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phgQED
For: I wanna fleeting future
For: I wanna fleeting future
A cheerful if somewhat lethargic at times avoidance. It's a vocaloid song with a fairly laid-back tempo, most of the attacks are in two parts (a 'prep' and 'launch' phase), and everything is made of apples. Only learny in a few very small parts, it feels like completing this only took me as long as it did (~4 hours) because I'm just not used to this style, not because it was overly difficult. The vast majority of the attacks are fun to go through, but the extended pattern barrage for the first chorus was not my favorite just because it includes zero rng spice of any kind. Almost every other attack is either a straightforward pattern or has some rng thrown in, making them much more fun to interact with. 90% of my deaths were to the yellow star or the red circle immediately after. I recommend watching a video for those parts if you don't want to bash your head against a wall.
Like almost every other avoidance I have played, my experience with this game would probably have been infinitely more enjoyable with either an HP mode, practice availability, or both. I don't think this is necessarily a controversial opinion, and many games in this genre are simply artifacts of their time—no practice because practice didn't exist or wasn't codified back then, etc.. As a result, I don't hold any personal grudge against this game or any other games missing these features, but it does affect my 'rating' of them in that it overall negatively impacts my experience when these quality of life implementations are missing.
Still highly recommended to anyone interested in checking out a fairly traditional 'easter-style' vocaloid avoidance. I overcame it during a crest of the first 'grudge' cycle... what will your journey be like?
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Like almost every other avoidance I have played, my experience with this game would probably have been infinitely more enjoyable with either an HP mode, practice availability, or both. I don't think this is necessarily a controversial opinion, and many games in this genre are simply artifacts of their time—no practice because practice didn't exist or wasn't codified back then, etc.. As a result, I don't hold any personal grudge against this game or any other games missing these features, but it does affect my 'rating' of them in that it overall negatively impacts my experience when these quality of life implementations are missing.
Still highly recommended to anyone interested in checking out a fairly traditional 'easter-style' vocaloid avoidance. I overcame it during a crest of the first 'grudge' cycle... what will your journey be like?
Rating: 7.8 78
Difficulty: 46 46
Oct 28, 2022
phgQED
For: I Wanna Steel Edge
For: I Wanna Steel Edge
Just a fantastic game/avoidance. I feel like this game perfectly typifies RandomChaos_ design style, in that the majority of the attacks are fairly choreographed but spiced with rng, and the player never really needs a direct read on what to do—they can always kind of make their own strategy.
Some of my favorite things about this avoidance were the way it remixed attacks from the first half in the second half, the extended vanishing bullets section, and how the second half felt very generous in difficulty compared to the first half. A lot of the challenge is frontloaded here, including an opening attack that is somewhat difficult to read all at once but very satisfying to execute in dodges.
I think 50 difficulty is probably about the right range for this game, but it didn't 'feel' like a 50 in clearing it... by my estimation a 'hard' 50 would have been much learnier and required a far longer grind to get familiar with some of the patterns, whereas essentially I only reached final twice in my attempts and was able to clear off of that. Maybe this avoidance is just 'friendlier'? Maybe, again, more of the difficulty is frontloaded? Almost all of my attempts died to the one pattern that is somewhat choreographed, where aimed lines follow you and require you to move constantly, then go back to the center. Probably that is the hardest attack in the game. I wish there was a practice mode for it specifically.
Highly recommended to anyone who likes avoidance games. The song is not my favorite but it suits the mood of the attacks very well.
Some of my favorite things about this avoidance were the way it remixed attacks from the first half in the second half, the extended vanishing bullets section, and how the second half felt very generous in difficulty compared to the first half. A lot of the challenge is frontloaded here, including an opening attack that is somewhat difficult to read all at once but very satisfying to execute in dodges.
