avoidance in a small room would look like.
- Soulless 6:
Probably the hardest avoidance in the game, but also one of my favorites. Really hectic, really original, really fun. I'm now a bit better with fast-paced barrages.
- Down-left hub:
The first save is definetely one of the toughest saves in the game to do blind. A lot of strat-based needle, a lot of jumpscares and on the first go I doubt anyone would remember the touchable apple colors. The platforms are arguably wacky tho, also maybe a bit keyboard-dependant with the relatively strict jump timings. The second save is just Razzor flexing his math skills. Whan a hypocrite, given the avoidance tournament prefinals...
- Crimson:
The timed section is just a bit of fun, that's it, the gimmick reminds me of Ocean princess a bit actually. You know, the castle stage.
The Crimson boss is fun, but spamming is absolutely impossible and even landing one shot on a wrong boss can ruin a run. Patrick's post-death homing thingy was a bit hard to dodge when bullets would arrive from outside the screen border, but it felt more like skill issue rather than unfair. Squidward's rings sniping the kid on spawn did feel really unfair sometimes and while you can strategise around it by seeing the letter B appear above your head and moving away from Mr. Squidward, it's too convoluted to be an excuse.
- The formula:
Once I understood the hitbox is a dot it was very easy. I don't know what I can say about the quality, it's very obviously not supposed to be taken seriously, and if it is that's where I think a problem arises.
- Destination:
Again, the timed section is pretty fun, nothing special.
The Destination boss looked imposing on video but went by a lot quicker than Crimson when I was playing it. A pretty fun boss, maybe green's a bit garbage sometimes, but that's probably it.
- what:
A very fun avoidance, the attacks were all cool. Firsttried everything past the intro lol.
Misc nitpicks:
- I think the game would benefit a lot from a warp out system and some sort of more involved hub. Some of the avoidances are genuinely something I'd maybe occasionally reopen (if Milky Ways or Musiclock is erased from my hard drive ig), so something like "jumping into the cube and pressing up warps you into the avoidance" would be a treat. I also feel like a warp out system would fix most of the issues stemming from players getting stuck and frustrated at an unfun area they stumbled upon.
- Also a thing that would work well towards acessibility would be a HP system or even a whole "low diff mode", as is the game is really tough at times and it's not Vandal or something where grinding a save doesn't feel bad, this game's design, both in the plaforming and the bosses/avoidances, is really grind-unfriendly. I do understand that would be a ton of work to implement and balance though.
- Block buttons and reroll blocks both being called "reroll" just feels... off, I don't really care if it's changed or not though.
That is probably all I can say right now, but if I think of something else I'll add it in an edit. Sorry for the long post, but I just felt like I need to say what I feel about the game. It really feels very mixed, I adore some of the sections, but not others as much and also the attitude of the devteam doesn't really vibe with me.
All in all I think I'd describe this first impression of Team TGCC as "solid, but not outstanding", so I'll be waiting for the next release with a lot of hope, perhaps it will be a thing that will absolutely blow me away and open a whole new level of avoidance design to the community.
Edit #1: I immediately forgot I wanted to say that the game's biggest strengths are production value, which sweetens the pill on otherwise memey and/or lackluster avoidance or platforming, music and visuals, which are just really nice throughout the whole game including the final boss, and humour, not every joke landed, but when it did, it really did.
Rating: 8.9 89
Difficulty: 78 78
Jul 22, 2022
tuhkakuppi
For: I Wanna Clsrnrpdladms Dbwl
For: I Wanna Clsrnrpdladms Dbwl
Precision needle.
This will likely be the only Rktlrpdladms-like game to be made.
This will likely be the only Rktlrpdladms-like game to be made.
