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For: WannaFest 22
For: WannaFest 22
An unexpected return for such a beloved series, coming from a very promising team, and it absolutely fits in with the other entries.
WannaFest 22 is currently the latest game in the Marathon series, brought to you by the Cherry Treehouse team who previously brought us I Wanna Be The Guy Remastered. However, in terms of original games of this scale, they're no slouch either, and looking at all the effort put into every detail of this game, you can absolutely see that.
The game comes with a bit of a story: the Kid hears of the eponymous game show, WannaFest 22, which actually has a poster for it located in the game folder. Hosted by the Man, who is definitely not the Father in a disguise, the event offers a free car as a reward for getting a high score in a specific set of games, a challenge the Kid gladly accepts. The way the game works is very similar to the original PowerFest 94 that this game was based on: you go through stages based on existing games, aiming to beat the stage as quickly as possible while collecting score in the process. Your score is counted up at the end of the game and used to determine what car you win in the end. This is already a huge plus for me, as anyone that knows my opinion on I Wanna Be The Concept will already know I love a game with replay value. What I don't like so much, however, is if the game gets lazy with how little it differs from the source material. Yeah, you probably saw a couple people complain about this game for being too close to the original games, a complaint I can honestly agree with if the game is like that. But then again, it's still possible to follow the design of something closely while still making it your own thing, and even if it is very close, I'm still willing to look past it to some degree if the thing in question is difficult to recreate, which it definitely was in this game's case. Not to say I can completely excuse it in that case, but I'll still give credit where it's due.
Of course, all that is only talking about hypotheticals. Let's look at how the actual game is and then judge it based on that:
-After an intro cutscene which sets the bar very high for the game already, we get a stage based on Ganbare! Goemon 2. This is one of the more vanilla stages in the game in terms of physics alterations, but there's still a lot to take in. The way you get score from this stage is by collecting coins which are either just lying around the stage or dropped by enemies. The enemies themselves are unique and fun to fight, except for the annoying fish that come out of nowhere. However, they randomly drop a lucky neko upon dying, which kills you when you touch it. I see really no reason to do this other than to be funny, but it loses the humor really quickly, just becoming very annoying. Aside from that, there are a lot of gimmicks to this stage, like moving platforms, mouse karts you're able to ride like Yoshi, even a big water dragon you ride on top of as the screen scrolls forward. These gimmicks are all used really well, especially in combination with the enemies which add to the stage a lot. At the end of the stage is a boss fight against Marble Red, who uses a sumo mech and who you're expected to fight likewise, but it's much easier if you don't do that and just spam the gun instead. That's not even close to all though, since the real fight is against Senshuraku, the Yokozuna, in which you also get your own armor, Guy Impact. This is unfortunately the first moment that is basically just the original game with no differences, but it's still cool enough to be deserving of a spot here. Here, you aim a cursor at the boss and either press shoot to heavy punch or jump to light punch, or you can press both to block. It sounds moderately difficult to learn, but the tutorial given by Miku should make it more clear if you're confused. The fight is mostly a reaction time test as you need to punch Senshuraku at the right time, but some attacks require you to aim the cursor to parry the cherries being shot at you, or just block them. You're still encouraged to parry them, though, since they give you coins when you do that, giving you a choice of whether you want to be more greedy or play it safe. I like that they incorporated the score system into the boss fight too, since it gives you more to do than just beat the boss normally.
-Speaking of greed, the next stage is based on Wario Land 4, which obviously means your goal here is to collect as many goodies as possible, just like in the last stage. In terms of similarity to the original game, basically the only issue is some of the outside areas being too similar, although there are some things added to make it more distinct. Just like in that game, you get a lot of movement options to move around and fight enemies with, and they are a lot of fun to play around with. The enemies themselves don't just stand around waiting for you to attack them, though, as some of them also give you status effects which you can use to access new areas. This stage doesn't encourage exploration quite as thoroughly as the original game, as most collectibles are just out in the open for you to find, but secrets do still exist. After that, you get a boss fight with Catbat, which you have to beat under a time limit, like in the original. Its pattern is basically the same as the original, you wait for it to spawn a wave, and use that to get up to either dash into it or ground pound onto it later, and avoid the enemies the boss breathes at you on the way down. The difference is that the arena is much bigger, but spikes are on the ceiling to compensate, so if you do get inflated by the enemies, you have to dodge those. As for the fight itself, the time limit is really generous, unless you want to beat it fast enough to get all 3 chests, in which case you have to rely a bit on luck to get the enemy spawns you want. After that, you know what time it is: IT'S PIZZA TIME! Now you have to escape from the stage you just beat before time runs out, and while the time limit was really generous, it still felt very hectic, especially with the new collectibles on the way back you have to watch out for.
