1 Screen Platformer Reviews

It's an OK short platformer game with your basic jumping, timed running and stepladder climbing. You play as one of 3 characters (With a bonus 4th one but more on that later), each with their quirks and objectives to go through one big map. The map is always the same so the experience you get with one character will help you with the next one's run. The game also features a hard mode for each character with more things to dodge. CHARACTERS: * The first character (And main I guess) has a very basic playstyle and objective. You can only run and jump and all you have to do is get to the end of the map, basic yet enjoyable and should be your first run through the game to get used to the map layout and the threats. Her idle animation is animated wayyyyy too much though, which makes judging where you're standing kind of a pain in the ass for more calculated jumps. * The second character has a double jump and his objective is to collect all the gold orbs. The double jump is barely required and seems to be more of a thing to help you collect some orbs you missed during your previous jump. [b]His hard mode map is easily the worst spike in difficulty[/b], and I mean a really really HUGE spike in difficulty when compared to all the other modes for all the 3 characters. While any other character and mode can take you from 5 to 15 minutes on your first try, this one can easily take you up to an hour due to how hellish the level design is, and you have to complete it in one go because the game doesn't save your checkpoints. * The third character also has a double jump and I'm not sure if this is because of his sprites or if he's actually coded differently but he's far easier to handle in the air. He's also the character with the best sprites, easy to notice where you are standing. His objective is to get rid of the black clouds that are covering the entire map and it's a very boring objective, especially when you need to kill yourself (Or be extremely precise) to reveal some parts of the map. * There's a fourth character but I haven't tested it because it requires me to sign up to some newsletter to unlock it and by that point I kinda got pissed off at the game for a few reasons, and that combined with me playing on big picture mode with my controller and suddenly getting a screen that required keyboard inputs just ended up killing any interest I had left in the game (Especially because that character has no extra achievements so fuck it...). STUFF: * The level design is OK although obviously repetitive (Even if you'll play this for a grand of 2 hours if you're bad at that one particular character's objective on hard mode like me). The first character is easily the most enjoyable one and the others feel shoved in and far less interesting to play as. * The difficulty is OK for the most part of but the hard mode maps' abuse of timed running and some parts where you have to wait and wait and waiiiiiiiiiit for a certain pattern before attempting a certain sector get old very fast. That combined with not the best physics in the air result in a far more frustrating experience. * The checkpoint system is simple, just reach a torch and touch it and you can then spawn there at any time although only the third character makes actual use of the backtracking feature as it's very impractical with the second one, who only seems to be able to use the torches if he first collects the golden orbs that are on their way (Kinda why his hard mode run is so damn difficult). * The respawning system is quick but doesn't kill your current inputs so if you suddenly touch a spike and die while walking forward and don't immediately let go off the direction you're pushing you'll immediately walk after respawning and very likely die by accident, maybe even two or three times in a row. There's no punishment for dying too much but if you care about your ranking and scoring this can sink it very fast. Your character also blinks while respawning but that doesn't mean you're invincible at all and at the end it just results in a very annoying effect for when you're trying to quickly move towards the next checkpoint. * The stepladders in particular deserve a special mention. They're VERY clunky to use when you require some actual coordination and dodging. On normal mode maps they do their job just right but on hard mode you'll struggle trying to figure out how to jump to other ladders or even how to let them go. The secret is... You just can't let go off them, you have to hold left or right so your character "Walks" away from them and falls after a second, and that's a second you really cannot spend while dodging some fireballs. * There's no music past the main menu, and the main menu music is going to break your ears, it's just a VERY LOUD drum loop. * Controller support is alright I guess. You can't use the analog and the dpad at the same time (And the analog is the default movement at least for the 360 controller). Making use of Steam's controller wrapper can help you with any issues here. The game only makes use of 3 buttons, one to jump, another to zoom in and out and the last one as the "Start" button. * Pressing the "T" key allows you to turn on the collision box viewer. Neat but not explained anywhere IIRC. * You cannot take Steam screenshots at all since games made with Gamemaker don't support that feature by default. The developer has to add support for that. * The game currently suffers from some crashing issues, particularly with the third character when you finish a run with it, which prevents you from playing with him again. It seems to be a fairly simple coding mistake so it's bound to be fixed soon though. * The achievements "Just" require you to finish each character's normal mode run and touch every checkpoint on normal and hard with each of them too. There's no "No death run" achievements and the 4th character has no achievements whatsoever. You can definitely 100% the game in 2 hours or less depending on how good you are. * If you care about scoring you're ranked at the end of each run based on time taken and deaths. There's even a timer at the top right of the map (And it's annoying near the end when it kinda covers some fireballs you're meant to dodge. *Yes, this is a VERY LONG review for a $1 game you can fully complete in 2 hours.

