Delicious Fruitnotmaxwell's Profile
Send a PMJoined on: Aug 3, 2025
Bio:
aka 457
every game i've left a rating or review on i have cleared.
clear list is only used for monumental or impactful clears, or my favourite clears.
(My favourite games tab is different to my clears tab).
Best clear: I wanna Ascend
&
I wanna hold right
I've submitted:
122 Ratings!
52 Reviews!
2 Screenshots!
122 Games
52 Reviews
notmaxwell
For: I wanna drown drones
For: I wanna drown drones
Rating based on clearing all content.
Normal clear would be ~82 difficulty.
Highly recommend if interested in this kind of needle for both the normal clear & all clear.
This is an incredible fangame in both visuals and needle. It's currently some of my favourite setup needle that I have ever played, and it consistently throws extremely well-designed jumps at you, to where i'd even go as far to say that considerably more jumps in this entire game are interesting, fun, and generally really good than even mediocre jumps. It's really great. The game starts out with a really interesting and somewhat 'intimidating\scary' atmosphere, pair this with needle that looks extremely unforgiving and it makes for a really cool experience. I really love the visuals of the main game, i love the 'decaying' blocks, and the background & bgm fit quite well too. I'm unsure if the kid sprite was made for this game or is being repurposed from a prior fangame, but nevertheless i quite like it, it's easy to tell your location mid jump and it's very visible and I like how it looks. The needle is more experimental in the main game while the extra content is more 32px restrictive and 'ftfa-like', I think both ended out being incredible. The main game has a few screens that are less dense, such as screen 3 & 4 while the first 2 screens are a bit more claustrophobic. Screen 3 also has some very mild water usage but it's cool nevertheless. Some jumps in these screens are really cool, it would honestly take up too much space to list all the great jumps this game has as there's just so many, a lot use tight valign ranges or just generally feel really good visually and to perform, etc. Overall the main game stands up really well too, It's already some of the best setup needle i've played. Extra is also incredibly good, somewhat similar praises but it's worth mentioning some extra saves have an abundance of jumps that require frame-perfect long jumpheights, usually with valign ranges or whatnot aswell. Some of these jumps are really creative & feel quite good to improve at. Save balance is pretty good aswell, throughout the extra I didn't particularly find any singular save to be considerably harder than the others (and the base game also is well-balanced). Visuals for the extra are also pretty cool aswell. There's not much else to say, this game is basically perfect for what it is. It's really atmospheric and enticing to play, feels great, jumps are interesting, extremely fun for it's difficulty & I strongly recommend this to anyone interested in this kind of needle.
[0] Likes
Normal clear would be ~82 difficulty.
Highly recommend if interested in this kind of needle for both the normal clear & all clear.
This is an incredible fangame in both visuals and needle. It's currently some of my favourite setup needle that I have ever played, and it consistently throws extremely well-designed jumps at you, to where i'd even go as far to say that considerably more jumps in this entire game are interesting, fun, and generally really good than even mediocre jumps. It's really great. The game starts out with a really interesting and somewhat 'intimidating\scary' atmosphere, pair this with needle that looks extremely unforgiving and it makes for a really cool experience. I really love the visuals of the main game, i love the 'decaying' blocks, and the background & bgm fit quite well too. I'm unsure if the kid sprite was made for this game or is being repurposed from a prior fangame, but nevertheless i quite like it, it's easy to tell your location mid jump and it's very visible and I like how it looks. The needle is more experimental in the main game while the extra content is more 32px restrictive and 'ftfa-like', I think both ended out being incredible. The main game has a few screens that are less dense, such as screen 3 & 4 while the first 2 screens are a bit more claustrophobic. Screen 3 also has some very mild water usage but it's cool nevertheless. Some jumps in these screens are really cool, it would honestly take up too much space to list all the great jumps this game has as there's just so many, a lot use tight valign ranges or just generally feel really good visually and to perform, etc. Overall the main game stands up really well too, It's already some of the best setup needle i've played. Extra is also incredibly good, somewhat similar praises but it's worth mentioning some extra saves have an abundance of jumps that require frame-perfect long jumpheights, usually with valign ranges or whatnot aswell. Some of these jumps are really creative & feel quite good to improve at. Save balance is pretty good aswell, throughout the extra I didn't particularly find any singular save to be considerably harder than the others (and the base game also is well-balanced). Visuals for the extra are also pretty cool aswell. There's not much else to say, this game is basically perfect for what it is. It's really atmospheric and enticing to play, feels great, jumps are interesting, extremely fun for it's difficulty & I strongly recommend this to anyone interested in this kind of needle.
