Delicious Fruit
Download Game Screenshots
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by PlasmaNapkin
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by PlasmaNapkin
Creator's Comments:
PlasmaNapkin [Creator]
This is the Secret Santa 2021 game made specifically for Ninz.
Tagged as: Needle
Secret_Santa
[1] Like
Rating: N/A
Difficulty: 96 96
Dec 29, 2021
10 Reviews:
KingSlendy
WORLD'S FIRST CLEAR
Okay, this game is a masterpiece, I had a blast throught and I absolutely loved every single second of it, thanks Plasma for making such a beautiful game!
Okay, this game is a masterpiece, I had a blast throught and I absolutely loved every single second of it, thanks Plasma for making such a beautiful game!
Tagged as: Needle
[9] Likes
Rating: 10.0 100
Difficulty: 96 96
May 1, 2022
PlutoTheThing
To start with the positives, the visuals and atmosphere in this game are of course, awesome, there's a very strong vibe to the game and the progression is cool to see, it feels like it's telling a story in a single save. With that being said however, I have a lot of gripes with the gameplay in this game, and I'll try my best to word them in a way that's understandable. Of course, game design is subjective, and what doesn't work for me will obviously work for other people, as indicated by other reviews for this game, however I think this is a good opportunity to share my views on needle design, and what I personally like and dislike.
The premise of the game is that it's a lengthy 32px needle save. 32px needle is a limitation but one that you can do a lot with, after all a whole sub-genre of needle is basically dedicated to this style and as a result, has bred a lot of games that do a lot of different things with it. This is one of my biggest issues with this game, it truly feels like the 32px grid restriction is just that, a restriction. A vast majority of jumps in this game are very simple. If we ignore stuff like the one ledge and the 2 F jumps that follow, we still have jumps like the start of screen 2 which is just two gates, or a jump also in screen 2 which is just walking off and doing a frame perfect full jump. A lot of these jumps are simple to a fault in my opinion, they lack depth and in many cases what you are doing isn't super interesting and doesn't feel super good to pull off. There are two exceptions to this for me, being the final jump of screen 1 and screen 4, I think both of these are quite cool and I wish the game had more stuff like them because they are easily my favorite parts of the game. However screen 4 isn't perfect for me, it leads into another frustrating detail about this game, that being the difficulty balance.
A major issue I take with this game is that a majority of the difficulty is condensed into 4 jumps throughout a 4 screen long save. Those being the half diamond in screen 1, the 2nd to last jump of screen 2, and screen 4. The problem I take with this is that this kind of difficulty balance has a tendency to get really annoying really quickly, especially due to the nature of the hard jumps. The hard jumps in this game have just natural inconsistencies baked into them, the half diamond is not very reasonable to recover, so the double jump height is basically just gambling and hoping you got the right one, the jump on screen 2 is similar to a 4.5 with good turn arounds, meaning it's both kb dependent and also feels pretty random, and screen 4 while being cool, can sometimes feel like a bit of a crapshoot to turn around on the right frame to fall through the corner, or jump out the water on the 2nd jump. Now in a vacuum these are not huge deals, since a lot of jumps can just be inconsistent for a variety of reasons, but this meshes with the lack of interesting jumps in a really nasty way, and leads to a game which gets incredibly frustrating if you die to something that isn't a problem jump. The number of deaths I had between the hardest screen 2 jump and screen 4 was very high, and it was always extremely annoying. It's simply not enjoyable for me to grind through inconsistent jumps to lose the attempt anyways to stupid stuff that feels like it shouldn't be a problem. I think when making a save an important thing to think about is how a jump feels to die to. The worst culprit for me is the F jumps before screen 4. Dying to these feels HORRIBLE, it feels like such a waste of an attempt for no reason, and considering the balance of the game, it's the kind of jump that feels like it's only purpose is to annoy you, it's not like F jumps are that interesting of a jump, they are basically everywhere. There's a lot of spots in this game where dying feels so stupid and unnecessarily frustrating, and ultimately it's because of this combination of flaws which coalesce into something far worse than they would be on their own.
