this is one of the worst crash bandicoot clones ive played
Looks like one of those fake games kids would play in the background of movies. Dreamcast aesthetic overload with this Crash Bandicoot clone that feels it could have been a cool modern little indie game on steam shame it failed and never became a series.
Holy mother of vibes. This games aesthetic is PEAK dreamcast. Colors everywhere, late 90s vibes mixed with early 2000s Y2K vibes, just goes off on all cylinders with its presentation and art direction. The game itself is like crash bandicoot but with a magnet gimmick. It's pretty cool, the levels are decently designed and there's even some pretty precise platforming challenges that get thrown at ya later on. This games a must play on the dreamcast, it's crazy that I don't see more people talking about this.
Nostalgia is why I putted 4 stars, I love the aesthetic tho
Crash Bandicoot with magnet mechanics
it's really pretty, running at 60fps with models that look on par with early PS2
but man
it feels soooooo un-natural and has so much cheap fake difficulty
it's reaaaaaally rough
it's really pretty, running at 60fps with models that look on par with early PS2
but man
it feels soooooo un-natural and has so much cheap fake difficulty
it's reaaaaaally rough
crash-like with a twist: you can emanate a magnetic field around yourself for either polarity, north or south. magnetized items (with color-coded polarity for your convenience) will respond appropriately; if you use the opposite polarity, you'll be pulled towards the object, and if you use the same polarity, you'll be pushed away. in practice the implementation is rather ticky-tacky, with the actual interactable set being limited to jump pads you trigger with the same polarity and swings/ziplines you trigger with the opposite polarity. not necessarily a compelling hook on its own, and indeed, the game is a bit of a hard sell. it uses crash's one-hit kill system without a corresponding amount of shield items, its life system is somewhat stingy, and the game outwardly tends towards trial and error, with many magnetic interactable sections coming down to memorizing polarity sequences.
overcome these punitive aspects, however, and you'll find a rare platformer that virtually never repeats an idea. across sixteen levels the game flips the script at virtually every checkpoint, putting fresh spins on ideas from earlier in the level or introducing completely bespoke setpieces and puzzles. in the last level alone, the game introduces stomping hydraulic presses with temporary platforms in between, a curved rainbow slope leading down to a bottomless pit, piston platforms raising and lowering from an electric pit on a cycle (first on an alternating cycle, secondly all synchronized, with parallel bounce pads to suspend yourself between when the platforms lower), alternating lasers on either side of a gap with bounce pads that fling you to the other side, a series of different cycling platforms over lava with enemies you can throw to destroy doors, and a race to exit a safe before platforms crumble in sequence, with spotlights swirling around that trigger lasers on each line of blocks. that's one five minute level! it's erratic and creative in the best ways, switching tempo on the fly between fast-paced, timed platforming and slower throwable-enemy puzzle sections. there's a klonoa-esque flair to its puzzles, but where klonoa would iterate upon individual mechanics and structures to create conceptually driven levels, magnetic neo just tosses ideas off and moves on. a frantic way to approach design.
that alone makes it fascinating, but in a trial-and-error environment, the actual responses to these challenges would be rigid. however, the magnetism component has the subtle addition of proper inertia regarding when one activates and deactivates their magnetic field. this applies both to timing interaction with swings and ziplines to fly off at certain directions and speeds as well as adjusting the angle off of launch pads. sections involving these interactables become more fluid in how they're approached, with minor skips cropping up in various sections when using the physics to one's advantage. the levels are specifically designed around these mechanics, with many sections having multiple different ways to traverse them explicitly laid out by the developers. the simplest configuration of this is having one path dedicated to magnetic elements and the other as a straight platforming sequence; it seems in some instances they punish players who refuse to learn the speedier yet more opaque magnetism sections with long-winded cycle platforming. however, some sections go even beyond this, having the two paths intertwine in such a way that one could seamlessly transition between them depending on how they conduct their movement. considering its corridor-based level design, the open-ended nature of these setpieces bolsters the explorability of their mechanics and reduces the tedium of repetition.