Rating: 10.0 100
Difficulty: 91 91
Jun 14, 2026
notmaxwell
For: Vaisravana
For: Vaisravana
Studio port \ remake of Tarwil's IWM map.
Visual overhaul done, and needle kept the same.
Normal difficulty has a save per screen, and Horangi only has one save at the start. Difficulty rating based off clearing on Horangi difficulty, normal clear would be ~75?
[0] Likes
Visual overhaul done, and needle kept the same.
Normal difficulty has a save per screen, and Horangi only has one save at the start. Difficulty rating based off clearing on Horangi difficulty, normal clear would be ~75?
Rating: N/A
Difficulty: 88 88
Jun 14, 2026
notmaxwell
For: I wanna be the 難しいアイワナ
For: I wanna be the 難しいアイワナ
with proper strats the final save isn't anything too crazy. (Keep align 0 for drop leehe, low valign for ex15)
some props to the prefinal save, the 9f plane thing is somewhat interesting, and overall the game wasn't actually that terrible to play. There is delay problems with the gm8 engine used, and it is restarting guyrock and engine defaults.
[0] Likes
some props to the prefinal save, the 9f plane thing is somewhat interesting, and overall the game wasn't actually that terrible to play. There is delay problems with the gm8 engine used, and it is restarting guyrock and engine defaults.
Rating: 2.2 22
Difficulty: 80 80
Jun 13, 2026
notmaxwell
For: I Wanna Express My Inner Thoughts
For: I Wanna Express My Inner Thoughts
Difficulty rating based on true clear.
Normal clear would be ~86
This is one of my favourite fangames out there right now, but at the same time this game has extensive flaws that make some saves extremely frustrating. Even through all that, I really love this game, it just ended up being so unique and cool to me, even though it's likely in reality not all that. This game has a pretty cool amount of variety visually, a good few areas & saves too. Some of the later saves in this game have some pretty nasty jumps, usually involving platforms or vines. It's pretty consistently difficult throughout the game, and ramps up a little bit at the end (a pretty decent bit at the final save too). I'd recommend giving this a whirl, but maybe keep in mind that some saves do get pretty rough, but it brings what I felt was a unique experience to the table.
That paragraph was the spoiler-free review, so here's the more detailed one with spoilers.
This game is incredibly interesting to me, it's pretty lengthy which is quite cool for something this difficult. I'll talk about each stage at a time, after the first few saves there's some pretty interesting usage of catharsis water. I like how it's implemented vertically into each screen, makes the usage feel more 'natural' in a sense. First save has a platform grab thats a bit mean, alongside with the 2nd. A lot of saves in this game will have a similar format (or with vines instead of platforms) but I do respect this game for being more ballsy and having difficult platform jumps instead of filler ones. I quite like the structuring of the final save in this section, it's cool stuff. I quite like the area after this, spotlight is cool and it's not too dark to where anything is difficult to see. Nice colours aswell, i really like it, the structuring hasn't changed that much compared to the prior area(s if you count the first 3 saves), although it doesn't really change much for most of the game. I don't have any problem with the needle in these saves, infact i honestly had a blast. Really fun stuff, a lot of the jumps flowed quite well and I like the transition to the area afterwards. I don't think this type of red 'blood' spikes is used anywhere else, it's atleast somewhat interesting to notice. Afterwards the game goes grayscale again, the structuring is kept decently similar, but now with the introduction of vines. One complaint i have thorough this game is that the platform sprite isn't changed, it's a bit of a shame as many other sprites are, and sometimes they can stand out a decent bit. This area is quite cool, I especially like the structuring where portions of the screen are left open, but admittedly this area is where some saves start to get pretty questionable. There's a few vine inputs that are a bit awkward and get quickly painful on the hands, and s2 here has a jump to a vine grab that is way tighter than it feels it reasonably should be. Some platform grabs are also kinda evil, but it's not too problematic yet. Overall these saves are pretty cool, and especially everything before up to this point is honestly really cool overall. After that area, there's one that mainly involves gravity flippers, and removes platforms & vines. I quite like these few saves, the usage of gravity is really well-done here to where figuring out the route isn't directly obvious on first glance. It actually requires some thinking to figure out the route. There's a few fried jumps here, mainly ones revolving around hitting certain spots of the flippers. It's good, cool visuals aswell. Sadly this area is a bit short, only lasting for 3 saves. After this there's a stage that seems to be inspired by liminal spaces judging by the background and bgm. It's kinda cool, I think it's visually weaker than other spots in the game, but it's not that much of a problem. Needle-wise, it's a bit concerning, the 3rd save here starts with an insane platform jump that's vastly more difficult than everything else, and has a pretty awkward final jump aswell. 