-And now for Klonoa: Door to Phantomile, a stage I'm very conflicted on. On one hand, this stage has some of the best visuals in the game, even displaying 3D graphics. However, as for the actual stage, it's more of a disappointment, as a lot of the rooms are just taken directly from the original game, probably even more of them that I failed to find. Whatever, let's actually talk about how the stage plays. Again, you get score from collecting stuff in the stage, most just being on the main path, but some of them are hidden or require some extra effort. The main gimmick is that you can pick up enemies and throw them in another direction, whether to attack other enemies or to gain a vertical boost. It's not just in 2 dimensions either, as like I said earlier, you can also grab and throw enemies into the foreground and background too. It starts out pretty basic, but by the end, the stage leans much farther into the platforming aspect of the mechanic. I really like the way this gimmick is used, as the movements you're intended to pull off here feel really smooth, especially with the Tetons that make you fly upwards when you grab them. However, then we get the boss fight against Gelg Bolm, which also uses this gimmick. It walks around the screen and forces you to jump over it, throwing an enemy into its mouth in the process. The problem is that the window to do this is so small that you often just miss your target entirely and just hit its lips instead. This can cause the fight to go on for a while, but with some practice, it is possible to end the fight quickly and not have that happen.
-Now for That One Stage™ yet again, this time being Parappa the Rapper. This one is kind of hard to make distinct from its original game, due to being a completely different genre than I Wanna Be The Guy, but at least the inputs are unique here. It also uses the song "Kick! Punch!" from that game, but the lyrics are changed to be more fangame-themed, reflected in the new inputs and the voice lines too. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, this game has voice acting, and not just any voice acting, but the original voice actors from IWBTG, which is just incredible. As for how the stage plays, it's a rhythm game, so just hit the buttons as they come on screen to win. The more accurate you are, the more score you earn. It's an easy stage, again due to being a completely different genre, and the actual buttons you're supposed to press are well-charted, with basically none of it being weird to input. If I had one thing to complain about, though, it would be that knowing when the lines start is a problem at first, since they just catch you off-guard. I would suggest to have something like the second Parappa game where you see your icon running on your track before your notes actually start, so you can more easily recognize when you're supposed to start pressing buttons. The input delay was also kind of long for me, but maybe that's just my keyboard, and it's easy to adjust to anyway. Aside from that, another well-made stage with great visuals (in 3D again) and great references.
-After a short interlude with the host of the competition completely failing to keep up that disguise that he definitely isn't wearing, we get the next stage, based on Sonic CD. And don't worry, they actually take the Japanese soundtrack from that game. Anyway, the stage itself is surprisingly less focused on speed than you would expect from Sonic the Hedgehog, instead focusing on gimmicky platforming and collecting rings to gain score. Some of these are hidden in walls, meaning you'll need to watch out for secrets in order to collect them. As for the gimmicks in this stage, there's a lot again. Moving sawblades, springs that bounce you up, walking platforms, even DotKid gets brought in near the end of the first act, and even more. I like the way all these gimmicks are used, except for maybe the springs, with them bouncing you way too high so that you can't see what's coming, not to mention taking way too much control away from you. This stage also has a couple traps, which this game has surprisingly few of, and the ones it does have work very well. Now, if you were disappointed by the lack of speed in this stage, don't worry, because the boss fight against Metal Sonic has got you covered. Unfortunately, this is another direct rip from the original game, with a layout taken directly from Stardust Speedway in that game, but at least that was a fun stage to take. The boost pads mean you go really fast here, but the camera is set up in a way that you can see everything coming, so it's not too fast. Metal Sonic himself sometimes charges at you or forms an electric shield, but he gives a tell before doing so, so it's not a cheap shot either. Plus, this race has some secrets in it too, as jumping while speeding on a ramp gives you a bunch of height, which can be used to find these secrets.
-And suddenly Super Monkey Ball. This stage only runs in 2 dimensions as opposed to 3, despite more 3D graphics, so that already means it's gonna be different from the original by default. Anyway, this is probably the most non-standard physics seen in the game (excluding Parappa for obvious reasons), as you roll around in a ball with physics that knock you all over the place when you hit something. You're under a time limit, so the objective is to reach the stage goal before that time runs out, while collecting as many bananas as you can in the process. Some of these bananas are super hard to collect, as you risk falling off of the edge and having to retry the whole level. If you're just going for any%, though, a lot of the levels may seem daunting at first, but there are usually tricks to make them easier. That's not to say they're free though, levels like Corkscrew absolutely require some execution on your part, but it definitely becomes simpler with these strats. Some rooms even let you hold right the entire way forward to just win, that's how much they help. Of course, the real challenge (and fun) is in collecting all the bananas, so if you want a high score, the game still incentivizes you to play well. There's also bonus stages which lean even further into this aspect, being full of bananas which are even harder to collect, giving you only a single chance to collect all of them. One of these even references the room from I Wanna Be The GB, which I thought was really funny. It does go on for a little while, but there's still no shortage of creative ideas in that time.
