Alright, first of all
I beat this game, and got all the gems(including level 9)
This game has some really broken mechanics, specifically because they contradict each other, but also because they don't work.
Before we continue, I don't want you to feel as though this game is a horrible game. I don't want you to take this personally.
This game has issues, but we can learn from them. That's what critical reviews should be, telling the author of the game that there are issues, then finding where those issues are, where they come from, and how it might be fixed.
Alright, let the dissection commence
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Let's start with running. I really liked running in this game, when you start running, it gives this satisfying pop sound effect, along with some graphical smoke, and it is so fun to run through the level without stopping!
If only ANYTHING in this game accommodated for this.
First of all, you can't control your jump.
When you are running, you need to be able to control your player's jump. By taking this away, you end up jumping, then jumping too high. You are then forced to stop moving to land on a platform, then continue moving. This sucks.
The level design forces the player to wait before they can keep moving. The worst offender of this would be level 4, with the moving spikes. The end of the level requires that you stop moving to progress safely!
There is basically no point in running in this game because of this.
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The enemies are fine, except for one, but I'll get to that.
So the first enemy, I'll call it Spikey, is good.
It is very easy to understand, it moves toward the player.
The only issue with it is that it is a wall, you can stand on it. For this kind of enemy, that doesn't really work. But honestly, it doesn't really matter(until there are 4 of them on the screen at once)
The snake is fine, but it also suffers from the collision issue.
The shooter guy in level 8, should not jump. It makes it too difficult to read where it is going to go, and every time there is one on-screen, I can't figure out how to get through without taking damage.
Maybe it can jump, but not that high. I'll tell you why in a second.
Alright, worst enemy time.
The flying Spikey is horrible.
The issue with it is that it always comes from above, which happens to be the only direction you can't shoot at.
Because of this, none of the enemies should never, EVER come from above, which happens to be the most frustrating enemies(the flying spike, the shooter guy, and unfortunately the final boss)
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Platforming in this game is such a chore.
I already said controlled jumping can help, but there is more.
This game was not meant for precision(landing on a one tile large platform, etc), yet the levels keep making you do that.
Every time the level tells me to do something even remotely tight, I just want to quit, here's why.
The player's hitbox is a capsule, which causes the player to slide off platforms, which is so bad! Never do this in a platformer.
The player's jumping is too inconsistent to make it fun.
Sometimes I jump, but I only jump halfway, causing me to fall into a death pit.
There are moving platforms, but when you jump off of it when it is moving down, you don't jump.
Even the disappearing platforms don't reappear!
And the worst one, the springs don't work.
Level 3 was so annoying, because of the section where you need to jump onto 2 springs.
You can jump on the first one, but sometimes, you only jump twice the height.
The second one doesn't even get you to the next platform, you need to super jump off the spring(which makes the platform go out of view, which is bad!)
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Now for just little things...
Coins don't have any use.
In Mario, coins guide players to locations, and when you collect enough, you get a 1-up.
In Sonic, coins let you take a hit before you lose a life.
In this game, they do nothing.
Ammo feels like a waste of screen space.
There is no point of it except for maybe to prevent shoot spam?
Any enemy that shoots should have a "tell" that they are about to shoot. The cactus, for example, could squish a bit before it shoots.
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Final notes:
The music sounded nice and worked really well with the area.
The desert theme imo was the best one.