The trick to succeeding at this game is to have a childhood full of NES games that taught you to confuse punishment with entertainment. This is one of my favorite games on Kongregate.
I said it elsewhere less concisely, but if the message of the game is "media shapes our behavior," that's undercut pretty severely by the fact that the game doesn't respond to attempts to cover positive things. When you try to showcase a couple in love and get shot down for lack of interest, that suggests that the problem isn't with media, but with humanity, and if that's the case, then we're just screwed either way, so why bother. I feel like adding more than one way through the game would make your point a little better.
I really appreciate the concept, but I feel like you could say more, if you were so inclined, with a slightly less guided experience.
I'm sure the hesitancy and revulsion that I'm feeling as I facilitate the rage is part of the entire point. But there's a difference between being thoughtfully critical and being cynical to the point of bleakness. That positive alternatives are presented and immediately discounted - so you can't encourage understanding even if you want to - robs the ending of some of its potency for me. It suggests a sort of fatalism. If the game says "Here's the cycle, but there's a better way," that makes me want to go make the world better. As it is, it seems instead to say "Here's the cycle, and nothing can be done," which leaves me with a takeaway of "Okay, then why bother trying to do anything else?"
If you're going for bleak, I apologize. But I'm trying to tease apart why I'm so bothered by the lack of a way out and I don't think it's that I'm squeamish or naive.
There is no victory sweeter than that which is hard-won through an elaborate network of corpse-tossing.
I'm pretty sure Sun Tzu said that at one point, and it's still true today.
I'm afraid I have to add my voice to the small chorus of people who are experiencing freezing issues. It doesn't seem to happen at any particular moment. I'm usually fighting something. It'll freeze for awhile, then pause itself, but not let me unpause. I'm in Chrome, if that's helpful at all. But it doesn't seem to be the page that's freezing, just the game itself. Strangely, I can still click the Armor Games link when this happens.
One issue that I'm having is that my character will get stuck on the transition between the second and third menu screen, and bounce back and forth between them in a way that doesn't let me do anything. Thought you might want to know. Other than that, as I said before, this is a fantastic idea, brilliantly executed, and nothing makes me happier than a great platformer like this.
Spectacular series. My only complaint is that the time between them means that I know I'm missing some of the recurring themes and imagery. But that's my failing, not the games'. Thank you for these. They hit the perfect sweet spot between thoughtful, surreal, and frightening - at least for my taste.
The goal on the World 3 time challenge keeps changing for me instead of giving me the medal. Is it supposed to do that? It was 29 seconds, and I beat it twice and now it's down to 26. If it's encouraging me to gently improve that's cool I guess, but it kinda takes the wind out of your sails to think you nailed something and learn you didn't.
I know I'm missing the point but I'm really curious about the flies in the spider boss. Where did they come from? Why are they enormous? Are they mutant flies of some kind? Are they of Earth? Or are they partners of the spider, willingly laying down their lives?
I can't stop wondering about where they came from, with their giant adorable eyes and their doomedness.
I really enjoy it. I have one suggestion. In some of the stages where you introduce the new dogs, you have other dogs in the lineup first. If you happen to beat the stage on the first launch, you don't get to see what the new dog can do. Consider giving each dog an introduction in a stage specially-designed to showcase that dog and that dog alone, to give the player an idea of how each jutsu works.
Other than that, it's really enjoyable. The sense of humor works well for it, and the aim assist gives you some idea of what you're doing, without making it too easy. Thanks!
Very creative, and a sharp sense of humor. I really like it. At times, I have managed to drop items in places that I can't touch them. Sometimes they freeze on the grid, sometimes they freeze over the "sell" area. The quips and overall sense of fun mean I don't mind replaying a stage if I lose out because of it, but I thought you'd still want to know.
This is great. By the time I got the Ice Snail powerup, I was so frustrated with those freaking ice guys...part of making an item like that rewarding is making it satisfy a felt need. You definitely nailed it. I haven't felt that excited for an item in a video game for a while.
There are a lot of things I like about it. Power-ups are fun and creative, the music is great, and the shifts in music are a clever way to signal you about what power-ups are active.
That said, luck does play too large a role in the game. When you're a third of the screen's width, there is literally nothing to do but cross your fingers. Part of what makes games fun is their direct correlation between effort and reward. A game where you can't affect the outcome isn't fun. It's frustrating. There's no reason to invest time in something that can randomly screw you over at any moment.
Tetris involves some luck. But you can still take that luck and influence the outcome. Poker's the same way. You can't control the cards you're dealt, but you CAN make decisions about your hand. Luck is involved, but you can still take action.
That's part of what makes a game fun. The odds can be bad, but they should never insurmountable, and when you put in time and effort, that should be rewarded.
I'd agree that the aim assist does make it a bit on the easy side, but frankly I don't mind that too terribly. Not every game has to be draconian. Another thing - the controls aren't explicitly given in terms of "don't shoot the bombs," yada yada, presumably because they're given in the first game. My first instinct was to shoot the bomb while avoiding the TNT. But I kinda liked exploring the mechanics that way. There's not enough trial-and-error to be frustrating, but there IS enough to be interesting. (Or, maybe I'm just slow on the uptake.)
You know what I liked about it, though? Everything. I loved the art style, the soundtrack, the graphic design on the title cards, the text on the title cards, everything. The sense of humor was just absurd enough to be amusing, but not so much to be baffling. It was perfect. There was no part of this game that didn't beg me to keep playing it, and when I finished (all too soon) I very much wanted more.
Thanks, guys. That was fun.
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