Delicious FruitFruitless's Profile
Send a PMJoined on: Mar 16, 2020
Bio:
Hi everyone, I'm Fruitless, that guy you're probably familiar with by now for some reason or another. I'm just here trying to have some fun and hopefully not cause any problems.
My rating scale works in intervals of 2 points, and my difficulty scale works in intervals of 5.
-10/10: absolute must play, reserved for only the highest quality fangames out there
-8/10: high recommendation, but not quite among the best of the best
-6/10: a perfectly fine and well-made game, but with some flaws holding it back
-4/10: an ok game, but I can't guarantee you'll enjoy it
-2/10: outright bad and unfun, and an experience that I just can't recommend to most people
-0/10: absolute garbage, reserved for only the lowest quality fangames out there
Additionally, my favorites list is reserved for games I felt were an 8/10 or higher.
I try not to be too harsh of a critic, although I do tend to internalize a game's flaws more than its strengths, especially with higher difficulty fangames, so that likely affects my reviews. I've tried to adjust my ratings to get around this problem, but keep in mind that this is a thing that does happen.
I'm also not good with words in general, so if there is something I liked or didn't like about a game, I might not be able to explain it well or why I felt the way I did. I still try to explain if you would like the game or not, but it's still something I struggle to get across, so keep that in mind too.
One of my goals as a reviewer is to be consistent in what I find fun between games, although other factors or biases may creep in sometimes. I try to avoid that happening, but just keep in mind that it is a thing that happens sometimes.
I've submitted:
785 Ratings!
213 Reviews!
3420 Screenshots!
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785 Games
213 Reviews
Fruitless
For: I Wanna Kill the Sudoku
For: I Wanna Kill the Sudoku
I came in expecting the absolute worst, but the game failed to deliver that, meaning I actually had some fun with this one.
I Wanna Kill The Sudoku is a rather unorthodox medley fangame created by Fate, mostly featuring screens that are low quality in production value or gameplay. Surprisingly, it wasn't made to be a bad game, as the screens were "chosen with a lot of love", according to the readme. Looking at the game itself, you can definitely see this, as I surprisingly enjoyed it.
The things that make the screens "sudoku", as would later become a common fangame terminology due to this game, are a lot of things, actually. Some screens have low-quality graphics, some have weird gimmicks, some just spam platforms or invisible blocks, some have too much going on in the visual department and can cause headaches, some have RNG spam that can just wall you sometimes, some have unclear routes through the screen, some make you wait for long stretches of time, and there's even some plain bad needle included for good measure. It's a lot to take in sometimes, but I do like the variety in the wackiness this game has to offer. It might get frustrating sometimes, but one thing you can't say is that it gets boring. Speaking of frustration, I was expecting that in spades with this game, but the amount of actually fun screens is much higher than the unfun ones. Even when "bad" level design aspects like invisible blocks are used, it's mostly really easy so you don't get stuck on them (although your bullets don't hit invisible blocks anymore, making them harder to detect, which is annoying). Besides that, the game picks good rooms from these games, despite all the aforementioned jank. Some do require some learning to be fun, but if you do have that patience to stick through it, you'll likely enjoy it. As for the flashy visuals, it admittedly can be hazardous to some players, but at least the rooms that feature such flashing are rather easy besides that too. That is, until the last screen of the game, Rainbow Road. This screen compresses everything "sudoku" about this game into a single screen, with RNG gimmicks, an unintuitive route with a fake block, flashy visuals, and to top it all off, the screen is actually hard this time. If you didn't like the game up to this point, you definitely won't like it here. And then there's a big joke boss after that where you literally can't die, quite a funny way to end the game.
It's definitely an interesting experiment for a fangame, and it works surprisingly well. Obviously, people with little patience or that don't like joke fangames aren't this game's target audience. However, if you're not in that camp, this game is a great way to experience some of the wackier aspects of fangames and have some fun. Recommended if you want something interesting to play, or if you like sudoku gameplay and want to see where it all began.
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I Wanna Kill The Sudoku is a rather unorthodox medley fangame created by Fate, mostly featuring screens that are low quality in production value or gameplay. Surprisingly, it wasn't made to be a bad game, as the screens were "chosen with a lot of love", according to the readme. Looking at the game itself, you can definitely see this, as I surprisingly enjoyed it.
The things that make the screens "sudoku", as would later become a common fangame terminology due to this game, are a lot of things, actually. Some screens have low-quality graphics, some have weird gimmicks, some just spam platforms or invisible blocks, some have too much going on in the visual department and can cause headaches, some have RNG spam that can just wall you sometimes, some have unclear routes through the screen, some make you wait for long stretches of time, and there's even some plain bad needle included for good measure. It's a lot to take in sometimes, but I do like the variety in the wackiness this game has to offer. It might get frustrating sometimes, but one thing you can't say is that it gets boring. Speaking of frustration, I was expecting that in spades with this game, but the amount of actually fun screens is much higher than the unfun ones. Even when "bad" level design aspects like invisible blocks are used, it's mostly really easy so you don't get stuck on them (although your bullets don't hit invisible blocks anymore, making them harder to detect, which is annoying). Besides that, the game picks good rooms from these games, despite all the aforementioned jank. Some do require some learning to be fun, but if you do have that patience to stick through it, you'll likely enjoy it. As for the flashy visuals, it admittedly can be hazardous to some players, but at least the rooms that feature such flashing are rather easy besides that too. That is, until the last screen of the game, Rainbow Road. This screen compresses everything "sudoku" about this game into a single screen, with RNG gimmicks, an unintuitive route with a fake block, flashy visuals, and to top it all off, the screen is actually hard this time. If you didn't like the game up to this point, you definitely won't like it here. And then there's a big joke boss after that where you literally can't die, quite a funny way to end the game.
