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:
236 Ratings!
157 Reviews!
9 Screenshots!
236 Games
157 Reviews
Cthaere
For: Summer Feast Needle 2020
For: Summer Feast Needle 2020
A fairly long gimmick needle collab divided into 5 stages, progressed through in a linear order. As a collab, this game outdoes itself in terms of variety; Every stage feels distinct and stands out from the others, both in gimmick choice, needle design and visuals/atmosphere. Unfortunately, this variety extends into difficulty as well, and makes for a difficulty curve which feels unbalanced, which is not helped by a few individual saves also being significantly harder than normal within their area. Still, the needle itself is nearly always great, and takes away much of the frustration and annoyance brought by grinding the same save for a long time. With that said, we can start covering each one individually, by order of appearance:
Cloakman: A stage divided into two parts. The first part utilizes a gimmick wherein the player picks up a 1-use rocket launcher which can break certain blocks in order to clear himself a path, while the second one is focused around flipping a series of lightswitches to find the path to the end, which will turn off after a short while, sending you back to darkness. This was one of the weaker areas for me, as I felt the gimmick in the first part was not brought to its full potential, and I usually have an aversion to vision-obstructing gimmicks. I was also not a big fan of the metallic visuals, which felt out of place in a gimmick needle game. Still, the needle was fairly decent and the area as a whole was by no means bad, and the fact this was one of the weaker stages for me serves to show how good this game is as a whole.
Chance: An area using lines as both killers and platforms, with a healthy dose of cycle needle mixed in. This was probably the most solid stage for me, and consistently had the highest lows while still managing to score some fairly high highs. My only issue with this stage is the recurring theme of standing on top of a 1 pixel wide line, which felt incredibly awkward; Other than that, this stage managed to do an incredible job of exploring a variety of ways to combine cycles with line needle, with nearly each screen containing something unique to it.
Ef: A stage centered around water which includes two new varieties of it: Orange water, which doesn't cap your fall speed but gives you a bit of upwards momentum to slow your fall until eventually you're going to start rising up, and some variant of catharsis water which I still don't fully understand; My best guess is that it gives you extremely low gravity, but only while falling down. The gimmicks in this one felt extremely janky, yet despite that they were also some of the most fun. Clever setups and appropriate save positioning alleviates most of the frustration that would come about from being robbed of clearing a save due to the seemingly unpredictable gimmicks, and leaves only the clever pathing and the satisfying maneuvers behind. One of the better stages for me.
Q123: A stage focused around single-use apple-shaped NANG stars, featuring heavy puzzle elements, mindblowing pathing and a good serving of triple-jump needle. This stage, as brilliant as it is, is going to be one of the most divisive ones: Due to the gimmick and pathing, backtracking over and over is an integral part of the stage, and with only 2 saves per screen, each using the space allocated to it in the most efficient way, each save ends up feeling over a screen and a half long while only having a third of that in terms of jump variety. These saves can very quickly become gruesome to grind, and the sheer length of it all makes this stage feel like a giant difficulty spike even though each individual jump is forgiving. All of this peaks in the last save, which is given a full screen, and is where I would have quit if I hadn't found a major skip (version 1.1 for reference). If you love long saves, this is the area for you; If you don't, you might quit here. I personally had fun with this, but I certainly wished it would end sooner once I got far enough in.
_Xp_: A magnificent stumble-themed area, using nearly every "common" gimmick in the book: Default engine gimmicks, CN3 shoot refreshers, catharsis water, cycles, triggers, and many more that I would rather not spoil. This was by and large my favorite area, as the needle itself feels like it was refined to near perfection: The cycles work seamlessly, the trigger based sections feeling like the timing is just tight enough, the jumps themselves feeling completely natural and immensely satisfying to pull off. Aside from one save that felt awkward, inconsistent, and noticeably harder than the rest, this area would easily be a 10/10 for me. I would recommend those who had to drag themselves through the previous area to find the willpower to do so, as this one is definitely worth playing.
So there you have it. An incredible game, but not without its downsides, ending on a very high note while being very fun and fresh throughout. A must-play to everyone who likes long-save gimmick needle and can handle it.
