Velocity Noodle Reviews

Do not expect Celeste or The End is Nigh level precise mechanics from this game.

fun 2d platformer if you like challenging levels, similar to celeste and super meat boy. Movement is a bit different but easy to learn after a couple of levels

It's a really fun game, and im very excited to master the movement and get faster at completing the levels! It's definitely a good game for people that enjoy mastering mechanics and getting faster. But it's also fun for people that enjoy platforming games!

This is a really neat game. It's a fast paced precision platformer with a good sense of humor. It's also very unique design philosophy. It's not a combat game, It's all about the platforming. It can be a little glitchy. And there are some levels where I have no idea how to get the gold cup.

Fun movement, great artistic style and music. I'd say more, but the customers are waiting and these noodles aren't going to deliver themselves. Back to grind my pb.

Fun, fast and challenging. Not the type of games I usually play, but I had a great time and the music is an absolute banger. Would recommend!

Good pickup when on sale. It's a series of short but fun platforming challenges, with some tight but doable time challenges. Pro tip: use a controller, and use Steam's controller settings to unbind L3: sliding on controller can be a bit frustrating, but was absolutely infuriating when accidental L3 clicks kept bringing up the pause menu instead.

When I first tried this game earlier this year, I experienced the following bugs within just the first few levels: [list] [*]Sometimes after clearing a level, the next level loads suddenly, and your time for the level you just cleared gets erroneously saved as your PB for the level that just loaded instead (even if you've never played it). [*]Same as above, but this time, the flag that keeps track of whether you've found the collectible in a level gets erroneously saved to the next level instead. [*]Sometimes if you press or hold certain inputs while a level loads, the level timer will already be running before the countdown timer finishes, the countdown timer itself will slowly drift to the right off the screen, your character will spawn in the wrong place, and/or your character will appear stuck in an animation until you start moving. [*]Sometimes after clearing a level, your time will overwrite your PB even if your PB was faster. This can cause you to [i]lose[/i] trophies. [/list] I reported some of these bugs after playing, but they remain unfixed. Today, I tried playing the game again while being careful with my inputs so as not to trigger any of the bugs, but that didn't work, and I actually discovered more bugs instead: [list] [*]Sometimes after getting a PB on a level, the time that gets saved is 0.01s faster than the time that appeared on the clear screen. Maybe a rounding discrepancy? [*]Often, when pressing ESC to exit a level, the level select screen and main menu will appear on top of one another and can be navigated simultaneously. The Start button on a gamepad doesn't have this problem. [*]While writing this review, I tried replicating the above to understand the bug better, but the game crashed when I pressed ESC. This happened again later after I reinstalled the game to see if that would fix anything. [/list] I have no idea what game the people who left positive reviews played, but I wish I'd played that one instead. The game I played is comically dysfunctional. Even if you somehow manage to avoid the bugs, the game has other issues: [list] [*]When you jump onto a wall, there's a short delay before you actually latch onto it; so if you try to jump off the wall too soon, either it won't work or you'll waste your double jump. This makes jumping between two walls feel awful. [*]If you fail to slide under an object and are instead stopped by it, you have to back up a bit before you can attempt to slide under it again. This also feels awful. [*]It can be hard to distinguish foreground objects from background ones. [*]The writing is awkward and contains several mistakes. [*]The developer appears to have left an entire buffet of debug features in production without any safeguard in place to prevent them from being triggered by accident. Just press 1 to toggle visible hitboxes, 2 to toggle the HUD, 3 to toggle... something, 4 to toggle debug mode, 6 to toggle [i]infinite HP[/i], and F2 to instantly reset the game. I checked to see if it's possible to update your PB on a level while infinite HP is enabled, but the game crashed when I tried returning to the level select screen after clearing one. (I relaunched the game and found that my PB did indeed update.) [/list] This game probably has the highest problems-encountered-per-hour ratio of any game I've ever played in my life. But I hope I'm coming across as laughing [i]with[/i] rather than [i]at[/i] the developer, since I like the game's idea, controls, art, and music, and hope they continue to pursue their creative passion. Until some of these problems get patched, however, I'll have to leave this review here. (Remind me never to play a game recommended by Jarvis ever again.)

