Delicious FruitNot Another Needle Contest 2
Creators: pieceofcheese87, patrickgh3, Tralexium, Wolsk, Skulldude, Naloa, Tehjman1993, Wolfiexe
Download Game
Speedrun Leaderboards Creator's Comments:
Bob [Creator]
If anyone would like to try out all the stages in their original form (before we nerfed/changed things with them), here's a download to a separate game containing them: https://www.mediafire.com/file/pvl2db1jiz1c2wq/NANC2_Original_Stages.zip/file
[8] Likes
Rating: N/A
Difficulty: N/A
May 5, 2021
55 Reviews:
Cthaere
tldr:
Would I recommend playing this game? Yes, absolutely
Would I recommend clearing this game? Yes, but not to everyone, and I might even recommend against it depending on the person and circumstances.
Would I recommend you get a save (or even more than 1 save) from someone else to access some of the late game content in the game? 100% Yes
Do I have any issues with the game? Yes, several, some of which are fundamental in nature. I do not love the game to the point of being willing to ignore them, however the game is still completely worth playing despite them.
Now, let's begin:
NANC2 as a whole is too big of a concept to tackle without breaking it down to many parts: You have the contest which affected in game ranking with judge reviews that are included in game, however the stages in the game itself are (presumably, I haven't checked out most of the originals yet) improved with varying degrees of effectiveness messing around the entire order, causing interesting-but-unrefined stages that were some of my favorites in the game to get ranked below polished-but-boring stages that needed nearly no modifications. On top of this, you have the original content for the game, which can itself be separated into the general production value part and the gameplay oriented part. I will attempt to cover all of those, in what I am going to assume is chronological order.
The contest:
I'll be honest, I feel like a lot of things could have gone better in this department, to the point I am glad I did not enter it myself. While the contest was advertised as a thing for everyone, both new and experienced, the truth is that making something that is more than barebones in this time is a nefarious task unless you already have a wide array of existing tools and assets to pick and choose from. While every contest has a last place, the fact that stages that clearly had heart and soul poured into them were given insultingly low reviews - some of which not even offering any constructive criticism to help the maker, merely complaining that the stage is bad - combined with the new people aspect and the fact that these reviews are advertised to everyone, seems very much against the spirit of inviting new people into gamemaking, if all you do is insult them in the process.
To avoid any unnecessary negativity, I shall skip over my specific problems with some of the reviews, the process, or the judge lineup, and merely say that I wish that the stages were tested completely blindly (to the point of the judges refraining from any information about other stages prior to the judging stage), that reviews were made with compassion and positivity in mind, and by a judge lineup that actively plays fangames.
The maingame:
I feel like the nanc team has taken a little bit too much creative liberty to itself in the process of refining the stages, sometimes to the detriment of the stage. I sincerely hope makers have been contacted, if not given authority, over major decisions made to their stages, such as completely cutting certain screens. This is information that should have been conveyed with the initial announcement of the game, to prepare makers for this possibility.
However, that's enough of that. For the meat of the game, I'm simply going to go stage by stage, and give my thoughts very briefly:
Reveal Spoiler
The original content:
It is no secret that the game looks completely gorgeous, being filled to the brim with every shape and form of production value, with each elevator floor as well as the shop having their own theme and set of sprites. Unfortunately, a bit of usability is hurt by this: The minor aspects being small, unskippable cutscenes where no player input is accepted, especially at the start of the game and in save select; However, a far more severe problem lies in the pause UI; Exiting the game is done by the same menu that exits the stage, erasing all progression from it. This can be extremely soulcrushing when done accidentally on some of the longer stages, and is a shining example of why you want to separate the pause screen from the exit game/stage/etc. function.
However, there's also a gameplay aspect of things, so let's delve right in:
Reveal Spoiler
And there you have it. For summary, read the tldr at the top.
Would I recommend playing this game? Yes, absolutely
Would I recommend clearing this game? Yes, but not to everyone, and I might even recommend against it depending on the person and circumstances.
Would I recommend you get a save (or even more than 1 save) from someone else to access some of the late game content in the game? 100% Yes
Do I have any issues with the game? Yes, several, some of which are fundamental in nature. I do not love the game to the point of being willing to ignore them, however the game is still completely worth playing despite them.
Now, let's begin:
NANC2 as a whole is too big of a concept to tackle without breaking it down to many parts: You have the contest which affected in game ranking with judge reviews that are included in game, however the stages in the game itself are (presumably, I haven't checked out most of the originals yet) improved with varying degrees of effectiveness messing around the entire order, causing interesting-but-unrefined stages that were some of my favorites in the game to get ranked below polished-but-boring stages that needed nearly no modifications. On top of this, you have the original content for the game, which can itself be separated into the general production value part and the gameplay oriented part. I will attempt to cover all of those, in what I am going to assume is chronological order.
