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Kilgour22
For: I wanna be the Churatch
For: I wanna be the Churatch
Nine years ago, I began my fangaming journey with Churatch. I remember vividly struggling to land on a single block for fear of falling off, for fear of jumping into the single spike nearby . . . for fear of failure.
I died repeatedly, even as I started new save files and "speedran" up until the thirties, where the platforming posed a significant challenge. Slowly I crept my way into the forties as my skill level improved, and alternate paths began to open. I started to challenge myself further by completing these, particularly struggling with low-frame double jumps. You see, I wasn't yet comfortable with the controls; the kid felt like he was jumping at almost random heights, because I hadn't yet developed a feel for how long to hold shift.
Damn, I was awful.
After the second boss, the real platforming began. I grinded my way past the fifties, getting utterly destroyed by the apple cycles. I've never been particularly "quick" to recognize patterns like that—or, more accurately, the dynamic shifting of patterns has always caused me problems. This was true back then and is true today. But I slowly started to memorize the timings and inputs to get through them, and I managed to enter the sixties.
62. The F-jump screen. Words cannot describe how much I struggled with the first jump, so much so that I actually quit the game for a while. My young mind couldn't comprehend how to do them; repeatedly I would bonk my head on the ceiling, and thus never get the height. I ended up having to watch a playthrough of the game on YouTube to understand the jump, which is when I returned to the game and claimed my revenge, but damn if I didn't practice that thing dozens of times until I understood the jump.
I next got stuck on the third boss. I never did quite get the hang of shooting and jumping in quick succession, so I ended up trying to complete the boss the coward's way: jumping into the water, shooting, then falling down. This made the fight take forever to complete, and I was not yet consistent enough with my dodges or jump timings to complete it. And thus I left the game, this time for weeks.
In the meantime, I played (and beat) I Wanna Go Across the Rainbow. This was great practice, and beating the final boss gave me the confidence I needed to resume Churatch. I picked up where I left off, and minutes later, the third boss was vanquished.
The seventies introduced an unnamed jump which posed a similar challenge to floor 62, requiring a full jump, arc over part of the formation, followed by another full jump. Again, silly me, stupid, dumb, ignorant me, had to watch someone else do the jump, and it made so much sense! I forged ever onward, grinding my way through these screens, into the water stage, and finally the water downward diagonal. And what a jump that was! It's where I first learned how to stutter, and the feeling of satisfaction that washed over me upon completing it was incredible.
The next batch of screens brought with it a "ledge grab" of sorts. These screens took a while to complete, as they required something I very much lacked: consistency. But complete them I did, before I got walled once again on an infinite jump screen that had lots of low-frame jumps (my laptop keyboard could not recognize 2-frame inputs). And, once again, after many, many deaths, I beat it.
The last five floors went by pretty quickly, with 98 taking maybe fifteen minutes. I recall feeling intimidated by the time I got there; I'd heard a lot about the floor, and there was a palpable tension regarding it from the community in which I frequented. Having also watched a streamer who I respect immensely struggle with it, my hopes weren't high, but I persevered, and probably got a little lucky.
The final boss shut me down. I have never been good at bosses, and this one was well beyond my skill level. I left the game again, but this time, months passed with it laying dormant in my "to be completed" folder, taunting me.
I eventually got my revenge, and, upon seeing the clear screen and acquiring the warp item, let out a huge sigh of relief as the tension in my body melted away. Finally, at long last, I had achieved something that legitimately challenged me, and there is nothing more fulfilling than that. The memories will stick with me for a lifetime.
Today, I played through the game again. It was fine.
Cleartime and deaths: 49:15, 41
[3] Likes
I died repeatedly, even as I started new save files and "speedran" up until the thirties, where the platforming posed a significant challenge. Slowly I crept my way into the forties as my skill level improved, and alternate paths began to open. I started to challenge myself further by completing these, particularly struggling with low-frame double jumps. You see, I wasn't yet comfortable with the controls; the kid felt like he was jumping at almost random heights, because I hadn't yet developed a feel for how long to hold shift.
Damn, I was awful.
After the second boss, the real platforming began. I grinded my way past the fifties, getting utterly destroyed by the apple cycles. I've never been particularly "quick" to recognize patterns like that—or, more accurately, the dynamic shifting of patterns has always caused me problems. This was true back then and is true today. But I slowly started to memorize the timings and inputs to get through them, and I managed to enter the sixties.