It's definitely an interesting experiment for a fangame, and it works surprisingly well. Obviously, people with little patience or that don't like joke fangames aren't this game's target audience. However, if you're not in that camp, this game is a great way to experience some of the wackier aspects of fangames and have some fun. Recommended if you want something interesting to play, or if you like sudoku gameplay and want to see where it all began.
Rating: 6.0 60
Difficulty: 55 55
May 31, 2026
Fruitless
For: I wanna defeat the 4 apple
For: I wanna defeat the 4 apple
A fangame that was considered lost for a while before it was recently found. When I heard there was a new コド fangame discovered, I immediately knew I needed to play it, and I was definitely right in this decision.
This is an adventure fangame with 4 stages followed by a final one. They're mostly pretty basic stages, with only the top right one featuring ice physics as a gimmick. Most of the stages are taken up by spike layouts and traps, which are basically all placed well, as basically the only real difficulty spike is near the end of the game, and it's not even that steep anyway. The game also likes to give you alternate paths to go sometimes, which was a neat thing to include for those that want to do the the harder routes. It's mostly vanilla, but the stage after the initial 4 has the most gimmicks out of any stage in the game, and they're really cool gimmicks too, I just wish they were used to their fuller potential.
Of course, that's just the platforming in the game, there's also some bosses, which are all cherries...or I guess apples, according to the title.
-The pink one is the least interesting, it just bounces around and shoots out other cherries that aim at you when you shoot it, which can hit the boss after they aim at you. However, you can just spam the boss immediately to get all the damage at once before the cherries can go very far from the boss.
-Then there's the green cherry, who moves around the room and does a few attacks, including some bouncing cherries that can be shot back at it too. As long as you keep your distance from it, you should have basically no problems dealing with this one, even the randomly sized cherry attack.
-The blue cherry is the biggest surprise, being based on Mega Man Battle Network! Here, you and the boss are both on a 9x9 grid, and pressing any direction will teleport you to the square in that direction, helping you dodge the attacks faster. The attacks the boss uses here are pretty creative and use the gimmick well, as well as being easy to not get instagibbed by, with the exception of the yellow and rainbow cherry attacks, since they cover opposite areas of the screen, and the time required to differentiate between them is not very long. However, I do feel like the actual bullets you shoot being invisible makes it harder to tell how much damage you're able to do, since shots don't instantly hit the boss here. Oh yeah, you can also charge your shots to make them 10 times as strong, something I didn't know until the readme apparently brought it up.
-The 4th stage just doesn't have a boss, so onto the last one, the black cherry. This is a very RNG-heavy boss, as most of the attacks move in random directions, and are chosen at random. The catch is, the boss changes direction whenever you shoot it, aiming towards you, and almost every bullet the boss shoots can be shot back at it, like the pink cherry. This means the boss could land you in an unfair scenario, if you let it. However, because you have so much control over how the boss moves, you can be more strategic with how you shoot it. This means you can either play it safe and not shoot it directly at all, or make it bounce at the top of the screen and rain down cherries for you to send back at it all at once. This is a really great take on a luck boss, and way better than the one in I Wanna Be The Bowl. The game doesn't actually end there, as there's a couple more needle screens after that, but it's just more of what we've already seen, just harder.
And that's the game! I didn't quite know what I was getting into from a lost fangame, but I'm very glad it was found, as it is a fun game to play, just like everything else I've played so far from this maker. Recommended if you like adventure games.
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This is an adventure fangame with 4 stages followed by a final one. They're mostly pretty basic stages, with only the top right one featuring ice physics as a gimmick. Most of the stages are taken up by spike layouts and traps, which are basically all placed well, as basically the only real difficulty spike is near the end of the game, and it's not even that steep anyway. The game also likes to give you alternate paths to go sometimes, which was a neat thing to include for those that want to do the the harder routes. It's mostly vanilla, but the stage after the initial 4 has the most gimmicks out of any stage in the game, and they're really cool gimmicks too, I just wish they were used to their fuller potential.
Of course, that's just the platforming in the game, there's also some bosses, which are all cherries...or I guess apples, according to the title.
-The pink one is the least interesting, it just bounces around and shoots out other cherries that aim at you when you shoot it, which can hit the boss after they aim at you. However, you can just spam the boss immediately to get all the damage at once before the cherries can go very far from the boss.
-Then there's the green cherry, who moves around the room and does a few attacks, including some bouncing cherries that can be shot back at it too. As long as you keep your distance from it, you should have basically no problems dealing with this one, even the randomly sized cherry attack.
-The blue cherry is the biggest surprise, being based on Mega Man Battle Network! Here, you and the boss are both on a 9x9 grid, and pressing any direction will teleport you to the square in that direction, helping you dodge the attacks faster. The attacks the boss uses here are pretty creative and use the gimmick well, as well as being easy to not get instagibbed by, with the exception of the yellow and rainbow cherry attacks, since they cover opposite areas of the screen, and the time required to differentiate between them is not very long. However, I do feel like the actual bullets you shoot being invisible makes it harder to tell how much damage you're able to do, since shots don't instantly hit the boss here. Oh yeah, you can also charge your shots to make them 10 times as strong, something I didn't know until the readme apparently brought it up.