2nd save of this area also has some pretty questionable movements. It's not that much of a biggie, and it's still enjoyable to play but it does show that this game didn't really pull off proper jump balance well. I'm kind of skimming through these areas and repeating myself, but everything up to this point is overall quite well-made, even though there's some concerning jumps, it's still really enjoyable to play and the amount of different visuals make it pretty refreshing too, as there's not more then 3 saves per area. It's flawed, and it definitely could've used some proper balance (& that the areas don't really curve up in difficulty to this point, as i found the gravity one quite a lot easier than prior ones). I noticed that whilst playing this there was a blue glow around the screen borders in these areas past the first. I'm not sure what's up with that but that's another thing that truthfully should've been noticed before release. Now onto what I call the "tower". It's a multi-screen long room with a camera that follows the player, visually it's very neat, albeit i'd prefer if there was some more interesting designs done on screen borders instead of being filled in with blocks, i can understand the logic behind this as it's the tower walls, but I think it would've been cooler to see some decay in a sense. The needle is structured pretty interestingly, the first 2 saves don't immediately progress upwards, and it looks pretty damn cool. Sadly, this part has pretty awful jumps scattered around in almost every single save. For instance, the first save ends in a vine jump that's downright ridiculous, and it looks visually silly, many of these problematic jumps don't look fun either, which poses the question of why they were included. I can understand the mindset of creating needle that is rough around the edges, maybe there's a jump that's intimidating, difficult yet rewarding. But every save in this stage has a jump that's usually really awkward and vastly harder than the jumps around it- and it becomes exceptionally problematic when said jump is midway through, or towards the end of a save. It makes the needle more frustrating than rewarding in the end. I will give it some points for intimidation, these jumps look scary and don't hold back, so it's easy to see what youre getting into, but also pulling this off so deep into the game could be questioned aswell. I won't complain about everything in detail but this stage has a lot of small vine movements in quick succession, extremely tight and out of place jumps, downright demonic platform grabs, etc. A problem I noticed is that the 2nd save has a drop at the end to get to the 3rd, it's offscreen but isn't that problematic as you can see it on the first save- but the problem here is that the camera will suddenly stop in place as it gets to the bottom of the room, which I found to be really jarring and caused a few deaths at the very end (which got a bit frustrating, as it's a hard save). There's some fun to be had in this stage, but I do believe that it's considerably the worst of what this game has to offer. It's also extremely hard, some saves are a decent bit above stages prior to this. Afterwards there's a similarly vertically long room, although different colours and background, and also only one save. This save (also the final save of a normal clear) is really good, I loved it. It's pretty long, stretching to over 1 minute even while playing it quite fast, I'm not sure how long it is in terms of screen-length but it's certainly a few screens. This save utilizes everything prior in the game, and I think it does so really well and flowed amazingly. Nothing is too tight in this save, everything is pretty lenient and it mainly is about learning the save and execution. Gravity flippers are used really well here, alongside catharsis water, there's a few vine jumps that are decently concerning, especially one at the middle where the jump off the vine is somewhat tight, but I didn't find it to be much concern. This save is honestly extremely good, it's also the hardest save in the base game, which is good as it works tremendously as a climax. I like how this tower doesn't have any filler blocks around the edges comparing to the blue tower, it makes it feel more special and rewarding after that section, maybe i'm looking into it too deep, but i think it's honestly exceptional as a combination of everything before.