the environments match the design techniques in their commitment to never staying the same, as demonstrated in level 2-3. the level starts at the base of a pyramid, scaling it and soaring through it as the level progresses. when finally it reaches the stratosphere, the background transforms into an oasis above a bed of clouds, capping off the scene with the stark blue sky above. the game keeps this fervor for change throughout. while simple, it matches the strengths of the dreamcast nicely: flat lighting, clean and seamless characters, and bright colors.
overcome these punitive aspects, however, and you'll find a rare platformer that virtually never repeats an idea. across sixteen levels the game flips the script at virtually every checkpoint, putting fresh spins on ideas from earlier in the level or introducing completely bespoke setpieces and puzzles. in the last level alone, the game introduces stomping hydraulic presses with temporary platforms in between, a curved rainbow slope leading down to a bottomless pit, piston platforms raising and lowering from an electric pit on a cycle (first on an alternating cycle, secondly all synchronized, with parallel bounce pads to suspend yourself between when the platforms lower), alternating lasers on either side of a gap with bounce pads that fling you to the other side, a series of different cycling platforms over lava with enemies you can throw to destroy doors, and a race to exit a safe before platforms crumble in sequence, with spotlights swirling around that trigger lasers on each line of blocks. that's one five minute level! it's erratic and creative in the best ways, switching tempo on the fly between fast-paced, timed platforming and slower throwable-enemy puzzle sections. there's a klonoa-esque flair to its puzzles, but where klonoa would iterate upon individual mechanics and structures to create conceptually driven levels, magnetic neo just tosses ideas off and moves on. a frantic way to approach design.
that alone makes it fascinating, but in a trial-and-error environment, the actual responses to these challenges would be rigid. however, the magnetism component has the subtle addition of proper inertia regarding when one activates and deactivates their magnetic field. this applies both to timing interaction with swings and ziplines to fly off at certain directions and speeds as well as adjusting the angle off of launch pads. sections involving these interactables become more fluid in how they're approached, with minor skips cropping up in various sections when using the physics to one's advantage. the levels are specifically designed around these mechanics, with many sections having multiple different ways to traverse them explicitly laid out by the developers. the simplest configuration of this is having one path dedicated to magnetic elements and the other as a straight platforming sequence; it seems in some instances they punish players who refuse to learn the speedier yet more opaque magnetism sections with long-winded cycle platforming. however, some sections go even beyond this, having the two paths intertwine in such a way that one could seamlessly transition between them depending on how they conduct their movement. considering its corridor-based level design, the open-ended nature of these setpieces bolsters the explorability of their mechanics and reduces the tedium of repetition.
the environments match the design techniques in their commitment to never staying the same, as demonstrated in level 2-3. the level starts at the base of a pyramid, scaling it and soaring through it as the level progresses. when finally it reaches the stratosphere, the background transforms into an oasis above a bed of clouds, capping off the scene with the stark blue sky above. the game keeps this fervor for change throughout. while simple, it matches the strengths of the dreamcast nicely: flat lighting, clean and seamless characters, and bright colors.
Seeing the middling reviews on this game kind of surprised me because for what it is, this is one solid as hell crash-esque 3d platformer with a cool magnet gimmick. The Y2K vibes add an extreme flavor to this game in a good way, with all the colors and charm oozing out of it, it's something that i eat up like fuckin steak. Granted it is kinda slow, and weirdly precise and kinda difficult for a game of this caliber, and the jumping feels a bit weird, but other than that man this is a hidden gem. If you see this game at a yard sale or something for cheap pick it up, is fun :)
best 3d platform on the dreamcast
it has been long time since i played difficult and unique 3d platform i gave it 8.5
it has been long time since i played difficult and unique 3d platform i gave it 8.5
Very sad to report that despite the lovely presentation, aesthetic, and general Dremcast-ness of this game, actually playing it isn't very good.