-The next stage is based on Gunstar Heroes, and unfortunately yet another one where more layouts are just directly taken. As for what it took, though, you get more weapons here, and the ability to shoot in 8 directions again, I just love it when fangames let you do this. You need these weapons to earn points by plowing through a horde of enemies coming your way, as there are a fuck ton of them you need to kill, and they also throw bombs that can kill you if you're too in their face. This is especially hard for me, since the weapon I like using the most is the flamethrower, which has the shortest range. However, the game does just give you certain weapons, in which case I just took what it gave me. Once you learn the right distance to keep from the enemies, and also the blind spot behind the miniboss, it's not that bad. That's not all, though, since there's also a board game section! You shoot a die to see how many spaces you move, and whatever space you land on, you get one chance to play what that space says before rolling again. Sometimes you can get lucky and roll a space to get some free score and a free weapon, other times you have to play some platforming or a boss. Some of these are references to other fangames, but most of them are just taken from Gunstar Heroes. There are a lot of these you can get, and they're mostly balanced, except for some spaces like Timeron which are much harder than the others. However, the fact that it is so random is already an issue, since the aim of this game is to get a faster time and a higher score, so having that just be up to luck, in a stage so close to the end of the game, is such a backwards decision. On that note, whatever you do, DO NOT LAND ON THE WAY BACK SPACE, unless you want to deal with even more gambling. Following that, and some more enemies, we get the boss fight against Smash Daisaku, easily the boss I struggled with the most. You get your choice of weapon here, and at least if you choose the flamethrower like me, he has the same issue as the regular enemies where he has attacks that can just kill you at close range, including one where he just chucks you into the sky. There are some things you can do to read what attacks he does, but the reaction time required is still really short. He also spawns a couple of enemies to shoot bullets at you, giving you even more of a headache to deal with. I guess you could just pick a different weapon like the aimed green arrows, but I'm impatient and want to end the fight faster. This is a fight with a lot of unfair moments, but it's the kind of unfair I can enjoy, at least. Oh yeah, there's also a second phase where Smash flies around the room dropping bombs everywhere, it's thankfully much easier than the first one.
-Now all the main games are finished, and the Man finally announces we won the car, time to go backstage to collect it. This stage is based on the Hall of Former The Guys, with a bunch of mini-sections referencing other games. This stage has the most variety out of all of them, with each room having its own gimmick. Some of these are even references back to the original stage, for example Opa-Opa from Fantasy Zone taking the place of Gradius, or the error message being represented by Bubsy 3D. The screens themselves are also really fun, either taking what made the original games so fun or putting their own spin on it entirely. Oh, there's a couple more traps thrown in here too, one of them is pretty cool, the other is kinda eh. After that, and a suspiciously familiar elevator segment, there's one more boss fight against the Man, who it turns out was actually the Father this whole time! Who could have ever seen such an unpredictable series of events coming—aaaaaaand the wine glass trap comes back, this time as a microphone. Whatever, in the actual fight, you get the big gun again, to shoot the Father in the background as he spins a wheel to determine what attack you get. Going through all the attacks quickly: the laser attack is easy to dodge if you don't miss the indicator at first; the punching gloves are unpredictable at first but easy to memorize; the spike walls are kind of random but still fair; the Dumb Bugz can be really annoying depending on how they decide to move, especially since you can only shoot up; Break The Targets can also take forever depending on their movement; Crimson works basically like the original boss but much shorter, making it fun to breeze through quickly; the cash blaster is much harder if you don't jump ahead of time, but the attack in case of failure is dodgeable anyway; the quiz is easy if you've been paying attention to the rest of the game; Schwarlitz always has the platforms spawn at angles that don't take forever to reach; Geezer has just the right amount going on to be hectic without being overwhelming; Solgryn is only a problem if you stand on the wrong part of the screen; and the anvils require you to keep moving around to not make them spawn in a way that you can't survive. After all that, there's one final phase you're guaranteed to get with the floor getting destroyed, featuring some regular fireballs and also the glass orbs too, it's a great finale to the fight. Finally, the building starts collapsing, but thankfully Opa-Opa returns to help you escape. I'm pretty sure it's entirely possible to beat this without ever stopping moving forward, but even if you don't, it's a generous enough time limit, while still being a climactic finish to this adventure.
