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:
380 Ratings!
380 Reviews!
792 Screenshots!
Twitch Stream
Youtube Channel
TwitterReport this user
380 Games
380 Reviews
ElCochran90
For: I wanna be the RZ
For: I wanna be the RZ
A legendary game by Rukito that I kinda... enjoyed???
Well, it's a belated Christmas miracle, I presume. Initial needle stages are very boring and generic, but as you progress, they get more creative in both design and required platforming, featuring jumps not as predictable as you might expect. There are still trash instances in these latter sections, such as a save having to do a 9 jump two times in a row UPSIDE DOWN (this works well still if you have the muscle memory for it) and, given your height, the technical equivalent of an invert in the first save of the screen before the first boss, which was, hands down, the hardest save for me in the entire game. Curve difficulty follows no rhyme or reason, and the soundtrack goes from OK-ish to fantastic (Mushihimesama Futari Stage 2 for the win!).
Bosses are deplorably bad, as you would expect from a Rukito game; however, they had some cult charm. I don't know what's the videogame equivalent of a B-movie, but if such term exists, that would totally apply to Boss 1 and partially for Boss 2. Boss 2 is a luck-based boss, so if you're into that nonsense, give it a try. That is not difficulty at all, just... luck. It also doesn't compare to the quality of the second half of the needle stages.
It's my most difficult Rukito clear so far (still the most difficult trash boss is in GR), but the difficulty increased along with the quality, which is a good thing. I still wouldn't recommend this as a game, but as a must-clear curiosity for needle fans.
P.S. Beware with the final screen, since there is a trap that will make you lose your soul for 20 seconds or so when it happens.
[2] Likes
Well, it's a belated Christmas miracle, I presume. Initial needle stages are very boring and generic, but as you progress, they get more creative in both design and required platforming, featuring jumps not as predictable as you might expect. There are still trash instances in these latter sections, such as a save having to do a 9 jump two times in a row UPSIDE DOWN (this works well still if you have the muscle memory for it) and, given your height, the technical equivalent of an invert in the first save of the screen before the first boss, which was, hands down, the hardest save for me in the entire game. Curve difficulty follows no rhyme or reason, and the soundtrack goes from OK-ish to fantastic (Mushihimesama Futari Stage 2 for the win!).
Bosses are deplorably bad, as you would expect from a Rukito game; however, they had some cult charm. I don't know what's the videogame equivalent of a B-movie, but if such term exists, that would totally apply to Boss 1 and partially for Boss 2. Boss 2 is a luck-based boss, so if you're into that nonsense, give it a try. That is not difficulty at all, just... luck. It also doesn't compare to the quality of the second half of the needle stages.
It's my most difficult Rukito clear so far (still the most difficult trash boss is in GR), but the difficulty increased along with the quality, which is a good thing. I still wouldn't recommend this as a game, but as a must-clear curiosity for needle fans.
P.S. Beware with the final screen, since there is a trap that will make you lose your soul for 20 seconds or so when it happens.
Rating: 4.1 41
Difficulty: 87 87
Dec 31, 2021
ElCochran90
For: I wanna be the LoveTrap
For: I wanna be the LoveTrap
Rating based on getting to Big Kid and grinding the fight for 10 hours (getting cherries from four sides at high speed when you shoot him), and also on getting the secrets. Difficulty rating based on the same principles except for the secrets (which doesn't affect at all due to Big Kid's difficulty).
An attempt of translating actual quotes of the maker:
"Thank you for downloading this game.
Game Content:
It is an action game where you avoid obstacles such as spikes and defeat the boss.
Story:
There is none.
Difficulty:
When you start the game and select save data, the difficulty level selection screen will appear.
Touching a warp zone such as Medium or Hard will start a new game. Only the number of savepoints changes depending on the difficulty level, and the placement of obstacles and the strength of the boss do not change.
Q & A
[Q]
How can I clear the game?
[A]
It is clear if you can collect 8 items in the light blue part of the save selection screen."
The existence of this game today is considered as a timeline event. The cornerstone of this community (Kayin's original game) had three main derivatives from my very personal perspective:
a) Tijit's follow-up "Fangame!" which, after many versions, got reconstructed into its current version, following the same architectural layout of Guy, loosely resembling a Metroidvania style and actually adding more fun to getting the secrets
b) Geezer's tragically unfinished Kill The Guy, featuring, like the previous mention, an engine of its own, fantastic adventure paraphernalia and, to the greatest pain of my heart, not only the lack of an ending, but also of a stage and more than one boss
c) Nekoron's LoveTrap, a play on words of "Ai" (Love) and "Wana" (Trap), the one that used the engine mechanics that are used up to this day (older fangames already had it, however, such as the underappreciated GB) and an architecture that would influence an exceptional amount of makers, more from the East than from the West, starting with Carnival
This is excluding less impactful releases such as Guy2, Challenge!, Be the Mario: The Movie: The Prequel, to name a few.
LoveTrap starts in a very similar fashion that the original Guy and Fangame! do: choose your path, but watch your step, as you might immediately encounter a trap. And so, the story begins, introducing (at least for many) the concept of fast-paced triggers. As the game keeps advancing, it showcases fantastic surprises all the way through, as well as frustrating and exceedinly questionable decisions.
Evaluating this game under modern standards is not inherently incorrect, but I consider it as an inappropriate approach. However, taking the extreme opposite of "this fangame was the first to do X and Y and therefore that makes it good" is also a subjective bias.
Each stage is differentiated by a unique style or gimmick, and a couple of them have a unique visual style. The water stage introduced to us the Nekoron engine, which is infamous today for its 1-frame glitch, something that I find unbearably intolerable since it is quite easy for me to 1-frame in water sections or in infinite-jump sections: that results in a full jump because, due to poor water coding, the engine automatically substracts one frame from your jumps. As insignificant as one frame might sound, the level of platforming precision that some segments in this game require really makes you pay the bill. Nekoron has been my nemesis for a couple of years now and last year drove me mad with Go the DotKid! When you realize that this game is probably the earliest one to feature both downwards and upwards planes, you're in for a treat.
Sections such as the orange-background stage or the one with spinning delicious fruits are fun for a quick playthrough, but there is nothing that differentiates them. However, some vanilla needle is very welcome from time to time.
Enter the Bad Apple section and it is an explosion of meme platforming: it introduced the white-and-black section that would be replicated in more fangames than I can count and with actual visual creativity. The boss of said stage is really charming and the game mocks mechanics that move by frames as the strategy to beat it is going through it by analizing which frames it occupies every time it changes sides. Ridiculous for some, amusing for me, this is a terrific addition.
Bosses are certainly the best part of the game because they are intentionally not serious: a sticky figure, a boss that suicides (and thus introducing the concept of "troll boss" to the community), the debut of Just(???) in a funny gun duel mechanic and a
Inevitably, you will find a Miku sprite suddenly, a white background and a metallic-tileset layout that either you have or will see again 5,000+ times in the future. You shoot the Miku, but nothing happens. You're curious to see if the inert sprite kills you, and it turns out to be alive: it kills you by touching it. You shoot the projectiles and specific ones go away. But there's music, an everlasting signature Miku vocaloid to be exact: The Disappearance of Hatsune Miku -DEAD END-初音ミクの消失.[!/spoiler] Not only that, but the attacks are synced with the music and you must draw a specific path to avoid the attacks and have the best initial positioning for each new attack. This idea is insanely creative and I'm assuming the game blew up in Japan because the era of Vocaloid during 2010 was around its highest peak. This is also very interesting because this section might have a message: the vocaloid has one of the quickest portions of Miku singing along her entire catalogue and it is hypothesized this is happening because her time is running out and is about to die, which is exactly what happens when you endure the whole song: she dies by disappearing.
Irony, as Morpheus would say, does not lack a sense of humor because this was the first of thousands of Miku fights to be made in the fangame universe.
Platforming can be considered of 60s difficulty at worse for the water section alone, and 55 considering the rest of the stages (the first screen of the spinning delicious fruits are annoyingly precise and an iconic screen where you press red buttons in a screen consisting of very well timed diagonals will get the worst out of you).