-The 4th stage just doesn't have a boss, so onto the last one, the black cherry. This is a very RNG-heavy boss, as most of the attacks move in random directions, and are chosen at random. The catch is, the boss changes direction whenever you shoot it, aiming towards you, and almost every bullet the boss shoots can be shot back at it, like the pink cherry. This means the boss could land you in an unfair scenario, if you let it. However, because you have so much control over how the boss moves, you can be more strategic with how you shoot it. This means you can either play it safe and not shoot it directly at all, or make it bounce at the top of the screen and rain down cherries for you to send back at it all at once. This is a really great take on a luck boss, and way better than the one in I Wanna Be The Bowl. The game doesn't actually end there, as there's a couple more needle screens after that, but it's just more of what we've already seen, just harder.
And that's the game! I didn't quite know what I was getting into from a lost fangame, but I'm very glad it was found, as it is a fun game to play, just like everything else I've played so far from this maker. Recommended if you like adventure games.
Rating: 6.0 60
Difficulty: 45 45
May 26, 2026
Fruitless
For: I wanna Diminish the Colors
For: I wanna Diminish the Colors
From the creator of the I Wanna Be The Neon series comes another needle game with colorful visuals. It's mostly fun, just like those games were, with some interesting jumps throughout the game. However, it doesn't come without some glaring issues, the main one being the save balancing. Some rooms only have 1 save instead of 2, and some of these are by far the hardest parts of the game, mostly due to a couple of jumps in the screen. Nerf those particular jumps, and I'd have less of a problem with them. The game is also made in Nikaple engine, although according to Habluka, the issues with that engine were fixed? Idk, I wasn't able to tell. Oh yeah, the game also references I Wanna Be The Churatch near the end, I guess to reference the maker's grind to beat impossible mode in that game. It would be more funny if this wasn't one of the hard rooms I just mentioned, but after spending so long on it, I wasn't laughing.
Thenader2 has become famous over the years for the games he's made, but not all of them are of that high quality when looked at today, including this one. Only recommended if the difficulty balance doesn't bother you, or if you're going through all of Nader's needle games.
Thenader2 has become famous over the years for the games he's made, but not all of them are of that high quality when looked at today, including this one. Only recommended if the difficulty balance doesn't bother you, or if you're going through all of Nader's needle games.
Tagged as: Needle
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Rating: 4.0 40
Difficulty: 55 55
May 23, 2026
Fruitless
For: I Wanna Celebrate Monad's Birthday
For: I Wanna Celebrate Monad's Birthday
GO is GOD
Inmu memes aside, the game is 7 screens of ok needle with wildly inconsistent balancing. It starts out easy, but by the time you reach screen 3, the difficulty ramps up a lot, especially the fifth save of that screen. Luckily, every save past that point has no saveblockers for some unfathomable reason (it's only a surprise because of the sudden lack of them compared to before), but I'm not complaining, it makes the game much easier. What I am complaining about, however, is the amount of corner jumps everywhere, as the game likes to use these a lot. The visuals are also not great, as stage 1's grid-like sprites are hard to see against the background, and stage 2's background is also way too dark to see the spikes. Oh yeah, they also reference the GB screen at the end, that's something.
So yeah, not the best birthday present in the world, and not really a game I would recommend unless you're curious.
Inmu memes aside, the game is 7 screens of ok needle with wildly inconsistent balancing. It starts out easy, but by the time you reach screen 3, the difficulty ramps up a lot, especially the fifth save of that screen. Luckily, every save past that point has no saveblockers for some unfathomable reason (it's only a surprise because of the sudden lack of them compared to before), but I'm not complaining, it makes the game much easier. What I am complaining about, however, is the amount of corner jumps everywhere, as the game likes to use these a lot. The visuals are also not great, as stage 1's grid-like sprites are hard to see against the background, and stage 2's background is also way too dark to see the spikes. Oh yeah, they also reference the GB screen at the end, that's something.
So yeah, not the best birthday present in the world, and not really a game I would recommend unless you're curious.
Tagged as: Needle
Visual_Challenge
[0] Likes
Rating: 4.0 40
Difficulty: 55 55
May 23, 2026
Fruitless
For: WannaFest 22
For: WannaFest 22
An unexpected return for such a beloved series, coming from a very promising team, and it absolutely fits in with the other entries.
WannaFest 22 is currently the latest game in the Marathon series, brought to you by the Cherry Treehouse team who previously brought us I Wanna Be The Guy Remastered. However, in terms of original games of this scale, they're no slouch either, and looking at all the effort put into every detail of this game, you can absolutely see that.
The game comes with a bit of a story: the Kid hears of the eponymous game show, WannaFest 22, which actually has a poster for it located in the game folder. Hosted by the Man, who is definitely not the Father in a disguise, the event offers a free car as a reward for getting a high score in a specific set of games, a challenge the Kid gladly accepts. The way the game works is very similar to the original PowerFest 94 that this game was based on: you go through stages based on existing games, aiming to beat the stage as quickly as possible while collecting score in the process. Your score is counted up at the end of the game and used to determine what car you win in the end. This is already a huge plus for me, as anyone that knows my opinion on I Wanna Be The Concept will already know I love a game with replay value. What I don't like so much, however, is if the game gets lazy with how little it differs from the source material. Yeah, you probably saw a couple people complain about this game for being too close to the original games, a complaint I can honestly agree with if the game is like that. But then again, it's still possible to follow the design of something closely while still making it your own thing, and even if it is very close, I'm still willing to look past it to some degree if the thing in question is difficult to recreate, which it definitely was in this game's case. Not to say I can completely excuse it in that case, but I'll still give credit where it's due.
