Delicious FruitElCochran90's Profile
Send a PMJoined on: Aug 25, 2018
Bio:
About time I updated this bio.
Name: Edgar Cochran
Country: Mexico
Currently living in: Mexico City
-God's servant and one of his blessed sons (John 1:12; John 3:16).
-Lover of the entire animal and plant creation.
-Film lover and reviewer for Letterboxd.com (https://letterboxd.com/elcochran90).
-Adjunct professor and personal tutor of Statistical Inference, Business Forecasting, Marketing Research and Portfolio Theory.
Fangaming experience began in August 2018, so only modest achievements here. However, I'll describe some relevant FAQs here made to me during my stay here since 2018:
Q: Are videogames art?
A: Yes
Q: Are fangames videogames?
A: Yes
Q: Why are your reviews long and unconventional?
A: I am a film reviewer; in a way, I sort of unconsciously dragged my style of film reviewing to the world of fangames. I often involve personal experiences in my writing. Expect that structure; I'm not planning to change it.
Q: How are you rating games? Do you compare fangames as normal games that your ratings are lower than all other people ratings or are you just a critical person?
A: My ratings are not lower than people's ratings all of the time regarding fangames, but they are most of the time. However, this is not my intention. I am rating them as normal games, as in, I don't have a different spectrum for rating "normal", "official" games than fangames. They are in the same scale, because they are all videogames. I don't like to think myself as a critical person; ratings are just subjective numbers. However, I have realized that I rate games more harshly than I rate films/short films, which I do more often.
Q: What are your favorite fangames?
A: I have not played enough fangames to make a comprehensive and representative list, but this can be answered by going to my Favorites list. Anything getting 6.7 or higher will be considered immediately as a favorite.
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381 Reviews!
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381 Games
381 Reviews
ElCochran90
For: I wanna be the 3200min
For: I wanna be the 3200min
It is enjoyable for the most part (well, half of it), but let me state something before anything:
The death sound sucks. It just sucks. You have no idea how much it sucks. Like, it sucks. It is louder than anything. You die and you hear a loud "PIGHHFFTT!!!". It just sucks. It frustrated me to no end.
There are issues with the overall sound too. The soundtrack is nice (nothing groundbreaking or even better than other fangames that have made terrific soundtrack choices), but the volume is sometimes too low and then it is way off. Like, why? I mostly played with a low volume so that whenever it was pumped up, it didn't sound too hard. Of course, during the lowest parts, you could almost hear a thing.
These are two huge handicaps that you are meant to endure during the entire game. For being a 2012 game, the design is cool-looking, with RNG for coloring the spikes during the first areas. Color schemes are pleasant and never eye-punishing. The first stages are the best, with creative jumps that never got boring and great designs, my favorite being the very first part. Actually, the first part had tons of optional harder routes, most of them consisting of corner jumps, and I gladly took them. It was faster and more challenging. There is even a part where you can skip half of the screen doing a double corner jump upwards, and I happily did it. I love games with alternate routes for optional challenge. That is ok for difficulty standards, but this takes me to the next topic:
The difficulty curve is such a gigantic mess. There were rough edges here and there with substantially easier intermissions. I had no idea what to expect, because I would die dozens of times in a screen and only 1 or 2 times at the next, and sometimes, in the same screen, I would die much more to a save than to the next one. Extremely inconsistent.
Finally, we have the maze, where most of the complaints come from and, ironically, I didn't mind it as bad. It was fun to explore. It was a challenge and nothing substantially cryptic because I took the correct route the first time and ALMOST did what was intended, but took another false exit. The rest of the times I explored all other possible false exits, lol. I did waste my chances, and facepalmed later for "that" route that I had missed in my first try. Dang.
I would recommend it if sound issues aren't a huge thing for you. I might sound like too picky, but my ears resented the experience the entire time and it wasn't cool at all. If it had been a momentary issue, this would have a higher rating.
Recommended? Yeah, but not begginers, but for newbies looking for a harder challenge.
The death sound sucks. It just sucks. You have no idea how much it sucks. Like, it sucks. It is louder than anything. You die and you hear a loud "PIGHHFFTT!!!". It just sucks. It frustrated me to no end.
