Concursion Reviews

I really liked the concept of this game a lot. Mixing the basics of some classic game types into zones, and they creating semi-new mechanics out of this interaction is very cool. The art, animations, and sometimes non-clear transitions can be jarring at times, but I would LOVE to see a second version of this game when they can maybe make it 2.5D and add/fix some things. Some people have some decent critiques of the game, I can agree with some, but the levels are short and there's plenty of checkpoints, so the little naggly things (for instance, those teeny-tiny asteroids of pain, that are hard me to see against the background!) didn't bug me too much, ESPECIALLY since this is such a cool, unique idea. I definitely recommend getting and playing it, it's cheap, and it's a pretty well-done project. I'm really hoping the developer comes back to this concept for a sequel to make a refined version of this game with some of the following elements fixed/changed (they weren't deal breakers for me, but I hope the second incarnation of this game has these changes). 1) 2.5D like trine, bittrip runner 2, etc 2) More control over zoom-view (sometimes sections would be artificially too hard based upon how much area around the character you can see) 3) Analog control of movement - I know it's "retro" to have digital control of movement input, but I think it would serve to expand the game with analog movement. 4) Control over zone change - this I'm not so super sure about, but I think it would be awesome if done correctly *I'll add more if I can think of them.

I literally allowed this game to ruin my life, and I liked it. The first things that attracted me to the game were its artwork and the fact that it's a platformer. I LOVE platformers. If I could gather up every platformer there was and play them all, I would. And the artwork is the kind that I like, smooth, high quality, but simple. I picked up the demo during the speed run competition and got like 17th or something (I didn't really try for very long), so I decided to buy the game instead, and let me tell you, it is the most worthwhile £7 I have ever spent. For a game with as much replay value as this, I would pay closer to £50. I then played the game and enjoyed the fact that it did have a difficulty curve, but I never felt like it was too difficult. Then the music. Where do I begin with the music? This game has one of the best Soundtracks ever, it's better than games by massive developers who spend 5 years developing one level of a game. All in all, this game is probably my favorite to be released this year, and I look forward to more games from Puuba. 10/10

The main appeal of Concursion is novelty. The Flash game style is often offputting. It's just kind of an okay to fair: -Sidescrolling platformer; -scrolling shoot-em-up; -and whatever the astronaut thing is supposed to be. *But*, the style that can be so offputting can in brief moments ring with the undeniable appeal some of those Flash games weren't without. Scoff if you want, but if you actually have Henry Stickman in your wishlist or have outright bought it, you've got no leg to stand on. And as for the genre switching, say what you will about games doing it too much, but I have yet to see a game actually do it quite like Concursion. As for the plot and dialogue, it's basic, yet at least has a plot, and the dialogue is interesting with a sense of humor, and can feel rather dark to me even, sometimes. As a budget-friendly tiptoe into "what if a Flash game were to be made as big as a full length game", I can recommend Concursion. Just go in with low expectations.

Hey everyone and this is my review about the game! This is a Platform game. [h1]Interface/Menu/Settings[/h1] You can play with a controller. There is fullscreen and windowed mode. There is a Large, Medium or small window size available. There is a Music volume slidebar available. There is a sound volume slidebar available. [h1]About the game.[/h1] You play at one moment with a ninja, other moment you are playing Pac man, other moment you play in space with a spaceship, other moment you are just playing a platform game, other moment you are an astronaut with a jetpack. it gives the player alot of variety though. al though you are forced to do this in order to beat it. It's a bit like Super mario world, you walk over a map and you have to beat a level in order to move on. Game is quite funny! Music is pretty good! The music changes too if you change from character. There are also collectable shards. There is normal and hardcore mode. [h1]Other things.[/h1] It has a bit of Mario References too. if you really like platformer, i do have to say this game is worth the price. ------------------- I give this game a 9/10

This game is the definition of a hidden gem. From now on, every time I hear that term, I'll think about this game. The real star of the show in this game is the level design; it's really masterfully done, exploring almost all things possible with the initial gameplay concept. Concursion has been in my Steam library for years. If I knew it was this good, I would have played it ages ago. Overall, after completing the entire game, I can say that I really enjoyed it. The downsides are that the visual presentation can feel a little lacking and some gameplay aspects may seem a little counterintuitive until you get the hang of them. However, I would still highly recommend this game.