[3] Likes
Cloakman: A stage divided into two parts. The first part utilizes a gimmick wherein the player picks up a 1-use rocket launcher which can break certain blocks in order to clear himself a path, while the second one is focused around flipping a series of lightswitches to find the path to the end, which will turn off after a short while, sending you back to darkness. This was one of the weaker areas for me, as I felt the gimmick in the first part was not brought to its full potential, and I usually have an aversion to vision-obstructing gimmicks. I was also not a big fan of the metallic visuals, which felt out of place in a gimmick needle game. Still, the needle was fairly decent and the area as a whole was by no means bad, and the fact this was one of the weaker stages for me serves to show how good this game is as a whole.
Chance: An area using lines as both killers and platforms, with a healthy dose of cycle needle mixed in. This was probably the most solid stage for me, and consistently had the highest lows while still managing to score some fairly high highs. My only issue with this stage is the recurring theme of standing on top of a 1 pixel wide line, which felt incredibly awkward; Other than that, this stage managed to do an incredible job of exploring a variety of ways to combine cycles with line needle, with nearly each screen containing something unique to it.
Ef: A stage centered around water which includes two new varieties of it: Orange water, which doesn't cap your fall speed but gives you a bit of upwards momentum to slow your fall until eventually you're going to start rising up, and some variant of catharsis water which I still don't fully understand; My best guess is that it gives you extremely low gravity, but only while falling down. The gimmicks in this one felt extremely janky, yet despite that they were also some of the most fun. Clever setups and appropriate save positioning alleviates most of the frustration that would come about from being robbed of clearing a save due to the seemingly unpredictable gimmicks, and leaves only the clever pathing and the satisfying maneuvers behind. One of the better stages for me.
Q123: A stage focused around single-use apple-shaped NANG stars, featuring heavy puzzle elements, mindblowing pathing and a good serving of triple-jump needle. This stage, as brilliant as it is, is going to be one of the most divisive ones: Due to the gimmick and pathing, backtracking over and over is an integral part of the stage, and with only 2 saves per screen, each using the space allocated to it in the most efficient way, each save ends up feeling over a screen and a half long while only having a third of that in terms of jump variety. These saves can very quickly become gruesome to grind, and the sheer length of it all makes this stage feel like a giant difficulty spike even though each individual jump is forgiving. All of this peaks in the last save, which is given a full screen, and is where I would have quit if I hadn't found a major skip (version 1.1 for reference). If you love long saves, this is the area for you; If you don't, you might quit here. I personally had fun with this, but I certainly wished it would end sooner once I got far enough in.
_Xp_: A magnificent stumble-themed area, using nearly every "common" gimmick in the book: Default engine gimmicks, CN3 shoot refreshers, catharsis water, cycles, triggers, and many more that I would rather not spoil. This was by and large my favorite area, as the needle itself feels like it was refined to near perfection: The cycles work seamlessly, the trigger based sections feeling like the timing is just tight enough, the jumps themselves feeling completely natural and immensely satisfying to pull off. Aside from one save that felt awkward, inconsistent, and noticeably harder than the rest, this area would easily be a 10/10 for me. I would recommend those who had to drag themselves through the previous area to find the willpower to do so, as this one is definitely worth playing.
So there you have it. An incredible game, but not without its downsides, ending on a very high note while being very fun and fresh throughout. A must-play to everyone who likes long-save gimmick needle and can handle it.
Rating: 9.1 91
Difficulty: 81 81
Sep 12, 2020
Cthaere
For: 2011 needle hole
For: 2011 needle hole
Fun & chill 32 pixel needle with a gloomy atmosphere, which consists of good usage of generic jumps as well as some interesting maneuvers utilizing the default engine gimmicks. Would recommend.
Tagged as: Needle
[1] Like
Rating: 7.3 73
Difficulty: 48 48
Sep 8, 2020
Cthaere
For: I Wanna Ride The Desert Bus
For: I Wanna Ride The Desert Bus
Only do this if you have a day to waste, while in a call the entire time (preferably with people playing this as well, or while also streaming) and with an alarm reminding of you of the game in the background. If you follow these rules and don't die along the way, this would be an experience that's unpleasant, bonding, tense and surreal, one that I personally am glad to have had, and you might too. If you do die along the way... Let's say I would not have given this as high of a rating as I have.
