Delicious FruitCthaere's Profile
Send a PMJoined on: May 25, 2020
Bio:
I play fangames or stuff.
I try rating game compared to what they are trying to achieve rather than compared to fangames as a whole, and with knowledge of what you're getting into; If I rate a corridor needle game, I assume the person reading the review wants to play corridor needle, as if they don't they shouldn't bother playing it anyway. With that said, I tend to be very generous on needle ratings while being very skimpy on avoidances (although you likely won't see it as if I'd give it less than a 7 I just won't clear it instead).
with extremely rare exceptions, 9/10+ is reserved to games that have left deep emotional impact, while 10/10 is reserved for games I love unconditionally.
If I reviewed it and the review doesn't say otherwise, it's safe to assume I cleared it. I try adding my clears to df but I never really cared to keep track, so some might be missing.
don't expect diff ratings to be very accurate.
I've submitted:
237 Ratings!
158 Reviews!
9 Screenshots!
237 Games
158 Reviews
Cthaere
For: I Wanna Stop Him
For: I Wanna Stop Him
DISCLAIMER: This rating is purely the result of my personal feelings, that are massively influenced by my relationship with the maker, the fact I was the recipient, and the chain of events in the month leading up to its release. As such, it will be completely unrepresentative of the average player's experience.
Unfortunately, I have no wish of trying to give this game a more thorough analysis, as that would require dissecting it in a way I do not feel comfortable doing publicly. As such, all I can say is: It is a great avoidance that I would absolutely recommend to anyone who can handle all-around high level reading. Please go play it.
And as for the maker: From the bottom of my heart, thank you. You have made my Christmas truly special.
Unfortunately, I have no wish of trying to give this game a more thorough analysis, as that would require dissecting it in a way I do not feel comfortable doing publicly. As such, all I can say is: It is a great avoidance that I would absolutely recommend to anyone who can handle all-around high level reading. Please go play it.
And as for the maker: From the bottom of my heart, thank you. You have made my Christmas truly special.
Tagged as: Avoidance
[1] Like
Rating: 9.0
Difficulty: 85
Dec 29, 2021
Cthaere
For: I Wanna Rewrite the Past
For: I Wanna Rewrite the Past
I came into this game with a single question: "Does this bundle of IWM maps tie itself together into a complete cohesive game, or does it feel like a bunch of disjointed maps hastily put together?". After playing it, the answer was the latter for me.
This game consists of 15 maker levels organized in 3 stages of 5. First stage deals with variable-sized spikes, the second has a sprinkle of very standard gimmicks and some water, while the third is focused around triple jump. The needle is for the most part fun to play, reminiscent a bit of the good parts of cn2 and the post-cn2 needle boom, however balancing feels somewhat random, both in jumps within an individual save and when comparing saves side by side.
The needle itself contains a few basic minor annoyances that I'd go as far as to call errors. These include using the ceiling as a killer in an awkward manner, not providing saves at the start of each room and tossing in a singlejump star in a context where while it does technically contribute to pathing, it really only serves as an annoyance that leads to boring gameplay. Finally, as I have said in my opener, the game lacks continuity, in the sense that it feels like playing a bunch of maker maps that are thematically similar but do not really have anything to do with each other.
On the production side, each stage has a custom tileset and song, with the first one also featuring a minor background effect, however these are not enough to create a full atmosphere. While the tilesets are gorgeous, the songs choices fall flat for me, and I'd suspect those are the main reason for the lack of atmosphere, combined with the already difficult task of tying together a bunch of disjointed maps.
As much as I feel have brought this down, I do think that the needle fundamentals showcased here are great, and the game itself has been enjoyable to go through, and so I would still recommend it despite the flaws detailed above. I'd like to see the maker experiment a bit more when it comes to gimmicks as well as try and make content with a finalized unified game in mind rather than shoehorning existing stuff into a game. I'd be looking forwards to the next release.
