Delicious FruitLatest Reviews
DerpyHoovesIWBTG
For: I wanna be the AAI
For: I wanna be the AAI
Rating based on true clear/100%, aka beating the boss and collecting all secrets.
Rukito's latest solo game which was hyped up for several years and finally getting released in 2022. The needle plays a lot like his later games like MMM and SSR2, but a bit more refined. That doesn't mean the game is perfect though. Some of the later stages require some low jumps or setups that make jumps easier, and there might be some vstring trickery involved as well like the first save of screen 2 in stage 6. This game also has a rare exception where he decided to only have one boss at the end of the game, instead of facing the first boss halfway through the adventure with the final boss being present after beating all the needle before it.
Overall I enjoyed most of what the game had to offer. Some of the stages I liked the most was stage 3 because of how open everything is so nothing felt awkward to grind, and stage 5 where I felt like Rukito tried to experiment with water as much as possible which resulted in clever jumps which I have seen few games do. The one stage I absolutely hated was stage 6, which was full of precise jank and awkward timings which soured my experience a bit. I don't think I would want to replay this game again purely because of this stage alone.
The only hard part I struggled with afterwards was the final save before the boss, particularly that stupid Rukito ledge followed by a weird drop gate thing and a typical choke jump which I thankfully beat first try. I would say this save was harder than the last save before the boss in MMM, which is the closest thing I can compare it to based on the games I have beaten from him.
Every stage also has an optional secret which the game explicitly does not tell you unless you decide to look in the readme. You must collect all secret items to reach the true clear screen. Most if not all the secrets are harder than the maingame stages, and they're pretty well hidden in obscure locations you will miss pretty easily, and some even require you to think outside the box such as SSR's secret where you need to pause multiple times until it warps you to the secret, and Kill the Rukito's secret where you can only access it after beating the boss and warping back there.. Supposedly these were left unchanged even after testplay which absolutely shows in some of the secrets. PYF was a slog to go through, particularly the last save which has a super annoying platform cycle followed by a long hallway with multiple low frame jumps and a vstring(?) dependant jump near the end. Not all of it was bad though, as SSR2 was really fun to grind and the last save of Kill the Rukito had some cool maneuvers even if the fun wears off near the end of the save.
If there's one part of the game that deserves the spotlight it would be the (final) boss. From a first glance the boss looks super menacing to learn, but after learning what every character does it becomes pretty consistent so long as you don't lose focus on the chess pieces. There's also a second phase which requires you to multitask by on top of reading everything around the arena another character shows up and tries to stomp you as you fight the boss. It's relatively easy to get walled there, but it didn't annoy me in the slightest. Granted I did beat it pretty fast at 25 minutes, but I feel like I wouldn't have gotten tired of beating this boss if I had to fight it for another two hours.
Ultimately I'm not entirely sure if I feel comfortable with rating the game an 8, as I feel like this game does cater more to hardcore Rukito fans rather than those who seek a hard needle game without having played the maker's other games beforehand. The game has its ups and downs, particularly stage 6 and most of the secrets (even if I actually liked them), but I enjoyed most of what the game has to offer. If you decide to not go for the secrets I would play until atleast stage 6 because the needle is really enjoyable up to that stage, and if you can tolerate precision needle I would just continue on and hope that you get past the last save before the boss. Atleast the boss made up for it for me.
Would recommend.
[1] Like
Rukito's latest solo game which was hyped up for several years and finally getting released in 2022. The needle plays a lot like his later games like MMM and SSR2, but a bit more refined. That doesn't mean the game is perfect though. Some of the later stages require some low jumps or setups that make jumps easier, and there might be some vstring trickery involved as well like the first save of screen 2 in stage 6. This game also has a rare exception where he decided to only have one boss at the end of the game, instead of facing the first boss halfway through the adventure with the final boss being present after beating all the needle before it.
Overall I enjoyed most of what the game had to offer. Some of the stages I liked the most was stage 3 because of how open everything is so nothing felt awkward to grind, and stage 5 where I felt like Rukito tried to experiment with water as much as possible which resulted in clever jumps which I have seen few games do. The one stage I absolutely hated was stage 6, which was full of precise jank and awkward timings which soured my experience a bit. I don't think I would want to replay this game again purely because of this stage alone.
The only hard part I struggled with afterwards was the final save before the boss, particularly that stupid Rukito ledge followed by a weird drop gate thing and a typical choke jump which I thankfully beat first try. I would say this save was harder than the last save before the boss in MMM, which is the closest thing I can compare it to based on the games I have beaten from him.
