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151 Reviews!
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203 Games
151 Reviews
bantsmen
For: I wanna be the Oblique Torment 2
For: I wanna be the Oblique Torment 2
Disclaimer: I voice-acted one line in this game. I highly doubt this put any bias in my opinion of this game, but I figured I should mention it for transparency's sake.
An improvement over the first Oblique Torment, but it still unfortunately suffers from many of the same issues. Like the original, this game is heavily inspired by Hereditary Baldness 2 and Hereditary Baldness 2 Chapter 2. The visual "production value" of this game is noticeably higher and the anticipation of what wacky thing you'll see next is probably the main appeal of this game. There's many different references all over this game which can be both a good and a bad thing. While it's cool to see so many references to many cool things, it also makes them feel derivative. This may seem to be a silly criticism for an IWBTG fangame as these are known for referencing other things all the time, I feel that one of the main appeals of HB2 was how unexpected and unique every part of it felt, and that feeling is lost when the game is purposefully trying to be like HB2. The reason why I feel Burnmind, another fangame that references HB2, gets away with it and this game doesn't is because Burnmind has fantastic level design and gameplay to back it up which brings me to my main issue with this game: the level design and gameplay.
While there are less long annoying saves in this instalment, there still are quite a few. They can be particularly soul crushing when you get stuck on one, especially a rather nasty one near the end of the game. What's worse is that there's no debug keys to carry through obnoxious sections like the first game, so you gotta tough it through everything (there's a reason Hereditary Baldness 2 has them). My second major gripe is how uninspired and bland a lot of the level design is. Don't get me wrong, some areas actually do have some decent design that make good use of that screen's gimmick like the Mario Kart screen, however quite a few screens have level design that is more or less just corridor needle. The worst offender is probably the needle rave screen which has stickmen raving around needle, there is no gimmick beyond the visuals and the needle is the kind of uninspired generic design you'd see in an early 2010s needle game that you would only play today by rolling it in roulette. There's also some screens that I don't feel use the gimmick to its full potential like the "bad camera" stage. The first part of the stage is just tight corridors with bouncing apples, the camera gimmick barely matters at all. The second part is where the gimmick actually matters since it can hit blocks that make it stop moving, but it doesn't last very long and was pretty much the only time you need to care about the gimmick. I disliked most boss fights: the Spongebob had way too much health and his projectiles were too fast to react to. The UFO had really boring attacks that force you to dodge them in a specific way to avoid being chased eternally by a homing projectile, MJ is actually kinda OK once you know you can shoot the enemies but his intro is unskippable, the ouroboros is just memorizing a movement pattern (the stuff after is OK though, shame you have to beat ouroboros every time to see it), the Norton boss is RNG hell, the Spam boss has all the issues it had on OT1 (too much health, RNG hell), and the Milk has the same issues it had in Baffling (too much health, RNG hell).
I hope this mostly negative review isn't discouraging. There's a lot that goes into good game design and it's hard say exactly how one should improve their game's design, as there's so many ways to do it. This game has great, audio, visuals, and ideas, but without great design to tie it all together it falls flat. I think with enough effort into studying how well liked games do their design and how to implement a similar approach, this maker has the potential to make a truly wonderful fangame, and I hope to be there when it happens.
[5] Likes
An improvement over the first Oblique Torment, but it still unfortunately suffers from many of the same issues. Like the original, this game is heavily inspired by Hereditary Baldness 2 and Hereditary Baldness 2 Chapter 2. The visual "production value" of this game is noticeably higher and the anticipation of what wacky thing you'll see next is probably the main appeal of this game. There's many different references all over this game which can be both a good and a bad thing. While it's cool to see so many references to many cool things, it also makes them feel derivative. This may seem to be a silly criticism for an IWBTG fangame as these are known for referencing other things all the time, I feel that one of the main appeals of HB2 was how unexpected and unique every part of it felt, and that feeling is lost when the game is purposefully trying to be like HB2. The reason why I feel Burnmind, another fangame that references HB2, gets away with it and this game doesn't is because Burnmind has fantastic level design and gameplay to back it up which brings me to my main issue with this game: the level design and gameplay.
