Delicious FruitLatest Reviews
gabisthebest
For: I wanna be the Castle Needle
For: I wanna be the Castle Needle
Paragus's right.
[0] Likes
Rating: 3.5 35
Difficulty: 55 55
May 19, 2015
Xplayerlol
For: I wanna be the Speed Out
For: I wanna be the Speed Out
Cool needle game. Has some interesting jumps, and the level design is really cool. The music is cool, and the visuals are simplistic, but still good. The last save is quite hard compared to everything else in the game. Would recommend.
Tagged as: Needle
[0] Likes
Rating: 7.0 70
Difficulty: 56 56
May 19, 2015
Xplayerlol
For: I wanna Fallen Flower
For: I wanna Fallen Flower
Seems like a sequel of Rising Flower. They share plenty of similarities (Namely the music, the lack of death sound, and the tilesets are almost the same, but recolored). It's quite hard, mainly at the last saves. There are some interesting jumps here and there, as well. Would recommend, maybe.
Tagged as: Needle
[0] Likes
Rating: 7.0 70
Difficulty: 63 63
May 19, 2015
Xplayerlol
For: I wanna be the GN
For: I wanna be the GN
1-screen needle. Cool music and nice visuals, but although the jumps aren't very common (Most of them are still common, just not too common), they aren't really outstanding. There are some annoyingly hard saves, but most of them are fair. Would recommend, if you have nothing else to play.
Tagged as: Needle
[0] Likes
Rating: 5.0 50
Difficulty: 51 51
May 18, 2015
Bob
For: I wanna be the Guy
For: I wanna be the Guy
I don't get why people knock this game so much, it's not even a bad game. Sure, it's not as good as some of the fangames of today but it's still not "bad".
[2] Likes
Rating: 6.0 60
Difficulty: 25 25
May 18, 2015
Xplayerlol
For: I wanna be the Guy
For: I wanna be the Guy
Review updated (2020), let's make this thing a little cleaner. My rating is based on hard mode, because legend says it's the intended way for the game to be played. As always, the difficulty I choose only affects the difficulty rating.
I wanna be the Guy is the root of many fangames, and this is clearly seen. It's the root of the fangames with required secrets that are unreasonably hard to find (Dracula's path; fake walls). It's the root of the fangames with huge amounts of flying spikes at the same save. But it's also the root of the fangames with good, creative traps. And of the fangames with fake traps that make you flinch and then have a good laugh. It's the root of adventure and trap fangames, and it spawned elements from other fangame genres as well (Including needle-esque jumps and gimmicks). The good elements and the bad elements, this game has them all.
One thing that has been missing from most reviews, including mine, was an actual description of the game. In its heart, I wanna be the Guy is a tribute to old videogames. It's a non-linear adventure through fractions of universes from well-known franchises - but with cruel twists that make them much more hostile. The star of this adventure is the Kid, a kid that seems to be making a Superman cosplay - except that he has a gun. The Kid aims to become "The Guy", a position of power whose perks are never fully specified. In his adventure, the Kid finds out that nothing is as it seems. He discovers his fragility when he dies for the first time, and then his strength when he kills for the first time (I'm making this sound a lot grander than it actually is).
The Kid's journey is filled with hazards. From dreadful spikes to harmless-looking fruit, everything is a threat. A large portion of these hazards are presented in the form of "traps", hazards that specifically aim to kill you. In their best form, traps can be creative twists of the aforementioned references, baiting you into believing that you know what is coming - Only to make fun of you moments later. They can be unique, unpredictable and truly amusing. In their worst form, traps can be clusters of spikes that fly in your direction too quickly to be avoided if you don't know about them beforehand - An uninspired way of killing you that gets old, predictable and dull really quickly. I wanna be the Guy makes use of both kinds of traps, and the results vary with every stage. Naturally, the more dull traps a stage has, the worse it's going to be (And some stages have a LOT of dull traps).
I wanna be the Guy's platforming also features a couple of mechanics that alter the way you play the game - These would be called "gimmicks". From gimmicks that became common place, such as vine jumps and platforms, to elements that are unusual even by modern standards, such as the Arkanoid section, I wanna be the Guy is undoubtedly a game with a lot of variety, which is something I will never complain about - although this game does have some mechanics I simply despise.