I think 50 difficulty is probably about the right range for this game, but it didn't 'feel' like a 50 in clearing it... by my estimation a 'hard' 50 would have been much learnier and required a far longer grind to get familiar with some of the patterns, whereas essentially I only reached final twice in my attempts and was able to clear off of that. Maybe this avoidance is just 'friendlier'? Maybe, again, more of the difficulty is frontloaded? Almost all of my attempts died to the one pattern that is somewhat choreographed, where aimed lines follow you and require you to move constantly, then go back to the center. Probably that is the hardest attack in the game. I wish there was a practice mode for it specifically.
Highly recommended to anyone who likes avoidance games. The song is not my favorite but it suits the mood of the attacks very well.
Tagged as: Avoidance
[1] Like
Rating: 7.9 79
Difficulty: 49 49
Oct 15, 2022
phgQED
For: I wanna elm
For: I wanna elm
This game is more difficult for me to review than Elk. I think several conceits it makes towards the precision needle genre are very well executed (constant align and valign display, hint document), but that overall it was a less fun experience to play. While there is always a certain amount of restriction to the way a particularly difficult jump is performed, there are mechanisms within that execution which can still leave the player feeling in control of their experience. In Elm, because so many of the jumps only work with an incredibly specific strategy, there is much less incentive to test various input combinations. Most of the jumps, when aligned properly, will feel like full jumps that somehow magically just work, and while there's not necessarily anything inherently wrong with that (it's even highly enjoyable in small doses), it leaves me with a feeling more like I'm manually playing a TAS than actually experiencing the needle for myself. Also, in a game that is specifically designed to be oriented around valigns, it boggles my mind that there is not an option to simply save your valign. Maybe setting up a random-seeming number by bonking your head repeatedly or numpad cancelling is what people find enjoyable about valign required jumps, but to me it's just pointless setup time that prevents me from actually attempting the jump. I don't have to redo my horizontal align every attempt... anyway.
The aesthetic, ethos, and presentation of these jumps seems to me to serve as sort of a science sampler, a little peek into the jump laboratory where needle scientists are poking away at the pixels and subpixels to make the world's most complicated jumps. That type of magic is really cool when it lets you feel like you're an integral part of the equation, but here, I more felt like I was just being shown what to do rather than being allowed to determine that on my own.
I would still recommend checking this game out as a sort of window into a highly valign-dependent precision jump world, but the experience of playing it was not necessarily my favorite thing.
Oh, it's also worth mentioning that this game suffers from at least one frame of input lag even post-patch, and that it also suffers from an engine save bug (which you can mitigate by running jtool in the background). It also has a full-screen flash every time you reset, which was somewhat visually painful. All of these things negatively impacted my experience.
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The aesthetic, ethos, and presentation of these jumps seems to me to serve as sort of a science sampler, a little peek into the jump laboratory where needle scientists are poking away at the pixels and subpixels to make the world's most complicated jumps. That type of magic is really cool when it lets you feel like you're an integral part of the equation, but here, I more felt like I was just being shown what to do rather than being allowed to determine that on my own.
I would still recommend checking this game out as a sort of window into a highly valign-dependent precision jump world, but the experience of playing it was not necessarily my favorite thing.
Oh, it's also worth mentioning that this game suffers from at least one frame of input lag even post-patch, and that it also suffers from an engine save bug (which you can mitigate by running jtool in the background). It also has a full-screen flash every time you reset, which was somewhat visually painful. All of these things negatively impacted my experience.
Rating: 5.5 55
Difficulty: 66 66
Oct 12, 2022
phgQED
For: I wanna be the Archfoe
For: I wanna be the Archfoe
Archfoe is one of the first needle games I ever downloaded (because of the cool name). As such, I've not really had a contiguous experience with it—there have been many stops and starts, poking my head in at various points on my needle journey to see if I was ready to give it a proper go.