62. The F-jump screen. Words cannot describe how much I struggled with the first jump, so much so that I actually quit the game for a while. My young mind couldn't comprehend how to do them; repeatedly I would bonk my head on the ceiling, and thus never get the height. I ended up having to watch a playthrough of the game on YouTube to understand the jump, which is when I returned to the game and claimed my revenge, but damn if I didn't practice that thing dozens of times until I understood the jump.
I next got stuck on the third boss. I never did quite get the hang of shooting and jumping in quick succession, so I ended up trying to complete the boss the coward's way: jumping into the water, shooting, then falling down. This made the fight take forever to complete, and I was not yet consistent enough with my dodges or jump timings to complete it. And thus I left the game, this time for weeks.
In the meantime, I played (and beat) I Wanna Go Across the Rainbow. This was great practice, and beating the final boss gave me the confidence I needed to resume Churatch. I picked up where I left off, and minutes later, the third boss was vanquished.
The seventies introduced an unnamed jump which posed a similar challenge to floor 62, requiring a full jump, arc over part of the formation, followed by another full jump. Again, silly me, stupid, dumb, ignorant me, had to watch someone else do the jump, and it made so much sense! I forged ever onward, grinding my way through these screens, into the water stage, and finally the water downward diagonal. And what a jump that was! It's where I first learned how to stutter, and the feeling of satisfaction that washed over me upon completing it was incredible.
The next batch of screens brought with it a "ledge grab" of sorts. These screens took a while to complete, as they required something I very much lacked: consistency. But complete them I did, before I got walled once again on an infinite jump screen that had lots of low-frame jumps (my laptop keyboard could not recognize 2-frame inputs). And, once again, after many, many deaths, I beat it.
The last five floors went by pretty quickly, with 98 taking maybe fifteen minutes. I recall feeling intimidated by the time I got there; I'd heard a lot about the floor, and there was a palpable tension regarding it from the community in which I frequented. Having also watched a streamer who I respect immensely struggle with it, my hopes weren't high, but I persevered, and probably got a little lucky.
The final boss shut me down. I have never been good at bosses, and this one was well beyond my skill level. I left the game again, but this time, months passed with it laying dormant in my "to be completed" folder, taunting me.
I eventually got my revenge, and, upon seeing the clear screen and acquiring the warp item, let out a huge sigh of relief as the tension in my body melted away. Finally, at long last, I had achieved something that legitimately challenged me, and there is nothing more fulfilling than that. The memories will stick with me for a lifetime.
Today, I played through the game again. It was fine.
Cleartime and deaths: 49:15, 41
Rating: 6.0 60
Difficulty: 42 42
May 13, 2022
Cubpletionist
For: I wanna IDFK
For: I wanna IDFK
Good stuff. appreciate a and d existing.
[0] Likes
Rating: 7.5 75
Difficulty: 60 60
May 13, 2022
CanusAntonius
For: Chill Needle 2
For: Chill Needle 2
It's bigger, better, and way more chill than its predecessor, with as much as an upgrade as steak is to bacon bits. Comprised of a healthy serving of gimmicks, bosses, and a pretty intuitive design, it's definitely a big entry in the Needleventure world.
The majority of the game is spent collecting items from 3 stages you can enter in any order, each being designed around a particular gimmick. The stages are pretty diverse, with one of them being centered around the Pastel spike gimmick, another based off of shoot/jump triggers on spikes, and finally one based around V6 Kid. That last stage is a monumental success in my eyes in particular, and features one of two beasts within the game. Each stage ends with a boss, and they're all fairly simple and use the stage mechanics well, once again the V6 stage excels in having the best boss too. There's also a final stage after those which starts to mix in all the gimmicks, and once again busts out another beast at the end followed by a boss.
This is definitely one of arzztt's best works, and if you love stuff like VoVoVo or Save my Boy then you will love this, and if you haven't done those yet either then do them next. Highly recommended!
[1] Like
The majority of the game is spent collecting items from 3 stages you can enter in any order, each being designed around a particular gimmick. The stages are pretty diverse, with one of them being centered around the Pastel spike gimmick, another based off of shoot/jump triggers on spikes, and finally one based around V6 Kid. That last stage is a monumental success in my eyes in particular, and features one of two beasts within the game. Each stage ends with a boss, and they're all fairly simple and use the stage mechanics well, once again the V6 stage excels in having the best boss too. There's also a final stage after those which starts to mix in all the gimmicks, and once again busts out another beast at the end followed by a boss.
This is definitely one of arzztt's best works, and if you love stuff like VoVoVo or Save my Boy then you will love this, and if you haven't done those yet either then do them next. Highly recommended!
Rating: 9.0 90
Difficulty: 60 60
May 13, 2022