This is a clever and fun game that certainly delivers on its premises. Though obviously short, it is appropriately affordable and it has replay value based on playing it through with different characters (who have different objectives for winning) and competing for faster run times. If a new character is ever added, it would be cool to see another shooter character whose objective for winning would be to destroy certain enemies or targets therewith. Anyway, if you like platformers or retro style games, it definitely deserves a place in your library!

The platforming aspect of this game is actually good. There is only one screen you need to get through and for me that took about 10 minutes. I think where you will get the most from in this game is in trying to get a better completion time as you learn to master the game. The game is short, but if you like to challenge yourself and get to that perfect run, then this game might be up your alley.

[h1] Way too slippery and imprecise controls took all the fun out for me to be honest. I know it was supposed to be a small and challenging platformer, but the only thing adding difficulty here seem to be the "tight controls" instead of clever level design or at least a combination of the two + the stupid level design you see in the Store Screenshots [/h1] You know whats fun? Playing a challenging game and being challenged by clever character/level design, instead of making it hard because of imprecise controls and its "gimmick" on Levels. The first character is your bare-bones "starter Character" and its fairly fun until you notice that all the character suffer from the "wet eel"-syndrome. It's not 100% - it's more like 85-90% accurate in terms of preciseness on platforming. This will kill you more than you love to because that one Screen platforming level is not hard - its the unprecise control that makes it hard and at that point you already lost me. The next big con is third character and it gimmicks on the level (Look at the fifth Screenshot on this store page) - because you start the level with 0 sight and every inch you move you reveal a fracture of the map so you can see something. You literally have to "Trial and error" to reveal the map to 100% (It's a requirement) in order to finish the level. So not only are the controls not 100% precise, you also have to deal with stupid gimmicks like: "reveal 100% of the map you've seen multiple times in order to finish it". This is not hard and I repeat again - it's not hard - its frustrating and bad game design. How this game got 88% positive is beyond me. The Achievements are, if you accept both flaws (Controls and level gimmicks), quite easy to get because you just have to run through all the checkpoints with your characters. I can't recommend this game and it hurts me to say but this is more garbage than anything else plus the sequel has a "2020" release date on the store page and probably abandoned. The focus on the sequel should be: - Level variety - precise controls (100%) - No stupid level gimmicks like blind playthrough in order to reveal parts of the map. You literally have to die in order to reveal parts of the map. - Achievement unlock icon doesn't match the checkpoint (especially for later characters you play) Took me not even an hour to finish to 100%

Don't get me wrong, this is a very servicable platformer, if you are just looking for some quick nice platforming you can do much worse than this. It has one interesting gimmick with one character where you can only see the map at places you have already moved through, essentially playing "blind". This works because you play through the same map with 3 different characters, so you have most of the map layout already remembered up to that point. However except for that, it does nothing new or special and content is sparse, so there is no reason to get this over any other good platformer. If you crave tight small screen platforming, play 1001 Spikes instead. Also requiring to signup to the newsletter to play the fourth character is really dense. For a moment I considered signing up and immediately unsigning just to unlock it, but jumping through so much hoops just to play more average platforming is just not worth it.