What an incredible game. So much effort was put into every aspect of the game, from the way it looks, sounds, and especially feels to play, and I didn't even mention all the achievements and extra modes this game has, which are also great additions for people wanting more. Whether or not you're disappointed by the direct rips from the original games, one thing we can both agree on is that it's extremely well put-together as a game, and a ton of fun to play, and also to replay to grind for high scores. Another strong recommendation from this series, especially if you like the previous games in said series, retro games, or just adventure fangames in general.
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WannaFest 22 is currently the latest game in the Marathon series, brought to you by the Cherry Treehouse team who previously brought us I Wanna Be The Guy Remastered. However, in terms of original games of this scale, they're no slouch either, and looking at all the effort put into every detail of this game, you can absolutely see that.
The game comes with a bit of a story: the Kid hears of the eponymous game show, WannaFest 22, which actually has a poster for it located in the game folder. Hosted by the Man, who is definitely not the Father in a disguise, the event offers a free car as a reward for getting a high score in a specific set of games, a challenge the Kid gladly accepts. The way the game works is very similar to the original PowerFest 94 that this game was based on: you go through stages based on existing games, aiming to beat the stage as quickly as possible while collecting score in the process. Your score is counted up at the end of the game and used to determine what car you win in the end. This is already a huge plus for me, as anyone that knows my opinion on I Wanna Be The Concept will already know I love a game with replay value. What I don't like so much, however, is if the game gets lazy with how little it differs from the source material. Yeah, you probably saw a couple people complain about this game for being too close to the original games, a complaint I can honestly agree with if the game is like that. But then again, it's still possible to follow the design of something closely while still making it your own thing, and even if it is very close, I'm still willing to look past it to some degree if the thing in question is difficult to recreate, which it definitely was in this game's case. Not to say I can completely excuse it in that case, but I'll still give credit where it's due.
Of course, all that is only talking about hypotheticals. Let's look at how the actual game is and then judge it based on that:
-After an intro cutscene which sets the bar very high for the game already, we get a stage based on Ganbare! Goemon 2. This is one of the more vanilla stages in the game in terms of physics alterations, but there's still a lot to take in. The way you get score from this stage is by collecting coins which are either just lying around the stage or dropped by enemies. The enemies themselves are unique and fun to fight, except for the annoying fish that come out of nowhere. However, they randomly drop a lucky neko upon dying, which kills you when you touch it. I see really no reason to do this other than to be funny, but it loses the humor really quickly, just becoming very annoying. Aside from that, there are a lot of gimmicks to this stage, like moving platforms, mouse karts you're able to ride like Yoshi, even a big water dragon you ride on top of as the screen scrolls forward. These gimmicks are all used really well, especially in combination with the enemies which add to the stage a lot. At the end of the stage is a boss fight against Marble Red, who uses a sumo mech and who you're expected to fight likewise, but it's much easier if you don't do that and just spam the gun instead. That's not even close to all though, since the real fight is against Senshuraku, the Yokozuna, in which you also get your own armor, Guy Impact. This is unfortunately the first moment that is basically just the original game with no differences, but it's still cool enough to be deserving of a spot here. Here, you aim a cursor at the boss and either press shoot to heavy punch or jump to light punch, or you can press both to block. It sounds moderately difficult to learn, but the tutorial given by Miku should make it more clear if you're confused. The fight is mostly a reaction time test as you need to punch Senshuraku at the right time, but some attacks require you to aim the cursor to parry the cherries being shot at you, or just block them. You're still encouraged to parry them, though, since they give you coins when you do that, giving you a choice of whether you want to be more greedy or play it safe. I like that they incorporated the score system into the boss fight too, since it gives you more to do than just beat the boss normally.
-Speaking of greed, the next stage is based on Wario Land 4, which obviously means your goal here is to collect as many goodies as possible, just like in the last stage. In terms of similarity to the original game, basically the only issue is some of the outside areas being too similar, although there are some things added to make it more distinct. Just like in that game, you get a lot of movement options to move around and fight enemies with, and they are a lot of fun to play around with. The enemies themselves don't just stand around waiting for you to attack them, though, as some of them also give you status effects which you can use to access new areas. This stage doesn't encourage exploration quite as thoroughly as the original game, as most collectibles are just out in the open for you to find, but secrets do still exist. After that, you get a boss fight with Catbat, which you have to beat under a time limit, like in the original. Its pattern is basically the same as the original, you wait for it to spawn a wave, and use that to get up to either dash into it or ground pound onto it later, and avoid the enemies the boss breathes at you on the way down. The difference is that the arena is much bigger, but spikes are on the ceiling to compensate, so if you do get inflated by the enemies, you have to dodge those. As for the fight itself, the time limit is really generous, unless you want to beat it fast enough to get all 3 chests, in which case you have to rely a bit on luck to get the enemy spawns you want. After that, you know what time it is: IT'S PIZZA TIME! Now you have to escape from the stage you just beat before time runs out, and while the time limit was really generous, it still felt very hectic, especially with the new collectibles on the way back you have to watch out for.
