Recent reviews by G.M.M.

Cute game! Nice and cozy environments and music. Feels like I'm going through Mario RPG maps and just focusing on jumping around. That can cause issues, it's always a little tough to judge jumps in this game, but you get better at it as you go along. Ran into a couple bugs along the way, but it's not a total hamper on the game. For $3, if this looks at all interesting to you, give it a try!

Incredible game. A fantastic presentation with a rocking soundtrack and a beautifully dense pixel art style. Plenty of bombs and difficulty levels for lower skill levels. I feel very motivated to go for better runs, both in score and using less bombs.

-- UPDATE in comments, difficulty is not as much of an issue now! --


I really REALLY want to love this game. The visuals are excellent, the music is great, the core gameplay has great potential (and at times hits that!), but there are so many things that bother me that it can be hard for me to enjoy it most of the time.

While this review is mostly going to include my criticisms, I still like it enough that I would recommend it. I think it's worth the $10 it's asking for and I want to see it succeed and improve, just keep that in mind as you read the rest.

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The main gameplay is a mix of a maze game, a puzzle game and an action game. Your goal is to fill up tiles on the map and avoid enemies until you've crossed enough tiles to finish the course. You're also given a bonus at the end to try to fill up the rest of the tiles without stepping on the ones you previously filled out. The first few courses illustrate these goals perfectly. At this point in the game, the maps are simple enough where you can get a perfect bonus just by filling the tiles as you go along. The enemies are also simple enough to let you start grasping the controls and playing with jumps. It's easy, but as a new player, you're still going to make mistakes and see ways to improve. It makes you want to perfect your pathing and master the movement to get the perfect bonus each time.

As the game gets harder, it quickly gets very tough to play the game like this. The main additions that show this are the rule changes in many courses for passing over tiles. These rules include needing to pass over tiles twice, tiles going back to normal if passed over again, and sometimes both at the same time. I did not find any of these changes fun to deal with. Needing to pass over the tiles twice simply delays your progression through the level. It just doesn't feel good to make almost no progress the first time around and only start to make normal progress on the second loop. Larger levels can lead to endings where you're running around the map looking for stray tiles in places you've already been to. At this point, I basically gave up on trying to get the perfect bonus and just focused on finishing the levels normally. Similar issues can be found with the tiles that go back to normal when walked over twice. As enemies force you to make quick decisions to find safety, you can't help but deactivate stray tiles as you find safety. Once again, this leads to combing the map at the end while looking for stray tiles in areas you've already been to. Though now in addition to that, you have to carefully move through these areas in order to not deactivate more tiles than what you're trying to activate. The ending bonus to these courses can be especially annoying as this rule is still in play. If you're unable to perfect the level and you want to keep your tile percentage high, the most efficient way to do it is to walk back and forth between two tiles, constantly activating and deactivating them, until you exit the bonus. It feels like the perfect encapsulation of what isn't fun about this gameplay type. It almost never feels like any of these rules enhance a level when they're added to it. There are some earlier smaller levels where it feels like you're able to properly manage the area you're given with the rules at play, but for almost all of the other levels, I would have rather just played them without these extra rules.

