I wanna kill the Needle Games 2
Creators: Sandsky0, Lemonxreaper, Vormanax
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37 Reviews:
Nogard
A bunch of diagonals and corners everyone loves to circlejerk about.
I don't see any difference betweeen this and games like kill the lovegood. Its pointlessness is just astonishing.
This game is a relic from the past. It comes from an era where needle was made to be hard and nothing more.
[12] Likes
I don't see any difference betweeen this and games like kill the lovegood. Its pointlessness is just astonishing.
This game is a relic from the past. It comes from an era where needle was made to be hard and nothing more.
Rating: 2.0 20
Difficulty: 84 84
Mar 14, 2017
Kale
Neither difficulty nor quality rating includes the extra stage (I find it to be obnoxious)-.
Maybe it's good commentary on the state of needle games when a game that collects screens from other ones within the genre almost exclusively features screens that are a collection of the usual jumps (let me refer to them as "named jumps" for the rest of this review).
There is nothing inherently wrong with named jumps. I think most people would agree with me that many of the best needle games out there are ones where gates, diagonals, diamonds etc. are utilized in interesting ways. I would go as far as to say some jumps such as 2 block planes or v-align corners are fun in themselves, in moderation.
Now saves that are just collections of named jumps without adding anything is something I have less respect for. One example from early on in KtNG2 is the screen from "A147" and there are unfortunately many more screen like that in the game where you wonder what made them stick out enough to derserve a representation. Overall I guess there are more screens that fit into the former category and a few that actually feature non-named jumps.
Like most long needle games KtNG2 is an excellent game to keep as a long-term project to measure your skill development if you're an inexperienced player or to boost your ego and delude yourself over how well you can do named jumps if you're experienced. The game also features very little claustrophobic and awkward design and bar a few pointless squished segments I think it generally moves on the right side of the precision-line.
Sandsky did a very good job with the visuals in this game. In some cases he kept the original sprites and for other screens he altered the tiles or backgrounds to make it clearer. Being able to see your character properly is crucial for a good needle experience and there are only a few questionable background choices (most notably a couple completely black ones) but the game looks nice and clean overall and it certainly helps to incentivise progress.
The game has a fairly smooth difficulty curve. Because most of the medley stages mainly feature the same style of needle I reckon most players will have the same trouble spots for the most part. A few screens early on seem unnecessarily hard and killed the game's speed for me but a lot of the time it's completely coincidental what you get stuck on in fangames and I don't think you should assume getting stuck collerates to the difficulty balance being bad if it's only one instance.
There are four stages of screens from other games, after getting past them you reach three custom stages made by HectorPaddy, LemonxReaper and Sandsky. Hector and Lemon's stages are definitely a welcome break from the medley stages. Overall these three stages are much lighter on the named jumps and I especially like Lemon's stage which has a couple saves with really smooth, fluid gameplay.
In summary my biggest gripe with the game is the medley choices. I can't say if the overrepresentation of named jumps is because it's the design Sandsky likes the most or if it reflects on how few needle games actually aspire to be original. Thanks to the good visuals, game concept and general lack of awkward design this is still a must-play fangame if you're into needle games.
[6] Likes
Maybe it's good commentary on the state of needle games when a game that collects screens from other ones within the genre almost exclusively features screens that are a collection of the usual jumps (let me refer to them as "named jumps" for the rest of this review).
There is nothing inherently wrong with named jumps. I think most people would agree with me that many of the best needle games out there are ones where gates, diagonals, diamonds etc. are utilized in interesting ways. I would go as far as to say some jumps such as 2 block planes or v-align corners are fun in themselves, in moderation.
Now saves that are just collections of named jumps without adding anything is something I have less respect for. One example from early on in KtNG2 is the screen from "A147" and there are unfortunately many more screen like that in the game where you wonder what made them stick out enough to derserve a representation. Overall I guess there are more screens that fit into the former category and a few that actually feature non-named jumps.
Like most long needle games KtNG2 is an excellent game to keep as a long-term project to measure your skill development if you're an inexperienced player or to boost your ego and delude yourself over how well you can do named jumps if you're experienced. The game also features very little claustrophobic and awkward design and bar a few pointless squished segments I think it generally moves on the right side of the precision-line.
Sandsky did a very good job with the visuals in this game. In some cases he kept the original sprites and for other screens he altered the tiles or backgrounds to make it clearer. Being able to see your character properly is crucial for a good needle experience and there are only a few questionable background choices (most notably a couple completely black ones) but the game looks nice and clean overall and it certainly helps to incentivise progress.
The game has a fairly smooth difficulty curve. Because most of the medley stages mainly feature the same style of needle I reckon most players will have the same trouble spots for the most part. A few screens early on seem unnecessarily hard and killed the game's speed for me but a lot of the time it's completely coincidental what you get stuck on in fangames and I don't think you should assume getting stuck collerates to the difficulty balance being bad if it's only one instance.
There are four stages of screens from other games, after getting past them you reach three custom stages made by HectorPaddy, LemonxReaper and Sandsky. Hector and Lemon's stages are definitely a welcome break from the medley stages. Overall these three stages are much lighter on the named jumps and I especially like Lemon's stage which has a couple saves with really smooth, fluid gameplay.