-And now for Klonoa: Door to Phantomile, a stage I'm very conflicted on. On one hand, this stage has some of the best visuals in the game, even displaying 3D graphics. However, as for the actual stage, it's more of a disappointment, as a lot of the rooms are just taken directly from the original game, probably even more of them that I failed to find. Whatever, let's actually talk about how the stage plays. Again, you get score from collecting stuff in the stage, most just being on the main path, but some of them are hidden or require some extra effort. The main gimmick is that you can pick up enemies and throw them in another direction, whether to attack other enemies or to gain a vertical boost. It's not just in 2 dimensions either, as like I said earlier, you can also grab and throw enemies into the foreground and background too. It starts out pretty basic, but by the end, the stage leans much farther into the platforming aspect of the mechanic. I really like the way this gimmick is used, as the movements you're intended to pull off here feel really smooth, especially with the Tetons that make you fly upwards when you grab them. However, then we get the boss fight against Gelg Bolm, which also uses this gimmick. It walks around the screen and forces you to jump over it, throwing an enemy into its mouth in the process. The problem is that the window to do this is so small that you often just miss your target entirely and just hit its lips instead. This can cause the fight to go on for a while, but with some practice, it is possible to end the fight quickly and not have that happen.
-Now for That One Stage™ yet again, this time being Parappa the Rapper. This one is kind of hard to make distinct from its original game, due to being a completely different genre than I Wanna Be The Guy, but at least the inputs are unique here. It also uses the song "Kick! Punch!" from that game, but the lyrics are changed to be more fangame-themed, reflected in the new inputs and the voice lines too. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, this game has voice acting, and not just any voice acting, but the original voice actors from IWBTG, which is just incredible. As for how the stage plays, it's a rhythm game, so just hit the buttons as they come on screen to win. The more accurate you are, the more score you earn. It's an easy stage, again due to being a completely different genre, and the actual buttons you're supposed to press are well-charted, with basically none of it being weird to input. If I had one thing to complain about, though, it would be that knowing when the lines start is a problem at first, since they just catch you off-guard. I would suggest to have something like the second Parappa game where you see your icon running on your track before your notes actually start, so you can more easily recognize when you're supposed to start pressing buttons. The input delay was also kind of long for me, but maybe that's just my keyboard, and it's easy to adjust to anyway. Aside from that, another well-made stage with great visuals (in 3D again) and great references.
-After a short interlude with the host of the competition completely failing to keep up that disguise that he definitely isn't wearing, we get the next stage, based on Sonic CD. And don't worry, they actually take the Japanese soundtrack from that game. Anyway, the stage itself is surprisingly less focused on speed than you would expect from Sonic the Hedgehog, instead focusing on gimmicky platforming and collecting rings to gain score. Some of these are hidden in walls, meaning you'll need to watch out for secrets in order to collect them. As for the gimmicks in this stage, there's a lot again. Moving sawblades, springs that bounce you up, walking platforms, even DotKid gets brought in near the end of the first act, and even more. I like the way all these gimmicks are used, except for maybe the springs, with them bouncing you way too high so that you can't see what's coming, not to mention taking way too much control away from you. This stage also has a couple traps, which this game has surprisingly few of, and the ones it does have work very well. Now, if you were disappointed by the lack of speed in this stage, don't worry, because the boss fight against Metal Sonic has got you covered. Unfortunately, this is another direct rip from the original game, with a layout taken directly from Stardust Speedway in that game, but at least that was a fun stage to take. The boost pads mean you go really fast here, but the camera is set up in a way that you can see everything coming, so it's not too fast. Metal Sonic himself sometimes charges at you or forms an electric shield, but he gives a tell before doing so, so it's not a cheap shot either. Plus, this race has some secrets in it too, as jumping while speeding on a ramp gives you a bunch of height, which can be used to find these secrets.
-And suddenly Super Monkey Ball. This stage only runs in 2 dimensions as opposed to 3, despite more 3D graphics, so that already means it's gonna be different from the original by default. Anyway, this is probably the most non-standard physics seen in the game (excluding Parappa for obvious reasons), as you roll around in a ball with physics that knock you all over the place when you hit something. You're under a time limit, so the objective is to reach the stage goal before that time runs out, while collecting as many bananas as you can in the process. Some of these bananas are super hard to collect, as you risk falling off of the edge and having to retry the whole level. If you're just going for any%, though, a lot of the levels may seem daunting at first, but there are usually tricks to make them easier. That's not to say they're free though, levels like Corkscrew absolutely require some execution on your part, but it definitely becomes simpler with these strats. Some rooms even let you hold right the entire way forward to just win, that's how much they help. Of course, the real challenge (and fun) is in collecting all the bananas, so if you want a high score, the game still incentivizes you to play well. There's also bonus stages which lean even further into this aspect, being full of bananas which are even harder to collect, giving you only a single chance to collect all of them. One of these even references the room from I Wanna Be The GB, which I thought was really funny. It does go on for a little while, but there's still no shortage of creative ideas in that time.
