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.
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381 Reviews!
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381 Games
381 Reviews
ElCochran90
For: Chill Needle 2
For: Chill Needle 2
Well, look at this beauty: better, prettier, bigger, longer, funner, funnier and uncut! This is a new immediate favorite.
Sorry if I bring films into this comment, but it is like when a renowned auteur makes a short film which serves as a prototype for exactly the same plot for a feature film, but the latter has everything better, extended and maximized, creating a masterpiece. This could be considered such a case. Competing with sunlaoqq regarding exceptional level design, arzztt surpasses him in two important ways: gameplay is not harmed by buffing jumps arbitrarily, and his unique combination of gimmicks into a single giant maze where you must keep tracks of where you are make gameplay exceptionally versatile. Difficulty doesn't come from extra spikes to make it more "challenging"; difficulty comes from the design itself and the inventive use of gimmicks. You have to think really carefully which route to take, so put your brain to work! Imo, none of the mazes surpass Qoqoqo 200's last section, but the final section of this game is extremely close.
If you want an advice on how to play the game to save the best for last, go left first, right second and up last. I want to note that the right segment is for those that want to focus on non-stop action mixed with beautiful visuals, and that the upwards route is those looking for the VVVVVV gimmick and fans of exceptional level design, because this section has one of the two maze screens of the game, which is quite the experience. The left section contains a gimmick involving blocks and needles, and I wasn't a huge fan of that, but it is still used in creative ways, especially when mixed with all of the gimmicks combined! In case you prefer needle skillz and visuals over level design and VVVVVV, then do left, up and right. What follows from the order you choose is one of the most memorable moments of recent fangame history: the ultimate challenge.
Also, if you're feeling bored (which is impossible), make unnecessary buffed jumps. There are tons of them, and although the majority of them have a meme with the Japanese Kappa block sound of Across the Rainbow that kills you, some others have really good surprises.
Finally, this is the first game that pushed me to make an upwards plane followed by a corner, and I achieved it successfully. The jump, of course, is entirely unnecessary, but you'll have your meme with the Japanese Kappa block sound of Across the Rainbow that kills you. I got more than that: I already have a strategy for a jump I once considered impossible for me, not to mention the personal fulfillment.
Fan of needle or not, you must play this. It even has bosses! Granted, their inclusion is very questionable given their absolutely trivial difficulty, and all of them can be first-tried, with the possible exception of the VVVVVV big blue Kid. However, they are brief fun to get through. Nothing groundbreaking there, which is disappointing. The final boss, however, which can also be first-tried (I did and I suck), is good fun. It doesn't last much though :(
Oh! Also this has the greatest clear screen ever.
P.S. I substracted one point from this game literally because it insulted me while looking for a secret. What's up with fangame makers doing that?! It is also the second time in the week it happens to me, along with Mysterious House. It's funny because you can get banned if you do the same thing in a review to the creator, so I won't do that... in written form...
Kappa
[3] Likes
Sorry if I bring films into this comment, but it is like when a renowned auteur makes a short film which serves as a prototype for exactly the same plot for a feature film, but the latter has everything better, extended and maximized, creating a masterpiece. This could be considered such a case. Competing with sunlaoqq regarding exceptional level design, arzztt surpasses him in two important ways: gameplay is not harmed by buffing jumps arbitrarily, and his unique combination of gimmicks into a single giant maze where you must keep tracks of where you are make gameplay exceptionally versatile. Difficulty doesn't come from extra spikes to make it more "challenging"; difficulty comes from the design itself and the inventive use of gimmicks. You have to think really carefully which route to take, so put your brain to work! Imo, none of the mazes surpass Qoqoqo 200's last section, but the final section of this game is extremely close.
If you want an advice on how to play the game to save the best for last, go left first, right second and up last. I want to note that the right segment is for those that want to focus on non-stop action mixed with beautiful visuals, and that the upwards route is those looking for the VVVVVV gimmick and fans of exceptional level design, because this section has one of the two maze screens of the game, which is quite the experience. The left section contains a gimmick involving blocks and needles, and I wasn't a huge fan of that, but it is still used in creative ways, especially when mixed with all of the gimmicks combined! In case you prefer needle skillz and visuals over level design and VVVVVV, then do left, up and right. What follows from the order you choose is one of the most memorable moments of recent fangame history: the ultimate challenge.