That's it for the normal clear of this. It's honestly a very good game and interesting experience to play through. It's rough at times, mainly the blue tower's saves, but overall I still really enjoyed it. There's something about the themeing and atmosphere in this game that really nails it, it might be personal preference, or just me being illogical, but even through it's flaws and frustrating I really enjoyed going through it. Seeing each new area and clearing saves felt really rewarding and engaging and it's some of the most fun i've had with needle. I don't know why, it could be the structuring, maybe the jump design or flow, I know for the final save it certainly was so, but this really just hooked me. I think putting a well-designed climax save after a good few saves of frustrating needle helped exemplify the feeling of relief and the "I did it" that comes with it.
The clear screen of this game has two 4.5 spikes on the edges. You can jump over them to get to the secret screen, or whatever you call it. It's absurdly difficult and makes the rest of the game pale in comparison. I like how this screen has it's own tileset & theme. It has care and effort designed into it, and it stands out in that regard. The needle of this screen is unforgiving and not extremely well balanced. Some jumps are insanely difficult, namely the first 2 jumps, and the last 2 jumps (Not counting the corner before the final jump). The first 2 jumps are a bit absurd, the plane gets decently consistent but it has a pretty awkward entrance and is just a raw plane with a mean enter, and the invert jump is incredibly hard and inconsistent. Both of these 2 jumps lined up at the start kill 80% of deaths in this save. It's a next level meatgrinder, albeit they do get somewhat consistent but never to the point where they're insignificant or on the same level as most other jumps in this save. Especially the invert, with every single input both jumpheight and movement related being frame-perfect. It's really easy to get suddenly inconsistent at one of these jumps (usually the 2nd) and then the rest of the save feels like an unreachable mess. It's real rough, and I can't say I really like it. I'm glad these jumps are at the start and not anywhere else but i do have to question their inclusion at all. Now on the topic of having sudden difficulty-spike jumps, the final jump in this save is Insane. It looks as intimidating as it is hard, and it's absurdly difficult. It's one thing to have this type of jump at the start or maybe mid-way through a save, but as the final jump is a whole new level. It's inconsistent by nature, and is less 'setup-y' than most other jumps in this whole save, it's basically a raw plane-corner. The starting jumpheight isn't frame perfect, nor is most inputs in this jump, but nevertheless is it something that's extremely easy to choke. I didn't die here, somehow, but that's a blessing and an insane stroke of luck. It's insane. The jump before this (ignoring the fj corner, which is pretty easy compared to everything else in this screen) is the jump over from the ledge, and it's kind of nasty. The turnaround and jump to the ledge is also a bit evil, being a frame-perfect djump press (albeit not that bad, pretty intuitive) and a decently difficult turnaround that I found was really easy to mess up the execution of when that deep into the save. The jump from the ledge is also quite difficult as the diagonal is honestly harder than it seems. It's likely not as messed up as the final jump (can't tell too well, as i didn't die to final) but I found it extremely easy to mess up considering how deep it is into the save. The rest of the save has a few turnarounds that are a bit awkward and inconsistent at first, but feel pretty okay for the most part. There's some neat setups and jumps such as the jump to the corner on the top left, and the drop in the middle I quite like, and felt really good to pull off. There's a fj fj that has a surprisingly easy to mess up timing in the middle aswell, but also some fine setup jumps that aren't anything too crazy but not bothersome either. I'm not a fan of the 4th jump, especially with the movements to jump up after doing the turnaround, it can feel pretty awkward at times. My main problem playing this outside of the needle is that a lot of jumps here are 'setup-focused', and usually that involves looking at the kid's feet positioning to line up standing in the right spot. A good few jumps (namely the start) this isn't possible, as the kid's feet is legitimately almost the exact same colour as the background. It's a devastating oversight which heavily impacted playing this. Because of this, I had to turn my brightness all the way up, making the screen pretty ugly visually and also being rough on the eyes to even see the kid's feet so that I could stand in the right spots without memorizing the body. It's really frustrating and could've been prevented easily, I think it's likely just an error that comes from lack of playtesting.
