21 Reviews:
PlutoTheThing
I love this game, it has 3 short stages each with an avoidance at the end. The platforming isn't anything special, this game was before Abi's trigger needle enlightenment so it's relatively simple and also over relies on low jumps in many places. The bulk of your time with this game will be on the avoidances, and they are tough and also very different from each other, so it's worth talking about them individually.
Gumi is the most random of all of these fights, there's very little pattern and the ones that exist are pretty sight readable for the most part. The real bulk of this fight is rng reading through various attacks, and a lot of curving. I enjoy it, it's definitely the most divisive part of the game, particularly because the outro is super nasty, but I love the song and it feels good to play, I just think it's fun to dodge the attacks and it's rather laid back and chill. I do wish it was more fair but personally, I enjoyed it.
Rin is the most pattern heavy one to contrast Gumi, also by far the easiest avoidance. The patterns are pretty nice, fun to play through and it's not just a bunch of safespots. It's the one I care about the least but it's a good time, not much else to say beyond that.
Miku is a mix of learning and rng, and to me it's the best part of the entire game, I like, even love those other two avoidances, but the Miku is really where the game shines. Wonderfully creative attacks that are engaging and fun to read, amazing pacing, I was never bored once and you are basically always doing something in the avoidance, and while there's a few unfair parts (notably the squares at the end), it's definitely not as bad as Gumi and it's definitely a skill based fight more than anything. This avoidance is fantastic and if there's one thing you should try from this game, it's probably this. It was a blast to play, I also think it's probably the hardest one :P
I probably enjoy this game an irrational amount, but I just really admire the sheer creativity and diversity Abi is able to make in these avoidances, as well as seeing a few points of this game which got repurposed into Noesis and the such. It's got some of my favorite old-school avoidances ever, and while definitely not for everyone, I definitely would recommend trying it if it seems like something you'd enjoy.
[1] Like
Gumi is the most random of all of these fights, there's very little pattern and the ones that exist are pretty sight readable for the most part. The real bulk of this fight is rng reading through various attacks, and a lot of curving. I enjoy it, it's definitely the most divisive part of the game, particularly because the outro is super nasty, but I love the song and it feels good to play, I just think it's fun to dodge the attacks and it's rather laid back and chill. I do wish it was more fair but personally, I enjoyed it.
Rin is the most pattern heavy one to contrast Gumi, also by far the easiest avoidance. The patterns are pretty nice, fun to play through and it's not just a bunch of safespots. It's the one I care about the least but it's a good time, not much else to say beyond that.
Miku is a mix of learning and rng, and to me it's the best part of the entire game, I like, even love those other two avoidances, but the Miku is really where the game shines. Wonderfully creative attacks that are engaging and fun to read, amazing pacing, I was never bored once and you are basically always doing something in the avoidance, and while there's a few unfair parts (notably the squares at the end), it's definitely not as bad as Gumi and it's definitely a skill based fight more than anything. This avoidance is fantastic and if there's one thing you should try from this game, it's probably this. It was a blast to play, I also think it's probably the hardest one :P
I probably enjoy this game an irrational amount, but I just really admire the sheer creativity and diversity Abi is able to make in these avoidances, as well as seeing a few points of this game which got repurposed into Noesis and the such. It's got some of my favorite old-school avoidances ever, and while definitely not for everyone, I definitely would recommend trying it if it seems like something you'd enjoy.
Rating: 9.3 93
Difficulty: 79 79
Mar 6, 2024
DerpyHoovesIWBTG
Classic game featuring 3 stages, each containing 2 screens of needle with an avoidance at the end. I don't have much to say about the needle. I didn't dislike it, but it's just there. The hardest needle screen for me was Rin's first screen but the rest isn't too bad if you're decent at corridor needle, or cancels for a few saves in Rin and Gumi's stages. The main aspect of the game are the three avoidances. For how old this game is (2012), the attack ideas and patterns are very creative and that is why this game stands out from the other avoidance games that released around that time. Most of them just tried to copy LoveTrap's avoidance style, but this game doesn't do any of that which I appreciate. Every song in this game slapped and fit the avoidances well. However, I still find that the negatives outweigh the positives here. I find that あび went a bit overboard with designing some of the patterns and fairness of RNG, and the game suffers alot because of it. Had there been put more care into balancing things then I'd easily given this an 8 or higher, but it just had to be this way. I'll write down what I find of every avoidance in the order I beat them in.
