Not Another Needle Game

Creator: Thenewgeezer

Average Rating
9.2 / 10
Average Difficulty
68.8 / 100
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Tags:

Adventure (21) Needle (64) Avoidance (5) Trap (5) Gimmick (54) Secrets (10) 100_Floor (1) Special (4) Long (28) Hard (1) Funny (4) Story (13) Troll (1) x_Floor (23) NoBoss (8) Secret (9) Original (8) Triple_Jump (4) Classic (3) Required_secrets (1) Advanture (1) Legend (1) Different_Ending (1) NANG (4) Secret Long (1) Cycle (1) Very_Long (2)

Screenshots

  • by HeyItsKyeOfficial
  • by Washijyazo
  • by ElCochran90
  • by ElCochran90
  • by Cloneian28
  • by Theguykid
  • by Sudnep
  • by Theguykid
  • by ElCochran90
  • by InkBottled

275 Reviews:

L4Vo5
This game made me like needle

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[3] Likes
Rating: 9.5 95       Difficulty: 70 70
Nov 7, 2022
Walkerain
Why is this REAL game free?

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[3] Likes
Rating: 10.0 100       Difficulty: 75 75
Aug 19, 2022
ElCochran90
200th FANGAME.

Rating includes all endings (with a focus on the True Ending). Difficulty rating is for bad ending. Consider a difficulty rating of 75 for True Ending.

I'll begin with what might make you hate me more than you already do (probably) due to my rating system: this is The Shawshank Redemption of fangames. It is the most overrated fangame of all times, but certainly a good one. Having one of the highest possible ratings in the site with the most representative sample available (over 130 reviews as of today, even surpassing the Boshy titan), this is a phenomenon that became the new modern measure to measure not only needle fangames, but fangame-making in general.

Onto the good stuff then. Released in 2015, this game exploits everything that can be done in a gimmick fangame and transforms a simple, clichéd premise into an unforgettable experience. Up to this day, I will defend Cube (1997) as an underrated independent sci-fi horror film; the environment and thrilling moments it created were iconic. Transform the horror elements into needle and humor, and add Kayin's love for old good videogame classics and Thenader2's love for neon. You get this: an outstanding amalgamation of style and humor, a challenge that will certainly make you grow bigger and more skillful hands, a celebration of the reach and extent of fangames for the newer generation, and a modern landmark that Thenewgeezer should have charged every penny for, just like Nemega. The effort behind this is tremendous and the creativity seems to be endless. The final result is a rollercoaster of many emotions and a remarkable sense of accomplishment.

The difficulty curve is exceptional, even if kind of uneven, up to the last teleport gimmick. From there, it reaches a fixed level of difficulty and never lets go with random peaks that do add cheap difficulty, such as traps, corners and planes. Well, it's supposed to be a comprehensive needle game, so I will not fully complain against that, although that did cost many frustrating free deaths.

The humor is simple and quite effective during the first half of the game; during the second half, after Bad Ending, it does become dull and forced because you're repeating the same rooms upside down with some modifications to make reasonable challenges. It's even ironic that the creator says "I've got nothing" in different ways many times during the second half. Still, having a protagonist resembling HAL 9000 with a twisted sense of humor and breaking the fourth wall is a tremendous addition throughout and changes the quality of the entire experience. The revelation of who turns out to be the AI is shocking and amazing, and the fact that he has a "master" raises more eyebrows. Who's more powerful than the legendary enemy Geezer?

The music... The music choices are worth making your house windows vibrate. Each song was carefully selected to communicate emotions and create an environment: adventure, fear, dread, desperation, epicness, a climactic foreshadowing of the ending... Everything's here. The second half of the game, after Bad Ending, has actually the best choices and with the final 20-floor challenge I was exploding my house with noise. This is how you close a rollercoaster ride.

Production value is amazing for what is, in essence, a minimalist project and I am surprised that my potato PC didn't explode. With so many screens to conquer, I would be lying if I said there is no variety. Expect great visuals from time to time, especially as you keep progressing, because the first 60 floors are shockingly repetitive visually, the gravity section has a very questionable pixelated background and the triple jump section is, well, you already know IWBTG. However, it stores many surprises. Even if the black and white visuals can be easily replicated and happen to appear in the worst fangames possible such as GGM and Conquer the Blow Game 1, here, the aesthetics are correlated effectively with the music to show why this is such a nice design instead of a lazy choice.