[quote][b]Warning: Broken Game![/b] This game has design/implementation defects that will render this unplayable for many gamers. The game is bugged in such a way that no keyboard or controller inputs work. The game menu doesn't work, it's impossible to start a game.[/quote] Concursion is an older game from 2014. It's a venerable 11 years old at the time of this review. It's unclear when the game stopped working. The idea with this broken game is that you play through a few different lightweight ripoffs of other game genres, from platforming, shoot 'em up and so on... but the game doesn't work, so that's that. On technical quality, it's somewhat academic and I can only advise based on available media, because the game itself cannot be played. The game features simple, cartoony 2D graphics, of the type you normally expect to see in low effort mobile apps. 3D graphics programming does require a degree of skill and competence and unfortunately not all developers have the budget or talent to deliver this, despite 3D graphics cards hitting the mainstream in the 1990's. Considering this is being evaluated as a PC game, having the graphics phoned in like this isn't going to result in a high quality, visually impressive game that PC gamers are used to seeing. This looks and feels like a mobile app, but I wasn't able to find it on the app stores. Maybe it was removed, maybe it was rejected by Apple and Google (they do have more rigorous quality standards than Valve does for Steam, after all). Regardless, for all intents and purposes Concursion might as well be a mobile app, it has the same limitations and dumbed down qualities. It's impossible to recommend such a game to PC gamers. We don't spend all this money building gaming rigs so we can pretend they're iPhones and play games that might as well be mobile apps. These technical defects push this game below acceptable standards for any modern PC game. You don't have to take my word about how bad the game is, we can measure the interest in a game by how much people bothered to play it. Concursion has achievements, and they show us a very clear picture that the game absolutely failed to capture any interest from gamers. The most commonly and easily attained achievement is "Stop and Smell the Roses", for collecting four gem shards in one level, trivial to achieve, but less than 9 percent of players bothered to get that far before uninstalling the game. That's a tiny, tiny proportion of gamers who even bothered with this. Ouch. Unethically, the developers have left this on the Steam store in an unplayable and broken state. It's the responsibility of the developer to maintain their product, ensure it runs on all modern PCs, or if they determine there's defects and the game doesn't work, they should remove it from sale instead of misleadingly trying to scam gamers into buying knowingly defective products. This is harmful to Steam and to gamers, not just because it's a direct and intentional attempt to scam people, but because it takes a share of the marketing space and visibility away from other games. It's polluting Steam and making it harder for gamers to find genuine games and for genuine indie developers who put months or years into making proper games find an audience. So, should you buy this broken game? Is this one of the best of the 110,000+ games on Steam? The developer is deliberately and unethically trying to scam gamers into paying them the almost unethical price of $5 USD for a game they know is broken. Don't give it to them.

Devotees of retro and neoretro are no strangers to the mashup: a type of game collection that offers "lite" versions of various game types (SHMUP, platformer, etc.), selectable from a central hub. [i]Concursion[/i], however, takes the concept of "mashup" to a whole new insane sphere by jamming as many as five disparate genres into the [i]same[/i] field! There is no neat pick-and-choose here; you must actively guide the behorned Questy Guy from one sparkle-bordered genre zone to the next, and while he retains his momentum in the crossing, his appearance and moveset alter completely -- as do the characteristics of any enemy that happens to drift over! Sometimes these shifts occur with such dizzying speed that it almost seems like madness at first, but a meticulous method always becomes evident before long. The diamond brilliance of the level design shines through this controlled chaos, which is present in endlessly inventive configurations of genre zones and in the occasional wildcard bit that breaks the rules of all [i]Concursion[/i]'s fractured worlds. And what of the graphics? They are a bit coarse perhaps, a bit raw, a bit mismatched, sometimes even a bit MS Paint. In short, Aubrey Beardsley definitely did not serve as chief art director. But you know what? The graphics are imperfectly perfect, heta-uma, prettily pockmarked. Not only do they suit the merry madness of the level design, but they radiate this bubbly "can do!" exuberance that infected me from the first! In fact, I almost love the game's awesome attitude (and therefore its art style) as much as its engaging level composition! With a fantastic chiptune score and an interesting narrative to sweeten the pot, [i]Concursion[/i] is a game that every indie-lover with twitchy fingers should get. I'm in disbelief that the reviews are not overwhelmingly positive!