Top warp - Rin:
The easiest of the three. This avoidance focuses more on patterns rather than RNG. It starts with simple RNG attacks that are easy and consistent, and switches to pattern around the 1 minute and 30 second mark. The patterns are mostly fun to learn and execute, with the exception of one: The green & cyan spiral that spins around 1 minute and 45 seconds in. It's way too precise and very out of place, and I didn't enjoy learning it. You have a ~4 frame window to do the first jump, then do another jump shortly after. It's just there to make the avoidance very tedious to grind, as everything before it becomes very consistent after a while. The only other notable pattern I can think of that's stupid is the 4 lines that move outwards super fast during the last chorus. I used the strat where you wallhug then do a double jump to a specific height. Once again I don't know why there had to be a precise pattern near the end that I died on twice. It's the only hard attack during the last phase and it's way harder than the rest for whatever reason.
4.5/10
Right warp - Gumi:
I'd say this this the most iconic avoidance out of the three, as it's seen used in multiple medleys and has some classic moments like Mario Estrada's last circle death and zero slamming his desk in one of the medley versions. This avoidance does the opposite of Rin, where it rather focuses on RNG rather than patterns. While I found the patterns to be super fun to learn, the RNG in this avoidance is just god awful and it just becomes a RNG gauntlet where you rarely die to the patterns but rather the same two or three RNG attacks throughout the avoidance. It's super aggressive and just does whatever it wants, and often times you will get walled and you cannot do anything about it. It begins with the spinning orange fruit wheel and shows up multiple times during the fight. The gray circles that spawn are based on the player's position, and it occasionally throws random(360) RNG at you. While I didn't struggle that much with chorus 1 and the last chorus, chorus 2 tends to close you in due to the slow RNG at the start as well as the group of slow circles that show up halfway through. Most of the time I felt like I had no control over it and had to suffer because of it. The part of the avoidance I can easily say which is the worst is the entire final part. It starts off with 2 slow circles that move towards you while dodging the gray circles that move along with the player. I had a few deaths where I got closed in with no way of getting out which was extremely frustrating. The worst attack for me was the mix of red circles and orange random(360) fruits, where I got walled twice with no way of getting out. It concludes with a precise pattern where you have to position yourself which is just super dumb. Some people will beat this relatively quickly while others will take many hours on it. I died on the last pattern of final ~20 minutes into the grind which happened to be the first time I got to final, and then it took me a few more hours until I finally beat it. You just have to pray to the RNG gods.
3.0/10
Left warp - Miku:
This is the only avoidance which I actually liked. It's a mix of hard patterns and RNG, and the execution is way better than the other two avoidances. I only disliked everything up to the end of the first chorus, as its a bit too random and having to deal with reverse movement becomes a bit tiring after a while. The worst offender is the attack right after the heart pattern, where you have to move towards the middle while dodging fruits that spawn at random points in the screen with random speeds. That's the only attack which I actually found unfair, as most of the time I died there because the gap was too small or multiple fruits spawned with super high speeds at the end of the attack. Everything after it is very fair and fun to learn. The only unfair attack I can think of is the start of the last chorus where the fruits move up or down at random speeds, and sometimes you can get walled while doing the pattern. It only happened to me once, but those with bad luck could die to it multiple times. This is the only avoidance I do recommend you should play, as it's really fun to learn once you get consistent at the first chorus.
8/10
Overall I heavily disliked most of Rin & Gumi's attacks, but Miku is where the good shit is at. Just prepare yourself for the bad luck grinds. This game has seen better days. Playing it after 10 years of its release I can say it hasn't aged well. I only did it for the K2 Challenge, and it was a pretty miserable grind. If you aren't doing that, then I would just recommend you only play the Miku avoidance and nothing else.
[1] Like
Top warp - Rin:
The easiest of the three. This avoidance focuses more on patterns rather than RNG. It starts with simple RNG attacks that are easy and consistent, and switches to pattern around the 1 minute and 30 second mark. The patterns are mostly fun to learn and execute, with the exception of one: The green & cyan spiral that spins around 1 minute and 45 seconds in. It's way too precise and very out of place, and I didn't enjoy learning it. You have a ~4 frame window to do the first jump, then do another jump shortly after. It's just there to make the avoidance very tedious to grind, as everything before it becomes very consistent after a while. The only other notable pattern I can think of that's stupid is the 4 lines that move outwards super fast during the last chorus. I used the strat where you wallhug then do a double jump to a specific height. Once again I don't know why there had to be a precise pattern near the end that I died on twice. It's the only hard attack during the last phase and it's way harder than the rest for whatever reason.
