Delicious Fruit
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by NightShark115
10 Reviews:
Cthaere
I wanna be the Sustenance is a difficult gimmick needle game divided into two paths both of which must be traversed in both directions, featuring themes such as water, cycles and triggers, in the old adventure style. However, none of these themes feels like the focus; The focus always seems to provide a varied, challenging and fun to execute needle experience from start to finish, using the themes provided as means to that end. The result speaks for itself: Despite taking place in only 8 screens (+1 memey screen, and the hub), each save feels extremely unique and memorable in its own way while still feeling like an integral and natural part of the game; The fact this was all orchestrated to include backtracking with enough triggers to make it work and be fun without altering the game so much that it would feel like the triggers make the backtrack rather than it fitting there rightfully by design, on top of making it all on the skeleton provided by Decadence, is nothing short of amazing; The game manages to thrive while adhering to some of the tightest constraints in design I've ever seen, and JRocker managed to pull it off beautifully.
The left path features a more intensive use of cycles as well as longer and more difficult saves; It also introduces a new minor gimmick which is hinted at if you go left from the hub, but not discovered until a couple saves later; I'll leave that one for you to find. While the left side had the only saves I took issues with (both pretty minor), it also had the saves I was most fond of, even if they weren't as impressive looking as the ones of the right. While it's the simpler side out of the two, that allows it to be fine-tuned to perfection and result in extremely enjoyable saves.
The right side, on the other hand, is more experimental in gimmick appliance; While not featuring the new gimmick, it is a far more daring side; The cycles less straightforward, the triggers lending to more complicated movements. This allows for an even greater variety in saves, with each one feeling like it introduces entirely new concepts rather than simply containing different maneuvers. Due to the difficulty rising from learning rather than execution in most of it, as well as the overall lower difficulty, it could serve either as a warmup before doing the left side, or a wind down after. That is not to say it doesn't stand on its own merit; far from it, but it's natural to want to compare the paths directly.
In both paths you will still find that a careful hand has worked on things until they moved in harmony; There's always a fast cycle, and sometimes it's mandatory as the cycles quickly get out of sync. Even when the fast cycle isn't mandatory, the cycles are incredibly intuitive, and your first guess will almost always work when attempting cycles late into a save. While it's not going to be easy to react to triggers, they're all fairly intuitive once triggered, or are hinted at by clever level design. The new gimmick is applied moderately, with each usage feeling deliberate, making you do specific maneuvers that would otherwise be impossible, but never feeling like it's overstaying its welcome.
I did mention a couple of problem saves on the left path though; One save ends in an extremely precise, awkward drop into a choke jump, and it quickly became a monotonous meatgrind on the cycles at the start followed by praying the drop worked. Another, on the backtrack, had a ridable water block you were supposed to take backward, however you could do some platforming from the forward part of the save to skip going back on the waterblock immediately, which was by far the easier way; However, that also made it so you had to wait for it to come back again, making for a solid 10 seconds of waiting each attempt. Said skip is also dangerously intuitive, and I did not realize I was meant to redo the water segment backwards until I got too irritated at waiting to start exploring my other options.
Still, this is an incredible game that does more with 8 screens than what most games do in 50, and I would heavily recommend it to anyone who can handle it; It's a terrible shame this fell under the radar for most people.
[3] Likes
The left path features a more intensive use of cycles as well as longer and more difficult saves; It also introduces a new minor gimmick which is hinted at if you go left from the hub, but not discovered until a couple saves later; I'll leave that one for you to find. While the left side had the only saves I took issues with (both pretty minor), it also had the saves I was most fond of, even if they weren't as impressive looking as the ones of the right. While it's the simpler side out of the two, that allows it to be fine-tuned to perfection and result in extremely enjoyable saves.
The right side, on the other hand, is more experimental in gimmick appliance; While not featuring the new gimmick, it is a far more daring side; The cycles less straightforward, the triggers lending to more complicated movements. This allows for an even greater variety in saves, with each one feeling like it introduces entirely new concepts rather than simply containing different maneuvers. Due to the difficulty rising from learning rather than execution in most of it, as well as the overall lower difficulty, it could serve either as a warmup before doing the left side, or a wind down after. That is not to say it doesn't stand on its own merit; far from it, but it's natural to want to compare the paths directly.
In both paths you will still find that a careful hand has worked on things until they moved in harmony; There's always a fast cycle, and sometimes it's mandatory as the cycles quickly get out of sync. Even when the fast cycle isn't mandatory, the cycles are incredibly intuitive, and your first guess will almost always work when attempting cycles late into a save. While it's not going to be easy to react to triggers, they're all fairly intuitive once triggered, or are hinted at by clever level design. The new gimmick is applied moderately, with each usage feeling deliberate, making you do specific maneuvers that would otherwise be impossible, but never feeling like it's overstaying its welcome.
I did mention a couple of problem saves on the left path though; One save ends in an extremely precise, awkward drop into a choke jump, and it quickly became a monotonous meatgrind on the cycles at the start followed by praying the drop worked. Another, on the backtrack, had a ridable water block you were supposed to take backward, however you could do some platforming from the forward part of the save to skip going back on the waterblock immediately, which was by far the easier way; However, that also made it so you had to wait for it to come back again, making for a solid 10 seconds of waiting each attempt. Said skip is also dangerously intuitive, and I did not realize I was meant to redo the water segment backwards until I got too irritated at waiting to start exploring my other options.
Still, this is an incredible game that does more with 8 screens than what most games do in 50, and I would heavily recommend it to anyone who can handle it; It's a terrible shame this fell under the radar for most people.
Rating: 9.5 95
Difficulty: 82 82
Oct 29, 2020
Yiaz
Needle game with a heavy focus on moving obstacles and cycles. Some of it feels like platforming in noesis, some of it does not. Most of the saves also are really cool and interesting and fun to do with the exception of maybe 2-3 saves. The majority of the game is a great experience though and is not dragged down by those and if you can deal with some harder platforming I'd strongly recommend this.
[2] Likes
Rating: 8.5 85
Difficulty: 78 78
Feb 7, 2021
Nearigami
Hard gimmick needle. Worth a shot if you like that stuff.
[1] Like
Rating: N/A
Difficulty: N/A
Jan 15, 2020
PlutoTheThing
This game is Decadence but haystacked, instead of being hard 32 pixel needle, it's pretty challenging cycle needle with a lot of moving parts. It's really well made, for one the general structure of the game is very clever, you start in the middle and can go down two paths, at the end of each path you'll have to go back to the middle the same way you came initially. The fact the game is designed such that this is even possible is amazing, there's some triggers to make it work out but they never feel super out of place or unnatural, the game ultimately is just very cleverly made. The individual paths are both fantastic, the right path is a lot easier in my opinion and has more wacky ideas, whereas the left path is a bit more straight-forward while also having the harder and more precise segments. Both of these styles work very well, I found myself enjoying the right path more but the left path still had a lot to love about it. I really like this game's usage of cycles, triggers, gimmicks basically everything. It's very creative and in spite of a few hiccups or difficulty bumps, feels really nice to play. If it looks interesting I think you should definitely try it out.
[0] Likes
Rating: 9.5 95
Difficulty: 73 73
Jul 9, 2024