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: I wanna be the 肉食系うんこ
For: I wanna be the 肉食系うんこ
Some needle that really isn't relevant followed by a barrage. The barrage is decently visually pleasing, surprisingly fair, has a nice song, has interesting concepts and feels rly good to play in general.
Really not much to say on this one. Simple and great. Would highly recommend.
[1] Like
Really not much to say on this one. Simple and great. Would highly recommend.
Rating: 8.5 85
Difficulty: 70 70
May 16, 2022
Cthaere
For: I wanna まだダメよ
For: I wanna まだダメよ
Was the tester for this, as well as the one who pushed for the archive release.
Simple but fun, good mapping and visuals, especially for a first avoidance. Please make more.
[0] Likes
Simple but fun, good mapping and visuals, especially for a first avoidance. Please make more.
Rating: 8.5 85
Difficulty: N/A
Mar 20, 2022
Cthaere
For: Extreme Depths 2
For: Extreme Depths 2
This is, perhaps, the game I found to be most true to its name. On the surface level, it is a decent needle game with some production value kicking it up a notch, which feels like a homage to nang but not quite as good. Certainly a respectable needle game, even if it feels like it's right out of 2014 (which it sort of is) but not a spectacular release by any means. However, the deeper you dive from there, the better the game gets.
And therein lies my problem with it. It is hard to divorce the game from the maker, and when I think Watson, I think of games like Cute Jump, Vibe with the Gods, or Lockpick. Cute jump, building spectacularly on an existing game and exploring new concepts at a comfortable yet rapid pace; Vibe with the Gods, zapping between multiple different screens sampling all kinds of ideas before landing on the final boss, a fantastic closure taking most the previous screens into account; Lockpick, hailed as the game keypick should have been, due to not only exploring the concepts better, but more importantly dropping all the filler content. Filler is precisely the issue here; No recent Watson game feels as full of filler as this game does, including the game in which "forced waiting" is an integral core mechanic!
While I did want to get this bit of frustration out of the way, once you do get to the good parts, boy are you in for a ride. Insanely fun input soup Dustforce gimmick with a screen of non stop aerial movement; Cycle needle concepts that outdo even the current masters of the craft; And a true final boss to rival NANC2, built upon the concepts that the any% boss introduced. The game also gets a massive boost to visuals here, and it's absolutely gorgeous to look at. In every aspect, this part of the game is absolutely worth playing, and had the rest of it been up to the standard being set here, it'd easily be a 10 and would likely have earned a spot in my top 10 fangames.
But it's not.
In any capacity, I would still completely and absolutely recommend this to everyone so long as they have the patience to sit through the start to get to the end. It is still on all accounts a brilliant game, just one I have my own minor frustrations with.
[2] Likes
And therein lies my problem with it. It is hard to divorce the game from the maker, and when I think Watson, I think of games like Cute Jump, Vibe with the Gods, or Lockpick. Cute jump, building spectacularly on an existing game and exploring new concepts at a comfortable yet rapid pace; Vibe with the Gods, zapping between multiple different screens sampling all kinds of ideas before landing on the final boss, a fantastic closure taking most the previous screens into account; Lockpick, hailed as the game keypick should have been, due to not only exploring the concepts better, but more importantly dropping all the filler content. Filler is precisely the issue here; No recent Watson game feels as full of filler as this game does, including the game in which "forced waiting" is an integral core mechanic!
While I did want to get this bit of frustration out of the way, once you do get to the good parts, boy are you in for a ride. Insanely fun input soup Dustforce gimmick with a screen of non stop aerial movement; Cycle needle concepts that outdo even the current masters of the craft; And a true final boss to rival NANC2, built upon the concepts that the any% boss introduced. The game also gets a massive boost to visuals here, and it's absolutely gorgeous to look at. In every aspect, this part of the game is absolutely worth playing, and had the rest of it been up to the standard being set here, it'd easily be a 10 and would likely have earned a spot in my top 10 fangames.
But it's not.
In any capacity, I would still completely and absolutely recommend this to everyone so long as they have the patience to sit through the start to get to the end. It is still on all accounts a brilliant game, just one I have my own minor frustrations with.
Rating: 9.0 90
Difficulty: 70 70
Mar 10, 2022
Cthaere
For: I Wanna Step Outside the Needle
For: I Wanna Step Outside the Needle
I wanna step outside the needle is a gimmick needle game with a heavy focus on cycles, featuring 4 stages with their own small spins on the main theme as well as occasional unrelated gimmicks, and a final stage that combines all of them.
Now that we've got that out of the way, I would like to summarize this game in 2 words: half baked.