This game consists of 15 maker levels organized in 3 stages of 5. First stage deals with variable-sized spikes, the second has a sprinkle of very standard gimmicks and some water, while the third is focused around triple jump. The needle is for the most part fun to play, reminiscent a bit of the good parts of cn2 and the post-cn2 needle boom, however balancing feels somewhat random, both in jumps within an individual save and when comparing saves side by side.
The needle itself contains a few basic minor annoyances that I'd go as far as to call errors. These include using the ceiling as a killer in an awkward manner, not providing saves at the start of each room and tossing in a singlejump star in a context where while it does technically contribute to pathing, it really only serves as an annoyance that leads to boring gameplay. Finally, as I have said in my opener, the game lacks continuity, in the sense that it feels like playing a bunch of maker maps that are thematically similar but do not really have anything to do with each other.
On the production side, each stage has a custom tileset and song, with the first one also featuring a minor background effect, however these are not enough to create a full atmosphere. While the tilesets are gorgeous, the songs choices fall flat for me, and I'd suspect those are the main reason for the lack of atmosphere, combined with the already difficult task of tying together a bunch of disjointed maps.
As much as I feel have brought this down, I do think that the needle fundamentals showcased here are great, and the game itself has been enjoyable to go through, and so I would still recommend it despite the flaws detailed above. I'd like to see the maker experiment a bit more when it comes to gimmicks as well as try and make content with a finalized unified game in mind rather than shoehorning existing stuff into a game. I'd be looking forwards to the next release.
Tagged as: Needle
[2] Likes
Rating: 7.0
Difficulty: 50
Dec 26, 2021
Cthaere [Creator]
For: I wanna Musiclock
For: I wanna Musiclock
There are some Words I wanted to say about this but they're already in the readme, so please do take the time to read it.
Have fun!
[3] Likes
Have fun!
Rating: N/A
Difficulty: N/A
Dec 14, 2021
Cthaere
For: untitled needle game
For: untitled needle game
"What I am about to admit is itself a bit of a spoiler for the game, but nonetheless I was given permission by the creator (who shall not be named directly in this review) to write this review, so here I am! I tested this game, which is more or less made evident by the fact that I am reviewing this game seeing as there's no way I would have cleared it the day of (strictly speaking, I could have, based on the time it took me to clear the game, but nonetheless it would not have been feasible, take my word for it)".
I could not have put it better myself.
In any case, for me, this is the game morning dew was not.
Let me explain: For many people, morning dew is a long, arduous journey, one which can throw a curveball at any moment. It is a game that, at times, requires you to power through content that you may find nearly unbearable, often after hours of gameplay setting up the sunk cost fallacy trap. While these usually count against the game in many people's minds, they are also what makes it as special as it is. When you look back at it, it is something that while you're glad you've cleared, you're also somewhat relieved is over.
Such was not the case for me. In general, I found morning dew gameplay to go down quite smoothly, particularly the extremely wacky gimmicks, in which I excelled. There are only 2 points of strife (one of which I treasure dearly) and a handful of irritation, and neither managed to leave enough of an impact to make the game feel like what I've described above.
This game, however, is hard. From the beginning, with the tutorial mocking the inexperienced players daring to download this unprepared and the first screen of the game starting us off with a bit of serious yet creative jtool needle while being by far one of the easiest segments in the game, it is made abundantly clear. I have had my fair share of struggles, and am not afraid to admit I have abused debug keys more than once (although usually only once I have complained enough for the creator to agree to change the segment in the version I was playing at, including one extremely nasty end of save death that would have likely had me quit for at least a week had I played it without debug mode. To the game's credit, even after countless deaths to the final jump of what is undoubtedly the hardest save in the game, I was never tempted to cheat it). In this sense, I have had to mentally power through the game, although purely due to difficulty and learning factor concerns rather than due to wacky design choices. Throughout it all, though, I could not help but appreciate the game.