I do have some other minor gripes with this game, for instance the screen transition stuff is kind of silly, but I don't care about those things nearly as much as what I outlined previously. The game is obviously well made but it just really didn't click with me, and at the bare minimum I think it's helped me understand more about what I dislike in needle. It's definitely cool than it exists but I regret playing it until I got the clear, it really wasn't worth it for me.
[4] Likes
The premise of the game is that it's a lengthy 32px needle save. 32px needle is a limitation but one that you can do a lot with, after all a whole sub-genre of needle is basically dedicated to this style and as a result, has bred a lot of games that do a lot of different things with it. This is one of my biggest issues with this game, it truly feels like the 32px grid restriction is just that, a restriction. A vast majority of jumps in this game are very simple. If we ignore stuff like the one ledge and the 2 F jumps that follow, we still have jumps like the start of screen 2 which is just two gates, or a jump also in screen 2 which is just walking off and doing a frame perfect full jump. A lot of these jumps are simple to a fault in my opinion, they lack depth and in many cases what you are doing isn't super interesting and doesn't feel super good to pull off. There are two exceptions to this for me, being the final jump of screen 1 and screen 4, I think both of these are quite cool and I wish the game had more stuff like them because they are easily my favorite parts of the game. However screen 4 isn't perfect for me, it leads into another frustrating detail about this game, that being the difficulty balance.
A major issue I take with this game is that a majority of the difficulty is condensed into 4 jumps throughout a 4 screen long save. Those being the half diamond in screen 1, the 2nd to last jump of screen 2, and screen 4. The problem I take with this is that this kind of difficulty balance has a tendency to get really annoying really quickly, especially due to the nature of the hard jumps. The hard jumps in this game have just natural inconsistencies baked into them, the half diamond is not very reasonable to recover, so the double jump height is basically just gambling and hoping you got the right one, the jump on screen 2 is similar to a 4.5 with good turn arounds, meaning it's both kb dependent and also feels pretty random, and screen 4 while being cool, can sometimes feel like a bit of a crapshoot to turn around on the right frame to fall through the corner, or jump out the water on the 2nd jump. Now in a vacuum these are not huge deals, since a lot of jumps can just be inconsistent for a variety of reasons, but this meshes with the lack of interesting jumps in a really nasty way, and leads to a game which gets incredibly frustrating if you die to something that isn't a problem jump. The number of deaths I had between the hardest screen 2 jump and screen 4 was very high, and it was always extremely annoying. It's simply not enjoyable for me to grind through inconsistent jumps to lose the attempt anyways to stupid stuff that feels like it shouldn't be a problem. I think when making a save an important thing to think about is how a jump feels to die to. The worst culprit for me is the F jumps before screen 4. Dying to these feels HORRIBLE, it feels like such a waste of an attempt for no reason, and considering the balance of the game, it's the kind of jump that feels like it's only purpose is to annoy you, it's not like F jumps are that interesting of a jump, they are basically everywhere. There's a lot of spots in this game where dying feels so stupid and unnecessarily frustrating, and ultimately it's because of this combination of flaws which coalesce into something far worse than they would be on their own.
I do have some other minor gripes with this game, for instance the screen transition stuff is kind of silly, but I don't care about those things nearly as much as what I outlined previously. The game is obviously well made but it just really didn't click with me, and at the bare minimum I think it's helped me understand more about what I dislike in needle. It's definitely cool than it exists but I regret playing it until I got the clear, it really wasn't worth it for me.
Rating: 2.5 25
Difficulty: 90 90
Nov 25, 2024
cLOUDDEAD
the bundle version is slightly nerfed.
From a purely aesthetical standpoint, this game is perfect. Long saves already feel like a journey, so the effort put into making every screen visually unique turns this single save into a real adventure. The escape from the lonely (but comfy) neon building into the harsh, windy, snowstorm outside is already a wonderful transition, and the ascent to make the drop into the massive tree to find refuge from the cold has more emotional character than anything I've experienced in any fangame. The production value is honestly incredible as well, and is mostly what sells the adventure-like feeling of the save. This is easily the best looking fangame created to date, and I doubt anyone other than plasma will ever top it in the future.
