Delicious Fruit
Download Game Screenshots
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by ssj4tidusffx
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by ssj4tidusffx
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by Xplayerlol
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by Xplayerlol
26 Reviews:
Xplayerlol
Easily my favorite Rukito game, this game is very different from the other Rukito games. First off, the game is more needle-ish than his usual platforming. There are less traps, and more tricky jumps. The jumps are also less generic, and the gimmicks are used in a way that fits well with the needle nature of the game. This is also the only Rukito game that I've seen so far which features just one boss, instead of two.
The traps are very well-placed, some of them made me laugh a lot, even though they are really simplistic. Visuals are simple, but good, the musics are also good and don't restart. The difficulty curve is quite solid. The only issue I have with this game is that the last save is way too evil compared to everything else in the game, going far beyond the normal difficulty of the game, and will probably be a block to many players.
The boss isn't too different from Rukito's normal bosses: Tons of RNG, and it's far harder than it actually seems like. The only difference is that the boss has three phases, while Rukito's bosses usually don't have more than two. It's also more enjoyable than most Rukito bosses that I've seen so far.
It's just awesome from the beginning to the end. Highly recommended to anyone with enough experience with needle games.
[9] Likes
The traps are very well-placed, some of them made me laugh a lot, even though they are really simplistic. Visuals are simple, but good, the musics are also good and don't restart. The difficulty curve is quite solid. The only issue I have with this game is that the last save is way too evil compared to everything else in the game, going far beyond the normal difficulty of the game, and will probably be a block to many players.
The boss isn't too different from Rukito's normal bosses: Tons of RNG, and it's far harder than it actually seems like. The only difference is that the boss has three phases, while Rukito's bosses usually don't have more than two. It's also more enjoyable than most Rukito bosses that I've seen so far.
It's just awesome from the beginning to the end. Highly recommended to anyone with enough experience with needle games.
Rating: 9.0 90
Difficulty: 85 85
May 14, 2015
ActualKale
This difficulty rating ignores the final screen of platforming and the subsequent boss. These parts are undoubtedly the hardest parts of the game and I reckon most people will find them the least enjoyable parts as well. Unless finishing games feel important to you I'd say they shouldn't deter you from playing the game.
SSR2 is the needle game I think the most fondly of. To a large extent it follows the typical formula of Rukito's games and excels in the places his games usually excel. Some distinct features of his games include:
1. A style of platforming that isn't fast-paced and fluid but which doesn't focus on more precise jumps either. A lot of the challenge and enjoyment of playing a "Rukito game" comes from figuring out how to approach unusual spike arrangements and gradually learning how to consistently pull off jumps which initially gave you problems.
2. A very flat difficulty curve throughout. After the introductory level the game's difficulty kinda levels and any variance comes between save to save rather than between stages. There is also the patented "2 saves per room"-rule which Rukito has been sticking to throughout almost all of his games and furthermore these saves have just about the same amount of jumps most of the time and normally you can expect one or two spikes flying towards you or blocks disappearing below your feet.
I think the difficulty aspect of Rukito's games plays a significant part in the winning concept. Each save is its own little struggle which you usually overcome one jump at a time. Once you start catching on to this you will see yourself progressing at a very steady pace and you will find confidence in the same learning process repeating itself. You start shaky -> build up consistency -> figure out the traps/triggers -> grind it out.
3. A visual style without any disturbing noise or grating elements in general. It's flat and perhaps lifeless to some. There is hardly a traditional atmosphere being pushed through how these games looks but it is also a benefit to have no distractions and there is something to the general cleanliness and the color combinations Rukito picks that I find appealing.
4. Rukito's games usually have their stages themed around basic in-engine objects and SSR2 is no exception. There is a stage which primarily revolves around vines, one around water and one around gravity flips. As with his design in general, I think Rukito does a lot with quite little here. The segments you have to do upside-down for example are usually just unremarkable platforming, sometimes in his regular style and sometimes more generic. However, for whatever reason Rukito just has this tendency to hit just the right spot in making these jumps feel unique and satisfying. I'm not sure if there is much analysis to give here and surely not everyone will agree but clearly there is something to how these segments are laid out, even when they look like really basic unoriginal design, which resonates with some substantial group of people.