As most have deduced by now, especially those who have been following the handful of players who have gotten far enough to witness the full scope of the game, the vast majority of it tests the player on consistency. It is more common for a save to span multiple screens than not, which not only gets exponentially harder in length but also in learning factor, as no stage (aside from the first screen, if you really consider it that) consists of pure jtool needle. In this context, any mistake a player makes is going to hurt tenfold, and so any mistake the maker makes is going to hurt a thousandfold. Despite this, and the very much uncompromising style, the game manages to execute this concept in a way that is going to captivate anyone whose eyes are set of seriously grinding it, and while the struggle stays as real as ever, it has been quite rare for me to curse the maker rather than my own ability after an unfortunate death. This is a testament to the maker's skill that they have managed to pull it off as smoothly as they did at this difficulty level.
Now that the cards are (mostly) out in the open about the difficulty (heh, you thought I'd give it a rating and spoil how hard it truly gets? that'd just ruin the fun), I hope that those who can get past the initial difficulty barrier and have the mindset to clear a single stage would be able to continue to the end and find the game as excellent (if frustrating at times, although I do agree with marc that it helps build the emotional connection to it) as I did.
(edit to add: Shoutouts to Oneohtrix Point Never, particularly Replica. Go listen to it after playing this)
[13] Likes
I could not have put it better myself.
In any case, for me, this is the game morning dew was not.
Let me explain: For many people, morning dew is a long, arduous journey, one which can throw a curveball at any moment. It is a game that, at times, requires you to power through content that you may find nearly unbearable, often after hours of gameplay setting up the sunk cost fallacy trap. While these usually count against the game in many people's minds, they are also what makes it as special as it is. When you look back at it, it is something that while you're glad you've cleared, you're also somewhat relieved is over.
Such was not the case for me. In general, I found morning dew gameplay to go down quite smoothly, particularly the extremely wacky gimmicks, in which I excelled. There are only 2 points of strife (one of which I treasure dearly) and a handful of irritation, and neither managed to leave enough of an impact to make the game feel like what I've described above.
This game, however, is hard. From the beginning, with the tutorial mocking the inexperienced players daring to download this unprepared and the first screen of the game starting us off with a bit of serious yet creative jtool needle while being by far one of the easiest segments in the game, it is made abundantly clear. I have had my fair share of struggles, and am not afraid to admit I have abused debug keys more than once (although usually only once I have complained enough for the creator to agree to change the segment in the version I was playing at, including one extremely nasty end of save death that would have likely had me quit for at least a week had I played it without debug mode. To the game's credit, even after countless deaths to the final jump of what is undoubtedly the hardest save in the game, I was never tempted to cheat it). In this sense, I have had to mentally power through the game, although purely due to difficulty and learning factor concerns rather than due to wacky design choices. Throughout it all, though, I could not help but appreciate the game.
As most have deduced by now, especially those who have been following the handful of players who have gotten far enough to witness the full scope of the game, the vast majority of it tests the player on consistency. It is more common for a save to span multiple screens than not, which not only gets exponentially harder in length but also in learning factor, as no stage (aside from the first screen, if you really consider it that) consists of pure jtool needle. In this context, any mistake a player makes is going to hurt tenfold, and so any mistake the maker makes is going to hurt a thousandfold. Despite this, and the very much uncompromising style, the game manages to execute this concept in a way that is going to captivate anyone whose eyes are set of seriously grinding it, and while the struggle stays as real as ever, it has been quite rare for me to curse the maker rather than my own ability after an unfortunate death. This is a testament to the maker's skill that they have managed to pull it off as smoothly as they did at this difficulty level.
Now that the cards are (mostly) out in the open about the difficulty (heh, you thought I'd give it a rating and spoil how hard it truly gets? that'd just ruin the fun), I hope that those who can get past the initial difficulty barrier and have the mindset to clear a single stage would be able to continue to the end and find the game as excellent (if frustrating at times, although I do agree with marc that it helps build the emotional connection to it) as I did.
(edit to add: Shoutouts to Oneohtrix Point Never, particularly Replica. Go listen to it after playing this)
Rating: 9.5
Difficulty: N/A
Dec 11, 2021
Cthaere
For: I Wanna Call The Hound
For: I Wanna Call The Hound
Gonna make a relatively concise review this time.
Pros:
- Comes with practice allowing ppl to enjoy even if they don't intend to clear.
- Attacks are fun to dodge in general.