After this, this game also features the mechanic of placing you in a tower once the game has ended (or, more properly, has made you think it has) which has a buffed Boss Rush. This is pretty much a Rockman idea, but the one that hits you the hardest is Miku 2, which easily increases the difficulty up to 75. The avoidance is legendary in many ways:
1) It is really dynamic in the sense that there is a desired initial position for each attack, and the fact that there is a Polkka mini-Miku sprite chasing you the whole time demands an even more strategical pathing which will make you realize you actually use all platforms
2) Your gun becomes useless. Shooting is out of the question; it is entirely an avoidance SKILL ISSUE
3) The intro is unbearably long, and Nekoron actually intended that you went through it every time you died, which is stupidly infamous considering its legendary difficulty for the time (even veterans today will find themselves grinding the avoidance). If you actually try to skip it, it plays a joke that kills you; I never imagined this and didn't know it until I played the game, and it is indeed funny, but when you realize the implications (not being able to skip 25 f****ng seconds every time you die) is enough for you to just give up due to PATIENCE ISSUES
4) There is a musical logic behind the construction of the avoidance: intro, chorus, verse, chorus, verse, chorus, outro. That is the structure of the vocaloid, and the attacks correspond to it, progressively increasing in difficulty, which many players consider unfair, others common, and others both. However, the last chorus is doubled in length, and the second half has a monumental difficulty which requires a galaxy-brain logic to time, place and beat, considering that there is an infinitely annoying Polkka mini-Miku sprite chasing you the whole time. Beating it is not enough, since the outro has a great portion based on luck and will ruin many attempts of conquering the LoveTrap attack, which is enough for considering yourself an avoidance god.
Which you aren't, but the fact that this was the first Miku avoidance is insane, just like with Go the Dotkid!
Also, Fragnattic's reaction to beating Miku 2 in an unbelievable way back in 2011 is one of my favorite "reaction" moments in all of fangamedom. It's all the merrier to me since, well, I speak Spanish. Here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBfj_nbcN1E
The final boss is famously infamous: it is an extremely extended exercise of a combination of both luck and patience. The fact that sometimes the boss shoots two real bullets in a row can ruin all possible strategies against him, and that's where the luck part comes in. Beating the boss is also considered as a Timeline event.
Here's where my initial quote of the creator comes in: that's enough for clearing the game. There is no clear screen (unless you consider the next screen after the boss as one), but you actually get congratulated after getting all secrets, travelling through an "underworld" and getting to Big Kid 2, which location, without a guide, requires tons of blind exploration, which is pointless by this time because you already conquered all screens considering the secrets.
Big Kid 2 is a joke and have only seen a TAS of it. Time will tell when the "when" happens. Blue's attempts where the ones that inspired me to, one day, beat Big Kid 1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0FxpKZUUtM
It's the sum of its parts that makes it great, and maybe Nekoron wanted to make a transcendent boss considering its difficulty. That's a ridiculous idea for me if it is almost unbeatable (referring to version 2), but Big Kid 1 alone is the reason behind my difficulty rating, which, again, is enough to clear the game according to the words of the maker. The rest is extra and a bad meme.
[3] Likes
An attempt of translating actual quotes of the maker:
"Thank you for downloading this game.
Game Content:
It is an action game where you avoid obstacles such as spikes and defeat the boss.
Story:
There is none.
Difficulty:
When you start the game and select save data, the difficulty level selection screen will appear.
Touching a warp zone such as Medium or Hard will start a new game. Only the number of savepoints changes depending on the difficulty level, and the placement of obstacles and the strength of the boss do not change.
Q & A
[Q]
How can I clear the game?
[A]
It is clear if you can collect 8 items in the light blue part of the save selection screen."
The existence of this game today is considered as a timeline event. The cornerstone of this community (Kayin's original game) had three main derivatives from my very personal perspective:
a) Tijit's follow-up "Fangame!" which, after many versions, got reconstructed into its current version, following the same architectural layout of Guy, loosely resembling a Metroidvania style and actually adding more fun to getting the secrets
b) Geezer's tragically unfinished Kill The Guy, featuring, like the previous mention, an engine of its own, fantastic adventure paraphernalia and, to the greatest pain of my heart, not only the lack of an ending, but also of a stage and more than one boss
c) Nekoron's LoveTrap, a play on words of "Ai" (Love) and "Wana" (Trap), the one that used the engine mechanics that are used up to this day (older fangames already had it, however, such as the underappreciated GB) and an architecture that would influence an exceptional amount of makers, more from the East than from the West, starting with Carnival
This is excluding less impactful releases such as Guy2, Challenge!, Be the Mario: The Movie: The Prequel, to name a few.
LoveTrap starts in a very similar fashion that the original Guy and Fangame! do: choose your path, but watch your step, as you might immediately encounter a trap. And so, the story begins, introducing (at least for many) the concept of fast-paced triggers. As the game keeps advancing, it showcases fantastic surprises all the way through, as well as frustrating and exceedinly questionable decisions.
Evaluating this game under modern standards is not inherently incorrect, but I consider it as an inappropriate approach. However, taking the extreme opposite of "this fangame was the first to do X and Y and therefore that makes it good" is also a subjective bias.
Each stage is differentiated by a unique style or gimmick, and a couple of them have a unique visual style. The water stage introduced to us the Nekoron engine, which is infamous today for its 1-frame glitch, something that I find unbearably intolerable since it is quite easy for me to 1-frame in water sections or in infinite-jump sections: that results in a full jump because, due to poor water coding, the engine automatically substracts one frame from your jumps. As insignificant as one frame might sound, the level of platforming precision that some segments in this game require really makes you pay the bill. Nekoron has been my nemesis for a couple of years now and last year drove me mad with Go the DotKid! When you realize that this game is probably the earliest one to feature both downwards and upwards planes, you're in for a treat.
Sections such as the orange-background stage or the one with spinning delicious fruits are fun for a quick playthrough, but there is nothing that differentiates them. However, some vanilla needle is very welcome from time to time.
Enter the Bad Apple section and it is an explosion of meme platforming: it introduced the white-and-black section that would be replicated in more fangames than I can count and with actual visual creativity. The boss of said stage is really charming and the game mocks mechanics that move by frames as the strategy to beat it is going through it by analizing which frames it occupies every time it changes sides. Ridiculous for some, amusing for me, this is a terrific addition.
Bosses are certainly the best part of the game because they are intentionally not serious: a sticky figure, a boss that suicides (and thus introducing the concept of "troll boss" to the community), the debut of Just(???) in a funny gun duel mechanic and a
Inevitably, you will find a Miku sprite suddenly, a white background and a metallic-tileset layout that either you have or will see again 5,000+ times in the future. You shoot the Miku, but nothing happens. You're curious to see if the inert sprite kills you, and it turns out to be alive: it kills you by touching it. You shoot the projectiles and specific ones go away. But there's music, an everlasting signature Miku vocaloid to be exact: The Disappearance of Hatsune Miku -DEAD END-初音ミクの消失.[!/spoiler] Not only that, but the attacks are synced with the music and you must draw a specific path to avoid the attacks and have the best initial positioning for each new attack. This idea is insanely creative and I'm assuming the game blew up in Japan because the era of Vocaloid during 2010 was around its highest peak. This is also very interesting because this section might have a message: the vocaloid has one of the quickest portions of Miku singing along her entire catalogue and it is hypothesized this is happening because her time is running out and is about to die, which is exactly what happens when you endure the whole song: she dies by disappearing.
Irony, as Morpheus would say, does not lack a sense of humor because this was the first of thousands of Miku fights to be made in the fangame universe.
Platforming can be considered of 60s difficulty at worse for the water section alone, and 55 considering the rest of the stages (the first screen of the spinning delicious fruits are annoyingly precise and an iconic screen where you press red buttons in a screen consisting of very well timed diagonals will get the worst out of you).
After this, this game also features the mechanic of placing you in a tower once the game has ended (or, more properly, has made you think it has) which has a buffed Boss Rush. This is pretty much a Rockman idea, but the one that hits you the hardest is Miku 2, which easily increases the difficulty up to 75. The avoidance is legendary in many ways:
1) It is really dynamic in the sense that there is a desired initial position for each attack, and the fact that there is a Polkka mini-Miku sprite chasing you the whole time demands an even more strategical pathing which will make you realize you actually use all platforms
2) Your gun becomes useless. Shooting is out of the question; it is entirely an avoidance SKILL ISSUE
3) The intro is unbearably long, and Nekoron actually intended that you went through it every time you died, which is stupidly infamous considering its legendary difficulty for the time (even veterans today will find themselves grinding the avoidance). If you actually try to skip it, it plays a joke that kills you; I never imagined this and didn't know it until I played the game, and it is indeed funny, but when you realize the implications (not being able to skip 25 f****ng seconds every time you die) is enough for you to just give up due to PATIENCE ISSUES
4) There is a musical logic behind the construction of the avoidance: intro, chorus, verse, chorus, verse, chorus, outro. That is the structure of the vocaloid, and the attacks correspond to it, progressively increasing in difficulty, which many players consider unfair, others common, and others both. However, the last chorus is doubled in length, and the second half has a monumental difficulty which requires a galaxy-brain logic to time, place and beat, considering that there is an infinitely annoying Polkka mini-Miku sprite chasing you the whole time. Beating it is not enough, since the outro has a great portion based on luck and will ruin many attempts of conquering the LoveTrap attack, which is enough for considering yourself an avoidance god.