The contest:
I'll be honest, I feel like a lot of things could have gone better in this department, to the point I am glad I did not enter it myself. While the contest was advertised as a thing for everyone, both new and experienced, the truth is that making something that is more than barebones in this time is a nefarious task unless you already have a wide array of existing tools and assets to pick and choose from. While every contest has a last place, the fact that stages that clearly had heart and soul poured into them were given insultingly low reviews - some of which not even offering any constructive criticism to help the maker, merely complaining that the stage is bad - combined with the new people aspect and the fact that these reviews are advertised to everyone, seems very much against the spirit of inviting new people into gamemaking, if all you do is insult them in the process.
To avoid any unnecessary negativity, I shall skip over my specific problems with some of the reviews, the process, or the judge lineup, and merely say that I wish that the stages were tested completely blindly (to the point of the judges refraining from any information about other stages prior to the judging stage), that reviews were made with compassion and positivity in mind, and by a judge lineup that actively plays fangames.
The maingame:
I feel like the nanc team has taken a little bit too much creative liberty to itself in the process of refining the stages, sometimes to the detriment of the stage. I sincerely hope makers have been contacted, if not given authority, over major decisions made to their stages, such as completely cutting certain screens. This is information that should have been conveyed with the initial announcement of the game, to prepare makers for this possibility.
However, that's enough of that. For the meat of the game, I'm simply going to go stage by stage, and give my thoughts very briefly:
Reveal Spoiler
The original content:
It is no secret that the game looks completely gorgeous, being filled to the brim with every shape and form of production value, with each elevator floor as well as the shop having their own theme and set of sprites. Unfortunately, a bit of usability is hurt by this: The minor aspects being small, unskippable cutscenes where no player input is accepted, especially at the start of the game and in save select; However, a far more severe problem lies in the pause UI; Exiting the game is done by the same menu that exits the stage, erasing all progression from it. This can be extremely soulcrushing when done accidentally on some of the longer stages, and is a shining example of why you want to separate the pause screen from the exit game/stage/etc. function.
However, there's also a gameplay aspect of things, so let's delve right in:
Reveal Spoiler
And there you have it. For summary, read the tldr at the top.
Tagged as: Collab
[11] Likes
Rating: 9.2
Difficulty: 65
May 7, 2021
Razzor_iw
Tralexium
(rating based on v1.01 100%)
(rating based on v1.01 100%)
Tagged as: Tralexium
[7] Likes
Rating: 10.0
Difficulty: 70
May 3, 2021
Racic
Very fun game, BUUUUUUT I wish that I had not known/seen the in-game "judges" reviews, I felt they brought down the game overall instead of letting it stand on its own merits. My line of thinking was that if someone submit their first creation for the game, were rated one of the bottom submissions, then read the in-game comments, they'd be extremely discouraged to create more games, and a lot of the in-game comments felt very mean spirited. If you don't know of/look at the judges comments, it's about an 8, otherwise, for me, there was a pretty negative cloud over the rest of the otherwise great game.
Tagged as: Collab
[6] Likes
Rating: 6.2
Difficulty: 64
Apr 22, 2022
YaBoiMarcAntony
While it is no secret that NANC 2 is a fantastic game, perhaps the best collab ever in terms of the quality of the content - and the sheer amount of content available, it is also true that I must nonetheless talk at length about the game as if everything I could possibly say about it isn't already well known to all that have played it. For the most part, I tend to think of the reception to NANC 2 as being pretty even across the board - that is, I think it's clear why the game is well beloved, and it's clear why some may not really take to it as much as the fans do. For my part, I side entirely with the fans!
All that said, what are the problems of NANC 2? What could be said to detract from the overall experience? Well, perhaps the largest issue would be that of variety, which is also the game's greatest boon. Variety, though being the spice of life, can also be the poison in the tea for many as while sure there is always gonna be something for everyone, it's the case that if you should decide to do everything, you're almost inevitably going to run into something you don't like. Insofar as NANC 2 is concerned, I think that for the most welcoming of players (welcoming in the sense of welcoming any and all styles and shades of gameplay), you'll find yourself mostly playing a smoothed out experience - something that is very much thanks to the extensive testing and adjustments made by the NANC2 Crew. Nonetheless, even I ran into a few things that were not quite my cup of tea, though nothing repulsed me, which is essentially all I ask from a game that it doesn't repulse me.