Overall this screen is a bit odd. The middle is for the most part pretty good, consistent, and not that challenging when compared to the start and end of this save. I like it though. It's certainly frustrating to play at times, especially when playing from the start of the save just feels like throwing yourself at a brick wall to get a proper attempt past the start, but it has identity. It's unique in a sense, visually and in it's needle aswell. When I first looked at this screen I thought it would be somewhat reminiscent of Close the World's final extra save, or play somewhat similarly to that & it's related needle saves. But I don't think this does, it has it's own more unique thing going on. And I'll give it some damn good points for that, is it intentional? Don't know. But i believe it is executed as such. And I actually am really fond of how this Screen looks visually, I like stuff being on the darker side such as this. After this, there's the 'clearscreen' of the secret screen. It's just nothing, only a black screen, with the kid in the corner, and wind playing. That's it, there isn't even a save to keep your progress here. I don't really mind this clearscreen, it's a shame that there isn't more considering the amount of effort required to get to it, but I presume that it wasn't really expected that anyone would. My real problem here is that there's no save, I don't know if that's an oversight or not, but it's a pretty big one if so.
Overall this game is an experience. It's got the good and the bad. The secret screen also helped give this game more of an identity to me, and made me care about it quite a lot. It's one of my favourite fangames for many reasons, it's not near perfect, but it brought something exclusive to the table & it just feels special. I wouldn't recommend playing for true clear unless you're ready for a rough time. I'm very proud of this clear.
[0] Likes
Normal clear would be ~86
This is one of my favourite fangames out there right now, but at the same time this game has extensive flaws that make some saves extremely frustrating. Even through all that, I really love this game, it just ended up being so unique and cool to me, even though it's likely in reality not all that. This game has a pretty cool amount of variety visually, a good few areas & saves too. Some of the later saves in this game have some pretty nasty jumps, usually involving platforms or vines. It's pretty consistently difficult throughout the game, and ramps up a little bit at the end (a pretty decent bit at the final save too). I'd recommend giving this a whirl, but maybe keep in mind that some saves do get pretty rough, but it brings what I felt was a unique experience to the table.
That paragraph was the spoiler-free review, so here's the more detailed one with spoilers.
This game is incredibly interesting to me, it's pretty lengthy which is quite cool for something this difficult. I'll talk about each stage at a time, after the first few saves there's some pretty interesting usage of catharsis water. I like how it's implemented vertically into each screen, makes the usage feel more 'natural' in a sense. First save has a platform grab thats a bit mean, alongside with the 2nd. A lot of saves in this game will have a similar format (or with vines instead of platforms) but I do respect this game for being more ballsy and having difficult platform jumps instead of filler ones. I quite like the structuring of the final save in this section, it's cool stuff. I quite like the area after this, spotlight is cool and it's not too dark to where anything is difficult to see. Nice colours aswell, i really like it, the structuring hasn't changed that much compared to the prior area(s if you count the first 3 saves), although it doesn't really change much for most of the game. I don't have any problem with the needle in these saves, infact i honestly had a blast. Really fun stuff, a lot of the jumps flowed quite well and I like the transition to the area afterwards. I don't think this type of red 'blood' spikes is used anywhere else, it's atleast somewhat interesting to notice. Afterwards the game goes grayscale again, the structuring is kept decently similar, but now with the introduction of vines. One complaint i have thorough this game is that the platform sprite isn't changed, it's a bit of a shame as many other sprites are, and sometimes they can stand out a decent bit. This area is quite cool, I especially like the structuring where portions of the screen are left open, but admittedly this area is where some saves start to get pretty questionable. There's a few vine inputs that are a bit awkward and get quickly painful on the hands, and s2 here has a jump to a vine grab that is way tighter than it feels it reasonably should be. Some platform grabs are also kinda evil, but it's not too problematic yet. Overall these saves are pretty cool, and especially everything before up to this point is honestly really cool overall. After that area, there's one that mainly involves gravity flippers, and removes platforms & vines. I quite like these few saves, the usage of gravity is really well-done here to where figuring out the route isn't directly obvious on first glance. It actually requires some thinking to figure out the route. There's a few fried jumps here, mainly ones revolving around hitting certain spots of the flippers. It's good, cool visuals aswell. Sadly this area is a bit short, only lasting for 3 saves. After this there's a stage that seems to be inspired by liminal spaces judging by the background and bgm. It's kinda cool, I think it's visually weaker than other spots in the game, but it's not that much of a problem. Needle-wise, it's a bit concerning, the 3rd save here starts with an insane platform jump that's vastly more difficult than everything else, and has a pretty awkward final jump aswell. 