Delicious FruitLatest Reviews
Wolfiexe
For: I wanna be the SAN
For: I wanna be the SAN
SAN is a very interesting adventure game made between Sorariku and Non, featuring a wide variety of fangame genres and styles in a mixture of stages, bosses and avoidances. Whilst I'm not too familiar with Non, Sorariku has gained a reputation for making very unique and experimental things, so you can expect to see some very one-of-a-kind things here.
One thing very worth mentioning is that about 60% of the game lies around the 40-60 difficulty region, before a late avoidance pushes it up to the 70's and the final stage/boss shuffling it even higher to the high 80's. It's got a very noticeable difficulty bump, although if you're looking for a challenge that remains difficult but enjoyable, you may just find it here.
SAN consists of 6 stages (3 for each maker) with a boss to accompany each, which is then wrapped up with a final stage and boss. Each stage varies greatly ranging from screen-rotating needle, to a bullet-hell minigame of sorts, to a japanese quiz that'll have you on the edge of your seat until the very end. The most notorious stage or even segment in the entire game is definitely Sorariku's gardening stage, which will have you forging blue lines to guide your sun shards to offset the wettenization of your dear plants. It's wacky.
Bosses usually complement the stages well, often utilizing the gimmick or fitting in with the stage theme. The third stage of each maker uses an avoidance as a boss. Non's avoidance is a Miku fight with some fairly challenging attacks but nothing too demanding, although the final attack can be a bit confusing initially if you don't catch on quick. Sorariku's avoidance is a very long one, focused around infinite-jump dot-hitbox as Flandre sings her heart out to you with an abundance of crazy patterns and kooky RNG attacks. It's tricky and it has a VERY long intro, but the actual fight I found very fun to play. In addition, you're given 3 bombs to get rid of any attacks you dislike, or perhaps want to bypass for the time being to learn later attacks. Minus my gripes with the intro (and I guess, the song), I actually really enjoyed it.
The final stage bumps things up a notch with some very tricky platforming. I found this to be a mixed bag, as I found some saves incredibly fun and interesting to pull off, whereas other saves got very frustrating and unpleasant to do, such as the vine whips which I can imagine will be a nightmare for any controller player to pull off. One highlight is the wacky water save at the end of the water segment, utilising a variety of water types in a checkerboard fashion. It's great! The final save is also a headscratcher, although I didn't play it blind so a fair part of the challenge was lowered here.
Sorariku takes the seat for the final boss, utilising a Destination-style sort of approach having 3 attacks for 4 colours, each ticking down their HP as they go on. This is honestly a really great and challenging finale. The variety of transitions in combination with the random order of attacks makes it very fun to play, and getting good at attacks which initially seem unreasonable to read (I'm looking at you Blue 2), feels just great. It also culminates with an incredibly tense final phase which I'm sure any clearer can agree is monumentally nerve wracking. Minus some gripes with reading attacks (like Yellow 3), it's just a really great fight. I loved it.
SAN is very unique, and whilst I'm hesitant to say underplayed as I know a fair number of people have started this and stopped at some point (most likely the Flandre avoidance), the actual content almost always remained fun for me. I'd very much recommend giving this game a shot, if not just to hone your gardening skills a little.
[0] Likes
One thing very worth mentioning is that about 60% of the game lies around the 40-60 difficulty region, before a late avoidance pushes it up to the 70's and the final stage/boss shuffling it even higher to the high 80's. It's got a very noticeable difficulty bump, although if you're looking for a challenge that remains difficult but enjoyable, you may just find it here.
SAN consists of 6 stages (3 for each maker) with a boss to accompany each, which is then wrapped up with a final stage and boss. Each stage varies greatly ranging from screen-rotating needle, to a bullet-hell minigame of sorts, to a japanese quiz that'll have you on the edge of your seat until the very end. The most notorious stage or even segment in the entire game is definitely Sorariku's gardening stage, which will have you forging blue lines to guide your sun shards to offset the wettenization of your dear plants. It's wacky.
Bosses usually complement the stages well, often utilizing the gimmick or fitting in with the stage theme. The third stage of each maker uses an avoidance as a boss. Non's avoidance is a Miku fight with some fairly challenging attacks but nothing too demanding, although the final attack can be a bit confusing initially if you don't catch on quick. Sorariku's avoidance is a very long one, focused around infinite-jump dot-hitbox as Flandre sings her heart out to you with an abundance of crazy patterns and kooky RNG attacks. It's tricky and it has a VERY long intro, but the actual fight I found very fun to play. In addition, you're given 3 bombs to get rid of any attacks you dislike, or perhaps want to bypass for the time being to learn later attacks. Minus my gripes with the intro (and I guess, the song), I actually really enjoyed it.
The final stage bumps things up a notch with some very tricky platforming. I found this to be a mixed bag, as I found some saves incredibly fun and interesting to pull off, whereas other saves got very frustrating and unpleasant to do, such as the vine whips which I can imagine will be a nightmare for any controller player to pull off. One highlight is the wacky water save at the end of the water segment, utilising a variety of water types in a checkerboard fashion. It's great! The final save is also a headscratcher, although I didn't play it blind so a fair part of the challenge was lowered here.