The only reason I'm not giving this a 10 is because it doesn't quite make me feel the way my other 10s do, but this game absolutely is worth trying. The original version is very very hard but I think the nerfed version is considerably more managable. It should also be telling that even I like this game, given I generally hate precision needle.
[4] Likes
From a purely aesthetical standpoint, this game is perfect. Long saves already feel like a journey, so the effort put into making every screen visually unique turns this single save into a real adventure. The escape from the lonely (but comfy) neon building into the harsh, windy, snowstorm outside is already a wonderful transition, and the ascent to make the drop into the massive tree to find refuge from the cold has more emotional character than anything I've experienced in any fangame. The production value is honestly incredible as well, and is mostly what sells the adventure-like feeling of the save. This is easily the best looking fangame created to date, and I doubt anyone other than plasma will ever top it in the future.
The only reason I'm not giving this a 10 is because it doesn't quite make me feel the way my other 10s do, but this game absolutely is worth trying. The original version is very very hard but I think the nerfed version is considerably more managable. It should also be telling that even I like this game, given I generally hate precision needle.
Rating: 9.5 95
Difficulty: N/A
Dec 29, 2021
TheJPEGDemon
a one of a kind experience, thank you for making
Tagged as: Needle
[2] Likes
Rating: 9.0 90
Difficulty: 95 95
Nov 18, 2023
notmaxwell
An incredibly unique and interesting game, not just within the fangame scope for me personally, as the artwork and themeing of this game makes it such a damn interesting game & experience that I completely believe is near impossible to get anywhere else. I don't even know where to completely begin since my opinion on this game is so convoluted and conflicting but one thing is for sure- it's a game that I won't forget, and even after clearing it, it's constantly in my mind and is just so intriguing. It has questionable moments with it's gameplay but I can't even say that I think that it was made poorly or is objectively bad, it's absolutely rough sometimes and is damn mentally draining every now and then but even that suits the overall theme of the game right? Looking back in hindsight, having all the weird deaths (that i'll explain more later) made an attempt to the final screen feel like you've earned it, and combining that with the stellar atmosphere and visual work produces emotions i've only felt a very few times while playing fangames, and it makes that clear really do feel like you've overcome a enormous barrier.
Something that makes fangames so interesting to me and makes me enjoy playing them as much as i do, especially very difficult ones is just how different the experience and game itself is compared to the usuals most videogames offer, this is a key reason as to why I'm such a fan of precision games, or L-needle, that kind of design and gameplay is so niche and rarely seen outside of fangames which makes it so unique and interesting to me, and I feel the same way about this game. Visually it's beautiful, some of the best art i've ever seen in a fangame and the theme is amazing. I can't stress that enough, I love the theming this game goes for, the way you start off comfortable in some kind of lab building, with a radio playing calm music, and transition further and further into screens that are less forgiving and more intense, after exiting the lab through what seems to be a hole in the wall with the intense blizzard from outside leaking in, alongside an unknown red mist seeping in through the bottom, you get to screen 2, which completely embraces the blizzard. Now the player is outside in the open, in the middle of an audibly intense storm, the ground and blocks are covered in snow, and you can see what resembles a tree branch above the platforming, while still being able to slightly hear the radio from the first screen yet drowned out by the storm. I didn't mention this in screen 1, but the subtlety of this game is so beautiful, it's the only game of such difficulty where you can actually take a second away from the grind to examine the visuals and have fun, while doing this i actually broke the radio and it jumpscared me so bad but that's the kind of detail I love. The art is genuinely so good that it feels to me on par with famous indie games such as hollow knight or rain world, and i'm bringing this up here since I've firsthand known people who haven't seen this game before get it mixed up with both of those, it's that good. Anyway, back to screen 2, there's some nice framing, white snow-ridden blocks on the bottom, black tree branch on the top, snowy christmas blocks in the middle, it's