Delicious Fruit
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4 Reviews:
ameliandyou
Decently fun game :D
I was looking forward to this one coming out when I saw it being played during the sudoku jam, and I definitely had a positive experience playing it.
If you are worried about spoilers, do not continue reading. I am not crazy sure if I can recommend sludge over other games, but it definitely is an enjoyable experience if you are looking for an adventure game to play.
The goal of the game is to make and consume "the sludge". There are 4 stages, 3 for the ingredients of the sludge and one for the ending section where you get chased by what I think is the sludge.
Boss Rush Stage:
This stage is a parody of k3's boss rush (k3 is referenced quite a bit in this game, which isn't inherently a bad thing, its just something to note).
This was by far my favorite stage.
The boss rush contains 2 sudoku joke bosses, (both of which I thought were pretty silly and I liked a decent bit) and 2 real bosses.
I also really enjoyed the 2 real bosses (one inspired by piano and the other inspired by colonel). I didn't love the piano's song, but the avoidance was fun and not too hard.
The colonel fight was criticized heavily for its difficulty during the sudoku jam, and while I am unsure if it was nerfed, it felt like a fun high quality fight with some sillies thrown in. There might have been a bug at the ending where you couldn't collide with the bullets but I am not sure. The fight was really high quality though, and it clearly had a ton of effort put into it. Some attacks definitely felt a bit rng based, but 9 times out of 10 it felt like dying was your fault.
Dice Stage:
This stage was fine. The first section introduces a really neat gimmick, being a circle that you swing around, but then the stage only uses it for one screen which felt way too precise (at least for being right after the gimmick is introduced), and the rest of the stage is other stuff. Definitely one of the biggest issues I have with sludge is that a lot of the sections are basically just basic needle (of varying quality).
The main part of the stage is spent doing basic needle except a couple of k3 dice rolls are thrown in. I was not a huge fan of the gimmick, it just kinda slows down the needle and is basically used as a glorified jump refresher. I definitely think a k3 dice gimmick could work, but I feel like it would be better fit for a silly required trap or at least used in different ways for each screen. The novelty definitely wears off after the first screen and then its just kinda boring needle from there, the only new thing the dice is used for is having sections where you need to use it to refresh your jump.
Then you fight against a buff dice man. Its a decent fight, but the attacks aren't crazy unique. I did enjoy it though.
The needle / variety stage:
This stage definitely wasn't my favorite.
It starts strong with a "delfish" section, which I thought was pretty silly and fun. The fish bounce when they hit the ground, but because of their hitbox often they bounce in ways that is super unpredictable. It isn't a huge issue, but I think if their hitbox specifically for bouncing didn't rotate and was like a circle, that would fix that issue (maybe).
It then goes into a home depot section, which is literally just needle but orange. Its pretty hard and I don't like needle very much so I didn't have a lot of fun. If you like needle I could see this being enjoyable though as its definitely the highest quality needle in the game, and it feels decent to play. You are on a timer, and it definitely could have been made a bit more lenient.
Then you go into a variety section themed around needle with small hitboxes. I could be wrong, but I think its a reference to geometry dash? It might not be, I just vaguely remember that being mentioned during the sudoku jam.
I really didn't like the way this gimmick was used. The first screen is super easy, I think its a reference to something as I have seen that specific screen before but I am not sure what it is.
Then you do secret 5 but with the silly hitboxes. Again, I don't think referencing k3 is a bad thing, but I also think more could be done with the ideas they take. Like if you remove the reference, all it is in this game is just corridor needle with small hitboxes. Its made a bit better by the fact that its something recognizable, but that doesn't not make it boring needle. I feel the same way about the dice gimmick.
Then you do a jtool styled section. Aside from one really funny joke, it isn't great. The majority of it is just glorified gates and 16 pixels (not really 16 pixels but jumps where the point is to squeeze in a gap).
The boss is definitely something. I thought it was silly, and just the right difficulty, although I might have gotten lucky with it.
The final stage is decent. Basically, you have a section using all the previous gimmicks while being chased by sludge. Thankfully it focuses on the more interesting gimmicks, being some of the wacky avoidance things and the swing circles. This being said, I think it would be much better if the sludge was a bit slower. It was still really good though.
Also sometimes the fish escape their enclosure in such a way that makes the save impossible, this happened about 4 times so it was a pretty common fishue.
Something that I didn't mention was the production value. Its decently high, for example entering each stage has a fake loading screen with some fun animations and silly text. The colonel boss felt really high quality as well.
Fun times!