To pause quickly on a previously mentioned topic, I find myself wondering how much of what one plays in this game, insofar as the main stages are concerned, is the work of the participants and how much is the work of the NANC2 crew. I won't get too far into it as I don't want to besmirch the NANC2 creators undeservedly and I like to think that even if there were extensive changes made, these changes were made while keeping the spirit of each stage intact. Nonetheless, that's not something I can really be sure of, but what is most painfully evident about the game is that it's most certainly not lacking in spirit.
Each and every stage has some measure of character and personality, from beginning to end you really do get the feeling that everyone involved in the game cared about it. There were no weak links, no stages that I felt missed their respective marks. Even the worst stages were in some way a positive because they were all something different, something that shook things up. If you were to sit down and play dozens and dozens of screens of basic needle, there's essentially nothing keeping you there except for momentum. Even if what you're playing is downright fantastic, there is some limit to the number of similar screens you could play, whether that's ten, twenty, two hundred, it all differs from person to person. I mean, why should you keep playing a game when you know exactly what you're gonna be getting half an hour later? There is no sense of progression in that, no feeling of change or anything that makes it all feel worth doing.
NANC 2 is a very long game, something that will take everyone at least ten hours to clear, and yet I could find myself playing for hours on end because there's so much to see and all of it is different from each other. If you were to put all the levels in the game in a hat, shook it up, then picked out five stages at random, I'd bet everything that you'll get five totally different stages, either differing in gameplay, mood, style, or all of the above. As such, I can't find myself particularly angered or vexed by any given stage because even if I wasn't having fun, I could be certain that I wouldn't be having that same experience even ten minutes after the fact, I had an assurance that if there was something I didn't like, then I would not need to spend much time with that thing. Besides which, I don't think there's a single thing in the game I'd call unfun outright, just a few stages or sections here and then which were not quite up to snuff for me.
But, despite the fact that I've said so much already, I would be remiss if I didn't dedicate some time to what stands out as the obvious highlight of the game, that being the star stages and the final stage. The star stages are essentially the game up to that point turned into six stages, each stage using gimmicks from their respective floors (star stage one using gimmicks from floor one, etc.). As such, you'll find that the variety is turned up to an eleven, every stage being extremely unique and so insanely jam-packed full of interesting and original content that you'd be hard-pressed to find anything else like it in any other fangame. These stages are the obvious culmination of NANC 2 and seem to me one of the finer moments in fangame history in terms of gameplay and the sheer amount of possibilities available to anyone concerning what they could make. The whole point of the needle contest which spawned this game is, to my eyes, to show just how much creativity is available in the community and to show the immense catalog of things to play with even just in terms of already-made gimmicks and doodads. Even singular gimmicks can be taken to an insane level, but when you start to consider the possibility of combining these gimmicks, or even creating new gimmicks to combine with THOSE gimmicks (which can help redefine a well-known gimmick), you begin to almost quake at the mountain of potential available in this community, concerning both its makers AND what these makers can, well, make.
And all that doesn't even begin to touch on the specifics, the words that every maker deserves for their excellent work. Think of princeoflight's fantastic Catharsis-inspired level, one of the more emotive stages in the game. There's the obvious crowd-pleasers like the Pastel Tower, home to one of the best long saves ever made, or the big collab stage DREAM, itself being a delightful microcosm of what NANC 2 is all about. And even if you step back from those big names, you find there are little secrets stowed away in the lower rankings, just because a stage isn't ranked well doesn't mean it can't be fantastic. Starz0r's stage is one of my favorites and it's in the bottom-half of the game! If you want to talk about personality, Give Up! Kid has it in spades, and alongside that personality it also has a phenomenal gimmick used to great effect in every single screen, plus one hell of a boss to end it all off. I don't think it really matters what any stage is ranked, but my point here is that even in what is considered the "worse" part of the game, you'll find love and care. Another excellent example of lower-tier stages having higher-tier quality belongs to shign's White Hell, a puzzle stage that'll be sure to give anyone a few wrinkles in their brain from the intellectual workout. Hell, even all the way near the bottom, you have very cool's LSD-infused stage, one which floats in the void and takes a trip through several different gimmicks, not pausing on any one gimmick for long but doing well with every one of them.