Tagged as: Needle
[0] Likes
Rating: N/A
Difficulty: 76 76
Jul 22, 2022
Loptr
For: I wanna climb the Witch's Tower
For: I wanna climb the Witch's Tower
Can never go wrong with a wolfiexe needle game, although some later areas had huge difficulty fluctuations
[0] Likes
Rating: 8.0 80
Difficulty: 62 62
Jul 22, 2022
Jopagu
For: I wanna Figure
For: I wanna Figure
Figure is a brilliant game, and from the get-go you can tell that Wonderful poured her heart and soul into this game. It's packed full of emotion, from the visuals to the outstanding soundtrack. The game is about a lot of things, but the biggest theme I found is about Wonderful's journey as a trans person. As a trans person myself, a lot of things here really resonated with me, and I found that several parts were evocative of my own darkest moments. I don't want to speak much on the theming, as I think it's best to be experienced on your own, but I would be remiss if I didn't acknowledge how much it meant to me.
The needle itself is fantastic, and even at its hardest it never felt unfun (for me at least). The needle has a lot of parts that could be considered generic, like frequent named jumps, but they're woven in masterfully, creating a game that feels familiar but unique. One of the notable screens is 22, which uses some cool line needle that verges into intentionally uncomfortable, creating one of the strongest thematic screens in the game. Shortly after comes the water screen, which uses water in a really fun way, ending with a unique save that is a memorable journey that really brings you in tune with the beautiful song.
The game is at it's strongest in 3X, the second half of the game. Each area here is fun in its own way, with a lot of cool stuff. First, the jungle. This was personally my least favorite, as there were a few awkward platform snap moments. However, I like the incorporation of cycles and vine needle so it was still fun. The boss here is notorious, however I'm in the very small minority that actually enjoyed it. The RNG created some really hard dodges, but I felt like it was so prominent these moments happened every attempts, so you had to overcome them, instead of feeling like you got screwed. The RNG made this boss require playing smart, and being careful about when you choose to go up to attack.
Secondly, the mine area. The needle here is really hard, but it's rewarding. I used the skip, and I would recommend everyone keep an eye out for it, if I didn't use it I might have a very different opinion. The gimmick in this stage is cool, and adds some memorable flair without actually affecting gameplay. This stage had my least favorite boss, and this one actually felt like RNG screwed you too much. The turrets constantly spawning made aggression required to destroy them all, and often you would get screwed by a pattern that required being slow and careful, only to die because a turret spawned.
Third, baby blue sedan. This is significantly easier than the other stages, providing a nice break. The stage has some really fun jump refresher platforming and some cool looking spike patterns. I wish this was a bigger part of the game, because I loved it. The boss here was pretty hard, but it was a fun fight that required good reactions.
Fourth, the Dopamine-esque area. With a fog effect, a black tileset, and unique screen layouts, this area is a super memorable stage with a moody vibe. This was my favorite stage, as it features more of Wonderful's fun water usage, and it masterfully captures the desired atmosphere. The final screen has a cool double tank layout, that was really fun to go through. The boss here was really fun, although another place where bad RNG could be annoying.
Finally, the gravity area. This area is another easy one, and also the shortest. There's some really cool usage of gravity flippers and cycles here, I wish there would've been more than two screens. The boss is fun, imo the easiest boss so it wasn't as memorable to me. I don't have much to say about this stage, but I really loved it!
After all that, you get to the 40s. These are some of the hardest screens in the game, with 42 taking the cake. They include a fun gimmick, and a beautifully stylistic spotlight, as well as a haunting song. These all combine to create a perfect ending. The screens are all long, with a lot of twists and turns, and backtracking. This helps accentuate the feeling of ending the journey, and making that final step. This stage is really beautiful, and will hold a place in my mind for a long time.
The game ends with an avoidance. The avoidance is really hard! I'm primarily a needle player, but I do have moderate experience with bosses/avoidances, but this still rolled me, taking me 8 hours. However, that just made the clear all that much sweeter. The grey intro is hard, and RNG heavy, but gets pretty consistent. The first attack after the color change was my least favorite part, and also the biggest wall. This attack requires lots of small jumps and tight movements, and RNG felt oppressive here. After this, the avoidance steps down a bit, and has a lot of really fun attacks. The infinite jump section was cool and appropriately hectic without being a big barrier. The final segment is quite tight, and I feel like I got pretty lucky beating it when I did. However, it's still a fun section.