Of course, all that is only talking about hypotheticals. Let's look at how the actual game is and then judge it based on that:
-After an intro cutscene which sets the bar very high for the game already, we get a stage based on Ganbare! Goemon 2. This is one of the more vanilla stages in the game in terms of physics alterations, but there's still a lot to take in. The way you get score from this stage is by collecting coins which are either just lying around the stage or dropped by enemies. The enemies themselves are unique and fun to fight, except for the annoying fish that come out of nowhere. However, they randomly drop a lucky neko upon dying, which kills you when you touch it. I see really no reason to do this other than to be funny, but it loses the humor really quickly, just becoming very annoying. Aside from that, there are a lot of gimmicks to this stage, like moving platforms, mouse karts you're able to ride like Yoshi, even a big water dragon you ride on top of as the screen scrolls forward. These gimmicks are all used really well, especially in combination with the enemies which add to the stage a lot. At the end of the stage is a boss fight against Marble Red, who uses a sumo mech and who you're expected to fight likewise, but it's much easier if you don't do that and just spam the gun instead. That's not even close to all though, since the real fight is against Senshuraku, the Yokozuna, in which you also get your own armor, Guy Impact. This is unfortunately the first moment that is basically just the original game with no differences, but it's still cool enough to be deserving of a spot here. Here, you aim a cursor at the boss and either press shoot to heavy punch or jump to light punch, or you can press both to block. It sounds moderately difficult to learn, but the tutorial given by Miku should make it more clear if you're confused. The fight is mostly a reaction time test as you need to punch Senshuraku at the right time, but some attacks require you to aim the cursor to parry the cherries being shot at you, or just block them. You're still encouraged to parry them, though, since they give you coins when you do that, giving you a choice of whether you want to be more greedy or play it safe. I like that they incorporated the score system into the boss fight too, since it gives you more to do than just beat the boss normally.
-Speaking of greed, the next stage is based on Wario Land 4, which obviously means your goal here is to collect as many goodies as possible, just like in the last stage. In terms of similarity to the original game, basically the only issue is some of the outside areas being too similar, although there are some things added to make it more distinct. Just like in that game, you get a lot of movement options to move around and fight enemies with, and they are a lot of fun to play around with. The enemies themselves don't just stand around waiting for you to attack them, though, as some of them also give you status effects which you can use to access new areas. This stage doesn't encourage exploration quite as thoroughly as the original game, as most collectibles are just out in the open for you to find, but secrets do still exist. After that, you get a boss fight with Catbat, which you have to beat under a time limit, like in the original. Its pattern is basically the same as the original, you wait for it to spawn a wave, and use that to get up to either dash into it or ground pound onto it later, and avoid the enemies the boss breathes at you on the way down. The difference is that the arena is much bigger, but spikes are on the ceiling to compensate, so if you do get inflated by the enemies, you have to dodge those. As for the fight itself, the time limit is really generous, unless you want to beat it fast enough to get all 3 chests, in which case you have to rely a bit on luck to get the enemy spawns you want. After that, you know what time it is: IT'S PIZZA TIME! Now you have to escape from the stage you just beat before time runs out, and while the time limit was really generous, it still felt very hectic, especially with the new collectibles on the way back you have to watch out for.
-And now for Klonoa: Door to Phantomile, a stage I'm very conflicted on. On one hand, this stage has some of the best visuals in the game, even displaying 3D graphics. However, as for the actual stage, it's more of a disappointment, as a lot of the rooms are just taken directly from the original game, probably even more of them that I failed to find. Whatever, let's actually talk about how the stage plays. Again, you get score from collecting stuff in the stage, most just being on the main path, but some of them are hidden or require some extra effort. The main gimmick is that you can pick up enemies and throw them in another direction, whether to attack other enemies or to gain a vertical boost. It's not just in 2 dimensions either, as like I said earlier, you can also grab and throw enemies into the foreground and background too. It starts out pretty basic, but by the end, the stage leans much farther into the platforming aspect of the mechanic. I really like the way this gimmick is used, as the movements you're intended to pull off here feel really smooth, especially with the Tetons that make you fly upwards when you grab them. However, then we get the boss fight against Gelg Bolm, which also uses this gimmick. It walks around the screen and forces you to jump over it, throwing an enemy into its mouth in the process. The problem is that the window to do this is so small that you often just miss your target entirely and just hit its lips instead. This can cause the fight to go on for a while, but with some practice, it is possible to end the fight quickly and not have that happen.
-Now for That One Stage™ yet again, this time being Parappa the Rapper. This one is kind of hard to make distinct from its original game, due to being a completely different genre than I Wanna Be The Guy, but at least the inputs are unique here. It also uses the song "Kick! Punch!" from that game, but the lyrics are changed to be more fangame-themed, reflected in the new inputs and the voice lines too. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, this game has voice acting, and not just any voice acting, but the original voice actors from IWBTG, which is just incredible. As for how the stage plays, it's a rhythm game, so just hit the buttons as they come on screen to win. The more accurate you are, the more score you earn. It's an easy stage, again due to being a completely different genre, and the actual buttons you're supposed to press are well-charted, with basically none of it being weird to input. If I had one thing to complain about, though, it would be that knowing when the lines start is a problem at first, since they just catch you off-guard. I would suggest to have something like the second Parappa game where you see your icon running on your track before your notes actually start, so you can more easily recognize when you're supposed to start pressing buttons. The input delay was also kind of long for me, but maybe that's just my keyboard, and it's easy to adjust to anyway. Aside from that, another well-made stage with great visuals (in 3D again) and great references.