2nd save of this area also has some pretty questionable movements. It's not that much of a biggie, and it's still enjoyable to play but it does show that this game didn't really pull off proper jump balance well. I'm kind of skimming through these areas and repeating myself, but everything up to this point is overall quite well-made, even though there's some concerning jumps, it's still really enjoyable to play and the amount of different visuals make it pretty refreshing too, as there's not more then 3 saves per area. It's flawed, and it definitely could've used some proper balance (& that the areas don't really curve up in difficulty to this point, as i found the gravity one quite a lot easier than prior ones). I noticed that whilst playing this there was a blue glow around the screen borders in these areas past the first. I'm not sure what's up with that but that's another thing that truthfully should've been noticed before release. Now onto what I call the "tower". It's a multi-screen long room with a camera that follows the player, visually it's very neat, albeit i'd prefer if there was some more interesting designs done on screen borders instead of being filled in with blocks, i can understand the logic behind this as it's the tower walls, but I think it would've been cooler to see some decay in a sense. The needle is structured pretty interestingly, the first 2 saves don't immediately progress upwards, and it looks pretty damn cool. Sadly, this part has pretty awful jumps scattered around in almost every single save. For instance, the first save ends in a vine jump that's downright ridiculous, and it looks visually silly, many of these problematic jumps don't look fun either, which poses the question of why they were included. I can understand the mindset of creating needle that is rough around the edges, maybe there's a jump that's intimidating, difficult yet rewarding. But every save in this stage has a jump that's usually really awkward and vastly harder than the jumps around it- and it becomes exceptionally problematic when said jump is midway through, or towards the end of a save. It makes the needle more frustrating than rewarding in the end. I will give it some points for intimidation, these jumps look scary and don't hold back, so it's easy to see what youre getting into, but also pulling this off so deep into the game could be questioned aswell. I won't complain about everything in detail but this stage has a lot of small vine movements in quick succession, extremely tight and out of place jumps, downright demonic platform grabs, etc. A problem I noticed is that the 2nd save has a drop at the end to get to the 3rd, it's offscreen but isn't that problematic as you can see it on the first save- but the problem here is that the camera will suddenly stop in place as it gets to the bottom of the room, which I found to be really jarring and caused a few deaths at the very end (which got a bit frustrating, as it's a hard save). There's some fun to be had in this stage, but I do believe that it's considerably the worst of what this game has to offer. It's also extremely hard, some saves are a decent bit above stages prior to this. Afterwards there's a similarly vertically long room, although different colours and background, and also only one save. This save (also the final save of a normal clear) is really good, I loved it. It's pretty long, stretching to over 1 minute even while playing it quite fast, I'm not sure how long it is in terms of screen-length but it's certainly a few screens. This save utilizes everything prior in the game, and I think it does so really well and flowed amazingly. Nothing is too tight in this save, everything is pretty lenient and it mainly is about learning the save and execution. Gravity flippers are used really well here, alongside catharsis water, there's a few vine jumps that are decently concerning, especially one at the middle where the jump off the vine is somewhat tight, but I didn't find it to be much concern. This save is honestly extremely good, it's also the hardest save in the base game, which is good as it works tremendously as a climax. I like how this tower doesn't have any filler blocks around the edges comparing to the blue tower, it makes it feel more special and rewarding after that section, maybe i'm looking into it too deep, but i think it's honestly exceptional as a combination of everything before.