Finally, gimmicks are always a dangerous game, and the game makes a terrific job at using standard ones creatively plus adding new ones, like the famous teleport gimmick which became iconic, and also combining them in very intelligent ways. The most annoying one is combining heavy gravity with jump refreshers because that is just wanting to make your fingers break. However, the second half of the game brings along the goods in this department because it is no longer subject to linearity regarding the introduction of one gimmick per set of 20 floors or to a particular level of difficulty.

Now, not everything is roses. The first 60 floors are so shockingly repetitive that even Thenewgeezer had to acknowledge it: "Disappointed with the level design? At least the platforms aren't brown!" There is a clear confession there, but if you give time to the game and hunt down the secrets, which locations are indirectly told to you through a glitched text box for avoiding using a guide or tutorial videos, everything begins to go upwards. This harms replayability.

Speaking about the difficulty curve, it is puzzling that the most celebrated fangame experience on this site based on numbers alone is a Veteran experience. Why is this puzzling? Not only because it will be the first fangame newcomers will encounter when they make a filter based on votes/popularity, but also because this game presents itself during the beginning as beginner-friendly. It teaches you about align and other difficult jumps, but also teaches you the most basic jumps with illustrations and names! This is knowledge a veteran already has, but for some reason, it is here (btw, the TAS jump is called the "ledge jump" here). What's the real target market of this fangame? It is difficult to tell unless someone else tells you about it.

Finally, we have the implications of the True Ending. You have to repeat everything upside down with some modifcations, and this obviously means going through the screens you despised. Not only that; if we take the first 60 screens and multiply that by 2, that's exactly 30% of the game's entire content that is quite uneventful. This is fixed, however, with the more interesting stages being improved with a better soundtrack, amazing flashy effects that make you go disco, a more creative level design (ironically, because everything was upsidw down the whole time) and a more balanced difficulty. Please applaud Geezer for designing an entire game in such a way that it also works upside down: INSANE.

Overall, the game is a punch to the face and it pumps you up throughout. The fact that this game costs $0 but Apple users actually have to pay money for that unspeakably bad abomination called I Wanna Be the Four Elements is a proof that the world should just burst into flames.

The world would have to wait 4 years for having an effort named "Chill Needle 2", which is the closest a needle/gimmick fangame ever got to the quality of this one. I am excluding the CN sequels because their aim is different and are on another league... a league I won't be able to reach for many years still.

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Tagged as: Adventure Needle Gimmick Long x_Floor
[3] Likes
Rating: 7.0 70       Difficulty: 70 70
Nov 6, 2019
CyanPocks
A beautiful piece of art by TheNewGeezer.

This is like something you would buy on steam for $9.99

Features 100s of levels, secrets, memes, gimmicks, and quality platforming!
Very good!

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Tagged as: Adventure Trap Gimmick Long Funny Story x_Floor NoBoss
[3] Likes
Rating: 9.5 95       Difficulty: 70 70
May 27, 2016
WoshTheTriangle
This is one of THE most iconic fangames out there so that's how you know it is gonna be good.

The needle design is damn near perfect, all the gimmicks are simple and done well, there's funny dialogue, secrets, achievements, and even a story! What else is there to want in a game?

This is one of those games that a newbie could definitely start off playing (Would they beat it? Likely not for a while) to learn the mechanics of fangames and return to over time as they improve as the difficulty ramps up in such a way that it isn't overwhelming but your skills do get put to the test.

Now onto the little bit of spoilers, having to do all the stages again upside down quite a treat, and really feels like the game knows you can play well now and wants to see how you'll fair against early gimmicks at higher difficulties. Also the fact there are roughly 400 screens is absolutely insane, that is so much content.

It's hard to say much about this game. Just make sure to do the secret in each area, you get more content for it. This game has such high production value that it feels like I am playing a game I'd purchase for like $5-10 but for free. I'd recommend it, although if you are playing fangames I'm guessing you don't need me to tell you to play this game to get it.

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[2] Likes
Rating: 9.8 98       Difficulty: 67 67
May 30, 2024