The cycles are a consistently mixed bag between boring/frustrating cycles that serve mostly as pointless waiting, standard cycle needle ideas that have been done before and don't have much new to offer, and the occasional brilliant ideas on par with games like Noesis. The gameplay the cycles themselves facilitate is mostly full of clunky stutters and precise timings; The water segments also have their awkwardness. Still, occasionally there are satisfying weaving drops, cycles that line up well or a gimmick that forces you to speedrun through a section designed for that specifically; These are the highlight of the game, and if the entire game was made out of the best parts, it'd easily earn itself over an 8.5.
As for the atmosphere, it felt like a good attempt was made but the result was lacking. Visually, it's only basic tiling and background, which while those elements do look impressive on their own, the lack of any dynamic or decorative element makes it look very stiff and makes many of the stages feel the same (the heavy iwm homages certainly don't help in this regard). Many of them feel like they were put together due to being thematically similar, without managing to truly blend together with each other, and the same goes for the song choices, making areas feel like you're being implicitly told "this is supposed to be the temple area" or "this is supposed to be the futuristic tech area" without achieving true immersion. All in all, it feels like the visuals came secondary to the needle and are there because "a good needle game needs visuals and song", although I will also acknowledge that it also does feel like once this was recognized the maker has spent some effort trying to put together a set of visuals/atmosphere that more or less works together.
The review has been mostly negative so far, but I genuinely do think there are good moments in here that are worth playing for, and the annoyances I described, while permeating throughout the entire game, are usually minor enough to ignore. All in all, a step in the right direction, but still in need of improvement. Would recommend to experienced players who won't struggle with this, and especially people with a decent bit of patience.
[1] Like
Now that we've got that out of the way, I would like to summarize this game in 2 words: half baked.
The cycles are a consistently mixed bag between boring/frustrating cycles that serve mostly as pointless waiting, standard cycle needle ideas that have been done before and don't have much new to offer, and the occasional brilliant ideas on par with games like Noesis. The gameplay the cycles themselves facilitate is mostly full of clunky stutters and precise timings; The water segments also have their awkwardness. Still, occasionally there are satisfying weaving drops, cycles that line up well or a gimmick that forces you to speedrun through a section designed for that specifically; These are the highlight of the game, and if the entire game was made out of the best parts, it'd easily earn itself over an 8.5.
As for the atmosphere, it felt like a good attempt was made but the result was lacking. Visually, it's only basic tiling and background, which while those elements do look impressive on their own, the lack of any dynamic or decorative element makes it look very stiff and makes many of the stages feel the same (the heavy iwm homages certainly don't help in this regard). Many of them feel like they were put together due to being thematically similar, without managing to truly blend together with each other, and the same goes for the song choices, making areas feel like you're being implicitly told "this is supposed to be the temple area" or "this is supposed to be the futuristic tech area" without achieving true immersion. All in all, it feels like the visuals came secondary to the needle and are there because "a good needle game needs visuals and song", although I will also acknowledge that it also does feel like once this was recognized the maker has spent some effort trying to put together a set of visuals/atmosphere that more or less works together.
The review has been mostly negative so far, but I genuinely do think there are good moments in here that are worth playing for, and the annoyances I described, while permeating throughout the entire game, are usually minor enough to ignore. All in all, a step in the right direction, but still in need of improvement. Would recommend to experienced players who won't struggle with this, and especially people with a decent bit of patience.
Rating: 7.3 73
Difficulty: N/A
Feb 23, 2022
Cthaere
For: I Wanna Make Something with GameMaker
For: I Wanna Make Something with GameMaker
Feels like someone's first IWM level. Song is taken from IWM, music is uncompressed, the needle is mostly generic and too precise, the atmosphere is just "the grasslands", has pointless secrets requiring you to do a precise jump.
I can't really bash on it too hard, cause it's clearly a game made purely because the maker had fun making it. As for playing it, while it wasn't too annoying, I still cannot recommend it. To make games that others would also like playing, I'd suggest finding games that you like playing (full games, as IWM levels cannot give you the experience of playing a complete fangame), analyzing and thinking why you like playing them and which elements of them you like playing, and then taking inspiration from them. Bringing in a couple testers and getting feedback in general would also help.
[2] Likes
I can't really bash on it too hard, cause it's clearly a game made purely because the maker had fun making it. As for playing it, while it wasn't too annoying, I still cannot recommend it. To make games that others would also like playing, I'd suggest finding games that you like playing (full games, as IWM levels cannot give you the experience of playing a complete fangame), analyzing and thinking why you like playing them and which elements of them you like playing, and then taking inspiration from them. Bringing in a couple testers and getting feedback in general would also help.
Rating: 4.0 40
Difficulty: N/A
Feb 22, 2022
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