And then, above all that, you have Tralexium's work. I've already spoken on the star stages, though I do feel the need to stress just how brilliant these stages are, but then you come to the final stage. My first time through, I have to admit I didn't like all of it. Even now, there's a save or two that I could do without, but hell if it isn't one of the most glorious stages ever made. The length can be off-putting to some, but for my own part I didn't mind it my second time around, presumably because I wasn't just rushing to get to the next part and instead was just enjoying myself. This stage introduces new concepts and plays around with gimmicks hitherto unseen in the game, an obvious move to make seeing as we've just spent around 40 stages playing with these gimmicks but a move deeply appreciated all the same, the primary of which being a chasing gimmick. There's two variants of it, one which uses a shadow kid that recreates your exact movements a few seconds after you start a save, and another which is a more general large orb that follows you around. Both of these gimmicks are used to utter perfection, both styles culminating in some of the best saves in the game.
Capping off the final stage, then, is the final boss of NANC 2, a magnificent fight which spans two totally different phases. The first is a more "straight-forward" boss made up of three mini-phases with the same set of attack concepts, the difference between each phase being each attack is made more complex. As such, the process of phase changing (which is essentially a punishment for poor aim as you only change phases when you hit the boss directly during the eye phases), while making the boss harder, also just makes the boss more fun and exciting. The second phase takes a totally new approach, being sort of vaguely similar to Starfox (I think it's supposed to be a Kirby thing, but I am not familiar enough with the games to say) and being focused on the stars picked up from their respective stages. This phase is, as could be expected, a bit easier once you get used to handling the kid, but all the same it, alongside phase one, closes the game out perfectly.
NANC 2 is one of those games that really brought out some of the best in this community. We can see plain as day the heart and soul of the community, love for these games packed up in one massive, insanely varied package. While it may not be my favorite fangame of all time, and in fact it wasn't even my favorite to grace 2021, it is nonetheless one of those fangames that I think will consistently be ranked as one of the best for the rest of this community's lifetime. Though one's quiet hope is that we should like to go even further beyond the benchmark set by NANC 2, I think it will take some time before such a hope can be realized.
[5] Likes
All that said, what are the problems of NANC 2? What could be said to detract from the overall experience? Well, perhaps the largest issue would be that of variety, which is also the game's greatest boon. Variety, though being the spice of life, can also be the poison in the tea for many as while sure there is always gonna be something for everyone, it's the case that if you should decide to do everything, you're almost inevitably going to run into something you don't like. Insofar as NANC 2 is concerned, I think that for the most welcoming of players (welcoming in the sense of welcoming any and all styles and shades of gameplay), you'll find yourself mostly playing a smoothed out experience - something that is very much thanks to the extensive testing and adjustments made by the NANC2 Crew. Nonetheless, even I ran into a few things that were not quite my cup of tea, though nothing repulsed me, which is essentially all I ask from a game that it doesn't repulse me.
To pause quickly on a previously mentioned topic, I find myself wondering how much of what one plays in this game, insofar as the main stages are concerned, is the work of the participants and how much is the work of the NANC2 crew. I won't get too far into it as I don't want to besmirch the NANC2 creators undeservedly and I like to think that even if there were extensive changes made, these changes were made while keeping the spirit of each stage intact. Nonetheless, that's not something I can really be sure of, but what is most painfully evident about the game is that it's most certainly not lacking in spirit.
Each and every stage has some measure of character and personality, from beginning to end you really do get the feeling that everyone involved in the game cared about it. There were no weak links, no stages that I felt missed their respective marks. Even the worst stages were in some way a positive because they were all something different, something that shook things up. If you were to sit down and play dozens and dozens of screens of basic needle, there's essentially nothing keeping you there except for momentum. Even if what you're playing is downright fantastic, there is some limit to the number of similar screens you could play, whether that's ten, twenty, two hundred, it all differs from person to person. I mean, why should you keep playing a game when you know exactly what you're gonna be getting half an hour later? There is no sense of progression in that, no feeling of change or anything that makes it all feel worth doing.
NANC 2 is a very long game, something that will take everyone at least ten hours to clear, and yet I could find myself playing for hours on end because there's so much to see and all of it is different from each other. If you were to put all the levels in the game in a hat, shook it up, then picked out five stages at random, I'd bet everything that you'll get five totally different stages, either differing in gameplay, mood, style, or all of the above. As such, I can't find myself particularly angered or vexed by any given stage because even if I wasn't having fun, I could be certain that I wouldn't be having that same experience even ten minutes after the fact, I had an assurance that if there was something I didn't like, then I would not need to spend much time with that thing. Besides which, I don't think there's a single thing in the game I'd call unfun outright, just a few stages or sections here and then which were not quite up to snuff for me.