While there are less long annoying saves in this instalment, there still are quite a few. They can be particularly soul crushing when you get stuck on one, especially a rather nasty one near the end of the game. What's worse is that there's no debug keys to carry through obnoxious sections like the first game, so you gotta tough it through everything (there's a reason Hereditary Baldness 2 has them). My second major gripe is how uninspired and bland a lot of the level design is. Don't get me wrong, some areas actually do have some decent design that make good use of that screen's gimmick like the Mario Kart screen, however quite a few screens have level design that is more or less just corridor needle. The worst offender is probably the needle rave screen which has stickmen raving around needle, there is no gimmick beyond the visuals and the needle is the kind of uninspired generic design you'd see in an early 2010s needle game that you would only play today by rolling it in roulette. There's also some screens that I don't feel use the gimmick to its full potential like the "bad camera" stage. The first part of the stage is just tight corridors with bouncing apples, the camera gimmick barely matters at all. The second part is where the gimmick actually matters since it can hit blocks that make it stop moving, but it doesn't last very long and was pretty much the only time you need to care about the gimmick. I disliked most boss fights: the Spongebob had way too much health and his projectiles were too fast to react to. The UFO had really boring attacks that force you to dodge them in a specific way to avoid being chased eternally by a homing projectile, MJ is actually kinda OK once you know you can shoot the enemies but his intro is unskippable, the ouroboros is just memorizing a movement pattern (the stuff after is OK though, shame you have to beat ouroboros every time to see it), the Norton boss is RNG hell, the Spam boss has all the issues it had on OT1 (too much health, RNG hell), and the Milk has the same issues it had in Baffling (too much health, RNG hell).
I hope this mostly negative review isn't discouraging. There's a lot that goes into good game design and it's hard say exactly how one should improve their game's design, as there's so many ways to do it. This game has great, audio, visuals, and ideas, but without great design to tie it all together it falls flat. I think with enough effort into studying how well liked games do their design and how to implement a similar approach, this maker has the potential to make a truly wonderful fangame, and I hope to be there when it happens.
Rating: 4.3 43
Difficulty: 60 60
Jul 26, 2024
bantsmen
For: I wanna Tear it
For: I wanna Tear it
A disappointingly unbalanced avoidance. While you CAN get used to the attacks and get better at dodging them, the RNG can still very much put you in unfavourable scenarios. The combination of barrage with large bullets that travel at fast speeds with patterns that necessitate you being at certain areas of the screen give way too many opportunities for getting screwed over. The random360 bursts in the hallway run at the end are probably the worst offenders since they can shoot incredibly fast bullets right at you with little to no way to dodge them. When I beat this, I felt like I had gained the skill to beat it a long while ago and simply finally got good enough RNG to clear. Of course, I'd be lying if I said I had no enjoyment from playing this, the red and blue rain attacks where the screen zooms and tilts are pretty cool, and some of the other barrages can be fun when they don't give you horrible RNG, it's just unfortunate that they're sandwiched in with so many unpleasant and unbalanced attacks. All in all, I think there's potential for a decent avoidance here, but the poor balancing in the RNG currently stops that from being a reality.
[0] Likes
Rating: 3.8 38
Difficulty: 75 75
Jun 13, 2024
bantsmen
For: I Wanna Be The Kazakhstan 3: Destructive Crust Treatment
For: I Wanna Be The Kazakhstan 3: Destructive Crust Treatment
Kazakhstan 3: Destructive Crust Treatment takes the Kazakhstan series even further than the previous instalment did. This entry is much more palatable to the common fangamer, to the dismay of some, but I think there's enough of the spirit of the first two entries here such that both newcomers and Kazakhstan veterans will be able to appreciate this one. This entry also includes an extra stage, which I include in my rating.
This game starts with the kid in a grey city filled with needle, moving fruit, and triggers. Intangible ghosts of needle jumps sporadically flash in the background. Since the second game ended with the kid escaping from the false reality I believe this is meant to represent the danger of reaching nirvana and escaping the cycle of struggle. The normalcy and mundanity of this stage is intentional, as the kid is now in a state of being where these obstacles are nothing to him, hence the flashing needle jumps, showing that all of the obstacles blend together into the same thing.
At the end of the stage the kid takes an elevator and arrives at a hotel stage. In this stage the goal is to die, as the kid has lost his purpose now that his struggle is over. Each death however does not truly kill the kid however, they only bring the kid to the next room. This, paired with the Hindu statues in the background hint that the kid has not truly escaped the cycle of suffering and will continue to be rebirthed forever.
The kid leaves the hotel onto a dark road where he returns to the a corrupted version of the first stage of Kazakhstan 1. Here the background is red and Martin Heidegger's face is clearly visible as the kid is no longer naive to the things around him. After going back through a similar path he took in the original, he falls into some spikes and ends up in an area with a hexagonal sun.
