I was skeptical about how a top-down driving game could work as a metroidvania, but you knocked it out of the park! The blueprint aesthetic was fun, it took me longer than I'd like to admit to figure out how I was supposed to get out of the first room, but past that everything else was very smooth. I think there was one room in the left area I never figured out how to get to, but other than that I think I got most of the extra powerups when I went back to explore before the end. Great work!
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THE DEFECTIVE UNIT's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Enjoyment | #2 | 4.053 | 4.053 |
| Execution | #8 | 3.895 | 3.895 |
| Overall | #12 | 3.747 | 3.747 |
| Sensory | #13 | 3.895 | 3.895 |
| Metroidvania | #19 | 3.842 | 3.842 |
| Relevance to the theme | #58 | 3.053 | 3.053 |
Ranked from 19 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Theme interpretation and application
Blueprint aesthetic with minimalistic shapes for enemies, rooms and background elements. The game only uses 5 sprites in total (and 3 are just for keys), the rest of the graphics is displayed using shaders.
Team/Developer
DaSquid, GengaMusica, Vastago
Reference info
dasquid
Comments
This is a very fun interpretation for a MetroidVania! Love seeing different moment-to-moment playstyles within this genre's overarching structure. The theming of escaping the test facility still feels very genre-appropriate, as does the escape sequence, haven't seen those as much, love to see it!
The visual style is pleasant to look at and clean. Using this measured design paper as a visual is very clever. It makes the textual instructions feel diegetic, and seems rather efficient at conveying gameplay information. The consistently spaced lines really help anchor your sense of speed, as they're right there next to the car for reference at all times. The enemies do feel a little bit out of place to me among the other assets, but I can see that being an awkward concept to design for in this art style. I'm glad they're there, as the combat just feels right as an extension of your maneuvering and boosting.
The controls are tight, intuitive, make excellent use of modern analogue sticks and mechanics like the ice and wind. The feel of the movement, juice of the skidding and the shake of the engine all make it feel a digital manifestation of going "vroom vroom!" over the furniture with a toy car. I'm not sure if there's anything special to the skidding state, but it's fine just feeling great. While I still don't understand how the ice physics work, and how accelerating backwards makes you go faster, they make up for it by being absolutely hilarious.
I have to commend the overall gameplay tuning as well, in how it felt challenging enough without overly laying on punishment. The upgrades to your stats are nice and chunky, so they feel quite empowering, even if most of my deaths were from ping-ponging between sawblades. With most unlocks, the final boss seemed easy, but I can see skipping the numerical powerups as being a great way to opt into a bigger challenge.
I had some trouble opening the final door, unsure how to access the keys I thought I already had. It seems you only hold one at a time somehow? It feels a bit unnecessary to do more than just hand in the keys you've come into contact with previously. I'm curious what exactly the design intent of them was. In the end I just doubled back to fetch the keys I wasn't holding at the time, which did, I suppose, make me run into another optional powerup.
Submitted
Sis' Day OffThank you for the very detailed feedback and I'm glad you enjoyed it!
The colored keys work by exposing the standard key to extremely high/low temperature for a while, and keep their "form" for half a minute. It's a direct reference to the original Metal Gear Solid where you needed 3 keys to deactivate a nuke, but in the end it was just the same key exposed to different temperatures. I agree that if you don't know the reference it can be a bit obscure to find out, I definitely should have made it clearer.
Ah I see! I can see that playing as a preamble to the escape sequence. I may have missed some form of visible timer on both, because aside from the presentation of the alarm state, there didn't seem to be any urgency. Plays well with the fact that you're driving, but indeed could use some clarity to really shine.
This is probably the most interesting MV I've seen this jam. I took some time to get into, but once I got the hange of it, it was pretty fun.
Submitted
Random Rain - MV - EditionThis was an awesome game!! I love a non-traditional movement idea to metroidvania and a driving combat game is exactly that! Its controls were buttery smooth on controller and the music was well made for each situation. A little issue I had was some doors seemed just like walls so I got lost a couple times, it was perfectly solved with the first one with the arc being drawn on the ground (and thank god I have some drafting knowledge lol) also the keycard solution was a nice nod to Metal Gear Solid, but I can see how a player who didn't play that might get confused without a little Otacon telling them. I also had some trouble with the combat; I would hit enemies and sometimes it would count as a hit and other times, I'd get damaged. Also a lot of bouncing off walls and getting all my HP blended by a spinny razor thingie happened a few times (especially in the ice area) but it's very forgiving with checkpoints. There was a fun amount of secret upgrades with enough of a subtle nod to them and I'm sure there's more I missed! Also very cheeky to have the ending sequence get you close enough to them to realize you missed them, it teased me enough for a replay and I found 1
Submitted
VisorWhat a cool aesthetic, definitely a highlight here! It feels fun to control too, the idea of a crash test dummy Metroidvania is very inspired, and the music feels very fitting. I especially loved the way it leaves tire marks everywhere, chronicling my tragic last moments on the ice testing area again…
My main gripe is that the way to get the keys feels a bit out of place in the game. I spent quite some time looking for walls to break, assuming that the extreme areas were just places I couldn’t get to yet. When I did eventually figure it out, it didn’t feel very satisfying, because the game hadn’t really put me in a puzzly mindset.
The combat and the little driving challenges were great though, I enjoyed the boss fight as well. Very well done and extremely polished little Metroidvania, good work all of you!
Submitted
BLOCKI loved this great job very well balanced it did crash for me on the web version once I think it was because of my laptop but overall amazing job!
Submitted
Dead Drop Courier- Car felt great to control
- Well put together presentation and music!
- Struggled to find the other two keys unfortunately but still had a lot of fun!!!
- Maybe I was mis-inputting but couldn’t make use of the slow mode on my PS5 controller
- Combat felt fun and a very clever and simple execution of combat with a car!
- Fun Level Design
Submitted
Until the Blood Runs DrySlow mode is not super useful but I found that some playtesters really liked it for precise angling in a certain part of the game, anyways on PS5 controller it should be the R1 button but I don't have a PS5 controller to test it with unfortunately
If you ever want to give it another try, I'll give you an hint for getting the other keys: try to think of rooms where the existing key could be "transformed"
Anyways I'm glad you enjoyed it!
- The game looks nice,
- and the audio is good too (I becomes a bit too much when in combat sometimes)
- ARROW KEY CONTROL???!?!??
- I took me a bit to get what I was supposed to do in the first room
- the car feels nice to control
- but the timing in the wind tunnel feels a bit tight for my slow reaction time ass (okay I got through)
- The Ice level is pain
- The boss fight is nice, hard but nice
Submitted
JUMPNINJA x Dracula Samurai
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