The 40's and the beginning of the avoidance are dark and bleak, creating a grim mood and evoking a sense of hopelessness (especially with the difficulty). However, the second half of the avoidance brightens up, and the game ends with color and a spark of hope. The clear screen has a beautiful, beautiful song. I don't want to spoil the experience for you, so I'll just say that it's a phenomenal cap to the game and the themes present, and it meant a lot to me personally. The song resonated really hard with my own life, and after sitting there and listening to it for a few minutes I was legitimately very emotional.
Overall, I can't recommend this game enough. However, make sure you're ready! It's very hard! But once you feel like you could beat this game, you should go for it. Aside from just being fun, the game is an emotional experience that will leave you just sitting in thought by the end of it.
[5] Likes
The needle itself is fantastic, and even at its hardest it never felt unfun (for me at least). The needle has a lot of parts that could be considered generic, like frequent named jumps, but they're woven in masterfully, creating a game that feels familiar but unique. One of the notable screens is 22, which uses some cool line needle that verges into intentionally uncomfortable, creating one of the strongest thematic screens in the game. Shortly after comes the water screen, which uses water in a really fun way, ending with a unique save that is a memorable journey that really brings you in tune with the beautiful song.
The game is at it's strongest in 3X, the second half of the game. Each area here is fun in its own way, with a lot of cool stuff. First, the jungle. This was personally my least favorite, as there were a few awkward platform snap moments. However, I like the incorporation of cycles and vine needle so it was still fun. The boss here is notorious, however I'm in the very small minority that actually enjoyed it. The RNG created some really hard dodges, but I felt like it was so prominent these moments happened every attempts, so you had to overcome them, instead of feeling like you got screwed. The RNG made this boss require playing smart, and being careful about when you choose to go up to attack.
Secondly, the mine area. The needle here is really hard, but it's rewarding. I used the skip, and I would recommend everyone keep an eye out for it, if I didn't use it I might have a very different opinion. The gimmick in this stage is cool, and adds some memorable flair without actually affecting gameplay. This stage had my least favorite boss, and this one actually felt like RNG screwed you too much. The turrets constantly spawning made aggression required to destroy them all, and often you would get screwed by a pattern that required being slow and careful, only to die because a turret spawned.
Third, baby blue sedan. This is significantly easier than the other stages, providing a nice break. The stage has some really fun jump refresher platforming and some cool looking spike patterns. I wish this was a bigger part of the game, because I loved it. The boss here was pretty hard, but it was a fun fight that required good reactions.
Fourth, the Dopamine-esque area. With a fog effect, a black tileset, and unique screen layouts, this area is a super memorable stage with a moody vibe. This was my favorite stage, as it features more of Wonderful's fun water usage, and it masterfully captures the desired atmosphere. The final screen has a cool double tank layout, that was really fun to go through. The boss here was really fun, although another place where bad RNG could be annoying.
Finally, the gravity area. This area is another easy one, and also the shortest. There's some really cool usage of gravity flippers and cycles here, I wish there would've been more than two screens. The boss is fun, imo the easiest boss so it wasn't as memorable to me. I don't have much to say about this stage, but I really loved it!
After all that, you get to the 40s. These are some of the hardest screens in the game, with 42 taking the cake. They include a fun gimmick, and a beautifully stylistic spotlight, as well as a haunting song. These all combine to create a perfect ending. The screens are all long, with a lot of twists and turns, and backtracking. This helps accentuate the feeling of ending the journey, and making that final step. This stage is really beautiful, and will hold a place in my mind for a long time.