There are issues with the overall sound too. The soundtrack is nice (nothing groundbreaking or even better than other fangames that have made terrific soundtrack choices), but the volume is sometimes too low and then it is way off. Like, why? I mostly played with a low volume so that whenever it was pumped up, it didn't sound too hard. Of course, during the lowest parts, you could almost hear a thing.
These are two huge handicaps that you are meant to endure during the entire game. For being a 2012 game, the design is cool-looking, with RNG for coloring the spikes during the first areas. Color schemes are pleasant and never eye-punishing. The first stages are the best, with creative jumps that never got boring and great designs, my favorite being the very first part. Actually, the first part had tons of optional harder routes, most of them consisting of corner jumps, and I gladly took them. It was faster and more challenging. There is even a part where you can skip half of the screen doing a double corner jump upwards, and I happily did it. I love games with alternate routes for optional challenge. That is ok for difficulty standards, but this takes me to the next topic:
The difficulty curve is such a gigantic mess. There were rough edges here and there with substantially easier intermissions. I had no idea what to expect, because I would die dozens of times in a screen and only 1 or 2 times at the next, and sometimes, in the same screen, I would die much more to a save than to the next one. Extremely inconsistent.
Finally, we have the maze, where most of the complaints come from and, ironically, I didn't mind it as bad. It was fun to explore. It was a challenge and nothing substantially cryptic because I took the correct route the first time and ALMOST did what was intended, but took another false exit. The rest of the times I explored all other possible false exits, lol. I did waste my chances, and facepalmed later for "that" route that I had missed in my first try. Dang.
I would recommend it if sound issues aren't a huge thing for you. I might sound like too picky, but my ears resented the experience the entire time and it wasn't cool at all. If it had been a momentary issue, this would have a higher rating.
Recommended? Yeah, but not begginers, but for newbies looking for a harder challenge.
Tagged as: Needle
[1] Like
Rating: 4.6 46
Difficulty: 45 45
Oct 24, 2018
ElCochran90
For: I wanna be the Fangame!
For: I wanna be the Fangame!
I thought I was overrating this, but if I really think about it, this is not only a classic, but features plenty of variety and there's a lot of love behind the project. Visual design is not always the best and the engine gave me trouble several times, and I won't compare its engine to the remaining 98% of fangames. I am comparing it to the original classics that had their own engines: IWBTG, IWBTB and IWKTG. All of those engines worked for the platorming they featured; this one didn't: first jump is too fast and too high, and second jump is ridiculously low. Making a gate jump equals making a mini-spike jump in a regular engine, but it can be pulled off. The problem comes with jumps that do require trial and error because previous calculations will fail you.
Exactly 25% of the scenarios I didn't like, and exactly 75% the scenarios I loved. These percentages include all secret areas, which are fantastic more often than not. It is too trap-based for my taste, but the adventure feeling is there to convey a sense of progression and achievement. Music and worlds are derivative from mandatory classics and it is highly influential.
Although not on par with the original IWBTG (which hasn't been removed from my Top 5 list of fangames yet [*hears nonsense screams in the distance of IWBTG "not being a fangame"*]), this is an adventure I would recommend because it has more ups than downs, and the downs are not worth missing the ups, such as the final tower area, the Doom boss segment, the final escape, the location of all secrets (which would certainly increase my final difficulty rating), Trial 5 and other clever traps that make you laugh first and frustrate you second.
For the record, this did a much better job recreating the Pokemon world than the bizarre Rose Gear did, and a work as splendid as Run the Marathon to create a Super Mario Bros. world. Plenty of old-school game references are here and add up to an experience that definitely aims at surpassing the difficulty of Kayin's original great game (it really does in nominal terms).
This could potentially be considered as the true sequel of IWBTG instead of Thenewgeezer's eternally unfinished game.
Play it. It demands it more than just for its classic status.
[2] Likes
Exactly 25% of the scenarios I didn't like, and exactly 75% the scenarios I loved. These percentages include all secret areas, which are fantastic more often than not. It is too trap-based for my taste, but the adventure feeling is there to convey a sense of progression and achievement. Music and worlds are derivative from mandatory classics and it is highly influential.
