Love this artist and have been following this project for a while now and I think the final game is... cute!
It has a great look and sound to it, the creator really understood the aesthetic that they were going for and they nailed it. Every world was unique and creative, paying homage to classic stage design archetypes while still offering fresh twists and neat storylines. The game's overall plot was very simple but I think that was a positive because it suited the childish nature of it all.
My favorite level was the first forest level, which felt the most charming and well-put together, but my favorite character was definitely the giant ship, which I thought that was such a clever idea. The presentation of the frozen palace was impressive too but sadly the world itself was my least favorite to play, and I don't want to spoil the final area but there were some baffling design choices in it that made it incredibly difficult to navigate at times.
In this vein, the collect-a-thon aspects were hit or miss- I like the idea that every world could be completed without needing the upgrades, but sometimes this meant that the solutions wound up being a bit overly complicated. Like they're the kind of solutions that a game dev who's thinking about the game holistically would jump to, but a player just playing it wouldn't. In particular I think of one puzzle that involved carrying an item unique to the second world to the fourth world rather than just like... putting an instance of that item in the fourth world to begin with.
That said, the puzzles that relied more on observing the world around me and probing it for secrets were fun! I wasn't interested in getting 100% but it was always a blast to uncover some new nook or cranny, and the hint system was helpful.
A lot of the other reviews mention the movement being off and sadly I have to agree- it's far clunkier than it thinks it is, which is a problem because the only way to build up speed is with momentum that you're rarely going to find since you have to keep awkwardly stopping. The biggest issue for me was the weird height of the default jump, which was rarely enough to get over even the shortest ledges in the game so I spent a LOT of time fumbling around trying to get one of the other jumps options to work. It's not a dealbreaker but it felt like the ratio of skill floor to skill ceiling was weird.
I will specifically mention the final boss though, which sadly kinda sucked. Like I got the idea of what they were going for but actually playing it felt awful- an excellent example of the "your punishment for failing is now you have to play this again" phenomenon that plagues gaming.
I feel like I spent a lot of time ragging on this game but honestly I did like it, it's just easier to point out the flaws than the positives. Even though there were some hiccups with the presentation I think it did exactly what it set out to do, which was be the cute little N64 throwback platformer of your dreams.
It has a great look and sound to it, the creator really understood the aesthetic that they were going for and they nailed it. Every world was unique and creative, paying homage to classic stage design archetypes while still offering fresh twists and neat storylines. The game's overall plot was very simple but I think that was a positive because it suited the childish nature of it all.
My favorite level was the first forest level, which felt the most charming and well-put together, but my favorite character was definitely the giant ship, which I thought that was such a clever idea. The presentation of the frozen palace was impressive too but sadly the world itself was my least favorite to play, and I don't want to spoil the final area but there were some baffling design choices in it that made it incredibly difficult to navigate at times.
In this vein, the collect-a-thon aspects were hit or miss- I like the idea that every world could be completed without needing the upgrades, but sometimes this meant that the solutions wound up being a bit overly complicated. Like they're the kind of solutions that a game dev who's thinking about the game holistically would jump to, but a player just playing it wouldn't. In particular I think of one puzzle that involved carrying an item unique to the second world to the fourth world rather than just like... putting an instance of that item in the fourth world to begin with.
That said, the puzzles that relied more on observing the world around me and probing it for secrets were fun! I wasn't interested in getting 100% but it was always a blast to uncover some new nook or cranny, and the hint system was helpful.
A lot of the other reviews mention the movement being off and sadly I have to agree- it's far clunkier than it thinks it is, which is a problem because the only way to build up speed is with momentum that you're rarely going to find since you have to keep awkwardly stopping. The biggest issue for me was the weird height of the default jump, which was rarely enough to get over even the shortest ledges in the game so I spent a LOT of time fumbling around trying to get one of the other jumps options to work. It's not a dealbreaker but it felt like the ratio of skill floor to skill ceiling was weird.
I will specifically mention the final boss though, which sadly kinda sucked. Like I got the idea of what they were going for but actually playing it felt awful- an excellent example of the "your punishment for failing is now you have to play this again" phenomenon that plagues gaming.
I feel like I spent a lot of time ragging on this game but honestly I did like it, it's just easier to point out the flaws than the positives. Even though there were some hiccups with the presentation I think it did exactly what it set out to do, which was be the cute little N64 throwback platformer of your dreams.