Clever game. Love the concept and the execution. Really awesome pixel graphics and just fun to play. It's short if you play it through just the one way but each character not only has a normal and hard mode, they each have their own unique spin on the level. As well you can play to beat your time forever if you want. Highly recommend, especially at this price. Looking forward to seeing more from this developer.

I bought this game after reading the developers post about quitting his job to focus on developing games. It was a lighthearted humourous post, which was addressed directly from the dev to you, the player. So I thought, "yeah, this is what a passionate developer usually does, no bullshit, here's what I got and I'm proud of my accomplishment", so I bought this game based on the fact that I like platformers. Big mistake. The game takes 10 minutes to complete on normal, and it took me around 20 more to complete it on hard (which is exactly the same as normal except with a couple more traps), and then you do that 2 more times with the other two characters. The other two characters have "twists" to change up gameplay, since all the content the game has is a single level, and the twists only serve to annoy you, no real reason to play them unless you're going for full achievement completion. There's a fourth character, but from what I've seen on youtube is a simple reskin, and you need to suscribe to the dev's newsletter to unlock it, so fuck that. The assets feel like those "game asset packs" you can buy for 10 or 20 bucks, which wouldn't be bad if you use them in an innovative way, or mix them up with your own original assets, but they don't here. What tipped me off to this is that when one of the characters is idle, she does an attack animation. "Oh, I have a leftover attack animation, what a waste! Let's use it when they are idle." I don't want to shit all over this game, game developing is hard, and it's even harder to make yourself seen in the current market, but when your first game looks like it was halfassed in the span of two days, it leaves a sour taste. The game doesn't have enough content to even constitute as a demo, and it took me three minutes shy of 2 hours to 100% it, so if you're into easy 100%s, you are the only demographic I'd recommend this to.

For a bite-size experience that the price easily takes into account this is a good time. It's not flawless but I also would instantly buy a sequel if another was made. I really liked the first two runs with the first two characters since it felt very different how I played between them but then the last two characters played the same as the second character (all had the double jump and nothing else new) and the actual goal didn't feel all that different since it was still just reaching the end. Also, no achievement for a deathless run? Boo! I did that and expected the achievement but no luck. In fact the achievements could have been much better overall and gave a better incentive to play more times since the game is great for replaying. Why not achievements for timed runs? Hitting high score totals? Low percentage clear for the fog covered map? The glut of achievements just feels a bit cheap (though probably sold a few copies to achievement collecting folks?). Pros: Controls well Hit detection feels right Multiple characters that change how you play Multiple difficulties Cons: The multiple characters could be better. Lame achievements Having the map change a bit more between characters would have been nice. Overall: This is still an easy recommendation considering the fun I had for the cheap price. If there was a sequel (or updates) I would like to see things done a bit differently to make the experience more engaging for a longer period but again, it's $1. Hopefully like the Platformance series we see more of these in different settings and perhaps some of the suggestions I had above will be seen.

The first time you play you'll die a lot, finish the game in about 15 minutes and be surprised at how short it was. But that's only the beginning. It's like those old-school platformers where you want to play it over and over again to master it completely and get a 'clean' run. There are several characters with different abilities, so once you've perfected the game with one character you can move on to the next, and there are achievements for mastering the game in all these different 'modes'. It runs flawlessly on Linux/Proton, including controller. The dev is the most enthusiastic I've ever seen in the history of Steam. Sign up for the newsletter and they come thick and fast! Overall, a nice platformer whether you're a casual player or hardcore, and for this price it's a no-brainer, go ahead and buy it. Updating for my Steam Autumn Sale badge... it's 39p now!

Fun, but last mode requires you to give your email address to sign up to a newsletter. Unacceptable for a paid product, no matter how cheap, and I wonder if it complies with GDPR.