Which you aren't, but the fact that this was the first Miku avoidance is insane, just like with Go the Dotkid!
Also, Fragnattic's reaction to beating Miku 2 in an unbelievable way back in 2011 is one of my favorite "reaction" moments in all of fangamedom. It's all the merrier to me since, well, I speak Spanish. Here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBfj_nbcN1E
The final boss is famously infamous: it is an extremely extended exercise of a combination of both luck and patience. The fact that sometimes the boss shoots two real bullets in a row can ruin all possible strategies against him, and that's where the luck part comes in. Beating the boss is also considered as a Timeline event.
Here's where my initial quote of the creator comes in: that's enough for clearing the game. There is no clear screen (unless you consider the next screen after the boss as one), but you actually get congratulated after getting all secrets, travelling through an "underworld" and getting to Big Kid 2, which location, without a guide, requires tons of blind exploration, which is pointless by this time because you already conquered all screens considering the secrets.
Big Kid 2 is a joke and have only seen a TAS of it. Time will tell when the "when" happens. Blue's attempts where the ones that inspired me to, one day, beat Big Kid 1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0FxpKZUUtM
It's the sum of its parts that makes it great, and maybe Nekoron wanted to make a transcendent boss considering its difficulty. That's a ridiculous idea for me if it is almost unbeatable (referring to version 2), but Big Kid 1 alone is the reason behind my difficulty rating, which, again, is enough to clear the game according to the words of the maker. The rest is extra and a bad meme.
Rating: 6.0 60
Difficulty: 93 93
Dec 30, 2021
ElCochran90
For: I Wanna Be The GBC
For: I Wanna Be The GBC
GBC Review: A LETTER TO THE COMMUNITY
Happy Holidays and blessings to everyone.
“We're 5 minutes into this; you have not started talking about the game yet!”
-Someone about me around March 2020
In order to avoid this, I have decided to split this review into four parts. Even though I personally consider my Catharsis review as my best piece of writing in this site (this is not an attempt of self-promotion), I want GBC to be a document dedicated to the fangaming community and about my perspective as an outsider that was invited into a world I never imagined existed.
Therefore, you can look for your desired reading section following the next numerical arrangement:
I. About myself and my experience in fangames
II. About what this game represents for the community from my personal perspective
III. About the game itself and the reasons behind this rating (the “normal review” part most people are interested in)
IV. Thanks Section
Thank you so much in advance for your interest in my writing, which I have developed throughout a span of 12 years in a language that is not native to me. In case you’re just here for my numbers (6.6, 82) and read at least my intro, I deeply thank you as well for the interest.
******************************************
I. About myself and my experience in fangames
The introduction of my experience in fangames can be found in my I Wanna Be The Guy, I Wanna Be The Boshy, I Wanna Sunspike and I Wanna Qoqoqo 2 reviews (which last edit has been removed for the better good). Therefore, I have decided to tackle that topic from a new perspective and meld it with the kind of person (I think) I am.
I was born in 1990, proudly born and raised in Mexico, a Christian, an art appreciator, a former Marketing Research, Portfolio Theory and Applied Inferential Statistics in my university, and an addict to cinema (4300+ and counting). I believe God has a plan for all of us, coincidences do not exist, everything is an outcome of causality, and free will exerts a permanent effect on its surrounding environment. My favorite film is from Hungary, was shot in B&W, was released when I was 4 years old, and is over seven hours long. Currently, I am a full-time-working participant of the capitalist machine in one of the biggest Foods & Beverages companies in the world, support my entire family financially through the wisdom that God gives me, love my family deeply, haven’t seen my father in several years, and have a public film diary dearly supported and promoted by an astonishing amount of followers which I use for two main purposes:
a) Meeting extraordinary people around the world and their individual perspectives on life
b) Finding more about myself through the art of cinema and being able to exteriorize my soul through my writing so others get to know me, and I become more versatile in my usage of language
So, what is my current stance of fangames?
I’d rate my skills around 68/100 in terms of Del Fruit difficulty (Advanced) that is OK at needle, mediocre at avoidances, good at boss fights, expert at criticizing (I always aim at this being constructive), very good and consistent at adventure games, and learns gimmicks quickly. Precision Needle belongs in hell; experimentation should always be welcomed.
Living in a developing economy with a family to sustain is very difficult; you have to adapt to English as the standard international language (education in Mexico has very negative standards and teachers are not supported enough), a fast internet connection is a luxury, upgrading a PC takes away a lot of your savings, and, given that the most basic principles of the Federal Working Law (Ley General del Trabajo) are not followed, working schedules are not standardized, you do not get paid per hour and family distancing is an increasingly notorious social issue.
In short, it demands a lot of sweat and stress to have a worthy living, and the time available for hobbies is extremely scarce.
That’s where my context of fangaming comes in. A very poor GPU is the source of my FPS falling during streams, and therefore have left me no choice but to stream very specific games that are not affected by this, especially considering the input precision that fangames require and the extent to which lag affects your strategies.
However, I am proud with my accomplishments and clear list, and have no serious plans to increase my personally applied skills rating of 68. I don’t consider myself a veteran whatsoever.
The thing is (and Racic understands this really well since I had a live exchange with him during one of his always terrifically funny streams): I joined this community too late, and I feel the weight of my age. There is this age gap that doesn’t allow me to understand 40% of what is happening in the community, many memes fly over me, and I’m many times put in the situation of just watching the streamer’s gameplay and not participating in the conversation a lot because I have absolutely no idea what they’re all talking about. The community is made up of many centennials and several millennials thrown in for good measure that hardly will surpass the 25-year-old mark. It is a very tech-based community. In the context of fangame makers, speedrunners, testers and code writers, this makes sense; however, I am not that type of guy.
I am stuck in a world where all people I stumble upon are better than me, have a deeper knowledge about basic platforming, have better clear times (hang on algosith; I know you taught me an important lesson about this), and have extraordinary achievements which you can either replicate or do it in worse clear times. I have the need of being constantly instructed in new terms (recently, I had no idea what “cactusing” was), getting recommendations, and being led to ways for getting private fangames.
My mentality differs greatly from the most important individuals in this community; I don’t have the resources or the time to belong fully, since it also involves being a Discord man. Embarrassingly, I can barely use it because I don’t understand it (that sounded so old, and it is), so I keep the tradition of reviews and message boards. The community is growing up exponentially and don’t have the time to keep up with all messages or helping new members with the acceptable knowledge and experience I have. Moreover, I don’t cope with some of the jokes people make here, and they have given me two of the most unpleasant online experiences I have had on the Internet (one of them is still available on a Twitch VOD; I recently rewatched it under the mind frame of “it’s all a joke; don’t take it seriously” and I cannot stop feeling extremely offended and even unjustly maligned with false claims about me).
So, I am planning to return to the film world because I had a hiatus due to a prolonged depression state. Meds are working, and my biggest amount of work is there, so it shouldn’t be discontinued.
******************************************
II. About what this game represents for the community from my personal perspective
This is not the best fangame of the year, nor a groundbreaking artistic accomplishment, nor one of my favorite fangames, nor one of the best fangame collabs available.
However, its exhaustive concoction is a monument towards how united the community is.
I have seen this community do unthinkable things, not entirely limited to: do I Wanna Be the Guy in Impossible mode before 2010, clear Shrine Maiden 2, clear Brute of a Man (possible mod), do FTFA deathless, clear Melanzana, clear Last TIS, clear Destruction State, speedrun the true ending of K3 under 11 hours, clearing K3 boss rush hitless, speedrun K2 under an hour, clearing Happil 1, making close attempts at clearing Big Kid 2 in Love Trap (I am not updated in this yet), organize fangame marathons and inviting other mod communities to join, participate in the AGDQ events at least 7 times and raising thousands of dollars for charity purposes, make outrageous meme streams (K3 Meme Stream 2 with Stonk is one of the best things I have ever seen on the Internet), clear まゆむしチャンネル, clear ATK 2 (possible mod), clear RIZ, clear Scattered Faith, clear the Lucky trilogy, clear Invincible Alien, clear all Battlegrounds avoidances, clear Butterfly Nova, finish FGN, clear Lektphire, clear Soulless with sick playthroughs of the Hard Mode and, of course, clearing GBC 100%.