-After a short interlude with the host of the competition completely failing to keep up that disguise that he definitely isn't wearing, we get the next stage, based on Sonic CD. And don't worry, they actually take the Japanese soundtrack from that game. Anyway, the stage itself is surprisingly less focused on speed than you would expect from Sonic the Hedgehog, instead focusing on gimmicky platforming and collecting rings to gain score. Some of these are hidden in walls, meaning you'll need to watch out for secrets in order to collect them. As for the gimmicks in this stage, there's a lot again. Moving sawblades, springs that bounce you up, walking platforms, even DotKid gets brought in near the end of the first act, and even more. I like the way all these gimmicks are used, except for maybe the springs, with them bouncing you way too high so that you can't see what's coming, not to mention taking way too much control away from you. This stage also has a couple traps, which this game has surprisingly few of, and the ones it does have work very well. Now, if you were disappointed by the lack of speed in this stage, don't worry, because the boss fight against Metal Sonic has got you covered. Unfortunately, this is another direct rip from the original game, with a layout taken directly from Stardust Speedway in that game, but at least that was a fun stage to take. The boost pads mean you go really fast here, but the camera is set up in a way that you can see everything coming, so it's not too fast. Metal Sonic himself sometimes charges at you or forms an electric shield, but he gives a tell before doing so, so it's not a cheap shot either. Plus, this race has some secrets in it too, as jumping while speeding on a ramp gives you a bunch of height, which can be used to find these secrets.
-And suddenly Super Monkey Ball. This stage only runs in 2 dimensions as opposed to 3, despite more 3D graphics, so that already means it's gonna be different from the original by default. Anyway, this is probably the most non-standard physics seen in the game (excluding Parappa for obvious reasons), as you roll around in a ball with physics that knock you all over the place when you hit something. You're under a time limit, so the objective is to reach the stage goal before that time runs out, while collecting as many bananas as you can in the process. Some of these bananas are super hard to collect, as you risk falling off of the edge and having to retry the whole level. If you're just going for any%, though, a lot of the levels may seem daunting at first, but there are usually tricks to make them easier. That's not to say they're free though, levels like Corkscrew absolutely require some execution on your part, but it definitely becomes simpler with these strats. Some rooms even let you hold right the entire way forward to just win, that's how much they help. Of course, the real challenge (and fun) is in collecting all the bananas, so if you want a high score, the game still incentivizes you to play well. There's also bonus stages which lean even further into this aspect, being full of bananas which are even harder to collect, giving you only a single chance to collect all of them. One of these even references the room from I Wanna Be The GB, which I thought was really funny. It does go on for a little while, but there's still no shortage of creative ideas in that time.
-The next stage is based on Gunstar Heroes, and unfortunately yet another one where more layouts are just directly taken. As for what it took, though, you get more weapons here, and the ability to shoot in 8 directions again, I just love it when fangames let you do this. You need these weapons to earn points by plowing through a horde of enemies coming your way, as there are a fuck ton of them you need to kill, and they also throw bombs that can kill you if you're too in their face. This is especially hard for me, since the weapon I like using the most is the flamethrower, which has the shortest range. However, the game does just give you certain weapons, in which case I just took what it gave me. Once you learn the right distance to keep from the enemies, and also the blind spot behind the miniboss, it's not that bad. That's not all, though, since there's also a board game section! You shoot a die to see how many spaces you move, and whatever space you land on, you get one chance to play what that space says before rolling again. Sometimes you can get lucky and roll a space to get some free score and a free weapon, other times you have to play some platforming or a boss. Some of these are references to other fangames, but most of them are just taken from Gunstar Heroes. There are a lot of these you can get, and they're mostly balanced, except for some spaces like Timeron which are much harder than the others. However, the fact that it is so random is already an issue, since the aim of this game is to get a faster time and a higher score, so having that just be up to luck, in a stage so close to the end of the game, is such a backwards decision. On that note, whatever you do, DO NOT LAND ON THE WAY BACK SPACE, unless you want to deal with even more gambling. Following that, and some more enemies, we get the boss fight against Smash Daisaku, easily the boss I struggled with the most. You get your choice of weapon here, and at least if you choose the flamethrower like me, he has the same issue as the regular enemies where he has attacks that can just kill you at close range, including one where he just chucks you into the sky. There are some things you can do to read what attacks he does, but the reaction time required is still really short. He also spawns a couple of enemies to shoot bullets at you, giving you even more of a headache to deal with. I guess you could just pick a different weapon like the aimed green arrows, but I'm impatient and want to end the fight faster. This is a fight with a lot of unfair moments, but it's the kind of unfair I can enjoy, at least. Oh yeah, there's also a second phase where Smash flies around the room dropping bombs everywhere, it's thankfully much easier than the first one.
