Jopagu's Profile
Send a PMJoined on: Jan 16, 2022
Bio:
Hi, I'm Jopagu. She/They pronouns please :)
I don’t play much avoidance so my diff ratings on those might be scuffed.
Clears list is all the games I played before I started reviewing them. I'm trying to slowly go through those and replay/review them all.
I review games based on how much I would recommend them to others. 0s are reserved for games I do not recommend for ethical reasons. This does not mean I have anything against people playing or enjoying those games.
I've submitted:
504 Ratings!
499 Reviews!
10 Screenshots!
Youtube Channel
Report this user
504 Games
499 Reviews
For: I wanna go the Jumple Refrenture
As with the other games in the series, the creativity of gimmick usage is the game's strong suit. Each stage features a mix of all the gimmicks seen thus far, which creates really unique saves and interesting pathing where there is a lot going on. The gimmicks are pretty cool, I quite enjoy the usage of the gravity and teleporting jump refreshers. The one weak gimmick was the zoom in/slow down one. It could be used well, as evidenced by its dedicated screen at the end, but it was often used really poorly. The camera shifts were hard to follow the kid through, and it was also hard to tell what killed you. The gimmick is awkwardly used when you have to do different jumps immediately after it, particularly speed boost refreshers.
As mentioned, the difficulty is a big negative. For a lot of the most difficult saves, I found the difficulty to be entirely concentrated in a single jump, often towards the end of the save. This made the rest of the save feel like a waste of time, and really frustrating. It also means the difficulty balance is poor, with some saves randomly spiking in difficulty. Additionally, there are a lot of uninteresting precise jumps that don't even use the gimmicks. There are a few places that just use a raw diamond, which is absurd for a gimmick focused game like this. I really think there should've been another pass through this game to smooth out the rough jumps.
Overall, the core gameplay in Jumple Refrenture is the fun and creative gimmick platforming you would expect from this series. However, a selection of overly difficult jumps really bring it down, and make certain parts, such as the penultimate area, quite frustrating. Despite this, I would still recommend this game, although only to people who can handle a bit of annoying difficulty.
For: I wanna clear the NAILOU MODE
NAILOU MODE is an interesting needle game with an experimental structure. The game starts out with very simple needle, and then goes into the titular "nailou mode", which is significantly buffed screens. I appreciate the humor poking fun at the creator's previous work, it shows some self-awareness. After this, there is an "extra" that is essentially just a double diamond and then some trivial saves. After yet another ending, you fall through some blocks into a couple cryptic screens, notably the only ones with music. One of these screens is an interesting creepy one.
Overall, I appreciate the attempt at creating a weird atmosphere, cryptic game. I always enjoy seeing stuff that plays around with structure like this, having several different endings that just kept leading to new stages was fun. However, the needle is frankly pretty uninspired, and the difficulty comes from a lot of named jumps. I would like to see the developer continuing to do experimental games like this, but trying to make less generic needle.
For: I wanna chill space needle
There are a few technical issues with the game. First, it is impossible to load a save, requiring you to beat the game in one go. It's pretty short and easy, so this shouldn't be an issue for anyone, but at the same time this is a major issue that should be fixed in future releases. Secondly, the game launches with extremely loud music, I would recommend lower the volume a bit in advance. Finally, the game was uploaded as a standalone .exe file. This causes it to get incorrectly flagged by antivirus software, potentially deleting the game. I would highly recommend zipping up the game before uploading it, to prevent this.
Also, I would encourage you to add a readme. Particularly since you are using "real music" with lyrics that have some symbolic value, I would like to be able to find the name of the song in a readme so I can find it online and read the lyrics.
Overall, a game that manages to be interesting despite its humble nature. Despite that, a lot of the needle is pretty tame and generic, as well as poorly balanced, such as the plane jump thrown in. However, the game is fun for a very quick playthrough, and it has me excited for the upcoming full release.
For: Nuclear Blast
The game has some interesting features, such as launching in full screen, and making it so you cannot load a save, requiring all three saves to be beaten in one go. Even if unintentional, I found these features an interesting tie in to the theme. The game opening suddenly in full screen, with very loud music, makes you feel as though you have been hit with a nuclear bomb. The inability to load a save perhaps says something about the permanence of death, or the fact that war, particularly with weapons of mass destruction, is something that cannot be undone.