However, these are only gaming accomplishments. I am leaving out amazing playthrough videos, tutorials, massive video editing projects, streaming events, and, stating the obvious, creating magnificent fangames.
Many of you know this, but I handle the following relationship for fangames:
-Fangames = Videogames ∈ Art
This puts me in a lower rating spectrum, but not intentionally. What I want to express to the community is the following: I have faith and I am certain not only in the fact that fangame makers have the same creative abilities and potential technical expertise than official videogame creators, but that your final outputs can be as artistically significant as a Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Ergo, I use the aforementioned relationship.
Therefore, I make no distinction, because I don’t believe in biases or clauses of exclusivity.
Now,
Enter GBC.
Enter a local meme phenomenon in which a seriously misunderstood classic fangame from 2009 creates a main screen which serves as a tier to many areas like the original starting screen of Guy does, and for some arbitrary reason, countless of fangames, mostly from the Eastern community, replicate this screen, most of the times reinventing it in many ways, some of them better than others. This became a joke, and the screen began to haunt the community.
This is the entry that forced Del Fruit to increase the number of characters available for entering the substantial amount of people that made levels for this collab. The project was extremely hyped and even I was invited into it by a few people, beginning with FruitlessWasabi.
When I was in the least bad conditions for streaming (although still suboptimal), I decided to interrupt my playthrough of a specifically designed queue for 2021 that would end up with a blind playthrough of K2 live and entered GBC into the agenda. I underestimated the scope and size of the stampede that GBC is in terms of length and accomplishments/trophies, but decided to take on the challenge anyway, with FPS dropped and input lag in my streams. It was worth it; I was impressed at the number of viewers that began to watch my streams, including some legends I had only seen in YouTube or live on Twitch. The interest was natural: this game is a timeline event in the Western community, and the original level designers held great interest in watching the reception of their levels from whoever it might be.
GBC is one of the greatest game-creation projects of the community so far, a community that has reached a peak in organization, self-support and interactivity. The consensus that should sustain the admiration towards GBC is the following: the fact that dozens of minds agreed to experiment on a single idea and release it as a single product. Cinema very rarely sees these contributions; collabs are much common in the fangame world, and I’d even argue they are more common in the official videogames world. People treat themselves as friends and trust-worthy working partners, always on the lookout for talented people out there; you name it: designers, video editors, mods, admins, event supporters, etc.
GBC, for me, is the greatest landmark so far in the Western fangame community because of the amount of effort that went into it, the timelines that had to be met by many (the timelines that caused certain levels such as Tower Defense not having any music, for example), and the serious creative decisions taken by the project directors to ensure:
-A reasonable difficulty curve
-Consistent playthrough decisions
-Guaranteed coherent playability between each tier
Conclusively, congrats on release. This is a titanic achievement by fangame dictionary definition, a triumph of organization and common unity, and a very ambitious project.
******************************************
III. About the game itself and the reasons behind this rating
(Rating based on all levels of the Main Tier. Difficulty rating also based on Main Tier as requested by the creators.)
GBC is the ultimate audiovisual and conceptually innovative amalgamation of a single concept expanded into hundreds of individually creative particles. It is, so far, the new pedestal to measure creativity regarding a core idea. As a collab, it works wonders because of the unpredictability of the ideas / gimmicks / interpretations / jokes you will get in each level. Therefore, a clear of ALL main levels is highly encouraged.
Sudoku is the most predominant genre, and this should be a logical outcome since the game is a parody taken to the extreme… to the extreme that every single mind allowed the creators to.
As a collab, unfortunately, it suffers from the inherent (yet not axiomatic) truths about collabs: it has ups and downs. The quality is as consistent as a roller-coaster and the genre balancing is as logical as the Covid decisions taken by Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador for reactivating a pandemic-stricken economy.
The game has one basic constraint: prioritize the difficulty curve over artistic consistency. This is appropriate, but the drawback is shocking, since you will be facing original Sudoku ideas first, plain vanilla needle second, repetitive levels third, unlikeable gimmicks fourth, and 3D levels final. There is not a premise nor a promise on an increasing trend on out-of-the-box thinking and gameplay/audiovisual experimentation because the creators envisioned their own ideas with an originally planned difficulty level. It is basically impossible to balance something like this because ideas already entail an original difficulty in the creator’s mind, and nerfing/modifying it results in a distortion of the original conception. That is limiting artistic freedom and is something I strongly defend it in all artforms. I condemn all forms of censorship.
However, it is this unpredictability that, even if at times it will make the game unpleasant throughout, there is still that exciting expectation of: “What the hell could be next?” Given that the game wants to conquer all possible tags/genres available on Del Fruit, there is really no way to forecast the upcoming experience.
That is why all users are strongly exhorted not to spoil the experience through reviews or uploading screenshots. All you require to know is already presented in the intro of the game, so not being used to the original GB doesn’t really affect the intentions and scope of GBC.
Finally, any% playthroughs are really recommended, even for beginners, with the option to stop at the point where they realize they will stumble upon a difficulty wall (Tier 6 [needle section] is my most reliable forecast).
I personally find this above the level of Try A Collab 1 & 2, with #2 being quite the achievement because that fangame, although it suffered from many of the drawbacks if this collab, was much more organized and didn’t become a meme-infested diarrhea display everywhere and had its own meme section with Mr. Bones (and the memes were much better). Also, it gave me one of my hardest avoidance clears, Moonlight Extra hitless, which took me dozens of thousands of deaths and around 40+ hours (I really have no idea though).
TOP 7 LEVELS ARE:
1. Kiyoshi’s Tier 5 Special / Boss Game (Tribute to GB and Zero Game)
2. p00ks Tier 7 Special GBTD
3. hautp’s Tier 8 Needle / Gimmick Stage (Tribute to Starter and K3 Extra)
4. Welowas’ Tier 8 Gimmick Stage
5. very cool’s Tier 7 Gimmick Stage
6. Arras’ Tier 3 Special Level
7. Arras Tier 2 Boss
BOTTOM 5 LEVELS ARE:
5. Duncan’s Tier 2 level with the mouse gimmick and the K3 / Conquer the Blow Game reference
4. M – The
3. E – True
2. E – God
1. M – Maker
TOP 3 MUSIC CHOICES ARE:
1.Joshua Boring – Tier 6 Needle Stage: Muse – “Knights of Cydonia”
2. 29th Letter – Tier 4: Jay & the Americans – “Come a Little Bit Closer”
3. FatherPucci1 – Tier 6 Needle Stage: Aphex Twin – “Pulsewidth”
The entire soundtrack from beginning to end is the most versatile and dissonant experience ever for a game. I love it.
Bosses in general are not so exciting for accessing the next area, avoidances are forgettable and lacking, but the transition areas between each Tier are really fun as a summary of the previously seen stages. Final avoidance attempts strongly to wrap up as a celebration of the culmination of something big, but I personally think that the massive scope of the entire main game preceding it surpasses the final avoidance itself. However, props to Cthaere for undertaking such responsibility.
Special mentions go to p00ks avoidance in Tier 6 and Joshua Boring’s amusing nod to Destination and GB with his Tier 3 boss. Also, excellent closing credits and song choice! Beautiful stuff.
Thanks for this interactive experience. Joshua personally commented to me that the next big (surprise) project will be more consistent regarding how it will be assembled. Regardless of that, the release of GBC is a timeline event for me.
******************************************
IV. Thanks Section
I wanted to give all of you a gift: a YouTube playlist of all songs in GBC, especially when FruitlessWasabi told me during mid-year that it hadn't been done yet. I wanted to make this an end-of-year-project after reviewing the game as a sign of thanking you all, in case you found it useful. However, Turdy Tootsan got ahead of me by several months (not surprising at all, duh), which is awesome, but I find it very sad in my end because I have nothing else to give, beyond all the possible constant support to your channels and projects even if I don't really have time to fangame as frequently as before the more my professional career keeps evolving and my wish to have a family comes closer.
So, please thank Turdy Tootsan for all his effort. You can follow said playlist here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8P_Y6VdkDYEqo_q1P4XwD8T25j6jHVRl
Sorry for being so slow and not being able to give you this. Life moves fast for an adult living in a developing economy like Mexico is very harsh but consider me as a contact willing to give shelter to anyone of you ever wanting to pay a visit here once this virus disappears.
