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CanusAntonius
For: I Wanna be the Vandal
For: I Wanna be the Vandal
As one who is now known as the "Vandal" behind closed doors and hushed whispers, it felt necessary to remark on the journey taken for such a title. This is by far one of the highest quality Needle games to come out of the community and features exquisite gimmick usage throughout bundled under a chef's kiss.
It's well known that Wolfie has been an exceptional fangame designer for a while before this game, but if you view Witch's Tower as FFXII then Vandal is the sky-shattering zodiac age. It's such a crisp and beautiful evolution of design that you can both see the humble beginnings alongside his newfound abilities intermingled with one another. It creates a wonderful game that holds both his traditional design philosophy alongside a fresh modern coat, and I greatly enjoyed it.
Set as a 50-floor game, every area in it feels distinctly creative and unique. For the most part, this comes to flesh by adding a new gimmick per stage, and it's very clear that the design is made to suit them extremely well. Sometimes gimmicks can feel shoehorned into a save, or needle placed to suit a gimmick, but the game feels as if both are thought of at the same time. There is typically a good difficulty balance between these saves, if you have a harder gimmick segment to do then it'll be balanced with easier regular jumps for the other half.
The aesthetics of the game are also pretty beautiful, and the overall narrative going on actually makes this feel more like an Adventure game than most Needle stuff does. You have your favorite Magic Tower characters back in action to help the Kid on his journey (or not), each providing funny dialogue worth reading whenever you can. The visuals really help each area feel like part of a greater world, of course, expanded upon by the various maps throughout the game (the final one being quite the spectacle). Finally, there's the music, in which you're basically going to want to save some of these songs to your playlist as they're quite jamming. (As a side note: the soundtrack playlist in the Readme doesn't seem to work anymore which is a bit unfortunate). I'd also like to give a special shoutout to the final stage, which ends up being the Tower Lead of Needle in such an amazing way.
I did have a few minor issues with the game, most of which might be more of a personal dilemma than the design. First, I felt as if there was a major visibility issue in one of the ending stages, especially since it made the water nearly impossible to see. It's hard to appreciate a visual challenge usually as I only view it as contradictory to the general gameplay of Needle, and here is certainly no exception, it doesn't feel fun to play when I can barely see the screen with how dark it is. Second, the final segment of that stage feels like quite an outcast from the rest of the game, I don't really think the theme matches anything else going on, it was also like the hardest thing in the game for me since it once again has the visual dilemma alongside a forced timer. I also kind of feel like the design earlier in that stage was a bit of a lesser stance than the rest of the game because of how difficult it was, but also because stuff like the tiny water gaps when they're over spikes didn't really feel like the design anywhere else, it was uncomfortable to play. Finally, I really don't get the green block gimmicks, I always felt like the height they pushed me up was a bit random, I'm not even sure if it relied on if I held down shift or not. Beating the entire game and not understanding the gimmick mostly probably means it's a bit of a weaker chain link than the others. This being said, these issues didn't make me stop enjoying the game, but just wanted to mention them for the sake of the review.
Overall, Vandal is one of the most important Needle releases ever to come out, and after playing it I've realized exactly why. It's a stunning game, and well worth the attention it gets from everyone, I would even say that it's my favorite pure Needle game at this point. It's such a shame that people are going to vandalize it, or is it?
[0] Likes
It's well known that Wolfie has been an exceptional fangame designer for a while before this game, but if you view Witch's Tower as FFXII then Vandal is the sky-shattering zodiac age. It's such a crisp and beautiful evolution of design that you can both see the humble beginnings alongside his newfound abilities intermingled with one another. It creates a wonderful game that holds both his traditional design philosophy alongside a fresh modern coat, and I greatly enjoyed it.
Set as a 50-floor game, every area in it feels distinctly creative and unique. For the most part, this comes to flesh by adding a new gimmick per stage, and it's very clear that the design is made to suit them extremely well. Sometimes gimmicks can feel shoehorned into a save, or needle placed to suit a gimmick, but the game feels as if both are thought of at the same time. There is typically a good difficulty balance between these saves, if you have a harder gimmick segment to do then it'll be balanced with easier regular jumps for the other half.
The aesthetics of the game are also pretty beautiful, and the overall narrative going on actually makes this feel more like an Adventure game than most Needle stuff does. You have your favorite Magic Tower characters back in action to help the Kid on his journey (or not), each providing funny dialogue worth reading whenever you can. The visuals really help each area feel like part of a greater world, of course, expanded upon by the various maps throughout the game (the final one being quite the spectacle). Finally, there's the music, in which you're basically going to want to save some of these songs to your playlist as they're quite jamming. (As a side note: the soundtrack playlist in the Readme doesn't seem to work anymore which is a bit unfortunate). I'd also like to give a special shoutout to the final stage, which ends up being the Tower Lead of Needle in such an amazing way.
