Delicious FruitNot Another Needle Contest 2
Creators: pieceofcheese87, patrickgh3, Tralexium, Wolsk, Skulldude, Naloa, Tehjman1993, Wolfiexe
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by eggthecrusher
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by Bob
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by yangshuoen
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
48 Reviews:
Inskey84
I would rather scrape my balls on broken glass then jump into a pit of salt and lime juice over play through the yoshi part again, but the rest has been solid.
[4] Likes
Rating: 8.5 85
Difficulty: 70 70
Jun 14, 2021
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.
[3] 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 90
Difficulty: 75 75
Sep 3, 2022
shign
A HUGE game with a HUGE production. The first thing I and everybody had noticed is the insanely beautiful hub, with some NPC's here and there that explain things and make jokes. Let's be honest, this is the most beautiful fangame in terms of visuals, it made me think a bit of papper mario which is a great compliment.
Like its predecessor, it was a contest where each stage were judged, ranked and tweaked to be better or to better fit the overall difficulty of the game. You can see the review of each judge with their ratings and difficulty. I honestly think the estimate difficulty by the judges is really too high for a lot of stages, I know it's pre-nerfs but knowing how much diff they give to my stage, I believe it's still too much and you can substract 10 to a lot of them. Reviews are of course based of how the stages are in game, so after the balance, and know that I heavily hate sudoku things so take my ratings of those stages with a grain of salt.
SoapBar1242 : it's easy to see why it's the least rated stage, sudoku to the highest I didn't really liked it. The random directions are just annoying and the random jumps are luck based. It's not difficult but honestly not fun.
1.5/10
MeeM : the first part really overstay its welcome, it's really bland and borring. What follows justifies the "yume nikki" inspired but let's be honest, it's just random mess stick together. The platforming is barrely existent and the atmosphere doesn't make sense but in a bad way, the last scene made me sure that the maker didn't understand what make yume nikki atmosphere so good and ending so powerful. All the judges seem to say that the only good part of the stage is the creativity but I really disagree, randomness isn't equal to creativity. (also piece review is fucking hilarous, it really proves that the maker didn't cared at all)
0.5/10
Gordon JamCasr & Poi Moi : the typical "let's use of bit of every gimmicks in NANE" resulting into a very bland and borring stage, with very choky jumps and waiting. It's also visually a bit bland (even if not that bad), not really a disaster but because nothing feels cohesive it really does a bit of everything but mostly badly.
3.5/10
whit_send : a good exemple of a fun concept but only in theory, because in practice it's more annoying and a visual challenge than anything else. It could have been a mediocre stage but the maze and the invisible blocks in general made me want to kill myself multiple times.
2/10
very cool : enjoyable needle with some "interesting" visuals. I particulary liked the use of the gravity blocks (even if their skins look too similar) and dotkid. The other gimmicks felt kinda filler tho. The stage seems to have been cut off, I didn't do those screens but they looks much harder and messy.
6/10
SomeBro : really cool yet sadly very short needle focused on switched blocks from reach heaven. I can't resolve myself to give it more since it's only two screens but it was fun.
6.5/10
p00ks : cool needle stage overall, with some great uses of walk the ceiling gimmicks. The avoidance was surprisingly very fun too, a few attacks were badly balanced but the hp system makes them bearable (it's however really dumb imo if you go for no hit). I tried the minecraft secret but the second save was just way too long and tedious so I gave up.
7/10
Renko97 : extremely cool needle focus on green/orange spikes, I geniously liked the first screens. My grippe with that stage is the hurry and waiting the moving blocks create but that apart this is a very solid stage with cool visuals and a banger music.
8/10
RedTeFox : I'm gonna use this paragraph to just mention something. I assume that the goal of this contest is to reward creativity, that's why the rule "no jtool needle" was established. That's probably also why a lot of stage, despite not being really bad have average ratings, because they only use NANE gimmicks and that's all and this stage is certainly one of those : enjoyable needle with each time a new gimmick. At least the visuals are really cool and I liked the secret.