well done. There's also subtle layers in the background, it all just adds a lot to the atmosphere that I really can't stress is fantastic. Screen 3 is mostly similar, except the player is now shown the trunk of the tree, with an entrance that has light pouring into it. I mentioned before, but I like the framing this game does, in this screen the tree takes up the whole middle quadrant, it's the main focal point and it immediately asserts itself as your goal, that the player has to get inside of that tree. I won't talk about the screen transitioning here, since that's for the gameplay portion, but as questionable as it is, it's unique, and it does tie into this, on screen 2 your able to see there's gameplay on the tree branch, and at screen 3 the player is given their goal of where to reach. Once at the top, you leap over into the tree, entering the final gameplay screen of the game, and the vibe is completely different. Once inside the trunk, the visuals change drastically, the primary colour is now black, juxtaposed to the white of the constant blizzard, it's dim and mostly brown (as you'd expect from being inside of a tree trunk), with some particles of snow falling in. I really like this change, the sudden transition and music change really cements it aswell, it really makes it feel like the final push to reach somewhere that by all means you shouldn't be able to reach. The screen is menacing by design too, there's only 2 jumps, first of which is divisively messed up, more on that later but it's a very compact screen, you can only see 7 blocks wide, it's very condensed and it really just provokes emotions when you get there, it's really amazing. Afterwards there's a fall and then the clear screen. I love a good clear screen after a difficult game and this one is amazing, certainly in my top 5 of all time for sure. You can see the winter king (presumably) dead laying on the ground above a pit seeping of red unknown mist, it's mysterious, but that's great, it leaves you with questions that don't necessarily need answers. Not only is it a great clear screen but it delivers on the name & is interactive, you eat the lad, during so his arm and sword falls off into the pit, and the screen gets darker, rolls the credits and the game closes itself. It's cinema. I love this ending, it still gives you some things to think about, even if not intended by the creator to be that purposeful, like why is there blood on the king's sword & how did he die, alongside the whole notion of the red mist from the pit that isn't just in the trunk but also in the lab at the very start.
Overall, the visuals in this game are undoutebly amongst my favourite from a fangame ever, and it's really up there in terms of video games as a whole for me. Genuinely, this is the stuff I love and I cannot describe enough how much this game slaps visually, it turns it into such a unique experience and journey.
Now for gameplay, this is the most questionable and divisive part of the game by a large margin. It's certainly different from games around it, whether for the better or worse, I can't deny that it made the game stand out. First of all, the game uses a 32px grid for most of the gameplay, so i'll be mainly comparing it to other games similar, it's not really a game that revolves around 'setup needle' for the most part though, it's somewhat it's own thing. In my opinion, the overall difficulty balance of the game is S2 > S1 > S4 > S2-4 intermission, and the gameplay quality for each screen would be S4 > S2 > S1 > S2-4 intermission. Starting off with the first screen, it's mostly pretty decent in my opinion, there's some jumps that feel great to pull off & that I found to get very consistent and a few jumps that I struggled with a little bit. I didn't find it to be much of a problem outside of the occasional circumstances, and this screen as a whole got very consistent for me. Special mention to the final jump, I think it's very unique and cool, and it also limits the gameplay for the screen to be solely on the left side while having a large gap. Screen 2 is interesting, it starts off alright, the 2nd jump I think is a bit questionable, I personally found it a bit arbitrary with the left and right movement presses, it gets consistent but it doesn't feel great when you die to pressing a movement key 1f too long or short. The jump afterwards is actually just a fj, this game has a custom engine feature where your starting valign doensn't change from some region in the .4 range, which means that doing a fj for this jump is 100% consistent. I think a point could be made about how the game doesn't mention that anywhere (atleast from what i've seen), since it is somewhat useful to know but it's not a big deal. The jump afterwards is a required 1-2p double fj (or 22f, possibly 21f) with a very strict turnaround. This jump is one of, if not the most