Long story short, the platforming is a mixed bag. It has a lot of creativity and variety behind its mechanics, which is essential for every adventure game, but what truly dictates its quality through every stage is the game's core element - Its traps -, and those can vary greatly in their level of quality from one stage to another. Some sections of the game are ruined by traps, while others are enhanced by them.
The bosses, on the other hand, I'm much less fond of. Mecha Birdo is nice, actually, it might not look great but there's nothing bad about the fight itself, and while Mike Tyson is easy and repetitive, it's not the worst thing ever. The other bosses, however...Dracula is a RNG clownfiesta (In fact, he's the only boss in the game that allows you to complain about RNG) that often walls you. Kraidgief is way too slow-paced and forces you to step on something that looks like an attack to progress - which is super unintuitive, given the game we are playing; Mother Brain is really boring. It has way too much HP and you still have to go through a platforming-ish area before you can reach her. The length of the fight doesn't mesh well with the lack of variety in attacks, which results in a very dull boss; Bowser is way, WAY too boring, so boring it hurts. It's the worst boss of the game by far. It contains three unskippable cutscenes, and 66% of the fight has just as much gameplay as the cutscenes. The last phase is the only difficult part of the fight, which is a horrendous design choice; The dragon requires mashing if you don't want his fight to take a few hours, and he's just way too repetitive, it's like Kayin ran out of ideas when making him. He throws fire while moving up and down, then he takes enough damage, goes to the other side of the screen, and the same thing happens again over and over until you reach the chase sequence, which is probably the only part of the fight that might be enjoyable; And finally, The Guy comes to be some kind of saving grace. It's a well-made fight with two (Some people will say three) phases, with a good variety of attacks, even though I'm not a fan of some of them. I would never say that he compensates for the bad bosses, but it's still a nice fight.
With this description, the game sounds like a mixed bag - With some extreme positives and some extreme negatives, the likes of which I usually give a 5.0-6.9 to. So why is my rating so low? There are two main reasons: Iffy physics, and "Macromedia Fusion [...] has stopped working". Let's go through them:
- Let's make one thing clear. Having a different engine, or different physics, is NOT a negative point for a fangame, not on its own. But the game needs to be made while keeping these physics in mind. In I wanna be the Guy's case, the game only allows you to jump at two different heights, which does not mesh well with certain precise sections of the game. The more needle a fangame contains, the more the player will appreciate the Kid that can jump at 21 different heights from our newer engines. IWBTG is not a needle game, but when you can only jump at 2 heights, even trivial jumps such as diagonals start to feel uncomfortable (And IWBTG does have a couple of those).
- The main problem, however, is how often this game crashes. "Macromedia Fusion [...] has stopped working" is a message I have seen too many times during my playthrough. Kayin himself knew about these crashes - He made a trap out of the error message, after all - which means these errors were an issue even back then. So why did he never fix them? Apparently, you can "Run the game in compatibility for Windows 95 and run it as an administrator to stop crashing" - thanks, sonicdv -, but that doesn't excuse Kayin from allowing this to happen to begin with. Other issues with the engine include a number of glitches (Sometimes, The Kid does double jumps even when you pressed shift only once) - and it seems that lag was an issue for some people, so the issues just keep piling up.
Originally, I thought that these issues made the game completely unplayable (I.e. below 1.0), but while remaking this review I changed my mind. The crashes can be circumvented (Even if not thanks to Kayin), and even if I still dislike the experience I had, it doesn't compare to any other fangame I rated below 1.0. Still, my general opinion remains: The contents of I wanna be the Guy are a mixed bag, but the entire bag is sprinkled with bad physics and bugs, which makes the game a lot worse than it should be. Wouldn't recommend.
[14] Likes
I wanna be the Guy is the root of many fangames, and this is clearly seen. It's the root of the fangames with required secrets that are unreasonably hard to find (Dracula's path; fake walls). It's the root of the fangames with huge amounts of flying spikes at the same save. But it's also the root of the fangames with good, creative traps. And of the fangames with fake traps that make you flinch and then have a good laugh. It's the root of adventure and trap fangames, and it spawned elements from other fangame genres as well (Including needle-esque jumps and gimmicks). The good elements and the bad elements, this game has them all.
