Delicious FruitI Wanna Escape Into My Mind
Creator: Jane_Chef
Download Game
Tags:
Adventure (18) Needle (1) Avoidance (2) Trap (1) Gimmick (13) Boss (15) Special (6) Long (5) Story (1) Different_Engine (1) Art (6) Sudoku (3) FangameMarathon (3) SourPls (1) Unity (1) Plot (1) surreal (1) Death_Grips (1) Action (1) Wacky (1) Post-Sudoku (1) Cycle (1) FM_2023 (2) Is_Lesbian_Allowed_As_A_Tag? (1) Lesbian (4) Lesbian_Seems_To_Be_Allowed (1) sapphic (1) medley_but_epic (1) wantcore (1) transgender (1) Čeda (1)66 Reviews:
voraciousreader
Erik stole my line lol
Serious review: I had a lot of fun! Lesbian Burnmind really encapsulates it, but if you want more details, then here's what to expect: wacky platforming focused more on cycles, light gimmicks and enemies than needle, a medley stage, great bosses (on the easier side), unique visuals, epic gameplay advice, and a great final stage. The physics are close enough to classic fangame physics (not that it matters that much since you're not doing gates or anything), but you'll often be playing as alternate characters with different properties, which was very well implemented and a nice feature I wish more fangames had.
Highly recommended for any fangame player, and I think it also has a huge speedrunning potential. If I had to nitpick anything, the flying seekers could probably use a gentler intro, and there's a couple spots on final boss phase one where I felt unfairly walled, but overall it's an awesome game and it was a pleasure to experience.
[11] Likes
Serious review: I had a lot of fun! Lesbian Burnmind really encapsulates it, but if you want more details, then here's what to expect: wacky platforming focused more on cycles, light gimmicks and enemies than needle, a medley stage, great bosses (on the easier side), unique visuals, epic gameplay advice, and a great final stage. The physics are close enough to classic fangame physics (not that it matters that much since you're not doing gates or anything), but you'll often be playing as alternate characters with different properties, which was very well implemented and a nice feature I wish more fangames had.
Highly recommended for any fangame player, and I think it also has a huge speedrunning potential. If I had to nitpick anything, the flying seekers could probably use a gentler intro, and there's a couple spots on final boss phase one where I felt unfairly walled, but overall it's an awesome game and it was a pleasure to experience.
Rating: 9.5
Difficulty: 55
Jul 19, 2023
YaBoiMarcAntony
To question the self and your very being, that is the question of today for many people, whether in literal or more figurative terms. I will not speak explicitly to whatever the creator thinks and feels nor will I try to speak to their plight as it is not my place nor is it something I am personally familiar enough with to really be able to get anywhere in the first place. All the same, it would be foolish to discuss this game without in some ways tackling the very meaning of it, or at least I would find it to be so.
The gameplay itself bears no discussion because it's just all high quality all the time. I do not need to talk of the effortlessly creative design that comes pouring out like hot lava, or the evocative artstyle that defines Escape Into My Mind. Indeed, this is a game one could use as a point on a graph to highlight the journey we've gone on as a community. To compare this to our earlier works like from that of carnival and the like, you may not find it to be a strictly better experience, but it is undeniable that this is a more clear and overt vision when it comes to what this game is trying to say. I don't deny that there has been something lost from times of old, a sort of nebulous concept of character and heart that people love the old fangames for, but to claim that there is no heart or character in fangames of today when people are making stuff like this? Well, it's a bit silly, to say the least.
The most impressive aspect of the game has to be in that mentioned clarity of vision. It is not enough to say that the game is clearly meaningful, it is so much more than that. I love most when games like this attempt to marry meaning with gameplay, and Escape succeeds in every way when it comes to this task. Even small choices seem to bear great meaning, such as that your heart in one of the latter stages tries to kill you throughout the stage - that each chosen character takes on a different style and in the end are all going against you, while I cannot say what every little choice in design means, I am certain that most if not all of it had purpose behind it beyond a mere capitulation to the "wacky" artstyle.
Particularly, the choice to make the final boss each character you took on at the end of previous stages was a great one. It is as if each character was originally an attempt to conform to this image that the main character believes they should look like if they want to be who they want to be - and in the end, the revelation comes that they should feel comfortable looking however the hell they damn well please so long as it fits into their own preferences. It's not a matter of looking like the image of what you want to be, but looking like what YOU want to be no matter how it ends up looking for other people.
It is this expression of individuality that I take away from this game, one that can work both as an artistic statement and a personal one. Indeed, the creator is one of a kind within our community even if their inspirations are obvious. Releases like this are what continue to assure me that our path as a community is surely the right one, or at least the one that I'm glad to be journeying on alongside the rest.
[8] Likes
The gameplay itself bears no discussion because it's just all high quality all the time. I do not need to talk of the effortlessly creative design that comes pouring out like hot lava, or the evocative artstyle that defines Escape Into My Mind. Indeed, this is a game one could use as a point on a graph to highlight the journey we've gone on as a community. To compare this to our earlier works like from that of carnival and the like, you may not find it to be a strictly better experience, but it is undeniable that this is a more clear and overt vision when it comes to what this game is trying to say. I don't deny that there has been something lost from times of old, a sort of nebulous concept of character and heart that people love the old fangames for, but to claim that there is no heart or character in fangames of today when people are making stuff like this? Well, it's a bit silly, to say the least.