- Attacks are generally well tuned, sometimes in unique and interesting ways that gives them a distinct identity when compared with many similar barrage attacks.
- Pacing feels good for the most part, the attacks feel like they test you on consistency without overstaying their welcome.
- Good song choice that fits very well with the structure of the avoidance.
Cons:
- Attack balance is wack. Out of the 17 attacks in the fight, I 1st tried around 12, including getting from sideways rain all the way to the final few seconds of bye bye completely blind in practice. Reversing, TIS and fast rain 2 are all miles harder than the rest, which are pretty consistent to get through even when autopiloting. Due to the placement of these attacks, a serious grind of this avoidance is quite unappealing when you have to get through the 1st wall and once you do have an attempt you only get to see if it seriously dies 4 minutes in, however I would personally not consider this a dealbreaker in isolation.
-1st attack is really boring. Combined with the previous point, I am unable to see myself ever grinding this seriously because of it, and anyone else who has a slow intro pet peeve is likely going to echo this sentiment.
Misc:
-Imo transitions are perfectly fine for the most part, although bye bye -> diagonal rain can be rly cringe if you're too close to the left wall, and is pretty far in.
-I fully echo the sentiment that a hitcounter would be a great addition.
Conclusion: Can't recommend this as a serious grind due to the problems outlined above, but it is very fun to play through and you should definitely give it a shot as a scattered faith type beat of a more approachable difficulty. I'd definitely be looking forwards to the qol/balance patch.
[2] Likes
Pros:
- Comes with practice allowing ppl to enjoy even if they don't intend to clear.
- Attacks are fun to dodge in general.
- Attacks are generally well tuned, sometimes in unique and interesting ways that gives them a distinct identity when compared with many similar barrage attacks.
- Pacing feels good for the most part, the attacks feel like they test you on consistency without overstaying their welcome.
- Good song choice that fits very well with the structure of the avoidance.
Cons:
- Attack balance is wack. Out of the 17 attacks in the fight, I 1st tried around 12, including getting from sideways rain all the way to the final few seconds of bye bye completely blind in practice. Reversing, TIS and fast rain 2 are all miles harder than the rest, which are pretty consistent to get through even when autopiloting. Due to the placement of these attacks, a serious grind of this avoidance is quite unappealing when you have to get through the 1st wall and once you do have an attempt you only get to see if it seriously dies 4 minutes in, however I would personally not consider this a dealbreaker in isolation.
-1st attack is really boring. Combined with the previous point, I am unable to see myself ever grinding this seriously because of it, and anyone else who has a slow intro pet peeve is likely going to echo this sentiment.
Misc:
-Imo transitions are perfectly fine for the most part, although bye bye -> diagonal rain can be rly cringe if you're too close to the left wall, and is pretty far in.
-I fully echo the sentiment that a hitcounter would be a great addition.
Conclusion: Can't recommend this as a serious grind due to the problems outlined above, but it is very fun to play through and you should definitely give it a shot as a scattered faith type beat of a more approachable difficulty. I'd definitely be looking forwards to the qol/balance patch.
Rating: 8.0
Difficulty: N/A
Dec 7, 2021
Cthaere
For: I Wanna Be The Snippet
For: I Wanna Be The Snippet
No rating/difficulty cause no clear.
An avoidance with a brilliant yet simple concept, with a mixed bag execution. Each instrument has its own object or group of objects representing it, and for each sound it makes the object activate their effect. This means 1 sound = 1 attack, and the attack triggered depends on the sound itself.
Cute, right? Well, as cute as it is in concept, this has major problems in execution. The song is repetitive and slowly builds up instrument after instrument, meaning it takes a lot of time to get to the challenging parts. The big bulk of added difficulty comes from a spike firing small minispikes along the floor at extremely high pace, forcing the player to constantly be jumping and making for extremely erratic gameplay. The combination of the jumping and both an aimed component and a spiral coming in from the top middle can easily overwhelm the player and drive them to the left wall, in which they have very few options and are at the mercy of RNG. This is a shame, as I usually like these concepts (aimed, forced jumping, gap based attacks combined with light rng), such as in the destination final boss; The difference, I feel, is that the forced jumping is a lot less frequent and so it becomes an occasion you are given time to prepare for, rather than a constant force throughout the entire fight. This would go against the concept of this avoidance though. The RNG itself also feels quite unbalanced, with the amount of red/green projectiles the player is forced to contend with ranging from 0 to 7 at a time, providing drastic fluctuation in difficulty even within the same attack.