Although not on par with the original IWBTG (which hasn't been removed from my Top 5 list of fangames yet [*hears nonsense screams in the distance of IWBTG "not being a fangame"*]), this is an adventure I would recommend because it has more ups than downs, and the downs are not worth missing the ups, such as the final tower area, the Doom boss segment, the final escape, the location of all secrets (which would certainly increase my final difficulty rating), Trial 5 and other clever traps that make you laugh first and frustrate you second.
For the record, this did a much better job recreating the Pokemon world than the bizarre Rose Gear did, and a work as splendid as Run the Marathon to create a Super Mario Bros. world. Plenty of old-school game references are here and add up to an experience that definitely aims at surpassing the difficulty of Kayin's original great game (it really does in nominal terms).
This could potentially be considered as the true sequel of IWBTG instead of Thenewgeezer's eternally unfinished game.
Play it. It demands it more than just for its classic status.
Rating: 7.5 75
Difficulty: 50 50
Oct 22, 2018
ElCochran90
For: I wanna go across the Rainbow
For: I wanna go across the Rainbow
Rating based on 100% mode. Difficulty rating based on No Secrets mode.
Color me (oh boy) impressed! This is a terrific experience for both veterans and players that have gotten used to the common engine that rules 98% of fangames and want a spike in challenge:
✓Red: Straight needle platforming. Creative and fun.
✓Orange: Choose your difficulty! Veterans will find themselves taking the shorter, yet harder routes! I tried them all and had a lot of fun succeeding.
✓Yellow: Kappa. Traps all over. Naturally, my least favorite segment, but I appreciated two things: a) They were not non-stop, and b) some triggers were odd. Not all of them kill you. It's just to scare you. Either it was intentional or bad platforming, but it seemed odd.
✓Green: Difficulty spiked up (oh my). There are no alternate routes here: this section is the filter for beginners. Fun as well and requires precise calculations.
✓Blue: Apple platforming. Average at best and sometimes annoying, but never frustrating.
✓Indigo: Japanese Kappa ("ding!") blocks. Was this the fangame that started them? Even if not, the idea is funny and serves as a different kind of trap segment that is not too bothersome.
✓Violet: Moving spikes. Calculate your timing of landing on ledges and read the spikes well. Dynamic and, again, fun.
As mentioned by the consensus, the game reaches its peak in experience if you get all secrets, because instead of getting a troll boss fight and a "Thank You For Playing" screen, you get the final area: a beautiful and iconic moment among the world of fangames. It's unforgettable. If the whole game had been of the quality of the final area, this would be among my favorites, but I still consider it great overall. The final boss is memorable, not as epic as I would've wished, but a nod to FFX is never something "overused". The attack of the hearts might frustrate some, but after 3 deaths to it, I caught the trick. An easy fight, but long enough.
Very recommended. This has a high replay value and, unlike several fangames, this showed commitment in its design. Instead of painting the entire screen of one color, and thus killing your eyes, the color scheme, shadow and rendering effects are gorgeous, and I love looking at basically any area.
P.S. I cannot reiterate how great the final section is after collecting all secrets. If you have played "I Wanna Get Cultured", you might have had that section spoiled, but its effect still remains once you play the original game. Thumb up.
[2] Likes
Color me (oh boy) impressed! This is a terrific experience for both veterans and players that have gotten used to the common engine that rules 98% of fangames and want a spike in challenge:
✓Red: Straight needle platforming. Creative and fun.
✓Orange: Choose your difficulty! Veterans will find themselves taking the shorter, yet harder routes! I tried them all and had a lot of fun succeeding.
✓Yellow: Kappa. Traps all over. Naturally, my least favorite segment, but I appreciated two things: a) They were not non-stop, and b) some triggers were odd. Not all of them kill you. It's just to scare you. Either it was intentional or bad platforming, but it seemed odd.
✓Green: Difficulty spiked up (oh my). There are no alternate routes here: this section is the filter for beginners. Fun as well and requires precise calculations.
✓Blue: Apple platforming. Average at best and sometimes annoying, but never frustrating.