The sun itself is a representation of the duality of life and death. On one hand the sun brings life to the world by its existence but it also brings death from its dangerous radiation and heat. The kid must revolve around the sun in this area to move on, representing the kid's struggle to understand the reality he is in.
After this detour he returns back to the previous area and continues forward. Now he enters a teleporter warp that leads him to a set of small rooms with small jumps he must traverse. The next warp leads to a tree and an army of men he must gun down to pass through. The next one has platforming with pink bouncy blocks and the final has a room with water and bouncing fruit. These warps represent the kid seeing the struggles of his hometown due to the actions of the politicians in charge and he vouches to campaign himself across Kazakhstan to right their wrongs.
You then have the option to go to 4 different places in Kazakhstan: Aktobe, Astana, Oskemen, and Almaty.
In Aktobe, the kid moves on a 32x32 grid in the 4 cardinal directions. Here the kid must dodge many obstacles in a timely manner, including fruit, cheese, and a giant pair of eyeballs. This stage represents the kid walking the streets of Aktobe and trying to survive like the common person would, avoiding death, not eating the poisoned improperly prepared food, avoiding the ever-watchful gaze of the spying government. The kid becomes invisible later in the stage, symbolizing how he feels the government is not seeing the issues the people face. The music in this area also references Dapper Dan, a cool fangame by wonderful.
In Astana, the platforming very normal, reminiscent of the first area of the game. The main difference is the kid now has a little purple square buddy to the right of him who follows his movement and must be protected. This area contrasts the first area by being more colourful and upbeat now that the kid has companionship and a reason to keep going. The stage enigmatically ends with a jumble of coloured blocks, likely symbolizing the kid's mixed feelings leaving their newfound friend behind as they continue on their campaign.
In Oskemen, there are a lot of flashy colours and the screen rotates with the kid. At the end of the stage you wait at a beach for a warp to slowly fall down on you. I believe this represents that the people there are too busy partying and focusing on hedonistic pleasures to realize that they need to work for a better future instead of waiting for one to come to them.
Finally, in Almaty the city is being attacked by the Japanese singer Toromi and you need to save it by destroying her flames and dodging her attacks. This shows that the government is so negligent of their cities that they won't even protect them from existential threats.
After the kid's campaign he returns back to the home stage, but he finds it flooded. The platforming here is significantly harder as well. His efforts are in vain and Kazakhstan is essentially doomed and the kid can do nothing but continue his journey elsewhere.
The kid leaves the are in a hazy daze. He ends up in a red area with wavy visual challenge, representing his struggle to move forward after his debilitating loss.
He then winds up in a blue and green area featuring spinning lines that move depending on what direction the kid goes(superficially reminiscent of the hands of a clock), representing the kid now has been journeying for so long that time is but yet another obstacle to him. The stage ends with a fight against Ontario. Ontario spawns stationary keys that cannot be reached, representing that despite the fact that the kid can easily defeat Ontario, he can never be freed from his metaphorical prison. This is where the normal end of the game is.
The extra stage begins with a warp that has 1 in 2048 chance of working. This represents that most people trapped in the cycle of samsara never even get a chance to escape and it is only through repeated incarnations can we achieve nirvana.
The extra stage then continues onto 3 screens of gravity flipper needle with the objects placed rather haphazardly, this hearkens back to the first stage where the kid has little to no issue with the obstacles in front of him and sees them as even more basic than before.
When he reaches Manitoba the province doesn't even have time to attack as the kid has become so powerful he can slow down his perception of time, thus making the province's iframes last longer. This power becomes even more exaggerated against British Columbia, then even more against Yukon, and finally even more against Nunavut before the game finally ends for good. The kid has finally reached true enlightenment, but at what cost?
This game is a beautiful masterpiece and a fine addition to the Kazakhstan series despite the differences to its predecessors and I would recommend it to fans and haters of the series alike!
[3] Likes
This game starts with the kid in a grey city filled with needle, moving fruit, and triggers. Intangible ghosts of needle jumps sporadically flash in the background. Since the second game ended with the kid escaping from the false reality I believe this is meant to represent the danger of reaching nirvana and escaping the cycle of struggle. The normalcy and mundanity of this stage is intentional, as the kid is now in a state of being where these obstacles are nothing to him, hence the flashing needle jumps, showing that all of the obstacles blend together into the same thing.
At the end of the stage the kid takes an elevator and arrives at a hotel stage. In this stage the goal is to die, as the kid has lost his purpose now that his struggle is over. Each death however does not truly kill the kid however, they only bring the kid to the next room. This, paired with the Hindu statues in the background hint that the kid has not truly escaped the cycle of suffering and will continue to be rebirthed forever.