Now, if these elements are persistent across all of Rukito's games since GR, what puts SSR2 ahead of the pack? To me it's quite simple, SSR2 is the game where Rukito best nails the difficulty and which has the least major annoyances. The best stages of GR and PYF match the best ones in SSR2 but much of these games, especially the earlier parts, feel like Rukito trying to find his footing as a gamemaker. There is what I would call an overindulgence in experimentation which occasionally comes at the expense of the gameplay (see PYF's water stage as the obvious example). In SSR2 you can tell that Rukito was more concerned with how the platforming plays. To me it is probably his least experimental and most generic (in relation to the average needle) game while still being immediately recognizable as his.
MMM is an attempt at stepping the difficulty up from his earlier games and with this ambition I find Rukito moving a bit too far outside of his comfort zone and as most rooms have 2 saves and are about as dense as usual, the challenge of a lot of saves are inflated by unnecessarily precise jumps (often near the very end of saves) and far too many 16px gaps which aren't in service of how the platforming plays but rather just sink your consistency. The saves in SSR2 are much closer to RZ in difficulty, and this is where I think his design shines the brightest. However, whereas RZ had plenty of discouraging spikes in difficulty (such as the save with two deformed planes) I truthfully can not think of a single save in SSR2 which bothered me in this sense.
I am also glad he skipped the platform-stage for this one. Getting on top of moving platforms, particularly fast ones, from underneath is just a frustratingly wonky mechanic. There are some cool uses of platforms in RZ and MMM but there are also some horrendous ones like the first save of the platform stage in MMM which begins with a long row of 16px gaps you have to make your way through on top of a platform that is crawling at a snail's pace.
Summarizing and final thoughts. SSR2 is very tight and focused, has quite simple but well-thought out design which hits a beautiful spot in terms of difficulty. There is no filler-content, instead each and every save is like its own little separate challenge and it's quite impressive how different one save can feel from the next (something which is desperately undervalued among most needle makers). Game looks very clean, probably has the nicest tilesets out of all Rukito's games. Not really any annoyances, gimmicks well used, getting late, not sure what to add, even if you didn't enjoy playing this game which is understandable if you happen to not like this style of needle you should recognize how well it does what it sets out to do and this is a much better, and OBJECTIVELY MEASURABLE (albeit insufficient), criterion to judge games by than just stating whether you consciously felt yourself enjoying them while playing which is actually not helpful at all for others wondering if a game might be worth their time or not and not helpful to the creator who used his free time to make this game for others to have fun with without getting any financial compensation for it but that's just my opinion it's not some moral imperative just a guide to being less of a jerk to others and I think we could use doing that more often thank you.
[7] Likes
SSR2 is the needle game I think the most fondly of. To a large extent it follows the typical formula of Rukito's games and excels in the places his games usually excel. Some distinct features of his games include:
1. A style of platforming that isn't fast-paced and fluid but which doesn't focus on more precise jumps either. A lot of the challenge and enjoyment of playing a "Rukito game" comes from figuring out how to approach unusual spike arrangements and gradually learning how to consistently pull off jumps which initially gave you problems.
2. A very flat difficulty curve throughout. After the introductory level the game's difficulty kinda levels and any variance comes between save to save rather than between stages. There is also the patented "2 saves per room"-rule which Rukito has been sticking to throughout almost all of his games and furthermore these saves have just about the same amount of jumps most of the time and normally you can expect one or two spikes flying towards you or blocks disappearing below your feet.
I think the difficulty aspect of Rukito's games plays a significant part in the winning concept. Each save is its own little struggle which you usually overcome one jump at a time. Once you start catching on to this you will see yourself progressing at a very steady pace and you will find confidence in the same learning process repeating itself. You start shaky -> build up consistency -> figure out the traps/triggers -> grind it out.