awkward in the entire game to me, it's just too arbitrary to be put in a long difficult save such as this, it's not really a setup-orientated jump, and don't get me wrong it doesn't have to be, but it's just a pretty intense hand movement that doesn't feel great to die to, and doesn't seem to get very consistent past a certain threshold. The jump afterwards I actually quite like, except for the screen transition making the double jump a bit visually weird. I'll talk about the screen transitions after, but overall I still do quite enjoy this screen, it's fun, and while the 2nd & 4th jump are a bit weird, they do still get quite consistent and they didn't bother me too much. The jumps inbetween S2 and S4 I'll talk about separately, so it's onto screen 4 now. Screen 4 is my favourite screen in the entire game gameplay-wise. I love it, it's absolutely mean and harsh but that's what makes it so good. The first jump is kind of ridiculous, the start of it is extremely visually vague and somewhat awkward to perform at first, especially because it's on 32px grid, it does not feel at all like a jump made for such grid, I personally like that, but I understand other people not. Anyway, the rest of the jump is just turnarounds, I find them quite enjoyable, though it's worth noting what makes this jump so difficult is that the turnarounds are commonly impossible depending on how you do the start of the jump, it relies upon itself, and because of it looking so seemingly open it can be an incredibly deceiving jump. It's also in my opinion the most difficult jump in the entire game, placed at the very end, furthering that notion I mentioned before about how screen 4 feels like that final push, having the hardest & most vague thing in the game saved right for last is mean, it's evil but it's unique and I love it. The second half of the screen consists of some precise water jumps, they're pretty chokeable especially with the emotions you feel after passing the first jump, it's nothing too crazy but I actually found them to be quite fun, atleast in practice, in the real thing I found them to be decently good although due to the location you don't get many attempts here. The final jump from the platform is absolutely nerve wracking, you can fall down and fj up, I chose not to due to practicing without that strategy, so it's a bit of a risky one. Screen 4 overall is just so different to me, I can't deny, you could argue (and be right for the most part) that the screen is absolutely evil bullshit. But that's what makes it so good, it's damn hostile but it deserves to be.
Now for the jumps inbetween screen 2 & 4. There's the screen transitions, that go hand in hand for these jumps, as you'll be switching between S2 & 3 quite a lot. For the record, screen 3 only has technically 1\2 jump\s. A good align ledge to get up to screen 2's F jumps, and a fj to get into the trunk entrance for screen 4. The latter of which I quite like, I actually can't say too much about it, since I never practiced it, and I didn't die much to it, but it's a satisfying jump to pull off and it's generally just interesting due to how it's made with the screen transitions in mind. The ledge is good, It's a bit basic so there isn't much to say, the jump over back to screen 2 is a bit questionable with the double jump input timing & first jump height being vague, but so is every screen transition jump except for the fj. I didn't have any problems with the F jumps, though I had one instance where my eyes got a bit tired (alongside my brain I guess) so after passing the last F jump I held left right into the spikes, but that's not even the game's fault other than having so many screen transitions in a short timeframe might be a bit taxing on the eyes, although this is probably barely true. My main problem with the screen transitions comes from the last jump of screen 2's double jump over to screen 3. It's really difficult to tell at first what the proper jump height is for the djump unless you've made note of this jump before playing the game, it's just a bit too tight for it's own good in my opinion, for example if you 10f into the jump to my knowledge the double jump height has to be either a 10f or 11f, and both of those are effectively blind since you can't see the spikes to avoid on screen 3 and the input release is so close to the transition. All the other jumps in the transitions aren't nearly as tight as this one, so it just felt like it didn't deserve to be this way, and also I think it's a bit harsh if your playing this game blind. Once on screen 3 you can piece together the route without having to do trial and error, but if someone were to play this game blind one or more deaths to this jump are confirmed as there's no way for them to see it coming. It's not a big deal truthfully, but I think it's a bit bothersome when talking about the gameplay.