Hence, I decided to make a detailed Thanks section to the users that have shaped me as the half-time quasi-fangamer I currently am:
+etany07: For being my best friend, sister in Christ, supporting my streams endlessly, being my first sub and for all your prayers and spent hours on me; God bless you
+GaspacoZanis - For your guidance and tracking my trajectory since day 1, giving beginner recs and introducing me into the Private Fangame community back in early 2020
+FruitlessWasabi - For being the main supporter, up to this day, of my whole progress as an I Wanna fangamer, as my most loyal viewer from the Fangame Community
+algosith - For congratulating me on every single achievement, no matter small, that I dared showing to the community
+sonicdv - For sharing me all Carnival fangames back in 2018 when they were private and wonderfully complimenting my reviews one year later (calling me as someone "so well versed in cinema, music, and games"). Also for letting me know what the ending credits song for GENKI was!
+shign - For including me on your Justice English version project, and I apologize for not having the time to intervene in it (God knows I haven't had the time and patience)
+YaBoiMarcAntony - For making the most wholesome compliments on my DF reviews ever, taking the time to write a long DM and giving me recs to play
+Joshua_Boring - For supporting everyone's streams of this game as a good project director, including Doruppi's (and telling us the hilarious anecdote of Doruppi and co. not understanding why all of the screens in this game looked similar until they got the joke in Tier 3 even if Doruppi speedran GB)
+Welowas - For your affectionate support and cheering me on during my difficult playthrough of your fantastic level
+RandomErik - For asking me politely not to give a 3/10 to Trap Way 3 and watching my stream of it
+Racic - For being the best DJ, a great host and exposing the greatest understanding towards my rating system and reviews in more than one occasion
+FlaviaEstCalida - For calling me, non-sarcastically, as "an "upstanding member of the community whose effort towards reviewing the projects of several makers established a bar on analysis, appreciation and reviewing"; will never be able to thank you enough
+TTBB - For being an inspirational avoidance monster and always treating everyone with respect and patience; your calm personality is one of a kind
+Galaxy_Archivist - For being on several of my streams and letting me test your density avoidance live!!!! Will I get credit for that? No need, but if I do, I'll love you forever
+MikuStar - For sticking around many of my streams and for your concern towards my streaming conditions (impressive that you never forgot)
+Reaper - For not joking!!! (also for asking me for a short film review of yours; BASED!)
+CanusAntonius - For sticking around during my hautp K3 Extra GBC screen, following and re-following after you accidentally blocked me
+p00ks1 - For following
+Anuj - For following
+Mastermaxify - For the 2nd big raid in my channel, and for being in my first and fifth-to-last GBC stream
+nameless_iw - For following, commenting and supporting during streams
+Daglom - For following, commenting and supporting during streams
+person4566 - For wishing me luck during my toughest GBC challenge
+not_important_ - For all your support during my GBC streams and stating that a deathcount of 30,000+ for GBC seemed about right given that I was doing all the main hub
+person4566 - For all your support during my GBC streams
+Taprus_ - For all your support during my GBC streams
+DestructorTheDestroyer - For sticking throughout most of my playthrough of the Tower Defense level and sending me your hilarious screenshot of your overkill strats
+hautp - For immediately catching my first stream of your K3 Extra / Starter level and explicitly explaining to me your logic behind its creation, including your concept of "distracting needle"; it was the best interview I never asked for
+fatherpucci - For saying that "too long" is a bad reason to hate a review and sharing the trivia that Nal said hautp's level was good enough and easy enough to be put in main stage (it's totally not Nal, what the hell)
+qtFruity - For calling my reviews "awesome", calling my review process "very inspiring" and encouraging me to do whatever I want even if I am "on the lower end rating-wise"
+cLOUDDEAD - For promoting my Catharsis review and defending the logic of my rating system (and in the line of your thoughts, everyone else's systems too)
+Deleted User - For your appreciation of my Catharsis review
+franciscovcm - For the brief support
+Daglom - For cheering me on and telling me not to worry about the death count
+Eradem - For the most affectionate display of support during my frustration and decreasing hope in hautp's level
+Kilp_alt - For sticking around frequently, supporting, and nagging me patiently when I just couldn't avoid naming you "Klip" all the time
+SantusPaladin - For patiently watching my stream until I got the Kamilia achievement in hautp's level and calling it "the funniest shit"
+thunder_iw - For following and sticking around from time to time
+Barfyace - For following
Special Thanks:
-Kayin: For freakin' everything.
-Thenadertwo: For shaping my initial, crucial steps in needle and creating one of my favorite needle subgenres; also, for making me discover fantastic music choices
-Stonk: For making the first big raid ever for my channel while I was playing Timemachine 1 and parodying my reviews with a good sense of humor
-Mastermaxify: For being there since my 1st playthrough all the way until my 2nd big raid ever in hautp's Starter/ExtraK3 level
-Kiyoshi: For creating the best level in the game
-pOOks: For being the main contributor of the game regarding level variety
-Turdy Tootsan: For thanking Kiyoshi that his level bumped up my rating for GBC after I said during Ninz 100% YouTube live chat that "community will have to thank this stage for bumping up my rating"
March First: For hoppin onto Turdy's bandwagon
-Joshua_Boring: For asking me immediately after to lower my rating by like 0.1 points just because you asked (I actually did this Kappa), and for the fantastic ending credits
-Pixl: For being interested in the release of this present review for many months.
-ninz: For your fantastically assembled and edited 100%-playthrough video, doing a Timeline event (did you actually get added to the Timeline?) and becoming the reference to follow for any insane person out there who actually wants to replicate the same stupid achievement
-pointfive: E.D.I.T.I.N.G.
Not special thanks to:
[This section got deleted at the last moment. I had a detailed section with no names regarding all the negative things people have done to me in the community, such as calling me a clown, a liar, a pretentious person, a person not worth being raided, and people assuming stuff on my behalf; the final thought was: “What in the world are you achieving with this beyond ruining your review?” Hence, it has been deleted before publishing and that should just be ignored.]
I publically apologize to:
-JRocker
-Kiyoshi
-All people involved in JRocker's Twitter Device joke
...for having a moment back in the day and commenting during a time in which my family and I was in serious danger, when I don't even use Twitter, and taking a joke too personally. Never act under the influence of emotions and meds.
Also:
-Quasitry: I will find you (Keepo)
KEEP THE COMMUNITY STRONG AND KEEP EXPANDING! I’d like to know when great things happen.
Finally, I would like to state I had a great time with you people watching my streams, even if it was for watching me react to your level. I hold all of these moments clear to me, but this is the most significant:
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1236638266
FINAL STATS:
Deaths: 40,053
Time: 73:55:30
Real Time: 6 months
Hardest Achievement: Kamilia Achievement in hautp’s level --> https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1187279971
Best moment of the game: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1048129951
Clear video: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1196504825
[30] Likes
Happy Holidays and blessings to everyone.
“We're 5 minutes into this; you have not started talking about the game yet!”
-Someone about me around March 2020
In order to avoid this, I have decided to split this review into four parts. Even though I personally consider my Catharsis review as my best piece of writing in this site (this is not an attempt of self-promotion), I want GBC to be a document dedicated to the fangaming community and about my perspective as an outsider that was invited into a world I never imagined existed.
Therefore, you can look for your desired reading section following the next numerical arrangement:
I. About myself and my experience in fangames
II. About what this game represents for the community from my personal perspective
III. About the game itself and the reasons behind this rating (the “normal review” part most people are interested in)
IV. Thanks Section
Thank you so much in advance for your interest in my writing, which I have developed throughout a span of 12 years in a language that is not native to me. In case you’re just here for my numbers (6.6, 82) and read at least my intro, I deeply thank you as well for the interest.
******************************************
I. About myself and my experience in fangames
The introduction of my experience in fangames can be found in my I Wanna Be The Guy, I Wanna Be The Boshy, I Wanna Sunspike and I Wanna Qoqoqo 2 reviews (which last edit has been removed for the better good). Therefore, I have decided to tackle that topic from a new perspective and meld it with the kind of person (I think) I am.
I was born in 1990, proudly born and raised in Mexico, a Christian, an art appreciator, a former Marketing Research, Portfolio Theory and Applied Inferential Statistics in my university, and an addict to cinema (4300+ and counting). I believe God has a plan for all of us, coincidences do not exist, everything is an outcome of causality, and free will exerts a permanent effect on its surrounding environment. My favorite film is from Hungary, was shot in B&W, was released when I was 4 years old, and is over seven hours long. Currently, I am a full-time-working participant of the capitalist machine in one of the biggest Foods & Beverages companies in the world, support my entire family financially through the wisdom that God gives me, love my family deeply, haven’t seen my father in several years, and have a public film diary dearly supported and promoted by an astonishing amount of followers which I use for two main purposes:
a) Meeting extraordinary people around the world and their individual perspectives on life
b) Finding more about myself through the art of cinema and being able to exteriorize my soul through my writing so others get to know me, and I become more versatile in my usage of language
So, what is my current stance of fangames?