[b]TL;DR: 4.5/5 Would recommend, Fun time waster for a cheap price, great music and gameplay, just look past the artwork.[/b] I was looking for a new time-waster and although I normally purchase a cheap SHMUP or side-scroller from the PSN but I saw a couple interesting reviews for Concursion and figured I would give it a try. I knew from the advertising material that it started as a bit of a Mario-Clone but it pretty quickly becomes a combination of the other games highlighted in the gameplay video. I was immediately reminded of some older Flash games that I had played years ago but the difference was I actually enjoyed playing Concursion for more than a couple minutes. I have been replaying the levels after completion to go back for the time achievement and the extra Gem Shards that are hidden or hard to pick up, so I can effectively get two/three times the playtime for my money! (So far I have completely wasted my Friday night and Saturday, ‘cause that’s cool) I have found myself replaying some levels incessantly, ala SuperMeat Boy, to try and best the time challenge (and also taken a couple breaks because of extreme frustration). It also has slight puzzle elements that were integrated just enough to not get annoying or change the game. Sometimes the Maze (PacMan) levels really got in the way of the gameplay, but those seemed to be kept to a minimum. I loved that some story elements were included and the story itself, but I would have liked to see more, more voice work and MORE story to tie everything together. Essentially the worlds get “broken” apart and we are running around in them, but the story itself did not need to seem like it was also a little broken. I thought the music was awesome, it helps the transition elements of gameplay a lot and is generally fun to listen to even when you are replaying a level over and over, I did not find myself muting the music or replacing it with my own, as I often do playing most games. Unfortunately, I disliked the artwork as much as I loved the music, but as this is a first attempt from Puuba Studios I figure you have to choose where your money and effort go to. I did eventually become accustomed to it, and I did like how many of the bosses were animated. I would love to see this game re-skinned and released for PSN (or Xbox Live) with some extra DLC, I would buy it again. Oh, and how about a Level Editor? I would love to remake some SMB levels with some of these weird tricks thrown in! 4.5/5 -- Because of the Artwork and my interest being piqued but not satisfied by the story I docked half a point, otherwise a perfect game to play for as long as you have and be able to walk away and pick up again later.

This game is absolutely amazing and one of the best I have played in a long time. The premise of the game is that the universe is being torn apart, and there are rifts all over each level which, as you enter them, lead to a different world, which turns you into a different hero with totally different powers. The 5 characters you play as are a knight, which is very similar to super mario, a ninja, complete with a sword, double jumps and wall hangs, a space ship which leads way into shmup style levels, a little bull thing that plays like pac-man and an astronaut who has a jetpack but no means of attack. Individually all 5 styles are handled well, the controls for each character are very tight and I never once blamed a death on the controls. Each character, on its own, is very fun to play, but where this game shines is the way the characters are integrated into one anothers level. You may think it is just a gimmick, but the reality is that the way the genres cross each other is brilliant and the further you get into the game, the more wild the cross overs become. The difficulty curve in this game is handled extremely well, this is not an easy game, and you will die a lot but the difficulty progression is very smooth. The game starts out easy enough as you play a few introductory levels to learn the characters and as you progress the levels and the cross-overs between them get increasingly more challenging, but you never feel overhwhelmed, nor do you feel that anything is cheap. The beauty of this game is that some things will seem insurmountable when you firts look at them but before you know it you are completing insane challenges like a pro. There are also 3-4 gems in each level, very similar to the 3 big coins in the new super mario series. SOme gems are right in your face but tricky to access and others are cleverly hidden, obtaining all these gems is important to the story, but more importantly you will have a blast trying to collect all of them. This game is also sprinkled with some humorous moments that pays homage to some old games, be sure to read the titles to every level. The story here is also well done, it is a platformer so don't expect anything crazy but there is more of a story than your average mario clone and even a funny little twist that I will not spoil for you here. I cannot recommend this game strongly enough, if you are a gamer you owe it to yourself to give it a try, it is unlike anything you have ever played or probably ever will play. It is an absolute blast from start to finish and I cannot think of a single thing in this game to complain about. 10/10

The game has some really nice ideas with the genre mixing interspaced throughout the levels but it's just not much fun after the novelty wears off and you're left with the boring and trite gameplay for each section. I did like that gameplay mechanic where you went into a different gameplay mode to get a boost to get to a place you couldn't get otherwise in another mode. That was ingenious. If you can get it cheap or in a bundle, check it out.