That's it for the normal clear of this. It's honestly a very good game and interesting experience to play through. It's rough at times, mainly the blue tower's saves, but overall I still really enjoyed it. There's something about the themeing and atmosphere in this game that really nails it, it might be personal preference, or just me being illogical, but even through it's flaws and frustrating I really enjoyed going through it. Seeing each new area and clearing saves felt really rewarding and engaging and it's some of the most fun i've had with needle. I don't know why, it could be the structuring, maybe the jump design or flow, I know for the final save it certainly was so, but this really just hooked me. I think putting a well-designed climax save after a good few saves of frustrating needle helped exemplify the feeling of relief and the "I did it" that comes with it.
The clear screen of this game has two 4.5 spikes on the edges. You can jump over them to get to the secret screen, or whatever you call it. It's absurdly difficult and makes the rest of the game pale in comparison. I like how this screen has it's own tileset & theme. It has care and effort designed into it, and it stands out in that regard. The needle of this screen is unforgiving and not extremely well balanced. Some jumps are insanely difficult, namely the first 2 jumps, and the last 2 jumps (Not counting the corner before the final jump). The first 2 jumps are a bit absurd, the plane gets decently consistent but it has a pretty awkward entrance and is just a raw plane with a mean enter, and the invert jump is incredibly hard and inconsistent. Both of these 2 jumps lined up at the start kill 80% of deaths in this save. It's a next level meatgrinder, albeit they do get somewhat consistent but never to the point where they're insignificant or on the same level as most other jumps in this save. Especially the invert, with every single input both jumpheight and movement related being frame-perfect. It's really easy to get suddenly inconsistent at one of these jumps (usually the 2nd) and then the rest of the save feels like an unreachable mess. It's real rough, and I can't say I really like it. I'm glad these jumps are at the start and not anywhere else but i do have to question their inclusion at all. Now on the topic of having sudden difficulty-spike jumps, the final jump in this save is Insane. It looks as intimidating as it is hard, and it's absurdly difficult. It's one thing to have this type of jump at the start or maybe mid-way through a save, but as the final jump is a whole new level. It's inconsistent by nature, and is less 'setup-y' than most other jumps in this whole save, it's basically a raw plane-corner. The starting jumpheight isn't frame perfect, nor is most inputs in this jump, but nevertheless is it something that's extremely easy to choke. I didn't die here, somehow, but that's a blessing and an insane stroke of luck. It's insane. The jump before this (ignoring the fj corner, which is pretty easy compared to everything else in this screen) is the jump over from the ledge, and it's kind of nasty. The turnaround and jump to the ledge is also a bit evil, being a frame-perfect djump press (albeit not that bad, pretty intuitive) and a decently difficult turnaround that I found was really easy to mess up the execution of when that deep into the save. The jump from the ledge is also quite difficult as the diagonal is honestly harder than it seems. It's likely not as messed up as the final jump (can't tell too well, as i didn't die to final) but I found it extremely easy to mess up considering how deep it is into the save. The rest of the save has a few turnarounds that are a bit awkward and inconsistent at first, but feel pretty okay for the most part. There's some neat setups and jumps such as the jump to the corner on the top left, and the drop in the middle I quite like, and felt really good to pull off. There's a fj fj that has a surprisingly easy to mess up timing in the middle aswell, but also some fine setup jumps that aren't anything too crazy but not bothersome either. I'm not a fan of the 4th jump, especially with the movements to jump up after doing the turnaround, it can feel pretty awkward at times. My main problem playing this outside of the needle is that a lot of jumps here are 'setup-focused', and usually that involves looking at the kid's feet positioning to line up standing in the right spot. A good few jumps (namely the start) this isn't possible, as the kid's feet is legitimately almost the exact same colour as the background. It's a devastating oversight which heavily impacted playing this. Because of this, I had to turn my brightness all the way up, making the screen pretty ugly visually and also being rough on the eyes to even see the kid's feet so that I could stand in the right spots without memorizing the body. It's really frustrating and could've been prevented easily, I think it's likely just an error that comes from lack of playtesting.