I’d rate my skills around 68/100 in terms of Del Fruit difficulty (Advanced) that is OK at needle, mediocre at avoidances, good at boss fights, expert at criticizing (I always aim at this being constructive), very good and consistent at adventure games, and learns gimmicks quickly. Precision Needle belongs in hell; experimentation should always be welcomed.
Living in a developing economy with a family to sustain is very difficult; you have to adapt to English as the standard international language (education in Mexico has very negative standards and teachers are not supported enough), a fast internet connection is a luxury, upgrading a PC takes away a lot of your savings, and, given that the most basic principles of the Federal Working Law (Ley General del Trabajo) are not followed, working schedules are not standardized, you do not get paid per hour and family distancing is an increasingly notorious social issue.
In short, it demands a lot of sweat and stress to have a worthy living, and the time available for hobbies is extremely scarce.
That’s where my context of fangaming comes in. A very poor GPU is the source of my FPS falling during streams, and therefore have left me no choice but to stream very specific games that are not affected by this, especially considering the input precision that fangames require and the extent to which lag affects your strategies.
However, I am proud with my accomplishments and clear list, and have no serious plans to increase my personally applied skills rating of 68. I don’t consider myself a veteran whatsoever.
The thing is (and Racic understands this really well since I had a live exchange with him during one of his always terrifically funny streams): I joined this community too late, and I feel the weight of my age. There is this age gap that doesn’t allow me to understand 40% of what is happening in the community, many memes fly over me, and I’m many times put in the situation of just watching the streamer’s gameplay and not participating in the conversation a lot because I have absolutely no idea what they’re all talking about. The community is made up of many centennials and several millennials thrown in for good measure that hardly will surpass the 25-year-old mark. It is a very tech-based community. In the context of fangame makers, speedrunners, testers and code writers, this makes sense; however, I am not that type of guy.
I am stuck in a world where all people I stumble upon are better than me, have a deeper knowledge about basic platforming, have better clear times (hang on algosith; I know you taught me an important lesson about this), and have extraordinary achievements which you can either replicate or do it in worse clear times. I have the need of being constantly instructed in new terms (recently, I had no idea what “cactusing” was), getting recommendations, and being led to ways for getting private fangames.
My mentality differs greatly from the most important individuals in this community; I don’t have the resources or the time to belong fully, since it also involves being a Discord man. Embarrassingly, I can barely use it because I don’t understand it (that sounded so old, and it is), so I keep the tradition of reviews and message boards. The community is growing up exponentially and don’t have the time to keep up with all messages or helping new members with the acceptable knowledge and experience I have. Moreover, I don’t cope with some of the jokes people make here, and they have given me two of the most unpleasant online experiences I have had on the Internet (one of them is still available on a Twitch VOD; I recently rewatched it under the mind frame of “it’s all a joke; don’t take it seriously” and I cannot stop feeling extremely offended and even unjustly maligned with false claims about me).
So, I am planning to return to the film world because I had a hiatus due to a prolonged depression state. Meds are working, and my biggest amount of work is there, so it shouldn’t be discontinued.
******************************************
II. About what this game represents for the community from my personal perspective
This is not the best fangame of the year, nor a groundbreaking artistic accomplishment, nor one of my favorite fangames, nor one of the best fangame collabs available.
However, its exhaustive concoction is a monument towards how united the community is.
I have seen this community do unthinkable things, not entirely limited to: do I Wanna Be the Guy in Impossible mode before 2010, clear Shrine Maiden 2, clear Brute of a Man (possible mod), do FTFA deathless, clear Melanzana, clear Last TIS, clear Destruction State, speedrun the true ending of K3 under 11 hours, clearing K3 boss rush hitless, speedrun K2 under an hour, clearing Happil 1, making close attempts at clearing Big Kid 2 in Love Trap (I am not updated in this yet), organize fangame marathons and inviting other mod communities to join, participate in the AGDQ events at least 7 times and raising thousands of dollars for charity purposes, make outrageous meme streams (K3 Meme Stream 2 with Stonk is one of the best things I have ever seen on the Internet), clear まゆむしチャンネル, clear ATK 2 (possible mod), clear RIZ, clear Scattered Faith, clear the Lucky trilogy, clear Invincible Alien, clear all Battlegrounds avoidances, clear Butterfly Nova, finish FGN, clear Lektphire, clear Soulless with sick playthroughs of the Hard Mode and, of course, clearing GBC 100%.
However, these are only gaming accomplishments. I am leaving out amazing playthrough videos, tutorials, massive video editing projects, streaming events, and, stating the obvious, creating magnificent fangames.
Many of you know this, but I handle the following relationship for fangames:
-Fangames = Videogames ∈ Art
This puts me in a lower rating spectrum, but not intentionally. What I want to express to the community is the following: I have faith and I am certain not only in the fact that fangame makers have the same creative abilities and potential technical expertise than official videogame creators, but that your final outputs can be as artistically significant as a Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Ergo, I use the aforementioned relationship.
Therefore, I make no distinction, because I don’t believe in biases or clauses of exclusivity.
Now,
Enter GBC.
Enter a local meme phenomenon in which a seriously misunderstood classic fangame from 2009 creates a main screen which serves as a tier to many areas like the original starting screen of Guy does, and for some arbitrary reason, countless of fangames, mostly from the Eastern community, replicate this screen, most of the times reinventing it in many ways, some of them better than others. This became a joke, and the screen began to haunt the community.
This is the entry that forced Del Fruit to increase the number of characters available for entering the substantial amount of people that made levels for this collab. The project was extremely hyped and even I was invited into it by a few people, beginning with FruitlessWasabi.
When I was in the least bad conditions for streaming (although still suboptimal), I decided to interrupt my playthrough of a specifically designed queue for 2021 that would end up with a blind playthrough of K2 live and entered GBC into the agenda. I underestimated the scope and size of the stampede that GBC is in terms of length and accomplishments/trophies, but decided to take on the challenge anyway, with FPS dropped and input lag in my streams. It was worth it; I was impressed at the number of viewers that began to watch my streams, including some legends I had only seen in YouTube or live on Twitch. The interest was natural: this game is a timeline event in the Western community, and the original level designers held great interest in watching the reception of their levels from whoever it might be.
GBC is one of the greatest game-creation projects of the community so far, a community that has reached a peak in organization, self-support and interactivity. The consensus that should sustain the admiration towards GBC is the following: the fact that dozens of minds agreed to experiment on a single idea and release it as a single product. Cinema very rarely sees these contributions; collabs are much common in the fangame world, and I’d even argue they are more common in the official videogames world. People treat themselves as friends and trust-worthy working partners, always on the lookout for talented people out there; you name it: designers, video editors, mods, admins, event supporters, etc.
GBC, for me, is the greatest landmark so far in the Western fangame community because of the amount of effort that went into it, the timelines that had to be met by many (the timelines that caused certain levels such as Tower Defense not having any music, for example), and the serious creative decisions taken by the project directors to ensure:
-A reasonable difficulty curve
-Consistent playthrough decisions
-Guaranteed coherent playability between each tier
Conclusively, congrats on release. This is a titanic achievement by fangame dictionary definition, a triumph of organization and common unity, and a very ambitious project.
******************************************
III. About the game itself and the reasons behind this rating
(Rating based on all levels of the Main Tier. Difficulty rating also based on Main Tier as requested by the creators.)
GBC is the ultimate audiovisual and conceptually innovative amalgamation of a single concept expanded into hundreds of individually creative particles. It is, so far, the new pedestal to measure creativity regarding a core idea. As a collab, it works wonders because of the unpredictability of the ideas / gimmicks / interpretations / jokes you will get in each level. Therefore, a clear of ALL main levels is highly encouraged.
Sudoku is the most predominant genre, and this should be a logical outcome since the game is a parody taken to the extreme… to the extreme that every single mind allowed the creators to.
As a collab, unfortunately, it suffers from the inherent (yet not axiomatic) truths about collabs: it has ups and downs. The quality is as consistent as a roller-coaster and the genre balancing is as logical as the Covid decisions taken by Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador for reactivating a pandemic-stricken economy.
The game has one basic constraint: prioritize the difficulty curve over artistic consistency. This is appropriate, but the drawback is shocking, since you will be facing original Sudoku ideas first, plain vanilla needle second, repetitive levels third, unlikeable gimmicks fourth, and 3D levels final. There is not a premise nor a promise on an increasing trend on out-of-the-box thinking and gameplay/audiovisual experimentation because the creators envisioned their own ideas with an originally planned difficulty level. It is basically impossible to balance something like this because ideas already entail an original difficulty in the creator’s mind, and nerfing/modifying it results in a distortion of the original conception. That is limiting artistic freedom and is something I strongly defend it in all artforms. I condemn all forms of censorship.