Sorariku takes the seat for the final boss, utilising a Destination-style sort of approach having 3 attacks for 4 colours, each ticking down their HP as they go on. This is honestly a really great and challenging finale. The variety of transitions in combination with the random order of attacks makes it very fun to play, and getting good at attacks which initially seem unreasonable to read (I'm looking at you Blue 2), feels just great. It also culminates with an incredibly tense final phase which I'm sure any clearer can agree is monumentally nerve wracking. Minus some gripes with reading attacks (like Yellow 3), it's just a really great fight. I loved it.
SAN is very unique, and whilst I'm hesitant to say underplayed as I know a fair number of people have started this and stopped at some point (most likely the Flandre avoidance), the actual content almost always remained fun for me. I'd very much recommend giving this game a shot, if not just to hone your gardening skills a little.
Rating: 8.5 85
Difficulty: 85 85
Jan 20, 2019
theTics
For: I Wanna One Room
For: I Wanna One Room
Free mode and hard mode of stage 6 were both the hardest yet best stages. In contrast, final stage is kind of a joke for the most part, many of the room were poorly made compared to the previous ones. Taken as a whole, it's a great game though. I mostly had fun.
Tagged as: Needle
[0] Likes
Rating: 7.0 70
Difficulty: 63 63
Jan 20, 2019
Anon70000
For: I Wanna Kill The Kamilia 2 Remake
[6] Likes
For: I Wanna Kill The Kamilia 2 Remake
[6] Likes
Rating: 2.0 20
Difficulty: N/A
Jan 20, 2019
BreedPineapple
For: Vodka Makers
For: Vodka Makers
Vodka was definitely involved while making this.
[2] Likes
Rating: N/A
Difficulty: N/A
Jan 20, 2019
GLAYTV
For: I Wanna Defeat The Robot
For: I Wanna Defeat The Robot
Very good game
갓겜
[1] Like
갓겜
Rating: 10.0 100
Difficulty: 72 72
Jan 20, 2019
JB11
For: I Wanna Kill The Kamilia 2 Remake
[0] Likes
For: I Wanna Kill The Kamilia 2 Remake
[0] Likes
Rating: 10.0 100
Difficulty: 86 86
Jan 20, 2019
Kilgour22
For: Alpha Bloody Needle
For: Alpha Bloody Needle
It's really bad, but if for whatever reason you want to play it, the password is "BAN".
[1] Like
Rating: N/A
Difficulty: N/A
Jan 20, 2019
Xplayerlol
For: I wanna be the evolution
For: I wanna be the evolution
Interesting adventure where you need to collect items that add gimmicks to the platforming, allowing you to progress. It's reminiscent of I wanna fly the Kite, but most items affect the platforming rather than the Kid (It's also a lot less needle-ish). The variety is nice, you never spend too long working with the same gimmick (Thankfully, since the trap sections aren't very good) and the saves feel different from each other.
I'm hardly a fan of the visuals, since the sprites and background don't fit with each other at all. The screen's borders are another problem (Some kill, some are solid and some are paths, and often you don't know which one is what), and I recall some items whose only purpose is to unlock paths you can only reach AFTER getting the item, so it's exactly the same as if there was no item at all. Speaking of borders, even if you ignore the borderkills, there are quite a few saves that make cheap uses of screen transitions, like leaps of faith and placing spikes or other killing objects near the screen's entrance. And finally, because sometimes it's not very clear where you should go, there's the danger of backtracking as well.
It ends with an alright boss. It's fun, not super inventive but definitely not generic either.
I guess I liked it, but just barely. It has an interesting concept, but it's not very well implemented and even if you ignore that, it has some shortcomings that counterbalance its appeals. Not sure if I would recommend.
[1] Like
I'm hardly a fan of the visuals, since the sprites and background don't fit with each other at all. The screen's borders are another problem (Some kill, some are solid and some are paths, and often you don't know which one is what), and I recall some items whose only purpose is to unlock paths you can only reach AFTER getting the item, so it's exactly the same as if there was no item at all. Speaking of borders, even if you ignore the borderkills, there are quite a few saves that make cheap uses of screen transitions, like leaps of faith and placing spikes or other killing objects near the screen's entrance. And finally, because sometimes it's not very clear where you should go, there's the danger of backtracking as well.
It ends with an alright boss. It's fun, not super inventive but definitely not generic either.
I guess I liked it, but just barely. It has an interesting concept, but it's not very well implemented and even if you ignore that, it has some shortcomings that counterbalance its appeals. Not sure if I would recommend.
Rating: 5.6 56
Difficulty: 40 40
Jan 20, 2019
arufa
For: I wanna kill the murasaki ringo
For: I wanna kill the murasaki ringo
クリアしてもセーブがされない...
Tagged as: Boss
[0] Likes
Rating: 2.0 20
Difficulty: 37 37
Jan 20, 2019