The kid leaves the hotel onto a dark road where he returns to the a corrupted version of the first stage of Kazakhstan 1. Here the background is red and Martin Heidegger's face is clearly visible as the kid is no longer naive to the things around him. After going back through a similar path he took in the original, he falls into some spikes and ends up in an area with a hexagonal sun.
The sun itself is a representation of the duality of life and death. On one hand the sun brings life to the world by its existence but it also brings death from its dangerous radiation and heat. The kid must revolve around the sun in this area to move on, representing the kid's struggle to understand the reality he is in.
After this detour he returns back to the previous area and continues forward. Now he enters a teleporter warp that leads him to a set of small rooms with small jumps he must traverse. The next warp leads to a tree and an army of men he must gun down to pass through. The next one has platforming with pink bouncy blocks and the final has a room with water and bouncing fruit. These warps represent the kid seeing the struggles of his hometown due to the actions of the politicians in charge and he vouches to campaign himself across Kazakhstan to right their wrongs.
You then have the option to go to 4 different places in Kazakhstan: Aktobe, Astana, Oskemen, and Almaty.
In Aktobe, the kid moves on a 32x32 grid in the 4 cardinal directions. Here the kid must dodge many obstacles in a timely manner, including fruit, cheese, and a giant pair of eyeballs. This stage represents the kid walking the streets of Aktobe and trying to survive like the common person would, avoiding death, not eating the poisoned improperly prepared food, avoiding the ever-watchful gaze of the spying government. The kid becomes invisible later in the stage, symbolizing how he feels the government is not seeing the issues the people face. The music in this area also references Dapper Dan, a cool fangame by wonderful.
In Astana, the platforming very normal, reminiscent of the first area of the game. The main difference is the kid now has a little purple square buddy to the right of him who follows his movement and must be protected. This area contrasts the first area by being more colourful and upbeat now that the kid has companionship and a reason to keep going. The stage enigmatically ends with a jumble of coloured blocks, likely symbolizing the kid's mixed feelings leaving their newfound friend behind as they continue on their campaign.
In Oskemen, there are a lot of flashy colours and the screen rotates with the kid. At the end of the stage you wait at a beach for a warp to slowly fall down on you. I believe this represents that the people there are too busy partying and focusing on hedonistic pleasures to realize that they need to work for a better future instead of waiting for one to come to them.
Finally, in Almaty the city is being attacked by the Japanese singer Toromi and you need to save it by destroying her flames and dodging her attacks. This shows that the government is so negligent of their cities that they won't even protect them from existential threats.
After the kid's campaign he returns back to the home stage, but he finds it flooded. The platforming here is significantly harder as well. His efforts are in vain and Kazakhstan is essentially doomed and the kid can do nothing but continue his journey elsewhere.
The kid leaves the are in a hazy daze. He ends up in a red area with wavy visual challenge, representing his struggle to move forward after his debilitating loss.
He then winds up in a blue and green area featuring spinning lines that move depending on what direction the kid goes(superficially reminiscent of the hands of a clock), representing the kid now has been journeying for so long that time is but yet another obstacle to him. The stage ends with a fight against Ontario. Ontario spawns stationary keys that cannot be reached, representing that despite the fact that the kid can easily defeat Ontario, he can never be freed from his metaphorical prison. This is where the normal end of the game is.
The extra stage begins with a warp that has 1 in 2048 chance of working. This represents that most people trapped in the cycle of samsara never even get a chance to escape and it is only through repeated incarnations can we achieve nirvana.
The extra stage then continues onto 3 screens of gravity flipper needle with the objects placed rather haphazardly, this hearkens back to the first stage where the kid has little to no issue with the obstacles in front of him and sees them as even more basic than before.
When he reaches Manitoba the province doesn't even have time to attack as the kid has become so powerful he can slow down his perception of time, thus making the province's iframes last longer. This power becomes even more exaggerated against British Columbia, then even more against Yukon, and finally even more against Nunavut before the game finally ends for good. The kid has finally reached true enlightenment, but at what cost?
This game is a beautiful masterpiece and a fine addition to the Kazakhstan series despite the differences to its predecessors and I would recommend it to fans and haters of the series alike!