The game ends with an avoidance. The avoidance is really hard! I'm primarily a needle player, but I do have moderate experience with bosses/avoidances, but this still rolled me, taking me 8 hours. However, that just made the clear all that much sweeter. The grey intro is hard, and RNG heavy, but gets pretty consistent. The first attack after the color change was my least favorite part, and also the biggest wall. This attack requires lots of small jumps and tight movements, and RNG felt oppressive here. After this, the avoidance steps down a bit, and has a lot of really fun attacks. The infinite jump section was cool and appropriately hectic without being a big barrier. The final segment is quite tight, and I feel like I got pretty lucky beating it when I did. However, it's still a fun section.
The 40's and the beginning of the avoidance are dark and bleak, creating a grim mood and evoking a sense of hopelessness (especially with the difficulty). However, the second half of the avoidance brightens up, and the game ends with color and a spark of hope. The clear screen has a beautiful, beautiful song. I don't want to spoil the experience for you, so I'll just say that it's a phenomenal cap to the game and the themes present, and it meant a lot to me personally. The song resonated really hard with my own life, and after sitting there and listening to it for a few minutes I was legitimately very emotional.
Overall, I can't recommend this game enough. However, make sure you're ready! It's very hard! But once you feel like you could beat this game, you should go for it. Aside from just being fun, the game is an emotional experience that will leave you just sitting in thought by the end of it.
Rating: 9.8 98
Difficulty: 81 81
Jul 22, 2022
fatherpucci1
For: I Wanna Clsrnrpdladms Dbwl
For: I Wanna Clsrnrpdladms Dbwl
Tagged as: Needle
tomodati-like
[0] Likes
Rating: 7.5 75
Difficulty: 82 82
Jul 22, 2022
Jopagu
For: I wanna be the hollow
For: I wanna be the hollow
An incredible boss rush game, with bosses taken from a number of other indie games. What makes this game so cool is how well it replicates the feel of the original games. Each boss feels like you're playing a boss from a different game, because you are.
Boss 1: The Core - Just Shapes and Beats
I haven't played this game, but I really liked the boss. It's an avoidance rather than a boss like the rest, and it's synced up to an awesome song, just like JSaB is known for. There are a lot of cool attacks that have you jumping around the entire arena.
Boss 2: High Dragun - Enter the Gungeon
I have played Gungeon, so I can safely say that Hollow does an incredible job of remaking a top down boss in a side view platformer. The memorable attacks all show up, and it has the dodge heavy feel that Gungeon is centered around. It even features the super iconic final phase, which is one of the coolest things I've seen in a game so I'm glad it came back here.
Boss 3: Headhunter - Katana Zero
I've also played Katana Zero, and it was fun to see such a memorable fight from that game show up here. The boss is focused on fast reactions, sweeping lasers, and bombs everywhere. It's a hectic and enjoyable fight.
Boss 4: Providence - Void Memory
I haven't even heard of this game (and from the Steam reviews that's for a good reason). This boss was my least favorite, and it was also the hardest by far from the first four bosses. The boss itself honestly just feels like a worse reskin of the Pure Vessel from Hollow Knight (and the game agrees, it uses the Pure Vessel song instead of something from the original game). You need much higher reaction time than anything of the other bosses, or else you're gonna die to a teleport sword slash. The boss also raises black rectangles from the floor, which aside from looking kind of ugly, have unexplainable hitboxes. The second phase barely changes anything, just forcing a couple deaths to learn the new reactions you have to do. This boss also feels much more tanky than the others, and without a meaningful second phase it's a slog to get through.
Final Boss: Radiance - Hollow Knight
This is the hardest boss in the game, but that fits the expectation from fangames and Hollow Knight, and it feels more fair than Providence. The boss has several attacks, requiring many different types of dodges. It also requires the reaction speed to get away from it if it teleports on top of you. The side swords attack feels like it can RNG-screw you sometimes, but a well timed dash can mitigate that. The first phase ends with a frantic rain of swords, and then it's on to the second phase. This part is harder, featuring the same attacks but less space to dodge them. However, it still feels fair, you just have to get used to running away from the boss. At the end of this phase, you get to do the iconic climb as lasers rain from above, and then a short final attack. This part is fairly easy, but requires you to keep your cool and is easily chokable. Overall, the boss is a fitting climax to a great game, and it feels great to finally take it down.