3. A visual style without any disturbing noise or grating elements in general. It's flat and perhaps lifeless to some. There is hardly a traditional atmosphere being pushed through how these games looks but it is also a benefit to have no distractions and there is something to the general cleanliness and the color combinations Rukito picks that I find appealing.
4. Rukito's games usually have their stages themed around basic in-engine objects and SSR2 is no exception. There is a stage which primarily revolves around vines, one around water and one around gravity flips. As with his design in general, I think Rukito does a lot with quite little here. The segments you have to do upside-down for example are usually just unremarkable platforming, sometimes in his regular style and sometimes more generic. However, for whatever reason Rukito just has this tendency to hit just the right spot in making these jumps feel unique and satisfying. I'm not sure if there is much analysis to give here and surely not everyone will agree but clearly there is something to how these segments are laid out, even when they look like really basic unoriginal design, which resonates with some substantial group of people.
Now, if these elements are persistent across all of Rukito's games since GR, what puts SSR2 ahead of the pack? To me it's quite simple, SSR2 is the game where Rukito best nails the difficulty and which has the least major annoyances. The best stages of GR and PYF match the best ones in SSR2 but much of these games, especially the earlier parts, feel like Rukito trying to find his footing as a gamemaker. There is what I would call an overindulgence in experimentation which occasionally comes at the expense of the gameplay (see PYF's water stage as the obvious example). In SSR2 you can tell that Rukito was more concerned with how the platforming plays. To me it is probably his least experimental and most generic (in relation to the average needle) game while still being immediately recognizable as his.
MMM is an attempt at stepping the difficulty up from his earlier games and with this ambition I find Rukito moving a bit too far outside of his comfort zone and as most rooms have 2 saves and are about as dense as usual, the challenge of a lot of saves are inflated by unnecessarily precise jumps (often near the very end of saves) and far too many 16px gaps which aren't in service of how the platforming plays but rather just sink your consistency. The saves in SSR2 are much closer to RZ in difficulty, and this is where I think his design shines the brightest. However, whereas RZ had plenty of discouraging spikes in difficulty (such as the save with two deformed planes) I truthfully can not think of a single save in SSR2 which bothered me in this sense.
I am also glad he skipped the platform-stage for this one. Getting on top of moving platforms, particularly fast ones, from underneath is just a frustratingly wonky mechanic. There are some cool uses of platforms in RZ and MMM but there are also some horrendous ones like the first save of the platform stage in MMM which begins with a long row of 16px gaps you have to make your way through on top of a platform that is crawling at a snail's pace.
Summarizing and final thoughts. SSR2 is very tight and focused, has quite simple but well-thought out design which hits a beautiful spot in terms of difficulty. There is no filler-content, instead each and every save is like its own little separate challenge and it's quite impressive how different one save can feel from the next (something which is desperately undervalued among most needle makers). Game looks very clean, probably has the nicest tilesets out of all Rukito's games. Not really any annoyances, gimmicks well used, getting late, not sure what to add, even if you didn't enjoy playing this game which is understandable if you happen to not like this style of needle you should recognize how well it does what it sets out to do and this is a much better, and OBJECTIVELY MEASURABLE (albeit insufficient), criterion to judge games by than just stating whether you consciously felt yourself enjoying them while playing which is actually not helpful at all for others wondering if a game might be worth their time or not and not helpful to the creator who used his free time to make this game for others to have fun with without getting any financial compensation for it but that's just my opinion it's not some moral imperative just a guide to being less of a jerk to others and I think we could use doing that more often thank you.
Rating: 8.7 87
Difficulty: 75 75
Apr 9, 2018
Jopagu
SSR 2 was my first Rukito game, and it has brought me into the noble ranks of Rukito enjoyers. The needle does a lot with a little, having only jtool gimmicks and yet creating really clever maneuvers and almost entirely fun saves. Of course, being a Rukito game, one of the main draws is the traps, differentiating this game from standard needle. I found these to rarely be obnoxious, instead being decently funny on a few occasions, but mostly just serving to add an interesting twist to a save, turning a jump into a more complex and interesting affair. The infamous final save, while certainly harder than the rest, was not as large of a spike as I was led to believe, and it provided an enjoyable climax to the game, wrapping together ideas from throughout the rest of the game.
