Oh boy, you deserve one big review for that comment made by Kayonji alone... Where do I start?
Summary
Adherence To Theme
- You collect your stuff before your psycho girlfriend comes in to murder you. While we (sadly) never get to see said psycho Girlfriend this is an excellent twist on the theme of packing! I loved the premise from the start!
Game Design
- Let me start with the worst possible offender. The one mark this game has that tarnishes it from perfection... It is not the tough time limit in the first level, nono It is the off screen firing projectiles that give exactly 0.2 s to react when they are on screen... I can think of no reason why these are here other than to make the player rage. Actually I know why they are here but the implementation is "I Wanna Be The Guy" level of frustration. I was not expecting this at all. The reason they are so cruel is that they firstly come from off screen almost all of the time and move rapidly fast. I'm not quite sure if this is intentional but I'm like a pretty tough nut to crack when it comes to platformers. Played Kaizo Mario without save states, if that says anything and I was quite angry. There needs to be a sound to signify the canons firing offscreen at the very least. If you feel like lowering the speed makes the game to easy. I was thinking of Super Mario Bros. 3 Cannonballs from the Ship levels. There needs to be some player anticipation.
- Now that I was super harsh with this one problem the game has, let's all calm down a bit. Wind down for a sec and continue. As I mentioned earlier the quiet strict time limit on the first level makes for a nice bit of challenge, being frantic but rewarding to pull off. I like this concept a lot!
- The controls where snappy and some jumps in the third level (not regarding those cannon crimes against humanity, oh no.) where quite tricky. But once the controls are mastered you find yourself zipping through the level easily.
- The cloth pieces where hidden quite well and I liked exploring the map. The only thing I didn't like is that sometimes it was not quite obvious where the exit will be, perhaps an arrow at the side point to it would help here.
Originality
- What can I say? The setting is adorable, the humor is extremely on point and the time attack concept is a nice twist on platformers. Perfect!
Style
- The game is an absolute treat, both visually and auditory.
- The graphics are super clean, clear and visible at any point in the game up until the third level. Where visibility takes quite a steep nose dive for noisy textures. Perhaps one could find some improvement here. The thing I'm talking about... There are portals, a new concept for this level, then there are little one tile graphics that look... Also like portals. The Solid ground is not standing out significantly more than the jump through platforms, unlike levels previously. This I didn't take into consideration as the art is extremely well done overall and it's not that big of a deal. One can grow accustomed to it quite fast.
- The music, I'm a big fan of, fits the comedic vibe but urgent nature of the game very well. Evolving soundtracks on top. So good.
- Sfx where a bit iffy. The jump sound got annoying on the third level, being played a lot back to back, but it was overall serviceable. The missing sound from the cannon is still quite bothering me.
Overall
Please don't take this review too personal. I loved this game a lot! Which meant I got quite heated when I felt like "Ooohhh nooooeee.... Why oh why did you do that!?" when the cannons kicked in haha. But... Perhaps... In a way this is metaphorical... The game reels you in with a love letter to all things platforming... But then tries to STAB YOU IN THE BACK...Like... LIKE A PSYCHOPATHIC EX GIRLFRIEND! How could I not see this all along!??!?!
Jokes aside though. I would highly welcome a bit of player feedback (Visual or Auditoral) on those cannons. They are the only things preventing me from giving this game full score and it is the most unsatisfyingly, wrong feeling thing I have had all month, not giving this game full score, that is.