-The next stage is based on Gunstar Heroes, and unfortunately yet another one where more layouts are just directly taken. As for what it took, though, you get more weapons here, and the ability to shoot in 8 directions again, I just love it when fangames let you do this. You need these weapons to earn points by plowing through a horde of enemies coming your way, as there are a fuck ton of them you need to kill, and they also throw bombs that can kill you if you're too in their face. This is especially hard for me, since the weapon I like using the most is the flamethrower, which has the shortest range. However, the game does just give you certain weapons, in which case I just took what it gave me. Once you learn the right distance to keep from the enemies, and also the blind spot behind the miniboss, it's not that bad. That's not all, though, since there's also a board game section! You shoot a die to see how many spaces you move, and whatever space you land on, you get one chance to play what that space says before rolling again. Sometimes you can get lucky and roll a space to get some free score and a free weapon, other times you have to play some platforming or a boss. Some of these are references to other fangames, but most of them are just taken from Gunstar Heroes. There are a lot of these you can get, and they're mostly balanced, except for some spaces like Timeron which are much harder than the others. However, the fact that it is so random is already an issue, since the aim of this game is to get a faster time and a higher score, so having that just be up to luck, in a stage so close to the end of the game, is such a backwards decision. On that note, whatever you do, DO NOT LAND ON THE WAY BACK SPACE, unless you want to deal with even more gambling. Following that, and some more enemies, we get the boss fight against Smash Daisaku, easily the boss I struggled with the most. You get your choice of weapon here, and at least if you choose the flamethrower like me, he has the same issue as the regular enemies where he has attacks that can just kill you at close range, including one where he just chucks you into the sky. There are some things you can do to read what attacks he does, but the reaction time required is still really short. He also spawns a couple of enemies to shoot bullets at you, giving you even more of a headache to deal with. I guess you could just pick a different weapon like the aimed green arrows, but I'm impatient and want to end the fight faster. This is a fight with a lot of unfair moments, but it's the kind of unfair I can enjoy, at least. Oh yeah, there's also a second phase where Smash flies around the room dropping bombs everywhere, it's thankfully much easier than the first one.
-Now all the main games are finished, and the Man finally announces we won the car, time to go backstage to collect it. This stage is based on the Hall of Former The Guys, with a bunch of mini-sections referencing other games. This stage has the most variety out of all of them, with each room having its own gimmick. Some of these are even references back to the original stage, for example Opa-Opa from Fantasy Zone taking the place of Gradius, or the error message being represented by Bubsy 3D. The screens themselves are also really fun, either taking what made the original games so fun or putting their own spin on it entirely. Oh, there's a couple more traps thrown in here too, one of them is pretty cool, the other is kinda eh. After that, and a suspiciously familiar elevator segment, there's one more boss fight against the Man, who it turns out was actually the Father this whole time! Who could have ever seen such an unpredictable series of events coming—aaaaaaand the wine glass trap comes back, this time as a microphone. Whatever, in the actual fight, you get the big gun again, to shoot the Father in the background as he spins a wheel to determine what attack you get. Going through all the attacks quickly: the laser attack is easy to dodge if you don't miss the indicator at first; the punching gloves are unpredictable at first but easy to memorize; the spike walls are kind of random but still fair; the Dumb Bugz can be really annoying depending on how they decide to move, especially since you can only shoot up; Break The Targets can also take forever depending on their movement; Crimson works basically like the original boss but much shorter, making it fun to breeze through quickly; the cash blaster is much harder if you don't jump ahead of time, but the attack in case of failure is dodgeable anyway; the quiz is easy if you've been paying attention to the rest of the game; Schwarlitz always has the platforms spawn at angles that don't take forever to reach; Geezer has just the right amount going on to be hectic without being overwhelming; Solgryn is only a problem if you stand on the wrong part of the screen; and the anvils require you to keep moving around to not make them spawn in a way that you can't survive. After all that, there's one final phase you're guaranteed to get with the floor getting destroyed, featuring some regular fireballs and also the glass orbs too, it's a great finale to the fight. Finally, the building starts collapsing, but thankfully Opa-Opa returns to help you escape. I'm pretty sure it's entirely possible to beat this without ever stopping moving forward, but even if you don't, it's a generous enough time limit, while still being a climactic finish to this adventure.
