Early Worm Reviews

[table] [tr] [th]GOAL[/th] [td]Sling the curled up red worm to the red apple in a physics-based environment while encountering various hindering obstacles.[/td] [/tr] [tr] [th]EXPERIENCE[/th] [td]Played similar puzzle games that uses physics as part of the overall game mechanic, but probably nothing like this![/td] [/tr] [tr] [th]SETUP[/th] [td]Played it in windowed mode, 1366 by 768 pixel resolution.[/td] [/tr] [tr] [th]CONTENT[/th] [td]11 chapters, with 9 levels each, except for the last chapter, which has only 8 levels. Grand total of 98 levels.[/td] [/tr] [tr] [th]ENDGAME[/th] [td]Mastering the rest of the levels that haven't gotten a 3-star ranking after reaching to the final level in the game.[/td] [/tr] [tr] [th]BOUGHT[/th] [td]2022 Steam Winter Sale for 0.39$.[/td] [/tr] [tr] [th]PLAYTIME[/th] [td]About 93.5 minutes on a mix of trying to finish levels with a 3-star ranking and playing more casually, and 115 minutes on finishing levels with a 3-star ranking after finishing the final level. Combined together is 115 minutes, or about 1.916 hours, almost 2 hours.[/td][/tr][/table] [b]My positives[/b] [list] [*] [b]The music that plays during the game is really jamming![/b] Hearing it from the video on the Steam page of this game, caught my attention seconds before seeing how the game plays. It remained stuck in my mind a fair amount when I wishlisted the game, as it's such joyous music! This music piece was made by HUKKA, which the song can be found on [url=https://soundcloud.com/hukka_music/early-worm]their SoundCloud account[/url], and interestingly, there's a [url=https://soundcloud.com/hukka_music/early-worm-slow]slow version of the same song[/url] which doesn't seem to be used at all in the game. [*] [b]The level backgrounds tend to have a different and distinct shape like an apple or a wrench[/b]. I enjoyed it, as it's a small and nice touch, as it breaks up the monotony when playing these levels through. [*] [b]The overall art direction and feeling gives this game a generally playful and carefree playing. Nice![/b][/list] [b]My negatives[/b] [list] [*] [b]There are no Steam achievements;[/b] this is my biggest negative for me; the 3-star system is present, which encourages players to experience the game to the fullest by mastering those levels with a limited number of moves, which is why it is disappointing that there's no Steam achievements that reflect this. [*] [b]It can be difficult to tell if the red worm was able to stick to the sticky yellow liquid with enough speed;[/b] sometimes the red worm can be able to stick to it, and sometimes not, as there's no strong visual indicator when the red worm would be able to stick to the sticky yellow liquid, and thus have to rely on the speed or motion of the red worm being flung. This is a problem when playing more than a couple of levels that uses this sticky yellow liquid game mechanic. [*] [b]While the game is in windowed mode, when the game isn't in focus, the system mouse cursor cannot be seen on the screen;[/b] this increases friction for me on when trying to get back to playing the game after doing a task on the computer, because of having to click on the screen to make the in-game cursor appear in the game, which unfortunately makes the resting red worm do an unnecessary sling action, resulting in me having to restart the level to tackle the level properly. [*] [b]Despite the the level background silhouette shape changes, the visual progression when playing through the levels in the game isn't strong and substantial due to using only the overall blue colors;[/b] it's more of a minor nitpick but even with the new obstacles to indicate a passage of time has passed playing through the levels, sometimes it feels like I'm playing through the same levels and the levels around them don't change strongly. The only other way to feed off by the chapter progression is after finishing the chapter, I manually just to see what the new chapter looks like, because I feel that the chapter icons are too easy to breeze by at a glance. This is a bit surprising since the trailer shows different colored backgrounds too, but it wasn't present in the game, oof. [*] [b]There isn't a detailed statistics section;[/b] the statistics section as-is can be can be found in the credits section, which is in the eleventh world, accessible upon finishing all the levels. The statistics section shows the amount of moves across all the levels played, and the amount of stars you earned, but it doesn't show many moves and stars per level in a list. You can only check what stars you earned specifically by looking through the worlds in the main menu, but the amount of moves you done when finishing a level is completely hidden, as there is no way to know how many moves you made for each level unless you recorded it manually. One could say this is supposed to be a more relatively chill game with a more casual atmosphere, but the existence of the 3-star ranking system followed by the statistics section gives it meaning to the proficiency of mastering these levels with a 3-star ranking, and the lack of details for each level in a list hampers this notion of what a statistics section should be about.