I consider the boss to ultimately be pretty weak. I found myself in a Stockholm Syndrome situation with it, where I didn't enjoy it for the first few hours but by the last hour I was having a good amount of fun. However, it's still filled with a litany of poor choices, and overall my experience leaned negative. The second phase was particularly brutal, with blue on blue making the attacks hard to read, and a lot of RNG that could easily screw you, and which felt hard to avoid.
Overall, this game is an easy recommendation for needle fans, being super fun and memorable despite its lack of gimmicks or flashy effects. It has made me hungry for more Rukito, and proven the merits of this style of design.
[3] Likes
I consider the boss to ultimately be pretty weak. I found myself in a Stockholm Syndrome situation with it, where I didn't enjoy it for the first few hours but by the last hour I was having a good amount of fun. However, it's still filled with a litany of poor choices, and overall my experience leaned negative. The second phase was particularly brutal, with blue on blue making the attacks hard to read, and a lot of RNG that could easily screw you, and which felt hard to avoid.
Overall, this game is an easy recommendation for needle fans, being super fun and memorable despite its lack of gimmicks or flashy effects. It has made me hungry for more Rukito, and proven the merits of this style of design.
Rating: 8.0 80
Difficulty: 78 78
May 3, 2023
PlutoTheThing
Very enjoyable game by Rukito, featuring classic trigger needle and a boss filled with RNG, albeit RNG that is quite fair. The game is relatively simple but there's a lot of interesting jumps throughout and not really any super annoying saves or jumps. There's a few traps of course but honestly I don't mind considering the jumps tend to be consistent so not much time is wasted. I really really enjoyed this and if you like this style of needle, you gotta try this!
[3] Likes
Rating: 9.0 90
Difficulty: 71 71
Jan 21, 2023
ElCochran90
Gotta get this out of my chest: never in my life would I have thought that Rukito would use Robert Miles' "Children" as a stage song! I quickly went from disbelief, to awe, to an audible laughter in 5 seconds. That song defined my childhood: I was 9 when it was released internationally and heard it on the radio everytime I could because there was no money to afford music.
Rukito's games are an acquired taste and that is a lesson the last two years have tought me. They are unique and that is something, a special signature, that Rukito will never lose. Love them or hate them, but the stamp is there.
In spite of being very basic on paper, the concept can be transformed into interesting visual designs, challenges, save balancing and level designs. With me not being a fan of the overall style, I am surprised at what this game did.
For starters, this is a standout in the overall body of work: six stages with three screens each (plus a final one which has a mind-numbingly unfair trigger that results in an unnecessary grinding of the last screen of the game), there is only one final boss, restarting music is gone, and the traps are scarce, the latter being a huge deal. There are still soul-crushing traps at the end of insane saves, but you can count them with the fingers of a single hand. Overall, it feels more like straight needle in the artist's trademark style, and this amounts in a rather enjoyable experience, one where you explore more the ideas of the level design in a more relaxed way, focusing more on the required challenge of the platforming. The latter benefits from not sticking to a 32px mentality, but exploring the 16px world in very interesting ways and you can tell the instances in which Rukito could have been overtly cruel, but doesn't and gives more air for certain jumps. Thumb up there.
His bosses have always had an infamous reputation, and the final boss is bad in the good kinda way and stands out from his previous ones: it's not luck-based like RZ, it's much fairer than the first SSR, it's not appalling and ugly like PYF, it's not nearly humanly impossible or one of the worst bosses of all times like GR, and overall, it's a funny, dumb concept: a homage to the most classic and emblematic 100F classic franchise with fair RNG(!).