Overall this screen is a bit odd. The middle is for the most part pretty good, consistent, and not that challenging when compared to the start and end of this save. I like it though. It's certainly frustrating to play at times, especially when playing from the start of the save just feels like throwing yourself at a brick wall to get a proper attempt past the start, but it has identity. It's unique in a sense, visually and in it's needle aswell. When I first looked at this screen I thought it would be somewhat reminiscent of Close the World's final extra save, or play somewhat similarly to that & it's related needle saves. But I don't think this does, it has it's own more unique thing going on. And I'll give it some damn good points for that, is it intentional? Don't know. But i believe it is executed as such. And I actually am really fond of how this Screen looks visually, I like stuff being on the darker side such as this. After this, there's the 'clearscreen' of the secret screen. It's just nothing, only a black screen, with the kid in the corner, and wind playing. That's it, there isn't even a save to keep your progress here. I don't really mind this clearscreen, it's a shame that there isn't more considering the amount of effort required to get to it, but I presume that it wasn't really expected that anyone would. My real problem here is that there's no save, I don't know if that's an oversight or not, but it's a pretty big one if so.
Overall this game is an experience. It's got the good and the bad. The secret screen also helped give this game more of an identity to me, and made me care about it quite a lot. It's one of my favourite fangames for many reasons, it's not near perfect, but it brought something exclusive to the table & it just feels special. I wouldn't recommend playing for true clear unless you're ready for a rough time. I'm very proud of this clear.
Rating: N/A
Difficulty: 95 95
Jun 5, 2026
notmaxwell
For: I wanna be the Ordinary Needle
For: I wanna be the Ordinary Needle
cool game, the fact that it's so intricate and well-made while on 32px grid is quite cool. A lot of saves require cactus jumps, that seem quite intimidating at first but actually are really fun and consistent to pull off. I loved each save until the last, especially some jumps like the 2nd jump of save 2 were really interesting and cool to me, great stuff in general and the fact it was made on 32px is even more impressive, Certainly not that ordinary.. My complaint with this game comes in the form of the final save, even yet, only the final jump. It's an insane jump, requiring a cactus into a tight double cancel. It's vastly beyond any other jump in the game in terms of difficulty, and to be frank i'm not that much of a fan. Firstly, it's that much of a step above the rest of the game to where it demands the bulk of a clears playtime dedicated to it, and I just don't find it as interesting as cool compared to some of the cactus jumps in the first 2 saves, especially considering it does have the somewhat basic downwards plane forced cancel format, except heightened to a new level, which is pretty cool and I'll give it some points for innovation there, but I personally think i find jumps such as the 1+6 in the save prior to just be a bit cooler in my tastes. Alongside this, the cactus into this jump is pretty nasty, it adds to the inconsistency of the jump, and that's basically where this whole game's difficulty comes from, is this final jump effectively being an insane wall- the first jump of the final save I didn't find to be that bad, and likely on par with many other jumps in the game, but the final jump is just beyond insane to the point where it just ended up feeling uncontrollable and an rng check. You can certainly improve on it to the point where it is somewhat consistent, but it demands much more time than anything else in the game, and most clears (including i) end up just bruteforcing the clear anyway. I can't help but not love the jump as even though it is extremely mechanically impressive, it just wasn't that much fun to grind mindlessly at. Cool enough visuals that it makes a name for itself, clearscreen is a bit underwhelming although. I'd really recommend getting up to the final save atleast.
[0] Likes
Rating: 7.5 75
Difficulty: 91 91
May 29, 2026
1 Game
| Game | Difficulty | Average Rating | # of Ratings |
|---|---|---|---|
| crude riverbed | 63.3 | 7.0 | 5 |
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