✓Indigo: Japanese Kappa ("ding!") blocks. Was this the fangame that started them? Even if not, the idea is funny and serves as a different kind of trap segment that is not too bothersome.
✓Violet: Moving spikes. Calculate your timing of landing on ledges and read the spikes well. Dynamic and, again, fun.
As mentioned by the consensus, the game reaches its peak in experience if you get all secrets, because instead of getting a troll boss fight and a "Thank You For Playing" screen, you get the final area: a beautiful and iconic moment among the world of fangames. It's unforgettable. If the whole game had been of the quality of the final area, this would be among my favorites, but I still consider it great overall. The final boss is memorable, not as epic as I would've wished, but a nod to FFX is never something "overused". The attack of the hearts might frustrate some, but after 3 deaths to it, I caught the trick. An easy fight, but long enough.
Very recommended. This has a high replay value and, unlike several fangames, this showed commitment in its design. Instead of painting the entire screen of one color, and thus killing your eyes, the color scheme, shadow and rendering effects are gorgeous, and I love looking at basically any area.
P.S. I cannot reiterate how great the final section is after collecting all secrets. If you have played "I Wanna Get Cultured", you might have had that section spoiled, but its effect still remains once you play the original game. Thumb up.
Rating: 6.4 64
Difficulty: 45 45
Oct 21, 2018
ElCochran90
For: I wanna see the Moon
For: I wanna see the Moon
I could write a book about this fangame, but I'll try to keep it as short as possible.
First, I played the "Normal" mode, which actually would qualify better as "Hard". The experience was extremely tedious. There are just less saves, sometimes with entire screens that do not have a single save spot. The screens are not really challenging per se, but it is heavily trap-based, and so, this consumes a lot of your time being a trial-and-error game. This is not difficulty; it is poor, frustrating design. Kayin understood what a "Hard" mode was supposed to be.
Second, the visual design is absolutely atrocious 80% of the times and shines the rest of the times, especially the "Space", "Black Valley" and "See the Moon" areas. It is extremely generic in its exterior designs, and very monochromatic. Whenever you enter the cherry forest or the blue ice area which names I won't bother to recall (interesting that those are the areas whose names I can't recall) will make your eyeballs explode out of pain: just paint everything green and blue in tones that hurt, use your imagination and voilá! You've got an "ice" or "forest" area. The forest area particularly looks like green baby's poo. But the true eye killer is an advanced area where you shoot anthropomorphic suns (or whatever they are), turning the ENTIRE screen of one strong, eye-piercing color, making the spikes of that color disappear, so goodbye eyes. Do not play this at night!!!
Third. Almost all of the bosses, except for the last one, are cherries (err, Delicious Fruits). Uneventful, unsurprising, and very boring, despite a couple of them using gimmicks that tried to compensate the "fights" you were supposed to believe you were facing.
Fourth, the game is extremely cryptic. Particularly infamous instances for me where figuring out the "Blood" room (which I discovered by pure accident), the hidden area in the Cherry Forest area where you're supposed to walk to the left (I confused that tile with bad design, and well, judging by the looks of the area, I can excuse myself) and getting the "Unown Pokemon" items in a very specific order: otherwise you would have to try again. ABSOLUTELY. FUN...
Fifth, if you don't make the game in a very specific order, it will become a giant maze where you will be going in circles and going through areas again and again just to find that corner or area that you couldn't visit before and you can now, but these new areas are not self explanatory except for the one requiring a key. The hints given with the green and red photographs helped very little (especially because the former is ridiculously hidden). Since I am a man of no guide in fangames, you can imagine myself:
a) Going in circles
b) Repeating tedious platforming areas again and again
c) With few save spots
This amounted for 5.95 hours of gameplay with 1298 deaths. But again, I am not calling this difficult. It was my fault that I chose the incorrect "difficulty" setting, which aggravated my experience, so my difficulty rating is me imagining more save spots where they were convenient, but I cannot change my game rating.
Any saving grace? Yes. The game has variety, I won't deny it, especially the tower segments and the aforementioned areas that showed commitment in the design. Also, the entire horrible experience is compensated by a surprisingly good original final boss that actually feels like a fight with interesting attacks, one which you will identify in the Kamilia sequels. I find myself playing against this booss from time to time because it is worth it, and the game, instead of leaving you in the "clear" screen, leaves you at the last save before the boss, so there's that.