The difficulty balance is a catastrophe from the third stage onwards, and I do have my grudges against the following: the very last jump of Stage 2, transition from Stage 3 to Stage 4, third save of Stage 4 (mostly due to the required fall and the trap at the end which is unholy), third save from Stage 5 (cancerous idea), third save of Stage 6 because screw the jump at the right which you have to do twice in a row (the second being upside down!) and you still dare to add a trap in the backtrack (really?!), and the grinding of the last save. For the record, this is the first time I do a horizontal drop gate buffed in the way the first save of Stage 6 does... that's creative and satisfying to pull off.
So, it's a mix between good and bad, but compared to the rest of his games, this is a Rembrandt painting. The soundtrack choices, save for the last stage which is annoying and loud without the need to be like that, are terrific. I still see RZ as his most emblematic for some reason, and his best music choice personally, besides the one mentioned in the spoilers here, was Mushihimesama Futari in RZ. I'm mentally in one of those instances in which you say: "if there was a game that had the platforming of V, the bosses of W, the soundtrack of X and the visual designs from Y, all from the same creator, then this game Z would be awesome".
Also, definitely easier and much shorter than 256, which makes it less exhausting as well.
Recommended. Best Rukito as of now.
MMM time maybe????
[2] Likes
Rukito's games are an acquired taste and that is a lesson the last two years have tought me. They are unique and that is something, a special signature, that Rukito will never lose. Love them or hate them, but the stamp is there.
In spite of being very basic on paper, the concept can be transformed into interesting visual designs, challenges, save balancing and level designs. With me not being a fan of the overall style, I am surprised at what this game did.
For starters, this is a standout in the overall body of work: six stages with three screens each (plus a final one which has a mind-numbingly unfair trigger that results in an unnecessary grinding of the last screen of the game), there is only one final boss, restarting music is gone, and the traps are scarce, the latter being a huge deal. There are still soul-crushing traps at the end of insane saves, but you can count them with the fingers of a single hand. Overall, it feels more like straight needle in the artist's trademark style, and this amounts in a rather enjoyable experience, one where you explore more the ideas of the level design in a more relaxed way, focusing more on the required challenge of the platforming. The latter benefits from not sticking to a 32px mentality, but exploring the 16px world in very interesting ways and you can tell the instances in which Rukito could have been overtly cruel, but doesn't and gives more air for certain jumps. Thumb up there.
His bosses have always had an infamous reputation, and the final boss is bad in the good kinda way and stands out from his previous ones: it's not luck-based like RZ, it's much fairer than the first SSR, it's not appalling and ugly like PYF, it's not nearly humanly impossible or one of the worst bosses of all times like GR, and overall, it's a funny, dumb concept: a homage to the most classic and emblematic 100F classic franchise with fair RNG(!).
The difficulty balance is a catastrophe from the third stage onwards, and I do have my grudges against the following: the very last jump of Stage 2, transition from Stage 3 to Stage 4, third save of Stage 4 (mostly due to the required fall and the trap at the end which is unholy), third save from Stage 5 (cancerous idea), third save of Stage 6 because screw the jump at the right which you have to do twice in a row (the second being upside down!) and you still dare to add a trap in the backtrack (really?!), and the grinding of the last save. For the record, this is the first time I do a horizontal drop gate buffed in the way the first save of Stage 6 does... that's creative and satisfying to pull off.
So, it's a mix between good and bad, but compared to the rest of his games, this is a Rembrandt painting. The soundtrack choices, save for the last stage which is annoying and loud without the need to be like that, are terrific. I still see RZ as his most emblematic for some reason, and his best music choice personally, besides the one mentioned in the spoilers here, was Mushihimesama Futari in RZ. I'm mentally in one of those instances in which you say: "if there was a game that had the platforming of V, the bosses of W, the soundtrack of X and the visual designs from Y, all from the same creator, then this game Z would be awesome".
Also, definitely easier and much shorter than 256, which makes it less exhausting as well.
Recommended. Best Rukito as of now.
MMM time maybe????
Rating: 5.1 51
Difficulty: 85 85
Dec 18, 2023