Also, if you're feeling bored (which is impossible), make unnecessary buffed jumps. There are tons of them, and although the majority of them have a meme with the Japanese Kappa block sound of Across the Rainbow that kills you, some others have really good surprises.
Finally, this is the first game that pushed me to make an upwards plane followed by a corner, and I achieved it successfully. The jump, of course, is entirely unnecessary, but you'll have your meme with the Japanese Kappa block sound of Across the Rainbow that kills you. I got more than that: I already have a strategy for a jump I once considered impossible for me, not to mention the personal fulfillment.
Fan of needle or not, you must play this. It even has bosses! Granted, their inclusion is very questionable given their absolutely trivial difficulty, and all of them can be first-tried, with the possible exception of the VVVVVV big blue Kid. However, they are brief fun to get through. Nothing groundbreaking there, which is disappointing. The final boss, however, which can also be first-tried (I did and I suck), is good fun. It doesn't last much though :(
Oh! Also this has the greatest clear screen ever.
P.S. I substracted one point from this game literally because it insulted me while looking for a secret. What's up with fangame makers doing that?! It is also the second time in the week it happens to me, along with Mysterious House. It's funny because you can get banned if you do the same thing in a review to the creator, so I won't do that... in written form...
Kappa
Rating: 6.9 69
Difficulty: 75 75
Jul 15, 2019
ElCochran90
For: Chill Needle
For: Chill Needle
Oh boy, I don't know. It's a tough one. I know I was promised to be short, and I was promised to be chill. Some formed the proper mindset and knew how to appreciate it. I didn't. Not because I am promised a short experience with a nice design means I should like it. The style is very present, and hey, nice music choice there. But it is so painfully short. As a novice, it took me 12 minutes and 200 deaths. This means that a speedrun would finish it before you finish a sneeze. My ideal of "chilling" is going through a reasonably lengthy game. If it is short, it must provide the goods at least. This game didn't; the only strong aspect was the visuals and music, which you will enjoy for 10 minutes or less.
arzztt had the idea that the lack of length could be compensated with difficult needle, as there are some very precise jumps. So it correlates entirely negatively with my idea of a chill needle ride, unlike Minimal or Kaleidoscope, or even Indigo Needle, which are decent games. If this game was any longer and never changed its difficulty line (because it is not a curve; it is always the same difficulty, so there's no sense of progression either), I would be rating this with a higher difficulty, and maybe many of us too. Hasn't that happened to you before, or am I the only one? You feel a game is difficult and quite precise, but it is also short, so we don't really "feel" it's that difficult even though it really is. A good example is Lucien Needle. Same thing happens with long games, at least with me. Thenader's Neon games are lengthy, but have a consistent difficulty, and I always find myself rating them 10 points or more above the difficulty average of this site. Or maybe I just suck at needle.
I digress. Point is, my idea of chilling is much longer (not something really long, just longer than this) and with easier needle, instead of compacting difficulty in very few screens.
Sequel? Let's go. Hope this was fixed.
[0] Likes
arzztt had the idea that the lack of length could be compensated with difficult needle, as there are some very precise jumps. So it correlates entirely negatively with my idea of a chill needle ride, unlike Minimal or Kaleidoscope, or even Indigo Needle, which are decent games. If this game was any longer and never changed its difficulty line (because it is not a curve; it is always the same difficulty, so there's no sense of progression either), I would be rating this with a higher difficulty, and maybe many of us too. Hasn't that happened to you before, or am I the only one? You feel a game is difficult and quite precise, but it is also short, so we don't really "feel" it's that difficult even though it really is. A good example is Lucien Needle. Same thing happens with long games, at least with me. Thenader's Neon games are lengthy, but have a consistent difficulty, and I always find myself rating them 10 points or more above the difficulty average of this site. Or maybe I just suck at needle.
I digress. Point is, my idea of chilling is much longer (not something really long, just longer than this) and with easier needle, instead of compacting difficulty in very few screens.