One thing that has been missing from most reviews, including mine, was an actual description of the game. In its heart, I wanna be the Guy is a tribute to old videogames. It's a non-linear adventure through fractions of universes from well-known franchises - but with cruel twists that make them much more hostile. The star of this adventure is the Kid, a kid that seems to be making a Superman cosplay - except that he has a gun. The Kid aims to become "The Guy", a position of power whose perks are never fully specified. In his adventure, the Kid finds out that nothing is as it seems. He discovers his fragility when he dies for the first time, and then his strength when he kills for the first time (I'm making this sound a lot grander than it actually is).
The Kid's journey is filled with hazards. From dreadful spikes to harmless-looking fruit, everything is a threat. A large portion of these hazards are presented in the form of "traps", hazards that specifically aim to kill you. In their best form, traps can be creative twists of the aforementioned references, baiting you into believing that you know what is coming - Only to make fun of you moments later. They can be unique, unpredictable and truly amusing. In their worst form, traps can be clusters of spikes that fly in your direction too quickly to be avoided if you don't know about them beforehand - An uninspired way of killing you that gets old, predictable and dull really quickly. I wanna be the Guy makes use of both kinds of traps, and the results vary with every stage. Naturally, the more dull traps a stage has, the worse it's going to be (And some stages have a LOT of dull traps).
I wanna be the Guy's platforming also features a couple of mechanics that alter the way you play the game - These would be called "gimmicks". From gimmicks that became common place, such as vine jumps and platforms, to elements that are unusual even by modern standards, such as the Arkanoid section, I wanna be the Guy is undoubtedly a game with a lot of variety, which is something I will never complain about - although this game does have some mechanics I simply despise.
Long story short, the platforming is a mixed bag. It has a lot of creativity and variety behind its mechanics, which is essential for every adventure game, but what truly dictates its quality through every stage is the game's core element - Its traps -, and those can vary greatly in their level of quality from one stage to another. Some sections of the game are ruined by traps, while others are enhanced by them.
The bosses, on the other hand, I'm much less fond of. Mecha Birdo is nice, actually, it might not look great but there's nothing bad about the fight itself, and while Mike Tyson is easy and repetitive, it's not the worst thing ever. The other bosses, however...Dracula is a RNG clownfiesta (In fact, he's the only boss in the game that allows you to complain about RNG) that often walls you. Kraidgief is way too slow-paced and forces you to step on something that looks like an attack to progress - which is super unintuitive, given the game we are playing; Mother Brain is really boring. It has way too much HP and you still have to go through a platforming-ish area before you can reach her. The length of the fight doesn't mesh well with the lack of variety in attacks, which results in a very dull boss; Bowser is way, WAY too boring, so boring it hurts. It's the worst boss of the game by far. It contains three unskippable cutscenes, and 66% of the fight has just as much gameplay as the cutscenes. The last phase is the only difficult part of the fight, which is a horrendous design choice; The dragon requires mashing if you don't want his fight to take a few hours, and he's just way too repetitive, it's like Kayin ran out of ideas when making him. He throws fire while moving up and down, then he takes enough damage, goes to the other side of the screen, and the same thing happens again over and over until you reach the chase sequence, which is probably the only part of the fight that might be enjoyable; And finally, The Guy comes to be some kind of saving grace. It's a well-made fight with two (Some people will say three) phases, with a good variety of attacks, even though I'm not a fan of some of them. I would never say that he compensates for the bad bosses, but it's still a nice fight.
With this description, the game sounds like a mixed bag - With some extreme positives and some extreme negatives, the likes of which I usually give a 5.0-6.9 to. So why is my rating so low? There are two main reasons: Iffy physics, and "Macromedia Fusion [...] has stopped working". Let's go through them:
- Let's make one thing clear. Having a different engine, or different physics, is NOT a negative point for a fangame, not on its own. But the game needs to be made while keeping these physics in mind. In I wanna be the Guy's case, the game only allows you to jump at two different heights, which does not mesh well with certain precise sections of the game. The more needle a fangame contains, the more the player will appreciate the Kid that can jump at 21 different heights from our newer engines. IWBTG is not a needle game, but when you can only jump at 2 heights, even trivial jumps such as diagonals start to feel uncomfortable (And IWBTG does have a couple of those).