This game is an easy recommendation, and one of the highest quality fangames I've played. It can be played with no knowledge of the original fights, but if you have played them, then this game will feel like returning to an old friend.
[2] Likes
Boss 1: The Core - Just Shapes and Beats
I haven't played this game, but I really liked the boss. It's an avoidance rather than a boss like the rest, and it's synced up to an awesome song, just like JSaB is known for. There are a lot of cool attacks that have you jumping around the entire arena.
Boss 2: High Dragun - Enter the Gungeon
I have played Gungeon, so I can safely say that Hollow does an incredible job of remaking a top down boss in a side view platformer. The memorable attacks all show up, and it has the dodge heavy feel that Gungeon is centered around. It even features the super iconic final phase, which is one of the coolest things I've seen in a game so I'm glad it came back here.
Boss 3: Headhunter - Katana Zero
I've also played Katana Zero, and it was fun to see such a memorable fight from that game show up here. The boss is focused on fast reactions, sweeping lasers, and bombs everywhere. It's a hectic and enjoyable fight.
Boss 4: Providence - Void Memory
I haven't even heard of this game (and from the Steam reviews that's for a good reason). This boss was my least favorite, and it was also the hardest by far from the first four bosses. The boss itself honestly just feels like a worse reskin of the Pure Vessel from Hollow Knight (and the game agrees, it uses the Pure Vessel song instead of something from the original game). You need much higher reaction time than anything of the other bosses, or else you're gonna die to a teleport sword slash. The boss also raises black rectangles from the floor, which aside from looking kind of ugly, have unexplainable hitboxes. The second phase barely changes anything, just forcing a couple deaths to learn the new reactions you have to do. This boss also feels much more tanky than the others, and without a meaningful second phase it's a slog to get through.
Final Boss: Radiance - Hollow Knight
This is the hardest boss in the game, but that fits the expectation from fangames and Hollow Knight, and it feels more fair than Providence. The boss has several attacks, requiring many different types of dodges. It also requires the reaction speed to get away from it if it teleports on top of you. The side swords attack feels like it can RNG-screw you sometimes, but a well timed dash can mitigate that. The first phase ends with a frantic rain of swords, and then it's on to the second phase. This part is harder, featuring the same attacks but less space to dodge them. However, it still feels fair, you just have to get used to running away from the boss. At the end of this phase, you get to do the iconic climb as lasers rain from above, and then a short final attack. This part is fairly easy, but requires you to keep your cool and is easily chokable. Overall, the boss is a fitting climax to a great game, and it feels great to finally take it down.
This game is an easy recommendation, and one of the highest quality fangames I've played. It can be played with no knowledge of the original fights, but if you have played them, then this game will feel like returning to an old friend.
Rating: 9.3 93
Difficulty: 70 70
Jul 22, 2022
komachi
For: I Wanna Surf the Internet
For: I Wanna Surf the Internet
Rating based on easy mode boss.
A decent trap stage with a baka punish room followed by a boss which can be played on easy or hard, for the good ending you need to defeat it on hard.
You got an extra life for each phase which is nice, 2nd attack is way harder than the rest.
[2] Likes
A decent trap stage with a baka punish room followed by a boss which can be played on easy or hard, for the good ending you need to defeat it on hard.
You got an extra life for each phase which is nice, 2nd attack is way harder than the rest.
Rating: 6.2 62
Difficulty: 68 68
Jul 22, 2022
Riot3_1_2_1
For: i wanna be the gold fish
For: i wanna be the gold fish
Tagged as: Medley
[0] Likes
Rating: 3.9 39
Difficulty: 57 57
Jul 22, 2022