Every stage also has an optional secret which the game explicitly does not tell you unless you decide to look in the readme. You must collect all secret items to reach the true clear screen. Most if not all the secrets are harder than the maingame stages, and they're pretty well hidden in obscure locations you will miss pretty easily, and some even require you to think outside the box such as SSR's secret where you need to pause multiple times until it warps you to the secret, and Kill the Rukito's secret where you can only access it after beating the boss and warping back there.. Supposedly these were left unchanged even after testplay which absolutely shows in some of the secrets. PYF was a slog to go through, particularly the last save which has a super annoying platform cycle followed by a long hallway with multiple low frame jumps and a vstring(?) dependant jump near the end. Not all of it was bad though, as SSR2 was really fun to grind and the last save of Kill the Rukito had some cool maneuvers even if the fun wears off near the end of the save.
If there's one part of the game that deserves the spotlight it would be the (final) boss. From a first glance the boss looks super menacing to learn, but after learning what every character does it becomes pretty consistent so long as you don't lose focus on the chess pieces. There's also a second phase which requires you to multitask by on top of reading everything around the arena another character shows up and tries to stomp you as you fight the boss. It's relatively easy to get walled there, but it didn't annoy me in the slightest. Granted I did beat it pretty fast at 25 minutes, but I feel like I wouldn't have gotten tired of beating this boss if I had to fight it for another two hours.
Ultimately I'm not entirely sure if I feel comfortable with rating the game an 8, as I feel like this game does cater more to hardcore Rukito fans rather than those who seek a hard needle game without having played the maker's other games beforehand. The game has its ups and downs, particularly stage 6 and most of the secrets (even if I actually liked them), but I enjoyed most of what the game has to offer. If you decide to not go for the secrets I would play until atleast stage 6 because the needle is really enjoyable up to that stage, and if you can tolerate precision needle I would just continue on and hope that you get past the last save before the boss. Atleast the boss made up for it for me.
Would recommend.
Rating: 8.0 80
Difficulty: 83 83
Feb 26, 2024
Yiaz
For: Kabosu Makers
For: Kabosu Makers
Meme collab with some needle and avoidances, nothing is great, most is doable and some avoidances are a little fun even. The topright boss is luckbased garbage though and made me spent multiple hours just dodging curving bouncing apples. Not recommended
[0] Likes
Rating: 3.0 30
Difficulty: 70 70
Feb 26, 2024
Faucet
For: I Wanna Augment the Loon's Noodle
For: I Wanna Augment the Loon's Noodle
One of the best needle games I have ever played. It starts pretty good, but gets better all the time, and the last stage was such a blast to play. I don't remember there being a single bad save. Highly recommended
[0] Likes
Rating: 9.5 95
Difficulty: 66 66
Feb 26, 2024
Faucet
For: I Wanna Feed Your Escapism 2
For: I Wanna Feed Your Escapism 2
Really fun and long needle game with great visuals. However some saves were really out of place and way harder than everything else.
[0] Likes
Rating: 8.9 89
Difficulty: 68 68
Feb 26, 2024
Faucet
For: I wanna play the Needle game
For: I wanna play the Needle game
Not a very good game. It's just full of saves that take 10 deaths at most, and then you are thrown into terribly designed and annoying saves that take hundreds of deaths. It's actually crazy how unbalanced this game is. There are many good saves, but those are always literally free. I wouldn't recommend
[0] Likes
Rating: 4.4 44
Difficulty: 62 62
Feb 26, 2024
Faucet
For: I wanna be the Overlord
For: I wanna be the Overlord
Really huge metroidvania fangame with so much to offer. There are so many areas, it does everything a good metroidvania should do, and it's just a blast to play from start to finish. My biggest complaint is the boss design. Most of the bosses weren't really fun at all, and the exploration and platforming was truly the best things about this game
[0] Likes
Rating: 9.1 91
Difficulty: 56 56
Feb 26, 2024
Faucet
For: I Wanna Find a Cure
For: I Wanna Find a Cure
Really enjoyable game from start to finish. My favorite stage was the trap forest, which was incredibly fun to play. This game has a lot of variety, and it's really great. My biggest issue was that a couple stages were WAY too long, especially the Metroid stage which was like half the games length
[0] Likes
Rating: 8.8 88
Difficulty: 58 58
Feb 26, 2024
Faucet
For: I wanna be the Finite
For: I wanna be the Finite
A simple but great needle game. It's pretty long and it's best enjoyed while listening to music or something else.
[0] Likes
Rating: 8.2 82
Difficulty: 52 52
Feb 26, 2024
Faucet
For: I wanna enjoy the Galvanized Peppermint Dandy
For: I wanna enjoy the Galvanized Peppermint Dandy
Really good sequel to a really good needle game. It's quite similiar, but I liked this more, because this didn't have any annoying saves unlike Butterscotch which had a couple. Highly recommended
[0] Likes
Rating: 9.3 93
Difficulty: 53 53
Feb 26, 2024