4.5/10
Right warp - Gumi:
I'd say this this the most iconic avoidance out of the three, as it's seen used in multiple medleys and has some classic moments like Mario Estrada's last circle death and zero slamming his desk in one of the medley versions. This avoidance does the opposite of Rin, where it rather focuses on RNG rather than patterns. While I found the patterns to be super fun to learn, the RNG in this avoidance is just god awful and it just becomes a RNG gauntlet where you rarely die to the patterns but rather the same two or three RNG attacks throughout the avoidance. It's super aggressive and just does whatever it wants, and often times you will get walled and you cannot do anything about it. It begins with the spinning orange fruit wheel and shows up multiple times during the fight. The gray circles that spawn are based on the player's position, and it occasionally throws random(360) RNG at you. While I didn't struggle that much with chorus 1 and the last chorus, chorus 2 tends to close you in due to the slow RNG at the start as well as the group of slow circles that show up halfway through. Most of the time I felt like I had no control over it and had to suffer because of it. The part of the avoidance I can easily say which is the worst is the entire final part. It starts off with 2 slow circles that move towards you while dodging the gray circles that move along with the player. I had a few deaths where I got closed in with no way of getting out which was extremely frustrating. The worst attack for me was the mix of red circles and orange random(360) fruits, where I got walled twice with no way of getting out. It concludes with a precise pattern where you have to position yourself which is just super dumb. Some people will beat this relatively quickly while others will take many hours on it. I died on the last pattern of final ~20 minutes into the grind which happened to be the first time I got to final, and then it took me a few more hours until I finally beat it. You just have to pray to the RNG gods.
3.0/10
Left warp - Miku:
This is the only avoidance which I actually liked. It's a mix of hard patterns and RNG, and the execution is way better than the other two avoidances. I only disliked everything up to the end of the first chorus, as its a bit too random and having to deal with reverse movement becomes a bit tiring after a while. The worst offender is the attack right after the heart pattern, where you have to move towards the middle while dodging fruits that spawn at random points in the screen with random speeds. That's the only attack which I actually found unfair, as most of the time I died there because the gap was too small or multiple fruits spawned with super high speeds at the end of the attack. Everything after it is very fair and fun to learn. The only unfair attack I can think of is the start of the last chorus where the fruits move up or down at random speeds, and sometimes you can get walled while doing the pattern. It only happened to me once, but those with bad luck could die to it multiple times. This is the only avoidance I do recommend you should play, as it's really fun to learn once you get consistent at the first chorus.
8/10
Overall I heavily disliked most of Rin & Gumi's attacks, but Miku is where the good shit is at. Just prepare yourself for the bad luck grinds. This game has seen better days. Playing it after 10 years of its release I can say it hasn't aged well. I only did it for the K2 Challenge, and it was a pretty miserable grind. If you aren't doing that, then I would just recommend you only play the Miku avoidance and nothing else.
Rating: 4.6 46
Difficulty: 80 80
Oct 30, 2022
cLOUDDEAD
like a proto-Noesis, but with far less triggers/traps and messier platforming design. The musicbox-esque songs add an interesting atmosphere for a game with such little production value.
Tagged as: Gimmick
[1] Like
Rating: 9.6 96
Difficulty: N/A
Mar 11, 2022
Quietly1999
Needle and Avoidance was very beautiful and difficult.
[1] Like
Rating: 7.0 70
Difficulty: 85 85
Oct 23, 2017
LastTISisLife
Rin is really fun tbh, can recommend fon anyone who love oldschool pattern avoidances
Miku is decently okay. Song is nice, attacks are really hard to adapt, but once you did it, it will be very consistent avoidance
Gumi is quite awful. It would be okay, if not the dumb ending and RNG segments that can completely destroy you. Not fan of the music as well
Needle areas were okay, but nothing to really say about them. They were kinda spoiled with 1f required jumps. I liked them probably in that order: Pre-Gumi (Volcano) > Pre-Rin (Physics) > Pre-Miku (Ice)
In general, this game not aged well and i can't really recommend it. It's still not the worst sample of classic design, but nothing to truly appreciate here
[0] Likes
Miku is decently okay. Song is nice, attacks are really hard to adapt, but once you did it, it will be very consistent avoidance
Gumi is quite awful. It would be okay, if not the dumb ending and RNG segments that can completely destroy you. Not fan of the music as well
Needle areas were okay, but nothing to really say about them. They were kinda spoiled with 1f required jumps. I liked them probably in that order: Pre-Gumi (Volcano) > Pre-Rin (Physics) > Pre-Miku (Ice)
In general, this game not aged well and i can't really recommend it. It's still not the worst sample of classic design, but nothing to truly appreciate here
Rating: 5.3 53
Difficulty: 82 82
Nov 15, 2023