-Now all the main games are finished, and the Man finally announces we won the car, time to go backstage to collect it. This stage is based on the Hall of Former The Guys, with a bunch of mini-sections referencing other games. This stage has the most variety out of all of them, with each room having its own gimmick. Some of these are even references back to the original stage, for example Opa-Opa from Fantasy Zone taking the place of Gradius, or the error message being represented by Bubsy 3D. The screens themselves are also really fun, either taking what made the original games so fun or putting their own spin on it entirely. Oh, there's a couple more traps thrown in here too, one of them is pretty cool, the other is kinda eh. After that, and a suspiciously familiar elevator segment, there's one more boss fight against the Man, who it turns out was actually the Father this whole time! Who could have ever seen such an unpredictable series of events coming—aaaaaaand the wine glass trap comes back, this time as a microphone. Whatever, in the actual fight, you get the big gun again, to shoot the Father in the background as he spins a wheel to determine what attack you get. Going through all the attacks quickly: the laser attack is easy to dodge if you don't miss the indicator at first; the punching gloves are unpredictable at first but easy to memorize; the spike walls are kind of random but still fair; the Dumb Bugz can be really annoying depending on how they decide to move, especially since you can only shoot up; Break The Targets can also take forever depending on their movement; Crimson works basically like the original boss but much shorter, making it fun to breeze through quickly; the cash blaster is much harder if you don't jump ahead of time, but the attack in case of failure is dodgeable anyway; the quiz is easy if you've been paying attention to the rest of the game; Schwarlitz always has the platforms spawn at angles that don't take forever to reach; Geezer has just the right amount going on to be hectic without being overwhelming; Solgryn is only a problem if you stand on the wrong part of the screen; and the anvils require you to keep moving around to not make them spawn in a way that you can't survive. After all that, there's one final phase you're guaranteed to get with the floor getting destroyed, featuring some regular fireballs and also the glass orbs too, it's a great finale to the fight. Finally, the building starts collapsing, but thankfully Opa-Opa returns to help you escape. I'm pretty sure it's entirely possible to beat this without ever stopping moving forward, but even if you don't, it's a generous enough time limit, while still being a climactic finish to this adventure.
What an incredible game. So much effort was put into every aspect of the game, from the way it looks, sounds, and especially feels to play, and I didn't even mention all the achievements and extra modes this game has, which are also great additions for people wanting more. Whether or not you're disappointed by the direct rips from the original games, one thing we can both agree on is that it's extremely well put-together as a game, and a ton of fun to play, and also to replay to grind for high scores. Another strong recommendation from this series, especially if you like the previous games in said series, retro games, or just adventure fangames in general.
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WannaFest 22 is currently the latest game in the Marathon series, brought to you by the Cherry Treehouse team who previously brought us I Wanna Be The Guy Remastered. However, in terms of original games of this scale, they're no slouch either, and looking at all the effort put into every detail of this game, you can absolutely see that.
The game comes with a bit of a story: the Kid hears of the eponymous game show, WannaFest 22, which actually has a poster for it located in the game folder. Hosted by the Man, who is definitely not the Father in a disguise, the event offers a free car as a reward for getting a high score in a specific set of games, a challenge the Kid gladly accepts. The way the game works is very similar to the original PowerFest 94 that this game was based on: you go through stages based on existing games, aiming to beat the stage as quickly as possible while collecting score in the process. Your score is counted up at the end of the game and used to determine what car you win in the end. This is already a huge plus for me, as anyone that knows my opinion on I Wanna Be The Concept will already know I love a game with replay value. What I don't like so much, however, is if the game gets lazy with how little it differs from the source material. Yeah, you probably saw a couple people complain about this game for being too close to the original games, a complaint I can honestly agree with if the game is like that. But then again, it's still possible to follow the design of something closely while still making it your own thing, and even if it is very close, I'm still willing to look past it to some degree if the thing in question is difficult to recreate, which it definitely was in this game's case. Not to say I can completely excuse it in that case, but I'll still give credit where it's due.
Of course, all that is only talking about hypotheticals. Let's look at how the actual game is and then judge it based on that:
-After an intro cutscene which sets the bar very high for the game already, we get a stage based on Ganbare! Goemon 2. This is one of the more vanilla stages in the game in terms of physics alterations, but there's still a lot to take in. The way you get score from this stage is by collecting coins which are either just lying around the stage or dropped by enemies. The enemies themselves are unique and fun to fight, except for the annoying fish that come out of nowhere. However, they randomly drop a lucky neko upon dying, which kills you when you touch it. I see really no reason to do this other than to be funny, but it loses the humor really quickly, just becoming very annoying. Aside from that, there are a lot of gimmicks to this stage, like moving platforms, mouse karts you're able to ride like Yoshi, even a big water dragon you ride on top of as the screen scrolls forward. These gimmicks are all used really well, especially in combination with the enemies which add to the stage a lot. At the end of the stage is a boss fight against Marble Red, who uses a sumo mech and who you're expected to fight likewise, but it's much easier if you don't do that and just spam the gun instead. That's not even close to all though, since the real fight is against Senshuraku, the Yokozuna, in which you also get your own armor, Guy Impact. This is unfortunately the first moment that is basically just the original game with no differences, but it's still cool enough to be deserving of a spot here. Here, you aim a cursor at the boss and either press shoot to heavy punch or jump to light punch, or you can press both to block. It sounds moderately difficult to learn, but the tutorial given by Miku should make it more clear if you're confused. The fight is mostly a reaction time test as you need to punch Senshuraku at the right time, but some attacks require you to aim the cursor to parry the cherries being shot at you, or just block them. You're still encouraged to parry them, though, since they give you coins when you do that, giving you a choice of whether you want to be more greedy or play it safe. I like that they incorporated the score system into the boss fight too, since it gives you more to do than just beat the boss normally.