Quick Description: -Velocity Noodle is a fast twitch cyberpunk themed precision platformer that offers a blazing soundtrack and tons of challenging levels. This is a speedrunners dream and has been a real joy to experience. While at the moment, it doesn't offer a ton of content, it makes up for it w/ fluid movement and innovative mechanics that any fan of the genre will appreciate. *Notes: -I have completed the 3 chapter story mode and all of the Hard levels and it took me just under 3 hrs. However, I've only managed to get a gold medal 4-5 times and I have a ton of chopsticks to find throughout the levels. I have by no means mastered the fundamental mechanics as that will likely take many more hrs. The dev mentioned that there may be more levels added in the future. What's Good: -This game reminds me a lot of Aeon Drive but I think that Velocity Noodle feels far more fluid mechanically. Jumping, dashing, and throwing out your sword feels great. There is close to no input lag in anything that you do. This was one of my biggest gripes w/ Aeon Drive, so I'm glad to see that this game really nails this fundamental down. It can make or break a game in this genre and Velocity Noodle gets a big thumbs up in this department. -This has an absolute banger soundtrack! There isn't a ton of variety, but the songs that are offered are perfect for the tempo and speed of this game. It's exactly the type of music you would expect in a hyper speed cyperpunk world. -Both Velocity Noodle and Aeon Drive have very similar teleportation mechanics, but I think that the mechanic is utilized in a more innovative way here. The dagger in Aeon Drive teleports you to it's destination, but you always need a platform to land on. What makes Velocity Noodle special, is that you can essentially stay in air indefinitely once you have mastered this teleportation mechanic. It reminds me of the mechanic introduced in The Messenger which helps you stay airborn continually. -Although there aren't a ton of levels, the difficulty curve and pacing feel really good. I'd say that the learning curve is a tad more steep than the average game in this genre, but isn't too intimidating. The Hard levels are really fun and offer the most challenging and unique platforming sections in this game. I suspect that they ceiling is extremely high though. I've watched a few streamers and it looks like they are playing a different game b/c of how they have mastered the movement and mechanics. Could Use Some Changes: -The game length is clearly the biggest con right now. This is a game meant to be played over and over, but if you were to rush through the 3 chapters, avoid going for the chopsticks, and ignore the Hard levels, you could easily beat the whole game in under 2 hrs. That is clearly not the intended way to play the game. However, I'd still love to see another chapter or two in the future either added as a patch or a dlc. -The story is extremely limited and there is no voice acting. This is to be expected from a solo dev in this genre, but it's worth mentioning as some players always expect a unique narrative. -The camera moves as you move and jump throughout the levels. It can feel jarring at times, especially early on as you are getting used to it. I do believe that a patch has already been added that lowers the speed that the camera moves w/ the player. Thoughts: -This is my favorite genre and I'm a huge fan of solo devs that are trying to create passion projects. Clearly, the dev has put a lot of time, energy, and love into this fast and fluid speedrunner. It doesn't offer as much content or variety as the best in the genre, but it is a well designed, fun, and challenging game that won't hurt your bank account too much. Consensus: -Middle of the Road Game (Tier 4 and makes up 25% of my reviews). I'm looking forward to mastering the levels and collecting all of the chopsticks in the near future. I had a lot of fun w/ this game, but I'm not sure if it has the staying power that better games in the genre offer. I do think it's an easy recommendation when on sale, especially if you are a long time precision platformer fan.

I really enjoy platformers, but I'm more of a slow and precise kind of person. Speedrunning has never really been my thing, but this game blew me away. The game was almost perfect in terms of movement (there are some minor issues here and there but nothing really major), and it felt really good to flow through the levels, and get a bit better each time. Routing was not very complicated, and the gold medal times (including for the hard levels) were pretty tame and overall enjoyable. Highly recommend, but the price tag is fairly steep for the amount of content you are given. 100% buy during a sale though if you are into this kind of thing.