What an incredible game. So much effort was put into every aspect of the game, from the way it looks, sounds, and especially feels to play, and I didn't even mention all the achievements and extra modes this game has, which are also great additions for people wanting more. Whether or not you're disappointed by the direct rips from the original games, one thing we can both agree on is that it's extremely well put-together as a game, and a ton of fun to play, and also to replay to grind for high scores. Another strong recommendation from this series, especially if you like the previous games in said series, retro games, or just adventure fangames in general.
Rating: 8.0 80
Difficulty: 55 55
May 22, 2026
Cythraul
For: I wanna ⨌
For: I wanna ⨌
Rating based on blind clear.
Awesome align maze L-Needle with lots of needle techs including cactuses and vfpi.
It was very interesting to solve all the saves here. The gameplay itself felt great too, the first half was pretty chill compared to the last 3 saves. The most mind-blowing thing was double vfpi save which is needed just to grab another align. It took quite a lot to do in game and to find a strat in jtool.
Overall, this is a very cool game, I can easily recommend it to every precision player.
[0] Likes
Awesome align maze L-Needle with lots of needle techs including cactuses and vfpi.
It was very interesting to solve all the saves here. The gameplay itself felt great too, the first half was pretty chill compared to the last 3 saves. The most mind-blowing thing was double vfpi save which is needed just to grab another align. It took quite a lot to do in game and to find a strat in jtool.
Overall, this is a very cool game, I can easily recommend it to every precision player.
Rating: 10.0 100
Difficulty: 85 85
May 22, 2026
KSANDER
For: Chaos Needle-Port
For: Chaos Needle-Port
Очень сложный генерик нидл, перые два стейджа не сложные, но дальше после тертьего слейджа начинается сложные прыжки, тем не менее мне понравилось, хотя я не рекомендую к прохождению, в особености потому что можно легко потерять прогресс просто войдя в главное меню, так как отсуствует варп продолжения игры, но раз уж вы решились, рекомендую выходть с помощью Esc, так как при повторном запуске вы автоматом попадаете на экран где и остановились, также здесь есть немало неприятных прыжков, поэтому играйте на свой страх и риск
Tagged as: Needle
[0] Likes
Rating: 8.3 83
Difficulty: 66 66
May 22, 2026
notmaxwell
For: Firdos
Very interesting needle game, I've always looked at it as something i've wanted to play, but been scared off, i'm not all that sure why, but I've realized this fear is irrational, this game absolutely surpassed my expectations, and I do quite like it.
Firdos follows the general 32px needle design for a lot of it, with throwing in some light usage of gravity, or vines & water depending on which path you go. This game also tries out being an 'open-map' with multiple routes all leading to the finale. I will say- I like how the finale is the hardest save by a decent bit, that being said, the different paths are stained a bit by balance. The right path is vastly easier than the left path, likely not by intention but due to inexperience and proper testing, but i still commemorate this game for giving a shot anyway, not a lot of 32px needle this difficult even usually tries to (infact, this is the only game of this difficulty that i can think of that does try this), execution isn't perfect but that's okay in my books. Visually it switches it up a bit, most parts look decently good, and i like how it switches up the kid sprite but not in a way that negatively affects the gameplay. My favourite area is likely the right path's gravity area visually, I think the inverted edges style looked pretty cool, but it's kind of a shame it was ended so quick. The areas before that were also pretty cool, I liked it, 2nd area on the right path was cool, i'm not a big fan of the purple city area solely due to that it can be a bit hard to see the kid at one point, but I quite like the idea of progressing further into the game to encounter a modified version of the starting area- it's cool. Finale switches between a few different visuals, also liked it, pretty cool stuff overall, I'm glad the game does switch it up a decent amount rather than keeping it stale- adds to the whole different pathways notion. Needle design is somewhat questionable at times, some of the earlier saves do suffer from the occasional jump that's considerably harder than ones around it, or a few jumps that are just a bit too easy, etc, but I didn't find it to be really problematic, that being said I think I went the easiest route on my clear of this (right path), I'll play the other routes soon and update this when I do. I enjoyed everything up to the final a lot, but I also didn't spend a lot of time with it, I can see some complaints, but I might just be nitpicking at that point, I definitely did find the needle really fun and pretty intuitive aswell. Final save has a few iffy jumps, first of all, there's a spike that doesn't have collision, which is a bit of a throw since I don't think there's any other fake spikes in the game, and it's in one of the more questionable jumps of that save aswell. First screen top right has a raw corner and tight djump (especially if you want to vstring the diagonal after), it's kinda nasty but it got consistent, albeit still harder than most other jumps in the save. 2nd screen has a drop that's also a bit nasty, but to counteract these two jumps there's a few gems. I liked screen 1's corner jump in the middle of the save, delayed right press but lenient especially visually, I liked almost every jump in screen 3, and also the start of screen 1. I enjoyed the final save, consistent and plays decently uniquely comparing to other difficult 32px setup needle around it, good stuff imo, I quite like long multi-screen climatic saves and this one pulled it off well with having difficulty drop down further into the save.