The three words I would use to describe Archfoe are 'chaotic', 'pointed', and 'boisterous'. While some of the difficulty and jump concepts approach a more traditional L-needle level of challenge, the shape of the map and the implementation of various spike patterns and strange shapes make a given playthru feel less oppressive but still generally a bit treacherous. The game is unapologetic about jumps which benefit from cancels, and you'll also see apples, minispikes, and platforms situated in such a way to obstruct your jump trajectory, rather than aid it. 'Prickly' is another word that comes to mind, but that's a generic synonym for needle at this point. I would think of a longer, slender needle with some barbs and random curled points along it, perhaps.
I think I remember seeing archfoe described as 'Uhuhu but harder and with less production value', and while I can certainly see a bit of merit to that comparison, it doesn't hold up for me due to a lack of playfulness in the former. Uhuhu is all about showing off new ideas and weird shapes, while Archfoe felt a lot more like "I have designed this to punish you". The tileset is indeed grim, and though the song is nice, it can't compete with a giant anime medley for potential banger-ish-ness.
Altogether I think the shortness of this game and the unique/peculiar nature of some of its jumps make it worth a look, but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone not interested in the raw fringes of needle subgenres and some painful jumps in general.
The three words I would use to describe Archfoe are 'chaotic', 'pointed', and 'boisterous'. While some of the difficulty and jump concepts approach a more traditional L-needle level of challenge, the shape of the map and the implementation of various spike patterns and strange shapes make a given playthru feel less oppressive but still generally a bit treacherous. The game is unapologetic about jumps which benefit from cancels, and you'll also see apples, minispikes, and platforms situated in such a way to obstruct your jump trajectory, rather than aid it. 'Prickly' is another word that comes to mind, but that's a generic synonym for needle at this point. I would think of a longer, slender needle with some barbs and random curled points along it, perhaps.
I think I remember seeing archfoe described as 'Uhuhu but harder and with less production value', and while I can certainly see a bit of merit to that comparison, it doesn't hold up for me due to a lack of playfulness in the former. Uhuhu is all about showing off new ideas and weird shapes, while Archfoe felt a lot more like "I have designed this to punish you". The tileset is indeed grim, and though the song is nice, it can't compete with a giant anime medley for potential banger-ish-ness.
Altogether I think the shortness of this game and the unique/peculiar nature of some of its jumps make it worth a look, but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone not interested in the raw fringes of needle subgenres and some painful jumps in general.
Tagged as: Needle
[0] Likes
Rating: 5.0 50
Difficulty: 62 62
Oct 12, 2022
phgQED [Creator]
For: I Wanna [VERB] the [ADJECTIVE] [NOUN]
For: I Wanna [VERB] the [ADJECTIVE] [NOUN]
This is a 32px game made for Narwaffles. It is a not-not-not-FTFA-like.
Update 11th October, 2022: Significantly nerfed final room.
[0] Likes
Update 11th October, 2022: Significantly nerfed final room.
Rating: N/A
Difficulty: 70 70
Oct 11, 2022
11 Games
| Game | Difficulty | Average Rating | # of Ratings |
|---|---|---|---|
| I wanna be the (mis)Nomer | 68.4 | 4.9 | 11 |
| I Wanna be the AIW | 56.2 | 6.9 | 26 |
| I Wanna be the Fleeting Flower Forever | 70.0 | 7.2 | 6 |
| Heart-Shaped Triangle | 61.8 | 7.6 | 10 |
| I Wanna Meet the Oracle at Delphi | 65.2 | 5.8 | 10 |
| I Wanna One Day Wonder | 44.6 | 7.5 | 11 |
| Stranded. | 67.6 | 6.5 | 9 |
| Suffering | N/A | 6.5 | 4 |
| I Wanna [VERB] the [ADJECTIVE] [NOUN] | 67.9 | 6.3 | 11 |
| I Wanna – | 61.0 | 5.9 | 7 |
| I Wanna — | 53.0 | 7.8 | 10 |
38 Favorite Games
128 Cleared Games