I'd also be wrong if I wasn't to mention the ... Deaths? that happen in this game. For some currently unknown cause to me, a lot of odd deaths just happen in the S2-4 intermission. Failing F jumps, holding left into spikes, etc, it doesn't feel good when it does happen due to this segment being vastly easier than all the other segments of this game, so it ends up leaving the player disappointed and with the sour taste of a 'wasted attempt', though I don't know if this is the game's fault or not. It just happens, for instance I just kept having this at the ledge in Screen 3, and a few F jump deaths aswell even though dying to those is incredibly uncommon for me. Be warned if you are going to play this game, this is a real issue, I don't know why it happens, it would be great to have a solution but expect your brain to just suddenly lose all power once at this portion of the game. My current theory is either something todo with the screen transitions visually 'zoning' me out, or the custom engine used in the game as I had some other input problems that have a chance to be from the same cause, but if so it's certainly not noticeable enough to actually know for sure. I'm not really taking this into account for the game's quality, and for me atleast the visuals and interest I have with this game overcome this problem, but do be warned that it does detract from the experience of playing this a good bit, it's not very enjoyable to die to effectively everything for no realistic reason, you just kind of die everywhere in this game and it's pretty draining & demotivating as a result. Though, on the other hand, it absolutely gives you an experience that is unique even within games similar to this, good or bad it's something special.
I'm going to end it here now, this game is quite special to me and does mean a lot, it's something I saw years ago and found it so cool and interesting, but thought i'd never be able to actually play it. It's genuinely beautiful, and it's such a unique game and experience as a whole that I wholeheartedly love, even though it's taxing and harsh on the mind at times, it pulls through and feels unforgettable to clear. I'm very happy I played this game.
[1] Like
Something that makes fangames so interesting to me and makes me enjoy playing them as much as i do, especially very difficult ones is just how different the experience and game itself is compared to the usuals most videogames offer, this is a key reason as to why I'm such a fan of precision games, or L-needle, that kind of design and gameplay is so niche and rarely seen outside of fangames which makes it so unique and interesting to me, and I feel the same way about this game. Visually it's beautiful, some of the best art i've ever seen in a fangame and the theme is amazing. I can't stress that enough, I love the theming this game goes for, the way you start off comfortable in some kind of lab building, with a radio playing calm music, and transition further and further into screens that are less forgiving and more intense, after exiting the lab through what seems to be a hole in the wall with the intense blizzard from outside leaking in, alongside an unknown red mist seeping in through the bottom, you get to screen 2, which completely embraces the blizzard. Now the player is outside in the open, in the middle of an audibly intense storm, the ground and blocks are covered in snow, and you can see what resembles a tree branch above the platforming, while still being able to slightly hear the radio from the first screen yet drowned out by the storm. I didn't mention this in screen 1, but the subtlety of this game is so beautiful, it's the only game of such difficulty where you can actually take a second away from the grind to examine the visuals and have fun, while doing this i actually broke the radio and it jumpscared me so bad but that's the kind of detail I love. The art is genuinely so good that it feels to me on par with famous indie games such as hollow knight or rain world, and i'm bringing this up here since I've firsthand known people who haven't seen this game before get it mixed up with both of those, it's that good. Anyway, back to screen 2, there's some nice framing, white snow-ridden blocks on the bottom, black tree branch on the top, snowy christmas blocks in the middle, it's well done. There's also subtle layers in the background, it all just adds a lot to the atmosphere that I really can't stress is fantastic. Screen 3 is mostly similar, except the player is now shown the trunk of the tree, with an entrance that has light pouring into it. I mentioned before, but I like the framing this game does, in this screen the tree takes up the whole middle quadrant, it's the main focal point and it immediately asserts itself as your goal, that the player has to get inside of that tree. I won't talk about the screen transitioning here, since that's for the gameplay portion, but as questionable as it is, it's unique, and it does tie into this, on screen 2 your able to see there's gameplay on the tree branch, and at screen 3 the player is given their goal of where to reach. Once at the top, you leap over into the tree, entering the final gameplay screen of the game, and the vibe is completely different. Once inside the trunk, the visuals change drastically, the primary colour is now black, juxtaposed to the white of the constant blizzard, it's dim and mostly brown (as you'd expect from being inside of a tree trunk), with some particles of snow falling in. I really like this change, the sudden transition and music change really cements it aswell, it really makes it feel like the final push to reach somewhere that by all means you shouldn't be able to reach. The screen is menacing by design too, there's only 2 jumps, first of which is divisively messed up, more on that later but it's a very compact screen, you can only see 7 blocks wide, it's very condensed and it really just provokes emotions when you get there, it's really amazing. Afterwards there's a fall and then the clear screen. I love a good clear screen after a difficult game and this one is amazing, certainly in my top 5 of all time for sure. You can see the winter king (presumably) dead laying on the ground above a pit seeping of red unknown mist, it's mysterious, but that's great, it leaves you with questions that don't necessarily need answers. Not only is it a great clear screen but it delivers on the name & is interactive, you eat the lad, during so his arm and sword falls off into the pit, and the screen gets darker, rolls the credits and the game closes itself. It's cinema. I love this ending, it still gives you some things to think about, even if not intended by the creator to be that purposeful, like why is there blood on the king's sword & how did he die, alongside the whole notion of the red mist from the pit that isn't just in the trunk but also in the lab at the very start.
