SPOILERS!
Positives:
I love the art style; it has a really unique and vibrant look to it. The music is also similarly great and helps to set the mood of the game, it’s energetic enough to make me want to climb mountains but not to the point that it’s distracting or invasive.
I appreciate the number of options available right from the start of the game, players can tailor the game to their preferred playstyle quickly and easily. Adding in assists for struggling players is a nice touch and helps broaden the game’s appeal.
The menus are well made, they have a lot of character and fit the game’s atmosphere.
NPCs are fun to interact with, the unique sounds and animations they have help to portray their emotions well.
The hanglider is a lot of fun to use and it made me even more keen to climb up high so that I could get some great airtime and admire the view. It also made getting around the world when at ground level even more fun, climbing up small hills or buildings to zip to where I needed to get to faster. It’s great fun.
Golden mushrooms made for a good collectable, I was keen to get as many as possible and fully upgrade my character. It definitely helped me see more of the world than I might have otherwise.
The extra challenges were a nice addition to the general gameplay and helped give the game some additional variety during play.
Bugs and things that might need work:
When you receives mushrooms for completing challenges it would be good to have some kind of small animation to reassure the player that they’ve received their mushrooms like they normally do when picking them up in the environment.
I felt it was strange to have notes in journal about the binoculars before you get them in the game, it felt somewhat like a spoiler.
There’s a spelling mistake with the white frog who delivers mail, he says ‘I am the fasted driver in the whole area’.
The radio can sometimes be shaky when held out.
When climbing Mt Croob, the game said I had done all of the stickers when I had only done two – the blue and yellow ones. I had done the blue first, then the yellow. Then when I completed the mountain and got the red sticker it didn’t show the blue or yellow one when the mountain complete prompt appeared.
When climbing up Mt Tree it told me I had collected the red sticker when I had gotten the yellow. Before this I had collected the blue sticker.
It might be an idea for you to change the text after completing the pumpkin trial and can receive no more mushrooms to ensure players don’t retry it and get surprised when they receive nothing.
I sometimes found that I couldn’t pull out my glider during a fall or jump when I pressed the correct key.
I think that a SFX for you burning your hands on the traffic lights might be fun and to reinforce that you can’t hold it.
I found a frog that was stuck in the wall – the one who tells you that Mount Thunder will change you if you complete it.
I found that the cloud level can sometimes obscure your view up the mountain in what I felt might be an unfair fashion.
There’s a spot where a mesh hasn’t been properly snapped to the floor.
Closing thoughts:
You’ve done a great job on this game. It’s got a tone and atmosphere that makes it feel original and the climbing and exploring is great fun. I’ve recommended it to friends, and I will watch your progress with great interest.