- The main problem, however, is how often this game crashes. "Macromedia Fusion [...] has stopped working" is a message I have seen too many times during my playthrough. Kayin himself knew about these crashes - He made a trap out of the error message, after all - which means these errors were an issue even back then. So why did he never fix them? Apparently, you can "Run the game in compatibility for Windows 95 and run it as an administrator to stop crashing" - thanks, sonicdv -, but that doesn't excuse Kayin from allowing this to happen to begin with. Other issues with the engine include a number of glitches (Sometimes, The Kid does double jumps even when you pressed shift only once) - and it seems that lag was an issue for some people, so the issues just keep piling up.
Originally, I thought that these issues made the game completely unplayable (I.e. below 1.0), but while remaking this review I changed my mind. The crashes can be circumvented (Even if not thanks to Kayin), and even if I still dislike the experience I had, it doesn't compare to any other fangame I rated below 1.0. Still, my general opinion remains: The contents of I wanna be the Guy are a mixed bag, but the entire bag is sprinkled with bad physics and bugs, which makes the game a lot worse than it should be. Wouldn't recommend.
Rating: 1.9 19
Difficulty: 50 50
May 18, 2015
Paragus
For: I wanna Farc spike
For: I wanna Farc spike
A 3 room needle game with pretty low production but with some interesting platforming. The second room is sort of meh with it's "I spilled my bucket of spikes" look to it.
Tagged as: Needle
[0] Likes
Rating: 5.5 55
Difficulty: 55 55
May 18, 2015
Paragus
For: I wanna Marchen
For: I wanna Marchen
What could have been a good game is completely ruined by the idiocy of the visuals, music, and one of the dumbest death effects ever seen in a fangame.
RNG panda bears sliding up and down the edge of the screen like it's a stripper pole, often times leading to having your view obstructed. Every death makes you watch a 2-3 second clip of your guy slowly drifting back to his spawn. Music that sounds like you are in the dentist office on Sesame Street just becomes an annoyance.
The best part about this game was that after 2 1/2 hours of playing it, I got save stuck in a ceiling and had my file ruined. I am not the only one this has happened to either. It's not worth the risk of grinding through this nightmare to have your file ruined. Although let's be honest, out of the 2 1/2 hours I lost, probably 1 hour of that was spent watching the death effect...
[2] Likes
RNG panda bears sliding up and down the edge of the screen like it's a stripper pole, often times leading to having your view obstructed. Every death makes you watch a 2-3 second clip of your guy slowly drifting back to his spawn. Music that sounds like you are in the dentist office on Sesame Street just becomes an annoyance.
The best part about this game was that after 2 1/2 hours of playing it, I got save stuck in a ceiling and had my file ruined. I am not the only one this has happened to either. It's not worth the risk of grinding through this nightmare to have your file ruined. Although let's be honest, out of the 2 1/2 hours I lost, probably 1 hour of that was spent watching the death effect...
Rating: 4.5 45
Difficulty: 60 60
May 18, 2015
Paragus
For: I wanna Speedspike
For: I wanna Speedspike
This might have been a good game is 95% of it was not the same 4 jumps. You can only do so many "F-Jumps" and "Diamond spike on a block" jumps before you wonder how the hell did the maker not realize this. There is an extra stage at the end that's a little better, but overall the game is a wasted opportunity. The music is pretty good and the visuals are decent, but the repetition of those same few jumps just gets silly.
Tagged as: Needle
[0] Likes
Rating: 5.5 55
Difficulty: 50 50
May 18, 2015
Yok
For: I wanna be the Partysu
For: I wanna be the Partysu
Nice and relaxing gameplay so far, with good visuals. Looking forward to the full-version.
Tagged as: Needle
[0] Likes
Rating: 6.9 69
Difficulty: 45 45
May 18, 2015