In my opinion, if the cherry sizes were halved and the bottom spike did not continuously fire floor minispikes (perhaps if it alternated between floor minispikes and minispike walls at 3 blocks high or more that prevented jumping) this fight would be a lot more accessible and enjoyable; As is, it is extremely frustrating to die to due to the massive sunk time cost and the feeling of helplessness that can sometimes arise.
Would recommend playing for a bit then quitting, or even just watching a clear vid. I would not recommend going for a clear though. I love the concept. I just wish the execution was better.
An avoidance with a brilliant yet simple concept, with a mixed bag execution. Each instrument has its own object or group of objects representing it, and for each sound it makes the object activate their effect. This means 1 sound = 1 attack, and the attack triggered depends on the sound itself.
Cute, right? Well, as cute as it is in concept, this has major problems in execution. The song is repetitive and slowly builds up instrument after instrument, meaning it takes a lot of time to get to the challenging parts. The big bulk of added difficulty comes from a spike firing small minispikes along the floor at extremely high pace, forcing the player to constantly be jumping and making for extremely erratic gameplay. The combination of the jumping and both an aimed component and a spiral coming in from the top middle can easily overwhelm the player and drive them to the left wall, in which they have very few options and are at the mercy of RNG. This is a shame, as I usually like these concepts (aimed, forced jumping, gap based attacks combined with light rng), such as in the destination final boss; The difference, I feel, is that the forced jumping is a lot less frequent and so it becomes an occasion you are given time to prepare for, rather than a constant force throughout the entire fight. This would go against the concept of this avoidance though. The RNG itself also feels quite unbalanced, with the amount of red/green projectiles the player is forced to contend with ranging from 0 to 7 at a time, providing drastic fluctuation in difficulty even within the same attack.
In my opinion, if the cherry sizes were halved and the bottom spike did not continuously fire floor minispikes (perhaps if it alternated between floor minispikes and minispike walls at 3 blocks high or more that prevented jumping) this fight would be a lot more accessible and enjoyable; As is, it is extremely frustrating to die to due to the massive sunk time cost and the feeling of helplessness that can sometimes arise.
Would recommend playing for a bit then quitting, or even just watching a clear vid. I would not recommend going for a clear though. I love the concept. I just wish the execution was better.
Tagged as: Avoidance
[1] Like
Rating: N/A
Difficulty: N/A
Oct 9, 2021
Cthaere
For: Jump Per Difficulty
For: Jump Per Difficulty
I would like to start this review by saying this: A review has two goals. The first is to lay out, in as objective a way as possible, the pros and cons of the game in order for others to be given the information to pass accurate judgement over whether or not they want to play the game. The second is to provide feedback on the game, pointing out what could have been done better and what were the strong points of the game, so that the creator and others may learn what parts of the experience crafted by it are more or less appealing. While 1 review is by no means a representative community opinion, it is at least a perspective guaranteed to be held by at least 1 person.
With that said, I am about to be quite harsh on this game for the sake of the first part. I will cover the second ahead.
As the title suggests, this is a trials game. 1 jump per screen, roughly ascending difficulty, you know the drill.
So from the very start, you get the classic unzipped folder, where once you extract it in your fangames folder the assets are spread all over the place. Once placed inside a folder, you might see the gmsched extension... as gmez, not as dll. You have to apply dbghelp yourself. This isn't really something I'd count against the game; This is merely something to note before we start.
As for the production value elements, the game itself, as far as I know, has no music. It could be that I lost a few .ogg files, but I doubt it. Tileset is the usual guyrock + monocolour background, with red tinted spikes that have far too high image speed. It looks a bit worse than the generic combo, but trying a new visual set was a nice attempt, and it does not look awful by any means.