Overall, the visuals in this game are undoutebly amongst my favourite from a fangame ever, and it's really up there in terms of video games as a whole for me. Genuinely, this is the stuff I love and I cannot describe enough how much this game slaps visually, it turns it into such a unique experience and journey.
Now for gameplay, this is the most questionable and divisive part of the game by a large margin. It's certainly different from games around it, whether for the better or worse, I can't deny that it made the game stand out. First of all, the game uses a 32px grid for most of the gameplay, so i'll be mainly comparing it to other games similar, it's not really a game that revolves around 'setup needle' for the most part though, it's somewhat it's own thing. In my opinion, the overall difficulty balance of the game is S2 > S1 > S4 > S2-4 intermission, and the gameplay quality for each screen would be S4 > S2 > S1 > S2-4 intermission. Starting off with the first screen, it's mostly pretty decent in my opinion, there's some jumps that feel great to pull off & that I found to get very consistent and a few jumps that I struggled with a little bit. I didn't find it to be much of a problem outside of the occasional circumstances, and this screen as a whole got very consistent for me. Special mention to the final jump, I think it's very unique and cool, and it also limits the gameplay for the screen to be solely on the left side while having a large gap. Screen 2 is interesting, it starts off alright, the 2nd jump I think is a bit questionable, I personally found it a bit arbitrary with the left and right movement presses, it gets consistent but it doesn't feel great when you die to pressing a movement key 1f too long or short. The jump afterwards is actually just a fj, this game has a custom engine feature where your starting valign doensn't change from some region in the .4 range, which means that doing a fj for this jump is 100% consistent. I think a point could be made about how the game doesn't mention that anywhere (atleast from what i've seen), since it is somewhat useful to know but it's not a big deal. The jump afterwards is a required 1-2p double fj (or 22f, possibly 21f) with a very strict turnaround. This jump is one of, if not the most awkward in the entire game to me, it's just too arbitrary to be put in a long difficult save such as this, it's not really a setup-orientated jump, and don't get me wrong it doesn't have to be, but it's just a pretty intense hand movement that doesn't feel great to die to, and doesn't seem to get very consistent past a certain threshold. The jump afterwards I actually quite like, except for the screen transition making the double jump a bit visually weird. I'll talk about the screen transitions after, but overall I still do quite enjoy this screen, it's fun, and while the 2nd & 4th jump are a bit weird, they do still get quite consistent and they didn't bother me too much. The jumps inbetween S2 and S4 I'll talk about separately, so it's onto screen 4 now. Screen 4 is my favourite screen in the entire game gameplay-wise. I love it, it's absolutely mean and harsh but that's what makes it so good. The first jump is kind of ridiculous, the start of it is extremely visually vague and somewhat awkward to perform at first, especially because it's on 32px grid, it does not feel at all like a jump made for such grid, I personally like that, but I understand other people not. Anyway, the rest of the jump is just turnarounds, I find them quite enjoyable, though it's worth noting what makes this jump so difficult is that the turnarounds are commonly impossible depending on how you do the start of the jump, it relies upon itself, and because of it looking so seemingly open it can be an incredibly deceiving jump. It's also in my opinion the most difficult jump in the entire game, placed at the very end, furthering that notion I mentioned before about how screen 4 feels like that final push, having the hardest & most vague thing in the game saved right for last is mean, it's evil but it's unique and I love it. The second half of the screen consists of some precise water jumps, they're pretty chokeable especially with the emotions you feel after passing the first jump, it's nothing too crazy but I actually found them to be quite fun, atleast in practice, in the real thing I found them to be decently good although due to the location you don't get many attempts here. The final jump from the platform is absolutely nerve wracking, you can fall down and fj up, I chose not to due to practicing without that strategy, so it's a bit of a risky one. Screen 4 overall is just so different to me, I can't deny, you could argue (and be right for the most part) that the screen is absolutely evil bullshit. But that's what makes it so good, it's damn hostile but it deserves to be.