This is a game trying to match the precision 3D platforming of Crash Bandicoot, with the added mechanic of magnetism to add some extra challenge and thinking to it. This would be fine except the controls here are not nearly as precise as Crash Bandicoot. The jump doesn't feel great, and it along with some depth perception issues make just barely missing a platform a very common problem. There's a run button, and the game often expects you to make a running jump instead of a regular one, but the problem is that you can never immediately tell when a pit requires a normal or running jump. The run is also something that lingers longer than you hold it, meaning there were lot's of instances of running straight off a platform. Coupling it with the imprecise jump, it truly is completely unreliable.
As for the magnet mechanic itself, the way it works is that north is represented by the color red and south is represented by the color blue. The game is all about identifying what color-coded objects needs to be repelled and what needs to be attracted to. There are red bounce pads that require using the north (red) magnet on, red ziplines that require a south (blue) magnet, enemies of red and blue colors, and so on. It takes a while for the colors to really sink in, and even more than half of the way through the game I was still fucking up which magnet to use. This is mostly because when you jump off of a blue bounce pad that requires a blue magnet to use, and that bounce pad leads to a blue zipline, I instinctually go "well I used blue on the blue thing last time, I should just use blue again on this blue thing too". There needs to be a better communication of when something requires attraction and when it requires repelling, more of a visual prompt, because I really can't get it memorized.
In general this game could use a lot better visual communication. For example, the game expects you to time when you swing off one of the ziplines, as in getting off at the end will drop you nearby while getting off closer to the middle will launch you further. But this exact place to get off is very vague and, like many other parts of the game, unreliable. There are power-ups that grant you another hit, but when you get hit there's no visual or audio cue, so you could just be completely vulnerable and not realize it. Hitboxes in this game in general are real wonky, there were times where an obstacle was gone but its hit box would linger slightly longer.
It's sad that this game is actually bad because it's so charming and has a great Y2K aesthetic going on, and the premise sounds super promising, and with every level I was just hoping for the moment it would click and all come together, and that I was the problem and I just needed to learn the game, but when I made it to world three of four and still had all the same problems, I knew I just had to give up on it. Goodbye, Super Magnetic Neo, forever.
This is a game trying to match the precision 3D platforming of Crash Bandicoot, with the added mechanic of magnetism to add some extra challenge and thinking to it. This would be fine except the controls here are not nearly as precise as Crash Bandicoot. The jump doesn't feel great, and it along with some depth perception issues make just barely missing a platform a very common problem. There's a run button, and the game often expects you to make a running jump instead of a regular one, but the problem is that you can never immediately tell when a pit requires a normal or running jump. The run is also something that lingers longer than you hold it, meaning there were lot's of instances of running straight off a platform. Coupling it with the imprecise jump, it truly is completely unreliable.
As for the magnet mechanic itself, the way it works is that north is represented by the color red and south is represented by the color blue. The game is all about identifying what color-coded objects needs to be repelled and what needs to be attracted to. There are red bounce pads that require using the north (red) magnet on, red ziplines that require a south (blue) magnet, enemies of red and blue colors, and so on. It takes a while for the colors to really sink in, and even more than half of the way through the game I was still fucking up which magnet to use. This is mostly because when you jump off of a blue bounce pad that requires a blue magnet to use, and that bounce pad leads to a blue zipline, I instinctually go "well I used blue on the blue thing last time, I should just use blue again on this blue thing too". There needs to be a better communication of when something requires attraction and when it requires repelling, more of a visual prompt, because I really can't get it memorized.
In general this game could use a lot better visual communication. For example, the game expects you to time when you swing off one of the ziplines, as in getting off at the end will drop you nearby while getting off closer to the middle will launch you further. But this exact place to get off is very vague and, like many other parts of the game, unreliable. There are power-ups that grant you another hit, but when you get hit there's no visual or audio cue, so you could just be completely vulnerable and not realize it. Hitboxes in this game in general are real wonky, there were times where an obstacle was gone but its hit box would linger slightly longer.
It's sad that this game is actually bad because it's so charming and has a great Y2K aesthetic going on, and the premise sounds super promising, and with every level I was just hoping for the moment it would click and all come together, and that I was the problem and I just needed to learn the game, but when I made it to world three of four and still had all the same problems, I knew I just had to give up on it. Goodbye, Super Magnetic Neo, forever.