For the gameplay's part, it is clear that this was not playtested, and in fact was not made with knowledge of actual fangame jump difficulty; A single standard setup uplane after a buffed double invert, for example. The jumps themselves are generic and uninteresting, although this is not necessarily bad; It can make for a nice experience even if not an original one, however some of the jump choices (given the aligns given especially) were unfortunate, being the 5 minispike jump and the triple diamond. There are no saveblockers, allowing for easily skipping some jumps, such as the nerfed triple diamond that I'm pretty sure requires cactus with the starting align as I have failed to do it with both 6f and 7f. To end this off, this game is also impossible, due to a buffed ceiling 6 minispikes jump, no more possible than a triple invert.
In conclusion, this can kill a few minutes and may even have extremely minor sudoku enjoyment, but I cannot recommend playing it.
This is it for the first part.
The second part is the design oriented one. The feedback takeaway.
This game is the author's first game, as said on the wiki page. And for that, they have done what many have yet to do; Make a full, solo game. While it is scary, and a lot of times depressing especially if the game is not well received, it is a commendable act.
When making a game, it is important to be able to see things from the player's side. What type of gameplay do players like? What's the type of gameplay I'm aiming for? How can I combine what I want with what players want? How does the gameplay I made compare to the type of gameplay I'm aiming for? For this, you can either use your own judgement and experience from playing fangames - which do not show up well in this game's case - or you can recruit a testplayer, a person who has this experience and can provide feedback. This is, perhaps, the most important lesson of all. While I can talk about general needle design or atmosphere design that could have made this a better game, learning is made through making mistakes, realizing them, then fixing them. A testplayer is just the tool for identifying any mistakes, and furthermore explaining the deeper principles that lie behind the mistakes.
Another tool for this is releasing the game to the public, and getting public feedback. This is scarier, as the feedback is public, and can come from a place that is not constructive. But nevertheless, there is always something to take from almost any piece of feedback, although separating the important things to take from the unimportant or even counterproductive ones is not an easy task. Nevertheless, these are the baby steps you take in order to become a better maker in the future. Many makers have started out from tinkering around in gamemaker without any outside guidance, releasing game after game after game, getting feedback, improving and eventually becoming renowned for their work.
I hope this review does more to encourage than to put down. In the past many makers were driven away from malicious negative feedback, and who knows what games we could have seen today if they were nurtured with patience instead of heckled and driven out. I hope the maker would stick around, learn, and make a name for themselves.
[17] Likes
With that said, I am about to be quite harsh on this game for the sake of the first part. I will cover the second ahead.
As the title suggests, this is a trials game. 1 jump per screen, roughly ascending difficulty, you know the drill.
So from the very start, you get the classic unzipped folder, where once you extract it in your fangames folder the assets are spread all over the place. Once placed inside a folder, you might see the gmsched extension... as gmez, not as dll. You have to apply dbghelp yourself. This isn't really something I'd count against the game; This is merely something to note before we start.
As for the production value elements, the game itself, as far as I know, has no music. It could be that I lost a few .ogg files, but I doubt it. Tileset is the usual guyrock + monocolour background, with red tinted spikes that have far too high image speed. It looks a bit worse than the generic combo, but trying a new visual set was a nice attempt, and it does not look awful by any means.
For the gameplay's part, it is clear that this was not playtested, and in fact was not made with knowledge of actual fangame jump difficulty; A single standard setup uplane after a buffed double invert, for example. The jumps themselves are generic and uninteresting, although this is not necessarily bad; It can make for a nice experience even if not an original one, however some of the jump choices (given the aligns given especially) were unfortunate, being the 5 minispike jump and the triple diamond. There are no saveblockers, allowing for easily skipping some jumps, such as the nerfed triple diamond that I'm pretty sure requires cactus with the starting align as I have failed to do it with both 6f and 7f. To end this off, this game is also impossible, due to a buffed ceiling 6 minispikes jump, no more possible than a triple invert.
In conclusion, this can kill a few minutes and may even have extremely minor sudoku enjoyment, but I cannot recommend playing it.