In summary my biggest gripe with the game is the medley choices. I can't say if the overrepresentation of named jumps is because it's the design Sandsky likes the most or if it reflects on how few needle games actually aspire to be original. Thanks to the good visuals, game concept and general lack of awkward design this is still a must-play fangame if you're into needle games.
Rating: 7.0 70
Difficulty: 75 75
Oct 24, 2015
Pandy49
Good needle-medley. If you like plattforming then this is your game. The whole package just fits really well.
[3] Likes
Rating: 9.5 95
Difficulty: 80 80
Nov 29, 2015
xva
how not to make needle 101: tons of corners, diagonals, planes and other unfun jumps
a game that embodies generic spanish needle. the makers were so insanely lazy that they didn't even add sprites that fit the original games' sprites, they just used the same ugly generic spike sprite in every single room. when I say every room, I mean every room. this is a minor complaint but it just speaks to this game's laziness and uninventiveness. it whole purpose is to be a compilation of needle saves. not even full screens, just saves. this is like the needle game equivalent of those shitty vine compilations from 2015 youtube.
stylistic gripes aside, this game is structured in a very standard, basic and unchanged way, like every other generic medley game. 4 stages, 4 secrets, stage 5 is the guest stage. the secrets are somewhat interesting, but have the same gameplay as a bunch of screens from the stage the secret is from. they hardly feel like secrets considering how they're practically indistinguishable from the rest of the game in terms of gameplay. visually, yes, they're different, in the sense they're actual full screens, not just one half-assed save that was copied. what I find funny though, is that in initial versions of this game, every featured save was actually a full screen at some point. Sword Slinger made a video playing an old unreleased version of this game (v0.61), where stage 1 appears to feature a bunch of full screens that aren't just one save. it's like a completely different game, what happened to this version of the game? was it too fun? too good? too enjoyable? I don't get it, I really don't.
guest stages are lame, all 3 areas aren't very interesting or well-made to any sort of degree. lemon area sucks the most and sandsky is the hardest. I'll lump in true stage into this part of the review, as it comes after the guest stages and the subsequent end of the game in terms of progression. I guess it's one of the better stages, there's certainly better needle, considering it has a full CN1 floor as the last screen, and a really good CN1 floor at that. I'd go as far as to say one of the best CN1 floors considering it's part of the Needle Satan tileset, which I remember being really fun and enjoyable. the rest of it was just more standard-ish single-save crap which was like 5% more interesting than the other single-save crap before it. the L-game save they added was kinda cool, I guess.
not much to say other than disappointing and overall not great, don't play this
[1] Like
a game that embodies generic spanish needle. the makers were so insanely lazy that they didn't even add sprites that fit the original games' sprites, they just used the same ugly generic spike sprite in every single room. when I say every room, I mean every room. this is a minor complaint but it just speaks to this game's laziness and uninventiveness. it whole purpose is to be a compilation of needle saves. not even full screens, just saves. this is like the needle game equivalent of those shitty vine compilations from 2015 youtube.
stylistic gripes aside, this game is structured in a very standard, basic and unchanged way, like every other generic medley game. 4 stages, 4 secrets, stage 5 is the guest stage. the secrets are somewhat interesting, but have the same gameplay as a bunch of screens from the stage the secret is from. they hardly feel like secrets considering how they're practically indistinguishable from the rest of the game in terms of gameplay. visually, yes, they're different, in the sense they're actual full screens, not just one half-assed save that was copied. what I find funny though, is that in initial versions of this game, every featured save was actually a full screen at some point. Sword Slinger made a video playing an old unreleased version of this game (v0.61), where stage 1 appears to feature a bunch of full screens that aren't just one save. it's like a completely different game, what happened to this version of the game? was it too fun? too good? too enjoyable? I don't get it, I really don't.
guest stages are lame, all 3 areas aren't very interesting or well-made to any sort of degree. lemon area sucks the most and sandsky is the hardest. I'll lump in true stage into this part of the review, as it comes after the guest stages and the subsequent end of the game in terms of progression. I guess it's one of the better stages, there's certainly better needle, considering it has a full CN1 floor as the last screen, and a really good CN1 floor at that. I'd go as far as to say one of the best CN1 floors considering it's part of the Needle Satan tileset, which I remember being really fun and enjoyable. the rest of it was just more standard-ish single-save crap which was like 5% more interesting than the other single-save crap before it. the L-game save they added was kinda cool, I guess.
not much to say other than disappointing and overall not great, don't play this
Rating: 3.1 31
Difficulty: 80 80
Jun 11, 2023
purify
A really bad needle game.I really don't want to give a one point
First,the game is a old game,and the needles are very annoying.the map just uses other games,i know its Medley, but the change is too bad,The same sting array is used too much,and the difficulty is completely uneven,Theexperience is really poor,and there are many 16px needles behind it,and even gate parallel to the player (there is no wall on the head,and no save),I really don't know how to evaluate the game.
[1] Like
First,the game is a old game,and the needles are very annoying.the map just uses other games,i know its Medley, but the change is too bad,The same sting array is used too much,and the difficulty is completely uneven,Theexperience is really poor,and there are many 16px needles behind it,and even gate parallel to the player (there is no wall on the head,and no save),I really don't know how to evaluate the game.
Rating: 2.0 20
Difficulty: 80 80
Mar 14, 2022