Rating: 7.5 75
Difficulty: 65 65
Jun 4, 2024
bantsmen
For: I wanna be the Crimson Needle
For: I wanna be the Crimson Needle
An all-around pretty terrible experience. While I can appreciate the historical context of this game being more ambitious than the needle games that came before it, as well as the tributes to other fangames through the different tilesets, and this being Kale's first fangame, the end result is not very fun to play through. I struggle to find any positive things about my playthrough of this game besides the abruptly ending music and wacky difficulty balancing sometimes making me laugh. In addition to being largely uninteresting and unbalanced, there are numerous jumps that feel horrible to execute. The final floor alone encapsulates this, having one precise hard jump and the rest of the jumps being basic needle jumps to choke on.
I would not recommend playing this, but if for whatever reason you insist on playing it I would recommend playing the speedrun version (which I did not play) which nerfs a few things, although most of the nerfs are pretty minor (except for floor 92) and a lot of the issues of the main game are still present.
[2] Likes
I would not recommend playing this, but if for whatever reason you insist on playing it I would recommend playing the speedrun version (which I did not play) which nerfs a few things, although most of the nerfs are pretty minor (except for floor 92) and a lot of the issues of the main game are still present.
Rating: 1.0 10
Difficulty: 85 85
May 3, 2024
bantsmen
For: Imitation
For: Imitation
A decent adventure game with great visuals. There are 3 stages, each ending with a boss. I think most of the platforming is pretty good, the traps in the first stage are pretty well done and the flow of the later stages mostly works. There are some blind jumps you have to do many times throughout the second and third stages and also some of the big jumps can be a little awkward.
The bosses, while visually really cool, leave a lot to be desired. They have way too much HP and drag on for too long, even with the game having built-in autofire. The first boss doesn't have any particularly hard attacks but it drags on for too long. The second boss has a cool idea of using the rail gimmick to move around the arena, but in practice it ends up being pretty lame. You only really have to use the rail at the bottom and you have to time it just right when the boss starts moving or you'll hit its tail. This fight is also rather slow paced and it's hard to do significant damage quickly to the boss without putting yourself at major risk of dying at some points. Due to how basic a lot of its attacks are it feels more like you're fighting the arena and the meta-problem of how long the boss is rather than the boss itself. The final boss has the aforementioned length problem except this time it's 3 phases long. The first phase feels like a more learny version of the first boss, memorizing attacks to then deal damage (although there's one attack where you basically can't do any damage). The second phase is actually pretty good, it's a decent length and it's pretty straight-forward on how it works. The third phase brings back the problem I had with the second boss where it feels more like you're fighting the arena than the boss as you are now fighting on circles of rotating platforms. I think in a game where the player could aim in any direction and the platforms didn't have the unusual snapping mechanics that IWBTG fangames do, this boss would work a lot better. As it is here though, damaging the boss and dodging its attacks feels rather jank and awkward, and can be a little luck-based at times when multiple attacks dogpile your location.
All in all, while I have issues with this game I do still think it is overall pretty decent and I think it may be at least worth trying out. I hope to see more works from this maker in the future!
[0] Likes
The bosses, while visually really cool, leave a lot to be desired. They have way too much HP and drag on for too long, even with the game having built-in autofire. The first boss doesn't have any particularly hard attacks but it drags on for too long. The second boss has a cool idea of using the rail gimmick to move around the arena, but in practice it ends up being pretty lame. You only really have to use the rail at the bottom and you have to time it just right when the boss starts moving or you'll hit its tail. This fight is also rather slow paced and it's hard to do significant damage quickly to the boss without putting yourself at major risk of dying at some points. Due to how basic a lot of its attacks are it feels more like you're fighting the arena and the meta-problem of how long the boss is rather than the boss itself. The final boss has the aforementioned length problem except this time it's 3 phases long. The first phase feels like a more learny version of the first boss, memorizing attacks to then deal damage (although there's one attack where you basically can't do any damage). The second phase is actually pretty good, it's a decent length and it's pretty straight-forward on how it works. The third phase brings back the problem I had with the second boss where it feels more like you're fighting the arena than the boss as you are now fighting on circles of rotating platforms. I think in a game where the player could aim in any direction and the platforms didn't have the unusual snapping mechanics that IWBTG fangames do, this boss would work a lot better. As it is here though, damaging the boss and dodging its attacks feels rather jank and awkward, and can be a little luck-based at times when multiple attacks dogpile your location.
All in all, while I have issues with this game I do still think it is overall pretty decent and I think it may be at least worth trying out. I hope to see more works from this maker in the future!
Rating: 6.6 66
Difficulty: 60 60
Mar 31, 2024
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