Sequel? Let's go. Hope this was fixed.
Rating: 3.5 35
Difficulty: 45 45
Jul 11, 2019
ElCochran90
For: I wanna be the Green Moon
For: I wanna be the Green Moon
Short-ish trap-based needle and gimmicks adventure game consisting of four stages, with the last three featuring a boss. As for the bosses, the first is the hardest, the second one the easiest, and the last one is the middle one, for some reason. It is lazy in design and planning; the difficulty curve of the needle platforming is nice and traps are not a detriment for the game (one is particularly clever once I tried a skip and I did smile at how clever it was). Also each stage has great music, so if you wanna appreciate it, you must either stay still (pointless gameplay-wise) or simply not die. But wait, there are traps. Bummer. It kills the mood. Finally, there is no closure. Any boss could be the last one and it would be as anticlimactic as it already is. Heck, I wouldn't have minded an extra featuring a Regigigas for the feeling of a TRUE final boss; even Mysterious House and Fortress Returns did this better.
Visuals, for my liking, are horrendous for two of the stages (one of them making the needle difficult to see) and one is nice. Stage 1 doesn't count as it is the generic IWBTG intro.
Very forgettable adventure with some daring jumps, such as corners from various angles and a clear obsession with gates, so beginners better be prepared for a more challenging experience.
Not recommended, sadly.
[0] Likes
Visuals, for my liking, are horrendous for two of the stages (one of them making the needle difficult to see) and one is nice. Stage 1 doesn't count as it is the generic IWBTG intro.
Very forgettable adventure with some daring jumps, such as corners from various angles and a clear obsession with gates, so beginners better be prepared for a more challenging experience.
Not recommended, sadly.
Rating: 2.1 21
Difficulty: 45 45
Jul 11, 2019
ElCochran90
For: I Wanna Be the Fortress Returns
For: I Wanna Be the Fortress Returns
Rating includes 100%.
ヨーヨー is a very unpredictable fangame creator. From Gel to Little Runner, he has offered many difficulty scales and also quality content, and right in the middle of both criteria, you find this oddity, one of the laziest fangames ever made in terms of visuals: game has 5 freaking stages and four look the same (well, three if you ignore the fact that the tileset for one of the final stages is the same, but only the background is changed to black). However, it is partially compensated by two boss fights, one of it being secret. What kills the game even more is that, although not heavy in terms of traps (which is appreciated), you DEPEND on the secrets to complete it. One is very creative and fun to find (the route is quite obvious), but the fact it is actually a visual puzzle was a nice touch. However, there is one cursed secret where the trigger is exactly one room above, which kept me 20 minutes looking for it. Why? It doesn't make sense. The trigger is kinda obvious because there is 'that' empty spot, but you have to backtrack. You never do that. At least make the spike fly upwards quickly so that it is visible that something got triggered down there (no pun intended), but still, that is something that should never happen.
Speaking about the secrets, why did I get only four in my first playthrough and still unlocked the hidden final double boss? After beating it, I realized I had two more secrets two go, which I searched for and collected, and nothing happened. No buffed versions of the stages or bosses, no extra stage, no nothing. You can actually finish the game with four secrets out of 6. Why?!
15% of the time spent on gameplay are the bosses, which are kind of nice. The "final" one is fun to mess around with, but it has really bad RNG in its second phase. The other double boss does not suffer from this; however, you have to wait for a really long fall and then a wait time before you get to it. There is no "S" key here to skip. It is boring and makes no sense. However, it is a rather balanced challenge. The remaining time is spent on "five" stages that could have been basically just two, and finding secrets, one which is just unforgivable in its finding.
Also, why is the platforming of the secrets more interesting than the normal stages? Not cool either.
Only recommended for those climbing the K2 mountain.