6.5/10
StarzOr : stupidely long is what I'm gonna remember about that stage. Some rooms are also really too hard, it seems that it has been nerfed but imo not enough and half of the rooms should honestly have been cut off considering how much renko stage was. I respect the creativity of this stage but I didn't had a lot of fun.
4/10
JPRG666 : I really loved it, despite being mostly pure needle (which is weird as stated before) it's a competent stage.
9/10
Stonk & Wolsk : this is what happens when you try to use a gimmick in a way it wasn't designed for without a proper care : buggy and unfun. Maybe you might like it if you're really into sudoku games but it was for me one of the least enjoyable stage.
1/10
Stageman21 : I really liked it but it's sadly very short. At least it does what it wants in a great way.
6.5/10
shign : my stage, I wish I had more motivation to do a bit more when I had the time for but I'm still really proud of what I made.
128-Up : while I'm not a huge fan of speed changers, it didn't bothered me too much here and the rest were really cool. I especially liked the secret and how single jump beam was used. The boss was fun too.
8.5/10
princeoflight612 : excellent atmospheric stage that use unnusual killer formations in really cool ways. The only grippe is some jumps being too precise.
8.5/10
Rossiter : lovely kinda pirate themed stage, the platforming isn't impressive but enjoyable and the boat part was cool too even if the canon really felt useless because it's almost impossible to touch anything. The boss was decent, a bit repetitive tho.
8/10
KingSlendy & Mauricio Juega IWBT : good concept ruinned by atrocious visuals and the fact that randomness can create awful save balance. It feels clautrophobic because it's connected boxes that choose a layer between premade ones. I also believe there aren't a lot of them because I saw the same boxes multiples times. Good concept to explore tho.
4/10
AlejoFangamer : cool stage with beautiful visuals, I haven't a lot to say on this one except that the last scene really come from nowhere.
7/10
ninz : I have to admit that this stage made me quit for a few days, because even if the eraser gimmick was cool, the screens get tediously long and hard really quick and I wasn't a huge fan of the drawing gimmick. The tiles felt a bit too flashy too. The boss however is really well-made, I just think it's hard to hit him because most attacks are too dangerous at the top of the screen.
6/10
JoaoTForce : surprisingly extremely fun stage, every cycle is well calculated. The end felt a bit anticlimatic but it was a very fun stage.
9/10
Asza : fun little stage that honestly felt a bit short, not a fan of the asteroid section because it felt really luck based. The boss felt awful to fight with many instagibs in a small place.
6.5/10
Makedounia : the layouts sometimes felt a bit messy but the platforming were excellent, using the colored blocks from 8bit in very interesting ways.
9/10
lone : excellent, even music was a banger
10/10
IrOnX : honestly perfect in what it wants to achieve, what prevent me to give it more is the visuals because since everything is blue, things tend to blend together, especially the jump refs, and the anticlimax due to maybe a lacks of boss.
9.5/10
Skulldude : nice stage Wolfie!
10/10
Neos : the mendatory "I don't understand the high rating" stage, while it's obviously not bad, there are tons of other stages that deserve to be before this one. The tileset is really beautiful but the gimmicks contrast way too much, and the gameplay feels like a cheap version of celeste level it takes inspiration from.
7/10
Patrickgh3 : insanely creative and cool, didn't tried the secret because it honestly looks super hard.
10/10
Arche & RandomErik : probably the coolest thing I've played from Erik (and Arche I guess), the rail gimmick is really pleasant to use and the symbol blocks are well-used. About the boss, the first phase is neat but the second felt a bit repetitive.
9.5/10
Goran : top tier visuals and atmosphere for a creative stage, I however think some saves were too long and precise for their own. The secret was also stupidely tedious so I didn't bothered.
8.5/10
anxKha : very clean pastel inspired stage, however some blue spikes are difficult to see even with the little shiny stars.