However, it is this unpredictability that, even if at times it will make the game unpleasant throughout, there is still that exciting expectation of: “What the hell could be next?” Given that the game wants to conquer all possible tags/genres available on Del Fruit, there is really no way to forecast the upcoming experience.
That is why all users are strongly exhorted not to spoil the experience through reviews or uploading screenshots. All you require to know is already presented in the intro of the game, so not being used to the original GB doesn’t really affect the intentions and scope of GBC.
Finally, any% playthroughs are really recommended, even for beginners, with the option to stop at the point where they realize they will stumble upon a difficulty wall (Tier 6 [needle section] is my most reliable forecast).
I personally find this above the level of Try A Collab 1 & 2, with #2 being quite the achievement because that fangame, although it suffered from many of the drawbacks if this collab, was much more organized and didn’t become a meme-infested diarrhea display everywhere and had its own meme section with Mr. Bones (and the memes were much better). Also, it gave me one of my hardest avoidance clears, Moonlight Extra hitless, which took me dozens of thousands of deaths and around 40+ hours (I really have no idea though).
TOP 7 LEVELS ARE:
1. Kiyoshi’s Tier 5 Special / Boss Game (Tribute to GB and Zero Game)
2. p00ks Tier 7 Special GBTD
3. hautp’s Tier 8 Needle / Gimmick Stage (Tribute to Starter and K3 Extra)
4. Welowas’ Tier 8 Gimmick Stage
5. very cool’s Tier 7 Gimmick Stage
6. Arras’ Tier 3 Special Level
7. Arras Tier 2 Boss
BOTTOM 5 LEVELS ARE:
5. Duncan’s Tier 2 level with the mouse gimmick and the K3 / Conquer the Blow Game reference
4. M – The
3. E – True
2. E – God
1. M – Maker
TOP 3 MUSIC CHOICES ARE:
1.Joshua Boring – Tier 6 Needle Stage: Muse – “Knights of Cydonia”
2. 29th Letter – Tier 4: Jay & the Americans – “Come a Little Bit Closer”
3. FatherPucci1 – Tier 6 Needle Stage: Aphex Twin – “Pulsewidth”
The entire soundtrack from beginning to end is the most versatile and dissonant experience ever for a game. I love it.
Bosses in general are not so exciting for accessing the next area, avoidances are forgettable and lacking, but the transition areas between each Tier are really fun as a summary of the previously seen stages. Final avoidance attempts strongly to wrap up as a celebration of the culmination of something big, but I personally think that the massive scope of the entire main game preceding it surpasses the final avoidance itself. However, props to Cthaere for undertaking such responsibility.
Special mentions go to p00ks avoidance in Tier 6 and Joshua Boring’s amusing nod to Destination and GB with his Tier 3 boss. Also, excellent closing credits and song choice! Beautiful stuff.
Thanks for this interactive experience. Joshua personally commented to me that the next big (surprise) project will be more consistent regarding how it will be assembled. Regardless of that, the release of GBC is a timeline event for me.
******************************************
IV. Thanks Section
I wanted to give all of you a gift: a YouTube playlist of all songs in GBC, especially when FruitlessWasabi told me during mid-year that it hadn't been done yet. I wanted to make this an end-of-year-project after reviewing the game as a sign of thanking you all, in case you found it useful. However, Turdy Tootsan got ahead of me by several months (not surprising at all, duh), which is awesome, but I find it very sad in my end because I have nothing else to give, beyond all the possible constant support to your channels and projects even if I don't really have time to fangame as frequently as before the more my professional career keeps evolving and my wish to have a family comes closer.
So, please thank Turdy Tootsan for all his effort. You can follow said playlist here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8P_Y6VdkDYEqo_q1P4XwD8T25j6jHVRl
Sorry for being so slow and not being able to give you this. Life moves fast for an adult living in a developing economy like Mexico is very harsh but consider me as a contact willing to give shelter to anyone of you ever wanting to pay a visit here once this virus disappears.
Hence, I decided to make a detailed Thanks section to the users that have shaped me as the half-time quasi-fangamer I currently am:
+etany07: For being my best friend, sister in Christ, supporting my streams endlessly, being my first sub and for all your prayers and spent hours on me; God bless you
+GaspacoZanis - For your guidance and tracking my trajectory since day 1, giving beginner recs and introducing me into the Private Fangame community back in early 2020
+FruitlessWasabi - For being the main supporter, up to this day, of my whole progress as an I Wanna fangamer, as my most loyal viewer from the Fangame Community
+algosith - For congratulating me on every single achievement, no matter small, that I dared showing to the community
+sonicdv - For sharing me all Carnival fangames back in 2018 when they were private and wonderfully complimenting my reviews one year later (calling me as someone "so well versed in cinema, music, and games"). Also for letting me know what the ending credits song for GENKI was!
+shign - For including me on your Justice English version project, and I apologize for not having the time to intervene in it (God knows I haven't had the time and patience)
+YaBoiMarcAntony - For making the most wholesome compliments on my DF reviews ever, taking the time to write a long DM and giving me recs to play
+Joshua_Boring - For supporting everyone's streams of this game as a good project director, including Doruppi's (and telling us the hilarious anecdote of Doruppi and co. not understanding why all of the screens in this game looked similar until they got the joke in Tier 3 even if Doruppi speedran GB)
+Welowas - For your affectionate support and cheering me on during my difficult playthrough of your fantastic level
+RandomErik - For asking me politely not to give a 3/10 to Trap Way 3 and watching my stream of it
+Racic - For being the best DJ, a great host and exposing the greatest understanding towards my rating system and reviews in more than one occasion
+FlaviaEstCalida - For calling me, non-sarcastically, as "an "upstanding member of the community whose effort towards reviewing the projects of several makers established a bar on analysis, appreciation and reviewing"; will never be able to thank you enough
+TTBB - For being an inspirational avoidance monster and always treating everyone with respect and patience; your calm personality is one of a kind
+Galaxy_Archivist - For being on several of my streams and letting me test your density avoidance live!!!! Will I get credit for that? No need, but if I do, I'll love you forever
+MikuStar - For sticking around many of my streams and for your concern towards my streaming conditions (impressive that you never forgot)
+Reaper - For not joking!!! (also for asking me for a short film review of yours; BASED!)
+CanusAntonius - For sticking around during my hautp K3 Extra GBC screen, following and re-following after you accidentally blocked me
+p00ks1 - For following
+Anuj - For following
+Mastermaxify - For the 2nd big raid in my channel, and for being in my first and fifth-to-last GBC stream
+nameless_iw - For following, commenting and supporting during streams
+Daglom - For following, commenting and supporting during streams
+person4566 - For wishing me luck during my toughest GBC challenge
+not_important_ - For all your support during my GBC streams and stating that a deathcount of 30,000+ for GBC seemed about right given that I was doing all the main hub
+person4566 - For all your support during my GBC streams
+Taprus_ - For all your support during my GBC streams
+DestructorTheDestroyer - For sticking throughout most of my playthrough of the Tower Defense level and sending me your hilarious screenshot of your overkill strats
+hautp - For immediately catching my first stream of your K3 Extra / Starter level and explicitly explaining to me your logic behind its creation, including your concept of "distracting needle"; it was the best interview I never asked for
+fatherpucci - For saying that "too long" is a bad reason to hate a review and sharing the trivia that Nal said hautp's level was good enough and easy enough to be put in main stage (it's totally not Nal, what the hell)
+qtFruity - For calling my reviews "awesome", calling my review process "very inspiring" and encouraging me to do whatever I want even if I am "on the lower end rating-wise"
+cLOUDDEAD - For promoting my Catharsis review and defending the logic of my rating system (and in the line of your thoughts, everyone else's systems too)
+Deleted User - For your appreciation of my Catharsis review
+franciscovcm - For the brief support
+Daglom - For cheering me on and telling me not to worry about the death count
+Eradem - For the most affectionate display of support during my frustration and decreasing hope in hautp's level
+Kilp_alt - For sticking around frequently, supporting, and nagging me patiently when I just couldn't avoid naming you "Klip" all the time
+SantusPaladin - For patiently watching my stream until I got the Kamilia achievement in hautp's level and calling it "the funniest shit"
+thunder_iw - For following and sticking around from time to time
+Barfyace - For following
Special Thanks:
-Kayin: For freakin' everything.