-Speaking of greed, the next stage is based on Wario Land 4, which obviously means your goal here is to collect as many goodies as possible, just like in the last stage. In terms of similarity to the original game, basically the only issue is some of the outside areas being too similar, although there are some things added to make it more distinct. Just like in that game, you get a lot of movement options to move around and fight enemies with, and they are a lot of fun to play around with. The enemies themselves don't just stand around waiting for you to attack them, though, as some of them also give you status effects which you can use to access new areas. This stage doesn't encourage exploration quite as thoroughly as the original game, as most collectibles are just out in the open for you to find, but secrets do still exist. After that, you get a boss fight with Catbat, which you have to beat under a time limit, like in the original. Its pattern is basically the same as the original, you wait for it to spawn a wave, and use that to get up to either dash into it or ground pound onto it later, and avoid the enemies the boss breathes at you on the way down. The difference is that the arena is much bigger, but spikes are on the ceiling to compensate, so if you do get inflated by the enemies, you have to dodge those. As for the fight itself, the time limit is really generous, unless you want to beat it fast enough to get all 3 chests, in which case you have to rely a bit on luck to get the enemy spawns you want. After that, you know what time it is: IT'S PIZZA TIME! Now you have to escape from the stage you just beat before time runs out, and while the time limit was really generous, it still felt very hectic, especially with the new collectibles on the way back you have to watch out for.
-And now for Klonoa: Door to Phantomile, a stage I'm very conflicted on. On one hand, this stage has some of the best visuals in the game, even displaying 3D graphics. However, as for the actual stage, it's more of a disappointment, as a lot of the rooms are just taken directly from the original game, probably even more of them that I failed to find. Whatever, let's actually talk about how the stage plays. Again, you get score from collecting stuff in the stage, most just being on the main path, but some of them are hidden or require some extra effort. The main gimmick is that you can pick up enemies and throw them in another direction, whether to attack other enemies or to gain a vertical boost. It's not just in 2 dimensions either, as like I said earlier, you can also grab and throw enemies into the foreground and background too. It starts out pretty basic, but by the end, the stage leans much farther into the platforming aspect of the mechanic. I really like the way this gimmick is used, as the movements you're intended to pull off here feel really smooth, especially with the Tetons that make you fly upwards when you grab them. However, then we get the boss fight against Gelg Bolm, which also uses this gimmick. It walks around the screen and forces you to jump over it, throwing an enemy into its mouth in the process. The problem is that the window to do this is so small that you often just miss your target entirely and just hit its lips instead. This can cause the fight to go on for a while, but with some practice, it is possible to end the fight quickly and not have that happen.
-Now for That One Stage™ yet again, this time being Parappa the Rapper. This one is kind of hard to make distinct from its original game, due to being a completely different genre than I Wanna Be The Guy, but at least the inputs are unique here. It also uses the song "Kick! Punch!" from that game, but the lyrics are changed to be more fangame-themed, reflected in the new inputs and the voice lines too. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, this game has voice acting, and not just any voice acting, but the original voice actors from IWBTG, which is just incredible. As for how the stage plays, it's a rhythm game, so just hit the buttons as they come on screen to win. The more accurate you are, the more score you earn. It's an easy stage, again due to being a completely different genre, and the actual buttons you're supposed to press are well-charted, with basically none of it being weird to input. If I had one thing to complain about, though, it would be that knowing when the lines start is a problem at first, since they just catch you off-guard. I would suggest to have something like the second Parappa game where you see your icon running on your track before your notes actually start, so you can more easily recognize when you're supposed to start pressing buttons. The input delay was also kind of long for me, but maybe that's just my keyboard, and it's easy to adjust to anyway. Aside from that, another well-made stage with great visuals (in 3D again) and great references.
-After a short interlude with the host of the competition completely failing to keep up that disguise that he definitely isn't wearing, we get the next stage, based on Sonic CD. And don't worry, they actually take the Japanese soundtrack from that game. Anyway, the stage itself is surprisingly less focused on speed than you would expect from Sonic the Hedgehog, instead focusing on gimmicky platforming and collecting rings to gain score. Some of these are hidden in walls, meaning you'll need to watch out for secrets in order to collect them. As for the gimmicks in this stage, there's a lot again. Moving sawblades, springs that bounce you up, walking platforms, even DotKid gets brought in near the end of the first act, and even more. I like the way all these gimmicks are used, except for maybe the springs, with them bouncing you way too high so that you can't see what's coming, not to mention taking way too much control away from you. This stage also has a couple traps, which this game has surprisingly few of, and the ones it does have work very well. Now, if you were disappointed by the lack of speed in this stage, don't worry, because the boss fight against Metal Sonic has got you covered. Unfortunately, this is another direct rip from the original game, with a layout taken directly from Stardust Speedway in that game, but at least that was a fun stage to take. The boost pads mean you go really fast here, but the camera is set up in a way that you can see everything coming, so it's not too fast. Metal Sonic himself sometimes charges at you or forms an electric shield, but he gives a tell before doing so, so it's not a cheap shot either. Plus, this race has some secrets in it too, as jumping while speeding on a ramp gives you a bunch of height, which can be used to find these secrets.
-And suddenly Super Monkey Ball. This stage only runs in 2 dimensions as opposed to 3, despite more 3D graphics, so that already means it's gonna be different from the original by default. Anyway, this is probably the most non-standard physics seen in the game (excluding Parappa for obvious reasons), as you roll around in a ball with physics that knock you all over the place when you hit something. You're under a time limit, so the objective is to reach the stage goal before that time runs out, while collecting as many bananas as you can in the process. Some of these bananas are super hard to collect, as you risk falling off of the edge and having to retry the whole level. If you're just going for any%, though, a lot of the levels may seem daunting at first, but there are usually tricks to make them easier. That's not to say they're free though, levels like Corkscrew absolutely require some execution on your part, but it definitely becomes simpler with these strats. Some rooms even let you hold right the entire way forward to just win, that's how much they help. Of course, the real challenge (and fun) is in collecting all the bananas, so if you want a high score, the game still incentivizes you to play well. There's also bonus stages which lean even further into this aspect, being full of bananas which are even harder to collect, giving you only a single chance to collect all of them. One of these even references the room from I Wanna Be The GB, which I thought was really funny. It does go on for a little while, but there's still no shortage of creative ideas in that time.