This is it for the first part.
The second part is the design oriented one. The feedback takeaway.
This game is the author's first game, as said on the wiki page. And for that, they have done what many have yet to do; Make a full, solo game. While it is scary, and a lot of times depressing especially if the game is not well received, it is a commendable act.
When making a game, it is important to be able to see things from the player's side. What type of gameplay do players like? What's the type of gameplay I'm aiming for? How can I combine what I want with what players want? How does the gameplay I made compare to the type of gameplay I'm aiming for? For this, you can either use your own judgement and experience from playing fangames - which do not show up well in this game's case - or you can recruit a testplayer, a person who has this experience and can provide feedback. This is, perhaps, the most important lesson of all. While I can talk about general needle design or atmosphere design that could have made this a better game, learning is made through making mistakes, realizing them, then fixing them. A testplayer is just the tool for identifying any mistakes, and furthermore explaining the deeper principles that lie behind the mistakes.
Another tool for this is releasing the game to the public, and getting public feedback. This is scarier, as the feedback is public, and can come from a place that is not constructive. But nevertheless, there is always something to take from almost any piece of feedback, although separating the important things to take from the unimportant or even counterproductive ones is not an easy task. Nevertheless, these are the baby steps you take in order to become a better maker in the future. Many makers have started out from tinkering around in gamemaker without any outside guidance, releasing game after game after game, getting feedback, improving and eventually becoming renowned for their work.
I hope this review does more to encourage than to put down. In the past many makers were driven away from malicious negative feedback, and who knows what games we could have seen today if they were nurtured with patience instead of heckled and driven out. I hope the maker would stick around, learn, and make a name for themselves.
Rating: 3.0 30
Difficulty: N/A
Oct 7, 2021
Cthaere
For: I wanna say something, ok guys so basically um
For: I wanna say something, ok guys so basically um
9 screen of ftfa inspired needle inside a large 3x3 room, featuring the standard 32px grid, multiple frame perfect jumps and no engine gimmicks.
As for my overall thoughts about the game, I would like to refer you to Gafro's review which I fully agree with.
I would like to add a few anecdotes of my own on top of that, though.
First, it seems as if most people did not faithfully science this through and through; Out of the 5 clear vids that pop up when I search the name of this on youtube, none checked their valign for the screen 6 dplane, despite the fact that a valign of >=.35 offered an additional frame of leniency in rejump timing. It remains to be seen what other strats may have been missed, especially in regard to valign. If you plan on playing this yourself, I highly recommend going through the researching process on your own.
Second, is the issue of pacing. This game is very good about making sure that the final jump of a save isn't the hardest one, and when the first jump of the save is hard that it is reasonably fun to grind. It is very good about these aspects, but it is by no means perfect. The first jump of screen 3 save 2, the first jump of screen 8 save 1 and the final jump of screen 8 save 2 all violate this principle. Grinding the first jump of 8-1 was physically straining and even mildly painful, the first jump of 3-2 was an exercise in frustration, whereas the final jump of 8-2 was a soulcrushing end to a save that already has its issues.
Are these minor problems? Somewhat, but when you spend multiple hours per save on average (without even counting jtool time) these issues become far more frustrating. However, these should not detract you from playing this game; If you can look past these, the vast majority of the game is fantastic - the most fun ftfa like I've played (although consonance is close), and judging by how the rest of the games in the genre look, it also looks like the most fun one in general - with phenomenal pacing, creative and satisfying jumps, and a good difficulty curve. Yes, even with 6 being harder than the rest by a decent margin, I will maintain that the difficulty curve is well-balanced, as having carefully crafted peaks and valleys makes for a better experience than monotonous flat plains.
I'd like to conclude this review the same way I do most of the rest of mine, but this was meant to be more of a small bullet list of various anecdotes that I haven't seen covered than a proper review. In any case, this is definitely worth playing if you like the genre and are good enough, just be prepared for a few small hiccups along the way.
[1] Like
As for my overall thoughts about the game, I would like to refer you to Gafro's review which I fully agree with.
