Now this game is an absolute CLASSIC from the Adobe Flash days. For those unfamiliar, The Fancy Pants Adventures is a series of (formerly) Adobe Flash browser games developed by Brad Borne.
This is a new game inspired by those flash games, so we'll be treating it as a relatively standalone project just for the sake of argument.
The first thing that might strike you about this game is the art style. It's very simple, sort of playing on that early Flash animation 'Newgrounds' style of stick figure. The main character (the Fancy Pants man?) is animated frame by frame by hand, leading to this super fluid looking character, whose movement is accentuated by his flowing hair and pants. It all leans into this smooth, slick look that the whole game has going on, looking like strokes of a digital pen.
The controls that those animations are helping are also butter smooth. The closest frame of reference for somebody like me (a deranged Sonic the Hedgehog fan) would be the classic Sonic games, with how they handle gradual buildup of speed, slopes, and the ways that you can jump off of ramps at different points to get different velocities in those jumps. I'd argue that it's even more smooth than those games in ways, the wall jumping and running makes the game all flow together seamlessly. It truly is a joy to control, and I'd personally really like to see just what goes on inside of that engine.
The levels are probably the most lacking part of this game, as I find some of the themes just kind of blend together, but the visuals are still very nice overall, and some areas have some rather good tunes to accompany them, and have gotten themselves lodged in my head over the years. The dialogue throughout the game is also just a good time. It doesn't take itself too seriously and knows when to crack a good joke, but it isn't a comedy by any means. It very much taps into that 'internet humor' of the early 2010s, in the nicest way possible. For a game that started life on the web, I can think of no more fitting a style.
The support for four player co-op is also a great perk to this version of the game. Each player is also able to customize their character with over 100 cosmetic items, all of which feel genuinely fun and creative (personal combo is the classic hair, cyan pants, and the pointy finger as my weapon). Nailing co-op is a tough task, but this game is very loose with both controls and the camera, so you don't tend to run into the same issues you might with shoving co-op into other games.
This game leaves me wanting a sequel so badly, it's simple fun that's a good time almost all the way through! I didn't even talk about how it includes the entirety of the first two Flash games in the series as unlockables!
As a final note, I played this game on Xbox 360, and as this is a digital only title, it will become unplayable on that platform following the 360's digital marketplace shutdown in July of this year. This game and likely hundreds of others will be lost in that shuffle, and although this game is thankfully preserved through a Flash demake and a mobile port (that could also get taken down at any point the publisher would like), many other games don't even have that luxury. If you'd like to try this game out on the 360, just know you have a limited time to do so.
With all that said, I do absolutely think you should give this game a try, although you'll get much the same experience playing the Flash version of this game or its predecessors. Even if not this specific game though, the Fancy Pants series is worth keeping an eye on, and I have the newest game 'Super Fancy Pants Adventures' on my backlog as we speak! Maybe you'll hear from that soon!
This is a new game inspired by those flash games, so we'll be treating it as a relatively standalone project just for the sake of argument.
The first thing that might strike you about this game is the art style. It's very simple, sort of playing on that early Flash animation 'Newgrounds' style of stick figure. The main character (the Fancy Pants man?) is animated frame by frame by hand, leading to this super fluid looking character, whose movement is accentuated by his flowing hair and pants. It all leans into this smooth, slick look that the whole game has going on, looking like strokes of a digital pen.
The controls that those animations are helping are also butter smooth. The closest frame of reference for somebody like me (a deranged Sonic the Hedgehog fan) would be the classic Sonic games, with how they handle gradual buildup of speed, slopes, and the ways that you can jump off of ramps at different points to get different velocities in those jumps. I'd argue that it's even more smooth than those games in ways, the wall jumping and running makes the game all flow together seamlessly. It truly is a joy to control, and I'd personally really like to see just what goes on inside of that engine.
The levels are probably the most lacking part of this game, as I find some of the themes just kind of blend together, but the visuals are still very nice overall, and some areas have some rather good tunes to accompany them, and have gotten themselves lodged in my head over the years. The dialogue throughout the game is also just a good time. It doesn't take itself too seriously and knows when to crack a good joke, but it isn't a comedy by any means. It very much taps into that 'internet humor' of the early 2010s, in the nicest way possible. For a game that started life on the web, I can think of no more fitting a style.
The support for four player co-op is also a great perk to this version of the game. Each player is also able to customize their character with over 100 cosmetic items, all of which feel genuinely fun and creative (personal combo is the classic hair, cyan pants, and the pointy finger as my weapon). Nailing co-op is a tough task, but this game is very loose with both controls and the camera, so you don't tend to run into the same issues you might with shoving co-op into other games.
This game leaves me wanting a sequel so badly, it's simple fun that's a good time almost all the way through! I didn't even talk about how it includes the entirety of the first two Flash games in the series as unlockables!
As a final note, I played this game on Xbox 360, and as this is a digital only title, it will become unplayable on that platform following the 360's digital marketplace shutdown in July of this year. This game and likely hundreds of others will be lost in that shuffle, and although this game is thankfully preserved through a Flash demake and a mobile port (that could also get taken down at any point the publisher would like), many other games don't even have that luxury. If you'd like to try this game out on the 360, just know you have a limited time to do so.
With all that said, I do absolutely think you should give this game a try, although you'll get much the same experience playing the Flash version of this game or its predecessors. Even if not this specific game though, the Fancy Pants series is worth keeping an eye on, and I have the newest game 'Super Fancy Pants Adventures' on my backlog as we speak! Maybe you'll hear from that soon!
Absoluta droga, el movimiento era bestial
7,5/10