8.5/10
DREAM team : I'm sorry but it honestly looks like multiple stages that have nothing in common stick together to create a huge stage. While I don't have anything against that, it makes this stage insanely long (it took me more than 1h) and when you know that some stages that last for 20 min were cut off, it sounds a bit hypocritical (I know those stages were cut off because it was too long with always the same gimmicks/style but still). Anyway, it's a solid stage, very puzzly with some cool and creative gimmicks.
8.5/10
Tralexium : an insanely beautiful tower defense. The only meh thing I can think about is that you need dodge projectile, which could have been a fun thing if only money wasn't disappearing which make grabbing it very dangerous (and also idk if it was the same for everyone but the only start I found is building a shitton of blasters)
9.5/10
Denferok : very average, traps felt too much in almost every save. I usually like trap games but the amount of traps in each save make them more tirring than fun considering that most of them are either very standard. The boss was very frustrating and buggy, and the fact that he can totally change direction when splitting and that the split one spawn next to the other make shooting close to him impossible. I have no idae why it's ranked second.
5.5/10
Verve : marry me.
10/10
But unless its predecessor, that's not all and that's where the game manages to be more than just the sum of every stage. There are what are called star stages, which use all the gimmicks of the stages in their tiers (star stage 1 use the gimmicks of stages from stage 1, etc). Not all of them were cool but it was really fun to see the combined gimmicks.
But that's still not all, when you beat all the star stages you can access to the last level, an insanely long one made by Tralexium (so with an insane production value) and mostly a good one. It's however more difficult than the rest of the game and I find that a bit sad because people who already struggle to clear the rest could not be able to clear this stage, especially because of the final boss.
The final boss needs a special paragraph : he looks amazing, has a lot of attention to small details and a lot of creative attacks and phases, but if I have nothing to say about phase 1 except that there is an instagib right before the checkpoint which is honestly ass, the others have several problems imo. Phase 2 has some balancing problems, where some attacks can easily wall you or some that can badly combo to create impossible situations. The fact that all the most difficult attacks are all at the end makes it also frustrating to grind. Phase 3 could have been a lot better if it wasn't for the weird shooting system that doesn't allow you to choose where you shoot combined with the camera that doesn't closely follow you make shooting the boss stupidely difficult.
If I make a sum of all the ratings I gave to the regular stages, it makes a score of a bit less than 7 but I raised it up to 8.5 because as I said it manages to be more than just the sum of its parts so yeah, bonus points for all the original cool content (and for the amazing production, good job Tralexium).
[3] Likes
Like its predecessor, it was a contest where each stage were judged, ranked and tweaked to be better or to better fit the overall difficulty of the game. You can see the review of each judge with their ratings and difficulty. I honestly think the estimate difficulty by the judges is really too high for a lot of stages, I know it's pre-nerfs but knowing how much diff they give to my stage, I believe it's still too much and you can substract 10 to a lot of them. Reviews are of course based of how the stages are in game, so after the balance, and know that I heavily hate sudoku things so take my ratings of those stages with a grain of salt.
SoapBar1242 : it's easy to see why it's the least rated stage, sudoku to the highest I didn't really liked it. The random directions are just annoying and the random jumps are luck based. It's not difficult but honestly not fun.
1.5/10
MeeM : the first part really overstay its welcome, it's really bland and borring. What follows justifies the "yume nikki" inspired but let's be honest, it's just random mess stick together. The platforming is barrely existent and the atmosphere doesn't make sense but in a bad way, the last scene made me sure that the maker didn't understand what make yume nikki atmosphere so good and ending so powerful. All the judges seem to say that the only good part of the stage is the creativity but I really disagree, randomness isn't equal to creativity. (also piece review is fucking hilarous, it really proves that the maker didn't cared at all)
0.5/10
Gordon JamCasr & Poi Moi : the typical "let's use of bit of every gimmicks in NANE" resulting into a very bland and borring stage, with very choky jumps and waiting. It's also visually a bit bland (even if not that bad), not really a disaster but because nothing feels cohesive it really does a bit of everything but mostly badly.
3.5/10
whit_send : a good exemple of a fun concept but only in theory, because in practice it's more annoying and a visual challenge than anything else. It could have been a mediocre stage but the maze and the invisible blocks in general made me want to kill myself multiple times.