I did have a few minor issues with the game, most of which might be more of a personal dilemma than the design. First, I felt as if there was a major visibility issue in one of the ending stages, especially since it made the water nearly impossible to see. It's hard to appreciate a visual challenge usually as I only view it as contradictory to the general gameplay of Needle, and here is certainly no exception, it doesn't feel fun to play when I can barely see the screen with how dark it is. Second, the final segment of that stage feels like quite an outcast from the rest of the game, I don't really think the theme matches anything else going on, it was also like the hardest thing in the game for me since it once again has the visual dilemma alongside a forced timer. I also kind of feel like the design earlier in that stage was a bit of a lesser stance than the rest of the game because of how difficult it was, but also because stuff like the tiny water gaps when they're over spikes didn't really feel like the design anywhere else, it was uncomfortable to play. Finally, I really don't get the green block gimmicks, I always felt like the height they pushed me up was a bit random, I'm not even sure if it relied on if I held down shift or not. Beating the entire game and not understanding the gimmick mostly probably means it's a bit of a weaker chain link than the others. This being said, these issues didn't make me stop enjoying the game, but just wanted to mention them for the sake of the review.
Overall, Vandal is one of the most important Needle releases ever to come out, and after playing it I've realized exactly why. It's a stunning game, and well worth the attention it gets from everyone, I would even say that it's my favorite pure Needle game at this point. It's such a shame that people are going to vandalize it, or is it?
Rating: 9.5 95
Difficulty: 72 72
Sep 11, 2022
CanusAntonius
For: I wanna be the RUKIMIN!7(SEVEN!)
For: I wanna be the RUKIMIN!7(SEVEN!)
This is one of the best-looking fangames there are, it's also one of the least enjoyable ones. Riddled with so many problems that it became extremely tedious to play, it was one of the most annoying things I've ever completed.
Rukimin7 at its core is a visually polished game with borderline terrible gameplay. There are traps that are decent but others that are random flying spikes. There are cannons that feel like the coding took just a few seconds and then wasn't playtested at all. There are mechanics that make absolutely no sense because they aren't explained at all, such as a flying gimmick in which it never tells you Shift makes you go slow. There's easily the worst Schmup stage I've ever played due to atrocious difficulty balancing and enemy attacks that play like garbage. There are bosses that have a high amount of HP and rely on you being able to mash them. Honestly, visuals are literally the only thing this game has that I'd consider any sort of redeeming quality, anything that tries to be unique in terms of gameplay just completely fails to accomplish what it seemed set to do.
For whatever reason, and I'm not sure if this applies to other bosses, the final one seems to have a rank system in which it will lose ranks the more you die to it, making the fight easier. While I was able to reach the ending and die at the last second on Rank 1, it decreased to -1 which made it a lot more reasonable. However, there is still a completely fucked attack that you'll need to use an item for by pressing X to destroy all bullets on screen, which of course is never explained to you because why would it, that would make too much sense.
Overall, I've beaten the game and plan to never return to it for extra. I would probably never recommend it unless you need an example of why Production Value can be meaningless if your gameplay is trash. I'll at least give it credit though for convincing me it was a very modern release due to its looks.
[1] Like
Rukimin7 at its core is a visually polished game with borderline terrible gameplay. There are traps that are decent but others that are random flying spikes. There are cannons that feel like the coding took just a few seconds and then wasn't playtested at all. There are mechanics that make absolutely no sense because they aren't explained at all, such as a flying gimmick in which it never tells you Shift makes you go slow. There's easily the worst Schmup stage I've ever played due to atrocious difficulty balancing and enemy attacks that play like garbage. There are bosses that have a high amount of HP and rely on you being able to mash them. Honestly, visuals are literally the only thing this game has that I'd consider any sort of redeeming quality, anything that tries to be unique in terms of gameplay just completely fails to accomplish what it seemed set to do.
For whatever reason, and I'm not sure if this applies to other bosses, the final one seems to have a rank system in which it will lose ranks the more you die to it, making the fight easier. While I was able to reach the ending and die at the last second on Rank 1, it decreased to -1 which made it a lot more reasonable. However, there is still a completely fucked attack that you'll need to use an item for by pressing X to destroy all bullets on screen, which of course is never explained to you because why would it, that would make too much sense.
Overall, I've beaten the game and plan to never return to it for extra. I would probably never recommend it unless you need an example of why Production Value can be meaningless if your gameplay is trash. I'll at least give it credit though for convincing me it was a very modern release due to its looks.
Rating: 3.5 35
Difficulty: 55 55
Sep 9, 2022
CanusAntonius
For: I wanna gameover
For: I wanna gameover
I Wanna Gameover gives the player a single goal to accomplish: kill the Kid. This results in a game in which the Guy would approve, finally you have the chance to rid him of his arch-nemesis.
Each screen offers pretty much a puzzle in the fact that there is only one method of death each. Sometimes you'll have an obvious goal to reach, such as a spike hanging from the ceiling, but other times you'll really need to think outside of the box. Some of the levels are especially creative, such as an avoidance where the normal projectiles don't actually kill you, or a room involving push blocks with no obvious indication of what to do. I do think some of these ideas fail a bit in execution, particularly these segments: The Green cube chase, the Align screen, The Destination boss, and both the Colonel and Miku. My main problem with these is their highly irregular difficulty compared to the rest of the game, honestly, this would be pretty friendly to most players without their imbalance. Besides these though, the rest of the game is quite easier.