Now for the jumps inbetween screen 2 & 4. There's the screen transitions, that go hand in hand for these jumps, as you'll be switching between S2 & 3 quite a lot. For the record, screen 3 only has technically 1\2 jump\s. A good align ledge to get up to screen 2's F jumps, and a fj to get into the trunk entrance for screen 4. The latter of which I quite like, I actually can't say too much about it, since I never practiced it, and I didn't die much to it, but it's a satisfying jump to pull off and it's generally just interesting due to how it's made with the screen transitions in mind. The ledge is good, It's a bit basic so there isn't much to say, the jump over back to screen 2 is a bit questionable with the double jump input timing & first jump height being vague, but so is every screen transition jump except for the fj. I didn't have any problems with the F jumps, though I had one instance where my eyes got a bit tired (alongside my brain I guess) so after passing the last F jump I held left right into the spikes, but that's not even the game's fault other than having so many screen transitions in a short timeframe might be a bit taxing on the eyes, although this is probably barely true. My main problem with the screen transitions comes from the last jump of screen 2's double jump over to screen 3. It's really difficult to tell at first what the proper jump height is for the djump unless you've made note of this jump before playing the game, it's just a bit too tight for it's own good in my opinion, for example if you 10f into the jump to my knowledge the double jump height has to be either a 10f or 11f, and both of those are effectively blind since you can't see the spikes to avoid on screen 3 and the input release is so close to the transition. All the other jumps in the transitions aren't nearly as tight as this one, so it just felt like it didn't deserve to be this way, and also I think it's a bit harsh if your playing this game blind. Once on screen 3 you can piece together the route without having to do trial and error, but if someone were to play this game blind one or more deaths to this jump are confirmed as there's no way for them to see it coming. It's not a big deal truthfully, but I think it's a bit bothersome when talking about the gameplay.
I'd also be wrong if I wasn't to mention the ... Deaths? that happen in this game. For some currently unknown cause to me, a lot of odd deaths just happen in the S2-4 intermission. Failing F jumps, holding left into spikes, etc, it doesn't feel good when it does happen due to this segment being vastly easier than all the other segments of this game, so it ends up leaving the player disappointed and with the sour taste of a 'wasted attempt', though I don't know if this is the game's fault or not. It just happens, for instance I just kept having this at the ledge in Screen 3, and a few F jump deaths aswell even though dying to those is incredibly uncommon for me. Be warned if you are going to play this game, this is a real issue, I don't know why it happens, it would be great to have a solution but expect your brain to just suddenly lose all power once at this portion of the game. My current theory is either something todo with the screen transitions visually 'zoning' me out, or the custom engine used in the game as I had some other input problems that have a chance to be from the same cause, but if so it's certainly not noticeable enough to actually know for sure. I'm not really taking this into account for the game's quality, and for me atleast the visuals and interest I have with this game overcome this problem, but do be warned that it does detract from the experience of playing this a good bit, it's not very enjoyable to die to effectively everything for no realistic reason, you just kind of die everywhere in this game and it's pretty draining & demotivating as a result. Though, on the other hand, it absolutely gives you an experience that is unique even within games similar to this, good or bad it's something special.
I'm going to end it here now, this game is quite special to me and does mean a lot, it's something I saw years ago and found it so cool and interesting, but thought i'd never be able to actually play it. It's genuinely beautiful, and it's such a unique game and experience as a whole that I wholeheartedly love, even though it's taxing and harsh on the mind at times, it pulls through and feels unforgettable to clear. I'm very happy I played this game.
Rating: 10.0 100
Difficulty: 93 93
Mar 19, 2026