2/10
very cool : enjoyable needle with some "interesting" visuals. I particulary liked the use of the gravity blocks (even if their skins look too similar) and dotkid. The other gimmicks felt kinda filler tho. The stage seems to have been cut off, I didn't do those screens but they looks much harder and messy.
6/10
SomeBro : really cool yet sadly very short needle focused on switched blocks from reach heaven. I can't resolve myself to give it more since it's only two screens but it was fun.
6.5/10
p00ks : cool needle stage overall, with some great uses of walk the ceiling gimmicks. The avoidance was surprisingly very fun too, a few attacks were badly balanced but the hp system makes them bearable (it's however really dumb imo if you go for no hit). I tried the minecraft secret but the second save was just way too long and tedious so I gave up.
7/10
Renko97 : extremely cool needle focus on green/orange spikes, I geniously liked the first screens. My grippe with that stage is the hurry and waiting the moving blocks create but that apart this is a very solid stage with cool visuals and a banger music.
8/10
RedTeFox : I'm gonna use this paragraph to just mention something. I assume that the goal of this contest is to reward creativity, that's why the rule "no jtool needle" was established. That's probably also why a lot of stage, despite not being really bad have average ratings, because they only use NANE gimmicks and that's all and this stage is certainly one of those : enjoyable needle with each time a new gimmick. At least the visuals are really cool and I liked the secret.
6.5/10
StarzOr : stupidely long is what I'm gonna remember about that stage. Some rooms are also really too hard, it seems that it has been nerfed but imo not enough and half of the rooms should honestly have been cut off considering how much renko stage was. I respect the creativity of this stage but I didn't had a lot of fun.
4/10
JPRG666 : I really loved it, despite being mostly pure needle (which is weird as stated before) it's a competent stage.
9/10
Stonk & Wolsk : this is what happens when you try to use a gimmick in a way it wasn't designed for without a proper care : buggy and unfun. Maybe you might like it if you're really into sudoku games but it was for me one of the least enjoyable stage.
1/10
Stageman21 : I really liked it but it's sadly very short. At least it does what it wants in a great way.
6.5/10
shign : my stage, I wish I had more motivation to do a bit more when I had the time for but I'm still really proud of what I made.
128-Up : while I'm not a huge fan of speed changers, it didn't bothered me too much here and the rest were really cool. I especially liked the secret and how single jump beam was used. The boss was fun too.
8.5/10
princeoflight612 : excellent atmospheric stage that use unnusual killer formations in really cool ways. The only grippe is some jumps being too precise.
8.5/10
Rossiter : lovely kinda pirate themed stage, the platforming isn't impressive but enjoyable and the boat part was cool too even if the canon really felt useless because it's almost impossible to touch anything. The boss was decent, a bit repetitive tho.
8/10
KingSlendy & Mauricio Juega IWBT : good concept ruinned by atrocious visuals and the fact that randomness can create awful save balance. It feels clautrophobic because it's connected boxes that choose a layer between premade ones. I also believe there aren't a lot of them because I saw the same boxes multiples times. Good concept to explore tho.
4/10
AlejoFangamer : cool stage with beautiful visuals, I haven't a lot to say on this one except that the last scene really come from nowhere.
7/10
ninz : I have to admit that this stage made me quit for a few days, because even if the eraser gimmick was cool, the screens get tediously long and hard really quick and I wasn't a huge fan of the drawing gimmick. The tiles felt a bit too flashy too. The boss however is really well-made, I just think it's hard to hit him because most attacks are too dangerous at the top of the screen.
6/10
JoaoTForce : surprisingly extremely fun stage, every cycle is well calculated. The end felt a bit anticlimatic but it was a very fun stage.
9/10
Asza : fun little stage that honestly felt a bit short, not a fan of the asteroid section because it felt really luck based. The boss felt awful to fight with many instagibs in a small place.
6.5/10
Makedounia : the layouts sometimes felt a bit messy but the platforming were excellent, using the colored blocks from 8bit in very interesting ways.