I would like to add a few anecdotes of my own on top of that, though.
First, it seems as if most people did not faithfully science this through and through; Out of the 5 clear vids that pop up when I search the name of this on youtube, none checked their valign for the screen 6 dplane, despite the fact that a valign of >=.35 offered an additional frame of leniency in rejump timing. It remains to be seen what other strats may have been missed, especially in regard to valign. If you plan on playing this yourself, I highly recommend going through the researching process on your own.
Second, is the issue of pacing. This game is very good about making sure that the final jump of a save isn't the hardest one, and when the first jump of the save is hard that it is reasonably fun to grind. It is very good about these aspects, but it is by no means perfect. The first jump of screen 3 save 2, the first jump of screen 8 save 1 and the final jump of screen 8 save 2 all violate this principle. Grinding the first jump of 8-1 was physically straining and even mildly painful, the first jump of 3-2 was an exercise in frustration, whereas the final jump of 8-2 was a soulcrushing end to a save that already has its issues.
Are these minor problems? Somewhat, but when you spend multiple hours per save on average (without even counting jtool time) these issues become far more frustrating. However, these should not detract you from playing this game; If you can look past these, the vast majority of the game is fantastic - the most fun ftfa like I've played (although consonance is close), and judging by how the rest of the games in the genre look, it also looks like the most fun one in general - with phenomenal pacing, creative and satisfying jumps, and a good difficulty curve. Yes, even with 6 being harder than the rest by a decent margin, I will maintain that the difficulty curve is well-balanced, as having carefully crafted peaks and valleys makes for a better experience than monotonous flat plains.
I'd like to conclude this review the same way I do most of the rest of mine, but this was meant to be more of a small bullet list of various anecdotes that I haven't seen covered than a proper review. In any case, this is definitely worth playing if you like the genre and are good enough, just be prepared for a few small hiccups along the way.
Rating: 7.5 75
Difficulty: 91 91
Oct 7, 2021
Cthaere
For: Have a rest!
For: Have a rest!
A handful of easy jtool screens. The screens are 1 save each, use extremely open space, and use some nice pathing elements. Speaking of pathing, there are 2 skips, one because a patch of water was water 1 when it was clearly intended to be 2 whereas another was due to a too low vine placement. There are a few jumps that pose a sudden, massive spike in difficulty relative to everything else. Otherwise a chill game. If you're here you might as well play it, it's decent enough and it'll probably take you less time than reading this review.
Tagged as: Needle
[0] Likes
Rating: 6.0 60
Difficulty: 40 40
Oct 4, 2021
Cthaere
For: I wanna repair my Control 2
For: I wanna repair my Control 2
(Note: No diff rating as I haven't beaten, however I have beaten at least half of it and after seeing the rest of the game I can rest assured that it does not get better later)
This appears to be a parody of the medley genre. Scrolling white grid background plus white outline blocks/spikes, a whole slew of generic jumps with no regards to overall playability, titlecards that seem to just commentate about the rooms rather than indicate games they're borrowing from (likely meaning this is original content), multiple backtracks with a warp flying around the screen, and the classic k3 soundtrack. Saveblockers thankfully do not exist however the usefulness of that abuse varies greatly. Stopped on a screen that had a doublejump diamond 10 seconds into a save followed by an extremely obnoxious backtrack. Would highly recommend to refrain from this game even if you are a fan of generic jumps.
This appears to be a parody of the medley genre. Scrolling white grid background plus white outline blocks/spikes, a whole slew of generic jumps with no regards to overall playability, titlecards that seem to just commentate about the rooms rather than indicate games they're borrowing from (likely meaning this is original content), multiple backtracks with a warp flying around the screen, and the classic k3 soundtrack. Saveblockers thankfully do not exist however the usefulness of that abuse varies greatly. Stopped on a screen that had a doublejump diamond 10 seconds into a save followed by an extremely obnoxious backtrack. Would highly recommend to refrain from this game even if you are a fan of generic jumps.
Tagged as: Needle
[0] Likes
Rating: 3.0 30
Difficulty: N/A
Sep 27, 2021
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