The gameplay itself is rough, and unpleasant, but perhaps this is meant to be evocative of the game's message, similar to a Dopamine game. The first screen is basic and familiar, and also the easiest, calling to mind the calm before the storm. The second screen is harsh and unforgiving, with brutal named jumps and repetition of jumps forcing you through the gauntlet of a blinding, skin melting, nuclear explosion. The final screen is just scattered debris, almost the entire screen covered in killers, making you feel like you are walking through a wasteland of destroyed society, while suffering from omnipresent radiation bringing death to you.
There are even more subtle thematic tie ins. I would point to the tileset used on the second screen, with bright, clashing colors burning the retinas like an explosion, and how the tiles have small circles, which to me called forth visions of atoms, perhaps being pulled apart. I could also point at the final save of screen one, which is just several diagonals, being harder than the rest of the screen, and feeling more at place with the brutality of screen two. I think this represents the ending of peace, and an ominous feeling of the terror to come. In addition, the first save of screen two is also the hardest, and harshest feeling. This, to me, is the very first moment of the explosion, where the terrain is turned to glass and people are vaporized instantly, with the further saves cooling down a bit, representing the later moments of the explosion which, while still devastating, are not quite as horrifically destructive.
The game also leans into absurdity, trying to use humor to make sense of an unforgiving world. It opens with a comical image of a giant red nuke button, adding an unrealistic touch to the start. The final screen also feels humorous, like something out of a sudoku game with scattered apples everywhere. And yet, as mentioned is also drives home a poignant message. The clear screen as well feels anticlimactic, with a simple "GG". The absurdity of this simple ending tells me that it was all pointless, that war and destruction will never have any reward, just a harrowing nothingness waiting after.
Overall, I must admit the gameplay is quite rough. But as an artistic piece, this is a very good first attempt. Even as I at first thought it was simple, I found myself reconsidering and thinking about things a bit deeper, and I was surprised at how much meaning I found in the game. I certainly didn't expect to write this long of a review, but I just kept thinking of something new I could contemplate. I really hope the author continues making games like this, that aspire to be artistic and deep. I love seeing this kind of thing in a fangame, and I really hope we see more coming from this dev, they definitely have a lot of potential.
For: I wanna be the Destination
The first part of the game is a fun little hub with three paths, leading into different stages where you are required to collect the obvious secrets. These stages are probably the consistently best part of the game, they have fun, interesting platforming, and they have cool bosses that are fun to play, despite their relative simplicity (something I think Carnival excels at in general).
After this, you encounter the first avoidance. It's alright, though it's a little boring and doesn't do anything particularly interesting. This is followed by a sequence of stages that are pretty fun, although a bit unmemorable. There is however the big maze section, which is a pretty cool addition that sticks out in my memory.
After this, there's the devil kid boss, which I found to be one of the most fun bosses in the game. It has fun balancing of risk reward, and the number of possible attack combos will keep you on your toes. This boss is followed by the crimson stage(s). While I found these fun, they're certainly not for everyone as the wind up being pretty generic needle by modern standards.
Next, you reach avoidance two. Oh boy. This was my least favorite part of the game by far. There is an attack that is repeated several times that involves an aimed line mixed with rng, that winds up being total bullshit. Overall, this fight's rng winds up screwing you way too often, frequently feeling unfair. In addition, the fight ends with a really hard to learn pattern, which was really frustrating coming after all the rng.
The final stage is really cool, it's got a ton of variety, featuring some fun gimmicks and really unique platforming. I liked the inclusion of flames, lasers, darkness, etc. It culminates with the infamous final boss.
The final boss is certainly a major step up from the rest of the game in terms of difficulty. It's a several minute long grueling focus test. Despite that, I had quite a bit of fun with it even though it took me a very long time. As I said earlier, Carnival does simple well with bosses. Each attack has a very simple premise, but they all have a lot of depth and emergent strategy as you familiarize yourself with them. Certainly, there's a good deal of bullshit rng, particularly in blue 2, but there's usually at least something you can do about it, even if it is an insane dodge.
Overall, I found Destination to be an enjoyable game, and I can certainly see how it became so well known. It's quite brutal in terms of difficulty, but I would definitely recommend it to highly skilled adventure players, or to moderately skilled players (like myself) who are prepared to be in it for the long haul.
3 Games
Game | Difficulty | Average Rating | # of Ratings |
---|---|---|---|
I Wanna Free the Fortress | 59.0 | 8.3 | 10 |
The "Needle" | 53.0 | 6.8 | 16 |
I Wanna [Expunged] the [Expunged] | 19.3 | 8.9 | 7 |
70 Favorite Games
68 Cleared Games