-Thenadertwo: For shaping my initial, crucial steps in needle and creating one of my favorite needle subgenres; also, for making me discover fantastic music choices
-Stonk: For making the first big raid ever for my channel while I was playing Timemachine 1 and parodying my reviews with a good sense of humor
-Mastermaxify: For being there since my 1st playthrough all the way until my 2nd big raid ever in hautp's Starter/ExtraK3 level
-Kiyoshi: For creating the best level in the game
-pOOks: For being the main contributor of the game regarding level variety
-Turdy Tootsan: For thanking Kiyoshi that his level bumped up my rating for GBC after I said during Ninz 100% YouTube live chat that "community will have to thank this stage for bumping up my rating"
March First: For hoppin onto Turdy's bandwagon
-Joshua_Boring: For asking me immediately after to lower my rating by like 0.1 points just because you asked (I actually did this Kappa), and for the fantastic ending credits
-Pixl: For being interested in the release of this present review for many months.
-ninz: For your fantastically assembled and edited 100%-playthrough video, doing a Timeline event (did you actually get added to the Timeline?) and becoming the reference to follow for any insane person out there who actually wants to replicate the same stupid achievement
-pointfive: E.D.I.T.I.N.G.
Not special thanks to:
[This section got deleted at the last moment. I had a detailed section with no names regarding all the negative things people have done to me in the community, such as calling me a clown, a liar, a pretentious person, a person not worth being raided, and people assuming stuff on my behalf; the final thought was: “What in the world are you achieving with this beyond ruining your review?” Hence, it has been deleted before publishing and that should just be ignored.]
I publically apologize to:
-JRocker
-Kiyoshi
-All people involved in JRocker's Twitter Device joke
...for having a moment back in the day and commenting during a time in which my family and I was in serious danger, when I don't even use Twitter, and taking a joke too personally. Never act under the influence of emotions and meds.
Also:
-Quasitry: I will find you (Keepo)
KEEP THE COMMUNITY STRONG AND KEEP EXPANDING! I’d like to know when great things happen.
Finally, I would like to state I had a great time with you people watching my streams, even if it was for watching me react to your level. I hold all of these moments clear to me, but this is the most significant:
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1236638266
FINAL STATS:
Deaths: 40,053
Time: 73:55:30
Real Time: 6 months
Hardest Achievement: Kamilia Achievement in hautp’s level --> https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1187279971
Best moment of the game: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1048129951
Clear video: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1196504825
Rating: 6.6 66
Difficulty: 83 83
Dec 23, 2021
ElCochran90
For: I Wanna be the Scapegoat
For: I Wanna be the Scapegoat
I should begin by stating I am a fan of 8Possible; it's a wonderful plethora of sensations and a creative representation of the subconscious under comma. It's not meant to be realistic (geez, it's a fangame), but the surreal atmosphere is one that I haven't found yet in any other fangame as of yet.
And then this dagger effort comes, very talented considering its age, following a dream-world structure and creating and adventure out of it. I love people experimenting with the medium, and if this is not it, then I don't know what it is.
The structure of the game is what makes it better than what it could have. A linear hub transports you to many worlds with a core atmosphere and several stages consisting of only two screens. This creates a steady sense of progression and being constantly rewarded for each conquered challenge.
The variety is beyond impressing, even if some levels are repeated in visual design or gimmick-wise in other worlds that do not fit in. Also, some gimmicks are questionable, such as the wind stages trolling you from time to time, and for the love of God, that honey gimmick was abominable trash. I don't know if it's my game version or the engine, but it DOESN'T work like vines. It tries to, but it obeys your command whenever the f*** it feels like it. Sometimes it will jump high, sometimes it will just fall off. Considering that more than one stage has this godawful gimmick and that an entire boss (not the first one, not the easiest in difficulty) depends entirely on this gimmick being pulled off correctly with a consistency that the game is not willing to give and relying on luck instead, it really kills the playability. The boss even dares to add honey to the whole ground, which is just even worse.
From there, given the great variety, we have many things to explore, and few gimmicks are annoying (one highly resembles the one implemented in Skyclad, but I don't know which fangame got released first tho). And in case they are, you know your challenge consists of two screens of consistency. The song choices are spot-on, even if they will be repeated in future occasions, and the bosses are very fun. The final avoidance is memorable and has creative, unpredictable attacks.
It's an experience I thank for having, because it is fulfilling, worth speedrunning (except for the honey trash) and doesn't exploit the gimmicks' difficulty, always remaining in a reasonable difficulty curve. Miku's avoidance is one of the highest spots of the game, and I appreciate the consistent love towards Donkey Kong Country 2.
Recommended indeed.
[1] Like
And then this dagger effort comes, very talented considering its age, following a dream-world structure and creating and adventure out of it. I love people experimenting with the medium, and if this is not it, then I don't know what it is.
The structure of the game is what makes it better than what it could have. A linear hub transports you to many worlds with a core atmosphere and several stages consisting of only two screens. This creates a steady sense of progression and being constantly rewarded for each conquered challenge.
The variety is beyond impressing, even if some levels are repeated in visual design or gimmick-wise in other worlds that do not fit in. Also, some gimmicks are questionable, such as the wind stages trolling you from time to time, and for the love of God, that honey gimmick was abominable trash. I don't know if it's my game version or the engine, but it DOESN'T work like vines. It tries to, but it obeys your command whenever the f*** it feels like it. Sometimes it will jump high, sometimes it will just fall off. Considering that more than one stage has this godawful gimmick and that an entire boss (not the first one, not the easiest in difficulty) depends entirely on this gimmick being pulled off correctly with a consistency that the game is not willing to give and relying on luck instead, it really kills the playability. The boss even dares to add honey to the whole ground, which is just even worse.
From there, given the great variety, we have many things to explore, and few gimmicks are annoying (one highly resembles the one implemented in Skyclad, but I don't know which fangame got released first tho). And in case they are, you know your challenge consists of two screens of consistency. The song choices are spot-on, even if they will be repeated in future occasions, and the bosses are very fun. The final avoidance is memorable and has creative, unpredictable attacks.
It's an experience I thank for having, because it is fulfilling, worth speedrunning (except for the honey trash) and doesn't exploit the gimmicks' difficulty, always remaining in a reasonable difficulty curve. Miku's avoidance is one of the highest spots of the game, and I appreciate the consistent love towards Donkey Kong Country 2.
Recommended indeed.
Rating: 6.6 66
Difficulty: 65 65
Sep 20, 2021
ElCochran90
For: I wanna be the Cloudburst
For: I wanna be the Cloudburst
lilly keeps rocking. A slight improvement over the adventure of Outbreak, this entry feels like a direct sequel, well the first stage, for a change, is not generic, but feels genuine and peaceful. Peaceful at least, until the traps hit you in the face.
There are some things that were improved and feel very conscious about the game.
1) The atmoshere: Through an effective combination of backgrounds and music, the film conveys many emotions, such as suspense and an adventurous spirit. Unfortunately, traps don't fit into the mix at all, but:
2) The traps: They are inventive, unpredictable, funny and are intentionally placed during the first half of the save. Unlike countless fangames, you can tell the strong intention of not making every save a chore. Magnificent chore.
3) The boss: Utterly fantastic, consisting of two phases: an avoidance and an actual battle. The feeling of epicness is there and the music choices, as it is always for lilly, are total bangers.
The gimmicks are forgettable and the chained rock cubes are kinda glitched (when falling, it depends on a coin flip whether if you can double-jump out of them or not, costing free deaths), stages are varied, but the game feels too short and there is only one boss.
I loved the epilogue, even though I thought the adventure would continue and was just, well, the ending.
I wanna play longer lilly trap adventure fangames.
[0] Likes
There are some things that were improved and feel very conscious about the game.
1) The atmoshere: Through an effective combination of backgrounds and music, the film conveys many emotions, such as suspense and an adventurous spirit. Unfortunately, traps don't fit into the mix at all, but:
2) The traps: They are inventive, unpredictable, funny and are intentionally placed during the first half of the save. Unlike countless fangames, you can tell the strong intention of not making every save a chore. Magnificent chore.
3) The boss: Utterly fantastic, consisting of two phases: an avoidance and an actual battle. The feeling of epicness is there and the music choices, as it is always for lilly, are total bangers.
The gimmicks are forgettable and the chained rock cubes are kinda glitched (when falling, it depends on a coin flip whether if you can double-jump out of them or not, costing free deaths), stages are varied, but the game feels too short and there is only one boss.
I loved the epilogue, even though I thought the adventure would continue and was just, well, the ending.
I wanna play longer lilly trap adventure fangames.
Rating: 6.6 66
Difficulty: 55 55
Sep 15, 2021
User's games list is empty!
34 Favorite Games
370 Cleared Games