Overall, I think this is a great idea, and would definitely recommend it. I hope to see this idea used more in the future, there's quite a lot of potential here.
[2] Likes
Each screen offers pretty much a puzzle in the fact that there is only one method of death each. Sometimes you'll have an obvious goal to reach, such as a spike hanging from the ceiling, but other times you'll really need to think outside of the box. Some of the levels are especially creative, such as an avoidance where the normal projectiles don't actually kill you, or a room involving push blocks with no obvious indication of what to do. I do think some of these ideas fail a bit in execution, particularly these segments: The Green cube chase, the Align screen, The Destination boss, and both the Colonel and Miku. My main problem with these is their highly irregular difficulty compared to the rest of the game, honestly, this would be pretty friendly to most players without their imbalance. Besides these though, the rest of the game is quite easier.
Overall, I think this is a great idea, and would definitely recommend it. I hope to see this idea used more in the future, there's quite a lot of potential here.
Rating: 8.5 85
Difficulty: 50 50
Sep 9, 2022
CanusAntonius
For: I wanna be the Yogurt
For: I wanna be the Yogurt
Yogurt is a somewhat decent Trapventure game that has a lot of pitfalls that cause it to be rather unenjoyable.
A long list of problems follows this game from start to end, and most of them are your common offenders from games like this. First, there are a lot of random traps that don't really add anything to the gameplay, such as a falling spike out of a block at the end of a save. Then you have some segments that have egregious visuals preventing you from both doing platforming correctly alongside bosses. Third, you have restarting music everywhere except the final stage, showing that even though the maker knew how to make it not restart, they purposely chose to keep it doing so. Fourth, you have required secrets in order to actually unlock the final stage, which is a problem when it comes to a trap-heavy game. Fifth, the final stage ends up just being a pretty boring needle screen that's a lot harder than past stages, and includes multiple ledges, corner jumps, and even a downwards plane (you do get a setup at least). Sixth, one of the bosses involves a load of heavy mashing, in which I had to resort to autofire to complete. Finally, the game ends on a pretty despicable final boss that has a variety of random attacks that can pile on top of each other and wall you pretty easily, he also has an extremely quick targeting attack alongside a load of HP which makes it pretty unfair to play.
There are a few decent aspects about the game, but frankly, the problems mostly outweigh them by a ton. Because of such, I wouldn't really recommend this at all.
[1] Like
A long list of problems follows this game from start to end, and most of them are your common offenders from games like this. First, there are a lot of random traps that don't really add anything to the gameplay, such as a falling spike out of a block at the end of a save. Then you have some segments that have egregious visuals preventing you from both doing platforming correctly alongside bosses. Third, you have restarting music everywhere except the final stage, showing that even though the maker knew how to make it not restart, they purposely chose to keep it doing so. Fourth, you have required secrets in order to actually unlock the final stage, which is a problem when it comes to a trap-heavy game. Fifth, the final stage ends up just being a pretty boring needle screen that's a lot harder than past stages, and includes multiple ledges, corner jumps, and even a downwards plane (you do get a setup at least). Sixth, one of the bosses involves a load of heavy mashing, in which I had to resort to autofire to complete. Finally, the game ends on a pretty despicable final boss that has a variety of random attacks that can pile on top of each other and wall you pretty easily, he also has an extremely quick targeting attack alongside a load of HP which makes it pretty unfair to play.
There are a few decent aspects about the game, but frankly, the problems mostly outweigh them by a ton. Because of such, I wouldn't really recommend this at all.
Rating: 3.5 35
Difficulty: N/A
Sep 8, 2022
CanusAntonius
For: Puzzle!
For: Puzzle!
This is a pretty solid Needle Puzzle game in which you have boxes you can move like a slide puzzle in order to form a possible path to the warp. I thought it was pretty fun as it really made me think about what I was doing.
The game starts off very easy with only 3 boxes to slide, but it gradually works its way up to 8 by the end. As you progress, it also adds a bit of a gimmick by having a green box in which you're now only allowed to move stuff while inside of it. It also eventually adds a box you cannot move at all, which should help you with the pathing of the final rooms.
Would recommend, it was pretty neat.
[1] Like
The game starts off very easy with only 3 boxes to slide, but it gradually works its way up to 8 by the end. As you progress, it also adds a bit of a gimmick by having a green box in which you're now only allowed to move stuff while inside of it. It also eventually adds a box you cannot move at all, which should help you with the pathing of the final rooms.
Would recommend, it was pretty neat.
Rating: 7.5 75
Difficulty: 35 35
Sep 7, 2022
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3 Games
| Game | Difficulty | Average Rating | # of Ratings |
|---|---|---|---|
| I Wanna be the Kid Escape | 6.2 | 6.4 | 27 |
| I Wanna be the Kid Escape 2 | 26.5 | 8.3 | 5 |
| Kid Tales - The Legend of Brom | 0.4 | 7.9 | 19 |
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