It’s basically Super Meat Boy but uglier and way sloppier. Not worth playing.
I’m not even much of a Super Meat Boy fan to begin with, but I can at least credit that game with nailing its sense of momentum and generally handling pretty well. This game does neither of those things. The main issue with its movement seems to be that there simply isn’t enough easing on it, especially when it comes to midair movement. This means landing on precise platforms is a total crapshoot and it generally makes everything feel way more slippery than it ought to. The base walking speed also feels too high, to the point where there’s barely much of a difference at all in the walk and run speeds. This makes it rather ambiguous if the level expects you to run or walk in order to make it through certain obstacles, resulting in more trial and error than should be necessary. This isn’t helped by the fact that spike hitboxes felt obnoxiously liberal, as these issues exacerbate one another leading to a serious lack of precision overall.
Screwing up the movement and momentum in a difficult and high-speed 2D platformer is pretty obviously a dealbreaker. But to give credit where credit is due, it’s certainly not all bad. The game’s toggle mechanic is a pretty decent concept that's used in a few unique ways. For example, wall jumping through a toggle platform and landing on the opposite side to prepare for a longer jump, and catching yourself under a toggle platform above a pit of spikes both feel pretty satisfying to execute. Though I still wish the mechanic was used more frequently, since it’s pretty much the only thing that sets the game apart.
The cutscene artwork, while sparse, is also pretty nice. The watercolor aesthetic is stylized and gives the game a colorful, lively atmosphere reminiscent of Rayman Origins and Rayman Legends. Unfortunately though, the in-game visuals aren’t anywhere near as impressive. The foreground art and assets generally look very cheap and flat. To its credit though, some of the background art is surprisingly unique and notable. The best example being the spider elephant things with pyramid huts on their backs that walk across the background of the desert level. It’s a fun design for a background element.
Overall, the package feels super cheap and sloppy, but there’s unquestionably some charm and care put into it. I just think the game fails on too fundamental a level to even be considered worth trying. It definitely needed more work to refine the movement and momentum of Ka himself before level design and boss patterns even started being created. To its credit, they’re certainly designed around Ka’s hectic movement, but that doesn’t change the fact it handles very poorly. You can’t build up a tower if the foundation is uneven- it’ll inevitably fall no matter the level of care put into placing its subsequent building blocks.
Also it crashed on me like three times. But hey, it was short and only like a dollar, so whatever.
I’m not even much of a Super Meat Boy fan to begin with, but I can at least credit that game with nailing its sense of momentum and generally handling pretty well. This game does neither of those things. The main issue with its movement seems to be that there simply isn’t enough easing on it, especially when it comes to midair movement. This means landing on precise platforms is a total crapshoot and it generally makes everything feel way more slippery than it ought to. The base walking speed also feels too high, to the point where there’s barely much of a difference at all in the walk and run speeds. This makes it rather ambiguous if the level expects you to run or walk in order to make it through certain obstacles, resulting in more trial and error than should be necessary. This isn’t helped by the fact that spike hitboxes felt obnoxiously liberal, as these issues exacerbate one another leading to a serious lack of precision overall.
Screwing up the movement and momentum in a difficult and high-speed 2D platformer is pretty obviously a dealbreaker. But to give credit where credit is due, it’s certainly not all bad. The game’s toggle mechanic is a pretty decent concept that's used in a few unique ways. For example, wall jumping through a toggle platform and landing on the opposite side to prepare for a longer jump, and catching yourself under a toggle platform above a pit of spikes both feel pretty satisfying to execute. Though I still wish the mechanic was used more frequently, since it’s pretty much the only thing that sets the game apart.
The cutscene artwork, while sparse, is also pretty nice. The watercolor aesthetic is stylized and gives the game a colorful, lively atmosphere reminiscent of Rayman Origins and Rayman Legends. Unfortunately though, the in-game visuals aren’t anywhere near as impressive. The foreground art and assets generally look very cheap and flat. To its credit though, some of the background art is surprisingly unique and notable. The best example being the spider elephant things with pyramid huts on their backs that walk across the background of the desert level. It’s a fun design for a background element.
Overall, the package feels super cheap and sloppy, but there’s unquestionably some charm and care put into it. I just think the game fails on too fundamental a level to even be considered worth trying. It definitely needed more work to refine the movement and momentum of Ka himself before level design and boss patterns even started being created. To its credit, they’re certainly designed around Ka’s hectic movement, but that doesn’t change the fact it handles very poorly. You can’t build up a tower if the foundation is uneven- it’ll inevitably fall no matter the level of care put into placing its subsequent building blocks.
Also it crashed on me like three times. But hey, it was short and only like a dollar, so whatever.