9/10
lone : excellent, even music was a banger
10/10
IrOnX : honestly perfect in what it wants to achieve, what prevent me to give it more is the visuals because since everything is blue, things tend to blend together, especially the jump refs, and the anticlimax due to maybe a lacks of boss.
9.5/10
Skulldude : nice stage Wolfie!
10/10
Neos : the mendatory "I don't understand the high rating" stage, while it's obviously not bad, there are tons of other stages that deserve to be before this one. The tileset is really beautiful but the gimmicks contrast way too much, and the gameplay feels like a cheap version of celeste level it takes inspiration from.
7/10
Patrickgh3 : insanely creative and cool, didn't tried the secret because it honestly looks super hard.
10/10
Arche & RandomErik : probably the coolest thing I've played from Erik (and Arche I guess), the rail gimmick is really pleasant to use and the symbol blocks are well-used. About the boss, the first phase is neat but the second felt a bit repetitive.
9.5/10
Goran : top tier visuals and atmosphere for a creative stage, I however think some saves were too long and precise for their own. The secret was also stupidely tedious so I didn't bothered.
8.5/10
anxKha : very clean pastel inspired stage, however some blue spikes are difficult to see even with the little shiny stars.
8.5/10
DREAM team : I'm sorry but it honestly looks like multiple stages that have nothing in common stick together to create a huge stage. While I don't have anything against that, it makes this stage insanely long (it took me more than 1h) and when you know that some stages that last for 20 min were cut off, it sounds a bit hypocritical (I know those stages were cut off because it was too long with always the same gimmicks/style but still). Anyway, it's a solid stage, very puzzly with some cool and creative gimmicks.
8.5/10
Tralexium : an insanely beautiful tower defense. The only meh thing I can think about is that you need dodge projectile, which could have been a fun thing if only money wasn't disappearing which make grabbing it very dangerous (and also idk if it was the same for everyone but the only start I found is building a shitton of blasters)
9.5/10
Denferok : very average, traps felt too much in almost every save. I usually like trap games but the amount of traps in each save make them more tirring than fun considering that most of them are either very standard. The boss was very frustrating and buggy, and the fact that he can totally change direction when splitting and that the split one spawn next to the other make shooting close to him impossible. I have no idae why it's ranked second.
5.5/10
Verve : marry me.
10/10
But unless its predecessor, that's not all and that's where the game manages to be more than just the sum of every stage. There are what are called star stages, which use all the gimmicks of the stages in their tiers (star stage 1 use the gimmicks of stages from stage 1, etc). Not all of them were cool but it was really fun to see the combined gimmicks.
But that's still not all, when you beat all the star stages you can access to the last level, an insanely long one made by Tralexium (so with an insane production value) and mostly a good one. It's however more difficult than the rest of the game and I find that a bit sad because people who already struggle to clear the rest could not be able to clear this stage, especially because of the final boss.
The final boss needs a special paragraph : he looks amazing, has a lot of attention to small details and a lot of creative attacks and phases, but if I have nothing to say about phase 1 except that there is an instagib right before the checkpoint which is honestly ass, the others have several problems imo. Phase 2 has some balancing problems, where some attacks can easily wall you or some that can badly combo to create impossible situations. The fact that all the most difficult attacks are all at the end makes it also frustrating to grind. Phase 3 could have been a lot better if it wasn't for the weird shooting system that doesn't allow you to choose where you shoot combined with the camera that doesn't closely follow you make shooting the boss stupidely difficult.
If I make a sum of all the ratings I gave to the regular stages, it makes a score of a bit less than 7 but I raised it up to 8.5 because as I said it manages to be more than just the sum of its parts so yeah, bonus points for all the original cool content (and for the amazing production, good job Tralexium).
Rating: 8.5 85
Difficulty: 70 70
May 9, 2021
gourdladle
I am not a Needle player but This is fantastic what a game my bro. PLAY IT!!!
[3] Likes
Rating: 8.0 80
Difficulty: 65 65
May 3, 2021