[0] Likes
I was looking forward to this one coming out when I saw it being played during the sudoku jam, and I definitely had a positive experience playing it.
If you are worried about spoilers, do not continue reading. I am not crazy sure if I can recommend sludge over other games, but it definitely is an enjoyable experience if you are looking for an adventure game to play.
The goal of the game is to make and consume "the sludge". There are 4 stages, 3 for the ingredients of the sludge and one for the ending section where you get chased by what I think is the sludge.
Boss Rush Stage:
This stage is a parody of k3's boss rush (k3 is referenced quite a bit in this game, which isn't inherently a bad thing, its just something to note).
This was by far my favorite stage.
The boss rush contains 2 sudoku joke bosses, (both of which I thought were pretty silly and I liked a decent bit) and 2 real bosses.
I also really enjoyed the 2 real bosses (one inspired by piano and the other inspired by colonel). I didn't love the piano's song, but the avoidance was fun and not too hard.
The colonel fight was criticized heavily for its difficulty during the sudoku jam, and while I am unsure if it was nerfed, it felt like a fun high quality fight with some sillies thrown in. There might have been a bug at the ending where you couldn't collide with the bullets but I am not sure. The fight was really high quality though, and it clearly had a ton of effort put into it. Some attacks definitely felt a bit rng based, but 9 times out of 10 it felt like dying was your fault.
Dice Stage:
This stage was fine. The first section introduces a really neat gimmick, being a circle that you swing around, but then the stage only uses it for one screen which felt way too precise (at least for being right after the gimmick is introduced), and the rest of the stage is other stuff. Definitely one of the biggest issues I have with sludge is that a lot of the sections are basically just basic needle (of varying quality).
The main part of the stage is spent doing basic needle except a couple of k3 dice rolls are thrown in. I was not a huge fan of the gimmick, it just kinda slows down the needle and is basically used as a glorified jump refresher. I definitely think a k3 dice gimmick could work, but I feel like it would be better fit for a silly required trap or at least used in different ways for each screen. The novelty definitely wears off after the first screen and then its just kinda boring needle from there, the only new thing the dice is used for is having sections where you need to use it to refresh your jump.
Then you fight against a buff dice man. Its a decent fight, but the attacks aren't crazy unique. I did enjoy it though.
The needle / variety stage:
This stage definitely wasn't my favorite.
It starts strong with a "delfish" section, which I thought was pretty silly and fun. The fish bounce when they hit the ground, but because of their hitbox often they bounce in ways that is super unpredictable. It isn't a huge issue, but I think if their hitbox specifically for bouncing didn't rotate and was like a circle, that would fix that issue (maybe).
It then goes into a home depot section, which is literally just needle but orange. Its pretty hard and I don't like needle very much so I didn't have a lot of fun. If you like needle I could see this being enjoyable though as its definitely the highest quality needle in the game, and it feels decent to play. You are on a timer, and it definitely could have been made a bit more lenient.
Then you go into a variety section themed around needle with small hitboxes. I could be wrong, but I think its a reference to geometry dash? It might not be, I just vaguely remember that being mentioned during the sudoku jam.
I really didn't like the way this gimmick was used. The first screen is super easy, I think its a reference to something as I have seen that specific screen before but I am not sure what it is.
Then you do secret 5 but with the silly hitboxes. Again, I don't think referencing k3 is a bad thing, but I also think more could be done with the ideas they take. Like if you remove the reference, all it is in this game is just corridor needle with small hitboxes. Its made a bit better by the fact that its something recognizable, but that doesn't not make it boring needle. I feel the same way about the dice gimmick.
Then you do a jtool styled section. Aside from one really funny joke, it isn't great. The majority of it is just glorified gates and 16 pixels (not really 16 pixels but jumps where the point is to squeeze in a gap).
The boss is definitely something. I thought it was silly, and just the right difficulty, although I might have gotten lucky with it.
The final stage is decent. Basically, you have a section using all the previous gimmicks while being chased by sludge. Thankfully it focuses on the more interesting gimmicks, being some of the wacky avoidance things and the swing circles. This being said, I think it would be much better if the sludge was a bit slower. It was still really good though.
Also sometimes the fish escape their enclosure in such a way that makes the save impossible, this happened about 4 times so it was a pretty common fishue.
Something that I didn't mention was the production value. Its decently high, for example entering each stage has a fake loading screen with some fun animations and silly text. The colonel boss felt really high quality as well.
Fun times!
Rating: 7.0 70
Difficulty: N/A
Jan 24, 2025