But, despite the fact that I've said so much already, I would be remiss if I didn't dedicate some time to what stands out as the obvious highlight of the game, that being the star stages and the final stage. The star stages are essentially the game up to that point turned into six stages, each stage using gimmicks from their respective floors (star stage one using gimmicks from floor one, etc.). As such, you'll find that the variety is turned up to an eleven, every stage being extremely unique and so insanely jam-packed full of interesting and original content that you'd be hard-pressed to find anything else like it in any other fangame. These stages are the obvious culmination of NANC 2 and seem to me one of the finer moments in fangame history in terms of gameplay and the sheer amount of possibilities available to anyone concerning what they could make. The whole point of the needle contest which spawned this game is, to my eyes, to show just how much creativity is available in the community and to show the immense catalog of things to play with even just in terms of already-made gimmicks and doodads. Even singular gimmicks can be taken to an insane level, but when you start to consider the possibility of combining these gimmicks, or even creating new gimmicks to combine with THOSE gimmicks (which can help redefine a well-known gimmick), you begin to almost quake at the mountain of potential available in this community, concerning both its makers AND what these makers can, well, make.
And all that doesn't even begin to touch on the specifics, the words that every maker deserves for their excellent work. Think of princeoflight's fantastic Catharsis-inspired level, one of the more emotive stages in the game. There's the obvious crowd-pleasers like the Pastel Tower, home to one of the best long saves ever made, or the big collab stage DREAM, itself being a delightful microcosm of what NANC 2 is all about. And even if you step back from those big names, you find there are little secrets stowed away in the lower rankings, just because a stage isn't ranked well doesn't mean it can't be fantastic. Starz0r's stage is one of my favorites and it's in the bottom-half of the game! If you want to talk about personality, Give Up! Kid has it in spades, and alongside that personality it also has a phenomenal gimmick used to great effect in every single screen, plus one hell of a boss to end it all off. I don't think it really matters what any stage is ranked, but my point here is that even in what is considered the "worse" part of the game, you'll find love and care. Another excellent example of lower-tier stages having higher-tier quality belongs to shign's White Hell, a puzzle stage that'll be sure to give anyone a few wrinkles in their brain from the intellectual workout. Hell, even all the way near the bottom, you have very cool's LSD-infused stage, one which floats in the void and takes a trip through several different gimmicks, not pausing on any one gimmick for long but doing well with every one of them.
And then, above all that, you have Tralexium's work. I've already spoken on the star stages, though I do feel the need to stress just how brilliant these stages are, but then you come to the final stage. My first time through, I have to admit I didn't like all of it. Even now, there's a save or two that I could do without, but hell if it isn't one of the most glorious stages ever made. The length can be off-putting to some, but for my own part I didn't mind it my second time around, presumably because I wasn't just rushing to get to the next part and instead was just enjoying myself. This stage introduces new concepts and plays around with gimmicks hitherto unseen in the game, an obvious move to make seeing as we've just spent around 40 stages playing with these gimmicks but a move deeply appreciated all the same, the primary of which being a chasing gimmick. There's two variants of it, one which uses a shadow kid that recreates your exact movements a few seconds after you start a save, and another which is a more general large orb that follows you around. Both of these gimmicks are used to utter perfection, both styles culminating in some of the best saves in the game.
Capping off the final stage, then, is the final boss of NANC 2, a magnificent fight which spans two totally different phases. The first is a more "straight-forward" boss made up of three mini-phases with the same set of attack concepts, the difference between each phase being each attack is made more complex. As such, the process of phase changing (which is essentially a punishment for poor aim as you only change phases when you hit the boss directly during the eye phases), while making the boss harder, also just makes the boss more fun and exciting. The second phase takes a totally new approach, being sort of vaguely similar to Starfox (I think it's supposed to be a Kirby thing, but I am not familiar enough with the games to say) and being focused on the stars picked up from their respective stages. This phase is, as could be expected, a bit easier once you get used to handling the kid, but all the same it, alongside phase one, closes the game out perfectly.
NANC 2 is one of those games that really brought out some of the best in this community. We can see plain as day the heart and soul of the community, love for these games packed up in one massive, insanely varied package. While it may not be my favorite fangame of all time, and in fact it wasn't even my favorite to grace 2021, it is nonetheless one of those fangames that I think will consistently be ranked as one of the best for the rest of this community's lifetime. Though one's quiet hope is that we should like to go even further beyond the benchmark set by NANC 2, I think it will take some time before such a hope can be realized.
Rating: 9.0
Difficulty: 75
Sep 3, 2022