Tagged as: Special
[1] Like
Rating: 5.0 50
Difficulty: N/A
Aug 29, 2020
Cthaere
For: I wanna break break
For: I wanna break break
5 screens of needle where you are given the choice of taking a moving block to skip the entire screen instead of doing the needle. The needle itself is around 60 difficulty, although screen 4 was significantly harder than the rest. It has only 1 save per screen, and it's pretty fun, using a mix of well-placed generic jumps and a few more esoteric ones, with quite a few drops sprinkled in which feel fairly satisfying. Would recommend as a needle game if you can handle it, especially since you can skip screens you'd rather not do.
Tagged as: Needle
[0] Likes
Rating: 7.0 70
Difficulty: 0 0
Aug 22, 2020
Cthaere
For: I Wanna XV Spike
For: I Wanna XV Spike
(review based on V1.02)
XV spikes is a needle collab where every screen contains at most 15 spikes (or playerkillers in general). Each creator has found their own way to go about this challenge, and it has some very interesting screens. However, working with this restriction requires exceptional accuracy and attention to detail, which some screens miss, and there are definitely areas which could use a bit more polish.
The screens generally tend to go two ways: Long pathing-focused screens, trying to squeeze out as much content out of every spike as possible, and shorter maneuver-focused ones which maximize the effect of each spike and ensuring that each and every one is a deadly obstacle. While screens falling into the second category have been an absolute blast, screens in the first one are unfortunately quite rough around the edges in regards to the jumps you have to do; Overuse of fulljumps and vine needle which is annoying to pull off, unnecessarily long saves with choke segments close to the end, as well as long segments that are full of nothing. This only appears in a few of the screens, but those screens were unfun to play as a result.
There are a few more tidbits that are far less impactful on the experience yet were weird nontheless: Shign screen has a skip by doing a floor invert with a gravity flipper on the bottom of the screen; Huse screen features the only non-jtool+catharsis water element with a moving platform, which sticks out unfavorably to me. that platform also has weird snapping issues; water 1,2 and 3 have no indication at all, and it's practically guesswork as to which is which, especially since the visual style switches in the middle; While this is mostly me being nitpicky, they still made me raise my eyebrow, and I feel like those issues (and a few other, even smaller ones) should have been ironed out before release.
Overall I'd say this game is interesting, and very much worth the play, however I cannot say I'd like to replay it in its current state due to the downfalls, and I would also wait for a future patch and hope the experience is improved. At its core, this game has a lot of potential, and hopefully it could come to be realized.
[1] Like
XV spikes is a needle collab where every screen contains at most 15 spikes (or playerkillers in general). Each creator has found their own way to go about this challenge, and it has some very interesting screens. However, working with this restriction requires exceptional accuracy and attention to detail, which some screens miss, and there are definitely areas which could use a bit more polish.
The screens generally tend to go two ways: Long pathing-focused screens, trying to squeeze out as much content out of every spike as possible, and shorter maneuver-focused ones which maximize the effect of each spike and ensuring that each and every one is a deadly obstacle. While screens falling into the second category have been an absolute blast, screens in the first one are unfortunately quite rough around the edges in regards to the jumps you have to do; Overuse of fulljumps and vine needle which is annoying to pull off, unnecessarily long saves with choke segments close to the end, as well as long segments that are full of nothing. This only appears in a few of the screens, but those screens were unfun to play as a result.
There are a few more tidbits that are far less impactful on the experience yet were weird nontheless: Shign screen has a skip by doing a floor invert with a gravity flipper on the bottom of the screen; Huse screen features the only non-jtool+catharsis water element with a moving platform, which sticks out unfavorably to me. that platform also has weird snapping issues; water 1,2 and 3 have no indication at all, and it's practically guesswork as to which is which, especially since the visual style switches in the middle; While this is mostly me being nitpicky, they still made me raise my eyebrow, and I feel like those issues (and a few other, even smaller ones) should have been ironed out before release.
Overall I'd say this game is interesting, and very much worth the play, however I cannot say I'd like to replay it in its current state due to the downfalls, and I would also wait for a future patch and hope the experience is improved. At its core, this game has a lot of potential, and hopefully it could come to be realized.
Rating: 6.0 60
Difficulty: 65 65
Aug 10, 2020
2 Games
| Game | Difficulty | Average Rating | # of Ratings |
|---|---|---|---|
| I wanna Musiclock | 74.7 | 9.4 | 18 |
| I wanna Xanadu | 59.4 | 8.2 | 6 |
32 Favorite Games
143 Cleared Games