[0] Likes
ヨーヨー is a very unpredictable fangame creator. From Gel to Little Runner, he has offered many difficulty scales and also quality content, and right in the middle of both criteria, you find this oddity, one of the laziest fangames ever made in terms of visuals: game has 5 freaking stages and four look the same (well, three if you ignore the fact that the tileset for one of the final stages is the same, but only the background is changed to black). However, it is partially compensated by two boss fights, one of it being secret. What kills the game even more is that, although not heavy in terms of traps (which is appreciated), you DEPEND on the secrets to complete it. One is very creative and fun to find (the route is quite obvious), but the fact it is actually a visual puzzle was a nice touch. However, there is one cursed secret where the trigger is exactly one room above, which kept me 20 minutes looking for it. Why? It doesn't make sense. The trigger is kinda obvious because there is 'that' empty spot, but you have to backtrack. You never do that. At least make the spike fly upwards quickly so that it is visible that something got triggered down there (no pun intended), but still, that is something that should never happen.
Speaking about the secrets, why did I get only four in my first playthrough and still unlocked the hidden final double boss? After beating it, I realized I had two more secrets two go, which I searched for and collected, and nothing happened. No buffed versions of the stages or bosses, no extra stage, no nothing. You can actually finish the game with four secrets out of 6. Why?!
15% of the time spent on gameplay are the bosses, which are kind of nice. The "final" one is fun to mess around with, but it has really bad RNG in its second phase. The other double boss does not suffer from this; however, you have to wait for a really long fall and then a wait time before you get to it. There is no "S" key here to skip. It is boring and makes no sense. However, it is a rather balanced challenge. The remaining time is spent on "five" stages that could have been basically just two, and finding secrets, one which is just unforgivable in its finding.
Also, why is the platforming of the secrets more interesting than the normal stages? Not cool either.
Only recommended for those climbing the K2 mountain.
Rating: 1.9 19
Difficulty: 45 45
Jul 11, 2019
ElCochran90
For: I Wanna Escape the Mysterious House
For: I Wanna Escape the Mysterious House
The first screen is glitched. We kick off just right. You have to make weird moves in order to tacle the perfect pixel to go through the fake block to get out. Why? I don't know. From there, the game seemed ok-ish, offering rather fun platforming, but the entire thing is plagued with very generic traps, annoying to no end. One trap happens after defeating a boss, so you have to redo everything again. It's so much fun.
I have never found the appeal in most or all of the bosses being cherries. Why? This is a common symptom of old fangames, and besides being uncreative, it does show that the creator doesn't care. Even if there are various gimmicks to defeat the bosses, the entire thing is just plain boring, unfortunately.
There are some extremely cryptic parts, and two screens that literally insult you for taking the wrong route. It might be funny for some, but inappropriate for others. Punishment rooms should be much more subtle. I can take it, but it was very odd. Only Piece has insulted me before in a fangame.
However, like sonicdv points out, the final boss is totally worth it. It rules, it has style, it is original and can be cleared in a first try, which was my case (although I was close to dying twice). The boss helped this game's rating a lot. Visual designs are not that bad, except for one garden scene which looks atrocious because it consists of giant pixels in various shades of gray. Gameplay, however, is harmed by the level designs and cruel placement of traps.
If you REALLY wanna go for it and escape the mysterious house, expect a good final boss. Otherwise, this is not recommended by me.
[2] Likes
I have never found the appeal in most or all of the bosses being cherries. Why? This is a common symptom of old fangames, and besides being uncreative, it does show that the creator doesn't care. Even if there are various gimmicks to defeat the bosses, the entire thing is just plain boring, unfortunately.
There are some extremely cryptic parts, and two screens that literally insult you for taking the wrong route. It might be funny for some, but inappropriate for others. Punishment rooms should be much more subtle. I can take it, but it was very odd. Only Piece has insulted me before in a fangame.
However, like sonicdv points out, the final boss is totally worth it. It rules, it has style, it is original and can be cleared in a first try, which was my case (although I was close to dying twice). The boss helped this game's rating a lot. Visual designs are not that bad, except for one garden scene which looks atrocious because it consists of giant pixels in various shades of gray. Gameplay, however, is harmed by the level designs and cruel placement of traps.
If you REALLY wanna go for it and escape the mysterious house, expect a good final boss. Otherwise, this is not recommended by me.
Rating: 2.4 24
Difficulty: 40 40
Jul 10, 2019
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