-The next stage is based on Gunstar Heroes, and unfortunately yet another one where more layouts are just directly taken. As for what it took, though, you get more weapons here, and the ability to shoot in 8 directions again, I just love it when fangames let you do this. You need these weapons to earn points by plowing through a horde of enemies coming your way, as there are a fuck ton of them you need to kill, and they also throw bombs that can kill you if you're too in their face. This is especially hard for me, since the weapon I like using the most is the flamethrower, which has the shortest range. However, the game does just give you certain weapons, in which case I just took what it gave me. Once you learn the right distance to keep from the enemies, and also the blind spot behind the miniboss, it's not that bad. That's not all, though, since there's also a board game section! You shoot a die to see how many spaces you move, and whatever space you land on, you get one chance to play what that space says before rolling again. Sometimes you can get lucky and roll a space to get some free score and a free weapon, other times you have to play some platforming or a boss. Some of these are references to other fangames, but most of them are just taken from Gunstar Heroes. There are a lot of these you can get, and they're mostly balanced, except for some spaces like Timeron which are much harder than the others. However, the fact that it is so random is already an issue, since the aim of this game is to get a faster time and a higher score, so having that just be up to luck, in a stage so close to the end of the game, is such a backwards decision. On that note, whatever you do, DO NOT LAND ON THE WAY BACK SPACE, unless you want to deal with even more gambling. Following that, and some more enemies, we get the boss fight against Smash Daisaku, easily the boss I struggled with the most. You get your choice of weapon here, and at least if you choose the flamethrower like me, he has the same issue as the regular enemies where he has attacks that can just kill you at close range, including one where he just chucks you into the sky. There are some things you can do to read what attacks he does, but the reaction time required is still really short. He also spawns a couple of enemies to shoot bullets at you, giving you even more of a headache to deal with. I guess you could just pick a different weapon like the aimed green arrows, but I'm impatient and want to end the fight faster. This is a fight with a lot of unfair moments, but it's the kind of unfair I can enjoy, at least. Oh yeah, there's also a second phase where Smash flies around the room dropping bombs everywhere, it's thankfully much easier than the first one.
-Now all the main games are finished, and the Man finally announces we won the car, time to go backstage to collect it. This stage is based on the Hall of Former The Guys, with a bunch of mini-sections referencing other games. This stage has the most variety out of all of them, with each room having its own gimmick. Some of these are even references back to the original stage, for example Opa-Opa from Fantasy Zone taking the place of Gradius, or the error message being represented by Bubsy 3D. The screens themselves are also really fun, either taking what made the original games so fun or putting their own spin on it entirely. Oh, there's a couple more traps thrown in here too, one of them is pretty cool, the other is kinda eh. After that, and a suspiciously familiar elevator segment, there's one more boss fight against the Man, who it turns out was actually the Father this whole time! Who could have ever seen such an unpredictable series of events coming—aaaaaaand the wine glass trap comes back, this time as a microphone. Whatever, in the actual fight, you get the big gun again, to shoot the Father in the background as he spins a wheel to determine what attack you get. Going through all the attacks quickly: the laser attack is easy to dodge if you don't miss the indicator at first; the punching gloves are unpredictable at first but easy to memorize; the spike walls are kind of random but still fair; the Dumb Bugz can be really annoying depending on how they decide to move, especially since you can only shoot up; Break The Targets can also take forever depending on their movement; Crimson works basically like the original boss but much shorter, making it fun to breeze through quickly; the cash blaster is much harder if you don't jump ahead of time, but the attack in case of failure is dodgeable anyway; the quiz is easy if you've been paying attention to the rest of the game; Schwarlitz always has the platforms spawn at angles that don't take forever to reach; Geezer has just the right amount going on to be hectic without being overwhelming; Solgryn is only a problem if you stand on the wrong part of the screen; and the anvils require you to keep moving around to not make them spawn in a way that you can't survive. After all that, there's one final phase you're guaranteed to get with the floor getting destroyed, featuring some regular fireballs and also the glass orbs too, it's a great finale to the fight. Finally, the building starts collapsing, but thankfully Opa-Opa returns to help you escape. I'm pretty sure it's entirely possible to beat this without ever stopping moving forward, but even if you don't, it's a generous enough time limit, while still being a climactic finish to this adventure.
What an incredible game. So much effort was put into every aspect of the game, from the way it looks, sounds, and especially feels to play, and I didn't even mention all the achievements and extra modes this game has, which are also great additions for people wanting more. Whether or not you're disappointed by the direct rips from the original games, one thing we can both agree on is that it's extremely well put-together as a game, and a ton of fun to play, and also to replay to grind for high scores. Another strong recommendation from this series, especially if you like the previous games in said series, retro games, or just adventure fangames in general.
Rating: 8.0 80
Difficulty: 55 55
May 22, 2026
3 Games
| Game | Difficulty | Average Rating | # of Ratings |
|---|---|---|---|
| I Wanna Be The Blast | 49.8 | 6.8 | 8 |
| I Wanna Eat The Macaron | 71.0 | 7.6 | 4 |
| I Wanna Be The Unlimited | 75.0 | 9.0 | 4 |
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