I quite liked this game, maybe it's my weak spot, but I had a blast. I like how this game tried out a few new things aswell, and even though it didn't exactly hit the spot, I still think it delivered pretty well on it's gameplay and some of it's visuals so I don't really mind. I'd recommend this if you're into this kind of needle.
[0] Likes
For: Firdos
Very interesting needle game, I've always looked at it as something i've wanted to play, but been scared off, i'm not all that sure why, but I've realized this fear is irrational, this game absolutely surpassed my expectations, and I do quite like it.
Firdos follows the general 32px needle design for a lot of it, with throwing in some light usage of gravity, or vines & water depending on which path you go. This game also tries out being an 'open-map' with multiple routes all leading to the finale. I will say- I like how the finale is the hardest save by a decent bit, that being said, the different paths are stained a bit by balance. The right path is vastly easier than the left path, likely not by intention but due to inexperience and proper testing, but i still commemorate this game for giving a shot anyway, not a lot of 32px needle this difficult even usually tries to (infact, this is the only game of this difficulty that i can think of that does try this), execution isn't perfect but that's okay in my books. Visually it switches it up a bit, most parts look decently good, and i like how it switches up the kid sprite but not in a way that negatively affects the gameplay. My favourite area is likely the right path's gravity area visually, I think the inverted edges style looked pretty cool, but it's kind of a shame it was ended so quick. The areas before that were also pretty cool, I liked it, 2nd area on the right path was cool, i'm not a big fan of the purple city area solely due to that it can be a bit hard to see the kid at one point, but I quite like the idea of progressing further into the game to encounter a modified version of the starting area- it's cool. Finale switches between a few different visuals, also liked it, pretty cool stuff overall, I'm glad the game does switch it up a decent amount rather than keeping it stale- adds to the whole different pathways notion. Needle design is somewhat questionable at times, some of the earlier saves do suffer from the occasional jump that's considerably harder than ones around it, or a few jumps that are just a bit too easy, etc, but I didn't find it to be really problematic, that being said I think I went the easiest route on my clear of this (right path), I'll play the other routes soon and update this when I do. I enjoyed everything up to the final a lot, but I also didn't spend a lot of time with it, I can see some complaints, but I might just be nitpicking at that point, I definitely did find the needle really fun and pretty intuitive aswell. Final save has a few iffy jumps, first of all, there's a spike that doesn't have collision, which is a bit of a throw since I don't think there's any other fake spikes in the game, and it's in one of the more questionable jumps of that save aswell. First screen top right has a raw corner and tight djump (especially if you want to vstring the diagonal after), it's kinda nasty but it got consistent, albeit still harder than most other jumps in the save. 2nd screen has a drop that's also a bit nasty, but to counteract these two jumps there's a few gems. I liked screen 1's corner jump in the middle of the save, delayed right press but lenient especially visually, I liked almost every jump in screen 3, and also the start of screen 1. I enjoyed the final save, consistent and plays decently uniquely comparing to other difficult 32px setup needle around it, good stuff imo, I quite like long multi-screen climatic saves and this one pulled it off well with having difficulty drop down further into the save.
I quite liked this game, maybe it's my weak spot, but I had a blast. I like how this game tried out a few new things aswell, and even though it didn't exactly hit the spot, I still think it delivered pretty well on it's gameplay and some of it's visuals so I don't really mind. I'd recommend this if you're into this kind of needle.
Rating: 8.1 81
Difficulty: 87 87
May 22, 2026
BloggerOP
For: I wanna reunion in the despair
For: I wanna reunion in the despair
It is a very cool long save, there are handful of good wallhugs and jtool gimmick executions throughout the whole save. Figuring out how every path works was quite enjoyable. Little practice feature did help as well. However second screen was sometimes a bit demotivating since it was harder for me to get better at than the first screen. The jump with an invert has pretty tight double jump timing, and there are many midair vines which take forever to get used to. I can't really comment on the next screens because I didn't really struggle with them. Highly recommended to long save enthusiasts overall, very cool and unique one.
[0] Likes
Rating: 7.0 70
Difficulty: 82 82
May 22, 2026
Cythraul
For: I Wanna Get the 7 Colored Needles
[0] Likes
For: I Wanna Get the 7 Colored Needles
[0] Likes
Rating: 4.0 40
Difficulty: 73 73
May 22, 2026