The most impressive aspect of the game has to be in that mentioned clarity of vision. It is not enough to say that the game is clearly meaningful, it is so much more than that. I love most when games like this attempt to marry meaning with gameplay, and Escape succeeds in every way when it comes to this task. Even small choices seem to bear great meaning, such as that your heart in one of the latter stages tries to kill you throughout the stage - that each chosen character takes on a different style and in the end are all going against you, while I cannot say what every little choice in design means, I am certain that most if not all of it had purpose behind it beyond a mere capitulation to the "wacky" artstyle.
Particularly, the choice to make the final boss each character you took on at the end of previous stages was a great one. It is as if each character was originally an attempt to conform to this image that the main character believes they should look like if they want to be who they want to be - and in the end, the revelation comes that they should feel comfortable looking however the hell they damn well please so long as it fits into their own preferences. It's not a matter of looking like the image of what you want to be, but looking like what YOU want to be no matter how it ends up looking for other people.
It is this expression of individuality that I take away from this game, one that can work both as an artistic statement and a personal one. Indeed, the creator is one of a kind within our community even if their inspirations are obvious. Releases like this are what continue to assure me that our path as a community is surely the right one, or at least the one that I'm glad to be journeying on alongside the rest.
Rating: 9.0
Difficulty: 50
Sep 25, 2023
TheNewDerf
As works of art, fangames have the capacity to act as vehicles for deeply personal story-telling. In that vein, I Wanna Escape Into My Mind perfectly balances overt expression and narrative abstraction. The overall contour of the story is clear, but there's enough fuzziness around the edges to make it exciting to engage with.
For instance, the alcohol gimmick is an intuitive way to illustrate a particular relationship that one can develop with alcohol. The more you drink, the less you see the real world for what it is, but that in itself can help your mind temporarily escape elements of the real world which are traumatic or damaging. It's not a permanent or healthy solution, and I don't think the game suggests it is -- but the games does do, is show a very human vulnerability through level design.
Other parts of the game's design, however, are less clear-cut. Eyes that follow and grab at the player reflect how we can become trapped in someone else's gaze -- someone else's *idea* of what we should be. But where do the ghosts fit in? I'm not sure -- but I'm looking forward to seeing how a second play-through makes me re-think these things. I'm also interested in hearing if people interpreted parts of this game the same way I did: i.e., are the biblically-accurate angels a play on the idea that the way we idealize things, like angels, is often far removed from reality?
It's almost a given that telling a symbolic / emotional story will result in at least one or two accusations of meaninglessness or weird-for-the-sake-of-weird-ness. Not every artistic desicion this game makes is immediately and obviously decipherable -- however, I do think that, more than just being technically gifted, Jane's art shines for its emotional resonance. This game takes you on a very personal journey that few other fangames could match.
There's a lot I loved about this game on a mechanical level: the slightly off-kilter physics which only heighten the games central themes; the high octane set pieces (j'adore Void Kid); and the rad bosses. I'm not in love with every gimmick, or indeed every song choice -- but, I rarely had to wait long for something new to appear. I could be more granular about my criticisms of this game, though it feels like it would miss the point to nitpick missing QoL features, or less-than-ideal engine quirks (like the room transitions). At the end of the day, this game illustrates a level of creativity and ambition I hope to see more of.
For instance, the alcohol gimmick is an intuitive way to illustrate a particular relationship that one can develop with alcohol. The more you drink, the less you see the real world for what it is, but that in itself can help your mind temporarily escape elements of the real world which are traumatic or damaging. It's not a permanent or healthy solution, and I don't think the game suggests it is -- but the games does do, is show a very human vulnerability through level design.
Other parts of the game's design, however, are less clear-cut. Eyes that follow and grab at the player reflect how we can become trapped in someone else's gaze -- someone else's *idea* of what we should be. But where do the ghosts fit in? I'm not sure -- but I'm looking forward to seeing how a second play-through makes me re-think these things. I'm also interested in hearing if people interpreted parts of this game the same way I did: i.e., are the biblically-accurate angels a play on the idea that the way we idealize things, like angels, is often far removed from reality?
It's almost a given that telling a symbolic / emotional story will result in at least one or two accusations of meaninglessness or weird-for-the-sake-of-weird-ness. Not every artistic desicion this game makes is immediately and obviously decipherable -- however, I do think that, more than just being technically gifted, Jane's art shines for its emotional resonance. This game takes you on a very personal journey that few other fangames could match.
There's a lot I loved about this game on a mechanical level: the slightly off-kilter physics which only heighten the games central themes; the high octane set pieces (j'adore Void Kid); and the rad bosses. I'm not in love with every gimmick, or indeed every song choice -- but, I rarely had to wait long for something new to appear. I could be more granular about my criticisms of this game, though it feels like it would miss the point to nitpick missing QoL features, or less-than-ideal engine quirks (like the room transitions). At the end of the day, this game illustrates a level of creativity and ambition I hope to see more of.
Tagged as: Lesbian_Seems_To_Be_Allowed
[8] Likes
Rating: 10.0
Difficulty: 59
Aug 10, 2023