The enemies and hazards can often be the cause of the frustrations listed above. They're all simple enough on their own, but they can get unreasonably tough to handle as more spawn in. As you're trying to clear one area of the map, multiple enemies will start spawning all around you, each with unique gimmicks you have to keep track of. In addition, traps start to come out of the tiles themselves, including spikes that pop out when walked over and mud pits that stop you from jumping. Add these, the rules above, and the way you move around the level, and it quickly becomes too much to handle. If you're looking around the level for tiles you need to pass over, you now leave yourself open to enemies that teleport very close to you over tiles that you already passed over. Maybe you do notice the enemy and try to jump over it, but didn't notice that you just passed over a mud patch that leaves you wide open. Maybe instead you were able to jump over the enemy, but now that the camera tilted over to the side of the course you're jumping towards, you now notice that it's an enemy that lays traps behind it as it moves. Maybe you do successfully jump over it, but now you deactivated a tile and you don't know how you're going to get back to it. All of these situations are just too much to worry about at the same time when you're trying to survive an enemy encounter, but also complete your goal of filling out the board. Moving your focus back and forth between the level and your character, while also dealing with what you can't see because of the camera, makes it impossible to feel like you have a complete view or control of the environment. I don't want to complain about the camera too much because it does a really great job for the types of levels it's given, but with everything that's thrown at the player, it can still feel like it's not enough. The power ups you're given can help alleviate this, though you can't always rely on having them. If you die after collecting one, it can sometimes be tough to get another, making it feel like the intended solution for the course is just unavailable. In addition, some of them can be context specific, like the hammer that doesn't work if you're facing a ledge. It makes it a little more difficult to fight enemies coming from the ledge, which in a game that can get frantic, isn't something you want.

Some of the most confusing parts of the game for me is that while there are so many specific situations and rules like this, there are also many small moments where the game seems to disregard its own rules. Pink is universally the color used for course hazards, but sometimes the tile color for the level is pink. The spike trap mentioned before is not the only one in the game, as there is another spike trap that stays up at all times. This one can be walked on perfectly fine, you just can't jump onto it. In a game where you're focusing on multiple things at once in quick succession, I'm more likely to just avoid spikes in general on instinct. New enemies and hazards are sometimes explained before the level starts, but not always. There was a tutorial for both spike traps, but nothing for the mud trap. I'll admit that these are all much smaller issues than the previous ones listed, but they similarly lead to frustration as the game wants me to learn and prepare for all kinds of specific situations, but sometimes makes things a little more confusing for seemingly no reason.

All in all, many of the additions made to increase the difficulty of the game just end up feeling like they're taking away from what the core premise was at the beginning. I expected it to be mostly about planning your route while dealing with enemies and stage gimmicks that get in your way, but instead I feel I was given an overwhelming amount of rules and obstacles to deal with that make it almost impossible to focus on this. Maybe I'm focusing too much on what I think the game should be, but considering what's involved with getting the perfect bonus, I think the game does want to encourage that in some way.

I'm hoping the game can improve as updates are added. I do still like parts of the game and will probably try to complete it, I just needed to get my thoughts out there as it seems very close to being something really great.

A great little Namco-inspired arcade experience! From the graphics and sound to the gameplay itself, it's an easy to understand 80s arcade game that ramps up in difficulty through enemy movement and level design. Unlike the games of that era, this isn't looking for your quarters, so it never throws out anything that feels exceedingly unfair and the smooth air movement gives you many opportunities to escape what feels like a sure death. The game's main difficulty and replayability comes from getting the highest score possible. With each round having the potential to be done perfectly and each continue halving your current score, there's always a goal to reach and a satisfying end if you can get there. The practice mode and challenges for the different palettes can make this enjoyable even if you don't want to do a completely perfect run. It's definitely worth $5 for the first playthrough alone, and you'll probably want to play it more afterwards.

I N T E L L E C T U A L B O Y S

I would HIGHLY recommed this!

This is a simple platformer with randomly generated levels. These levels get harder and harder as you go on. While you're in these levels, you can collect gems that allows you to slow down time, be shown where to go, and see a bot do it.

The story mode has you go through these levels with different twists like double jumping, being big or small, and being stuck in a wheel. It also has a pretty cool intro animation.

The Arcade Mode has you go against everyone's score. You can chooses to do it with only double jumps or only being big or having nothing. Score is based on all the gems you get. If you get all the gems in the level, your score multiplier will go up. If you die or don't collect all the gems, this will go down. Currently, I'm addicted to this mode.

Marathon Mode lets you go through a long level after level where you choose the difficulty based on all the monsters in there.

Overall, the idea of improving your skill by upping the difficulty really makes you want to play the game again and again, especially with a high score. If you want a game with tons of replayability, get this!