[/list] [b]My eehs/neutral feelings[/b] [list] [*] [b]The game lacks controller support;[/b] this can be considered a negative for people who are more comfortable playing the game with a controller, it's more of an observation. although I do admit it can be a bit tiring to constantly drag the mouse cursor to do constant flings repeatedly on certain levels that require to do so, and I have to take breaks a bit frequently to reduce the pain. [*] [b]Conflicting thoughts on whether there should be more levels or not;[/b] seeing the obstacles being introduced, I felt they weren't fully utilized as I progress through the levels, something like a level that has spikes and black anti-gravity fields in it, which makes me wonder if the game would have more levels to be able to fully explore the game mechanics and how they interact each other. However, as-is, the game doesn't overstay it's presence by not having level be very similar and not enough distinction, assuming that is all the game mechanics and obstacles it has to provide without continually adding obstacles, because otherwise it could feel padded out without proper pacing. [*] [b]The game isn't Steam Deck verified;[/b] I was researching this game a bit more as I write this review, and this was originally on [url=https://apps.apple.com/app/early-worm/id1478722238]iOS[/url] and [url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220222215339/https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.oddrok.badspider]Android[/url] in 2020, the latter not being available anymore. It makes more sense considering the standards of mobile video gaming regarding the controls and aesthetics, which makes it more surprising this isn't playable on Steam Deck. Seeing that this is on Steam, there's an audience of people that don't want ads that are found in the iOS version and won't mind buying this game and playing it on their Steam Deck, since the device has touch controls. I don't have a Steam Deck, but if I do, this would be a definite negative for me since this is perfect for the device.[/list] Despite the various shortcomings that I felt on the game, especially on Steam achievements, this is quite a joy playing through the game, short but sweet and cute aesthetically, since I played similar puzzle games that have a relatively short length; this one is much shorter but still sweet. Being this short, this could also be a good speedrun game, as it wouldn't take much long to go through the levels; could be good for replayability. What made me write this review is that since reviews that have a "Product received for free" marker don't count towards the overall review number count, thus it currently sits at 0 reviews, so I'll be the first to make a review without that marker.

Sweet and cute little game, I got it on sale and it was 100% worth it! Levels can be pretty creative and don't feel repetitive. I had a fun time :)

A pretty standard mobile puzzle platform game brought to the PC. Its quite barebones in terms of presentation, it's not as stunning as the studios previous game Power Hover. The gameplay is reasonably fleshed out with multiple gimmicks across the worlds. The game is reasonably priced for what it is, and if you like these kind of puzzle games you'll get a few hours out of it.

very easy levels for time killing but the game has its own charm though the music in loop can get tiresome fast considering how generic and low effort it is also why is there a gun loading sound when pressing the "restart" button? game is average and I can give it positive, however, I expected much much more creativity and effort from ODDROCK. their other game, Power Hover is a fun challenge with a unique identity, but this, this looks more like just a cash-grab after 5 YEARS of silence. The developer probably got broke and decided to quickly make a video game for some income Though the gameplay is basic and levels are OKAY, the game lacks a lot, a meaningless grain in the desert of low effort steam games. Still I would prefer this over weeb anime puzzles

A short, cute little platformer-ish game. I would suggest using a drawing tablet or touch screen of some sort, as the mouse doesn't feel fast or precise enough for some of the later levels.