Yeah, it is a classic and an early game (2013 if I'm not mistaken), but this doesn't mean that I am biased against classicsm or that there was an excuse to create awful designs. This reminded me of I Wanna Be The Four Elements and that is NOT a good thing. Look at the wonders Solgryn did back in 2010. There's no excuse. I am no designer, so I have no idea what is more difficult: to make more than 15 different areas where 10 look awful, or making a single area look great, like Thenader2's neon games.
I respect the people cherishing this classic, and I could see (although with difficulty) why this is considered as one. This is, however, not my type of adventure fangame. NOT RECOMMENDED.
P.S. Now I remembered that there was a "Difficult Start" option at the beginning. I don't know what that does and I don't want to know.
[7] Likes
First, I played the "Normal" mode, which actually would qualify better as "Hard". The experience was extremely tedious. There are just less saves, sometimes with entire screens that do not have a single save spot. The screens are not really challenging per se, but it is heavily trap-based, and so, this consumes a lot of your time being a trial-and-error game. This is not difficulty; it is poor, frustrating design. Kayin understood what a "Hard" mode was supposed to be.
Second, the visual design is absolutely atrocious 80% of the times and shines the rest of the times, especially the "Space", "Black Valley" and "See the Moon" areas. It is extremely generic in its exterior designs, and very monochromatic. Whenever you enter the cherry forest or the blue ice area which names I won't bother to recall (interesting that those are the areas whose names I can't recall) will make your eyeballs explode out of pain: just paint everything green and blue in tones that hurt, use your imagination and voilá! You've got an "ice" or "forest" area. The forest area particularly looks like green baby's poo. But the true eye killer is an advanced area where you shoot anthropomorphic suns (or whatever they are), turning the ENTIRE screen of one strong, eye-piercing color, making the spikes of that color disappear, so goodbye eyes. Do not play this at night!!!
Third. Almost all of the bosses, except for the last one, are cherries (err, Delicious Fruits). Uneventful, unsurprising, and very boring, despite a couple of them using gimmicks that tried to compensate the "fights" you were supposed to believe you were facing.
Fourth, the game is extremely cryptic. Particularly infamous instances for me where figuring out the "Blood" room (which I discovered by pure accident), the hidden area in the Cherry Forest area where you're supposed to walk to the left (I confused that tile with bad design, and well, judging by the looks of the area, I can excuse myself) and getting the "Unown Pokemon" items in a very specific order: otherwise you would have to try again. ABSOLUTELY. FUN...
Fifth, if you don't make the game in a very specific order, it will become a giant maze where you will be going in circles and going through areas again and again just to find that corner or area that you couldn't visit before and you can now, but these new areas are not self explanatory except for the one requiring a key. The hints given with the green and red photographs helped very little (especially because the former is ridiculously hidden). Since I am a man of no guide in fangames, you can imagine myself:
a) Going in circles
b) Repeating tedious platforming areas again and again
c) With few save spots
This amounted for 5.95 hours of gameplay with 1298 deaths. But again, I am not calling this difficult. It was my fault that I chose the incorrect "difficulty" setting, which aggravated my experience, so my difficulty rating is me imagining more save spots where they were convenient, but I cannot change my game rating.
Any saving grace? Yes. The game has variety, I won't deny it, especially the tower segments and the aforementioned areas that showed commitment in the design. Also, the entire horrible experience is compensated by a surprisingly good original final boss that actually feels like a fight with interesting attacks, one which you will identify in the Kamilia sequels. I find myself playing against this booss from time to time because it is worth it, and the game, instead of leaving you in the "clear" screen, leaves you at the last save before the boss, so there's that.
Yeah, it is a classic and an early game (2013 if I'm not mistaken), but this doesn't mean that I am biased against classicsm or that there was an excuse to create awful designs. This reminded me of I Wanna Be The Four Elements and that is NOT a good thing. Look at the wonders Solgryn did back in 2010. There's no excuse. I am no designer, so I have no idea what is more difficult: to make more than 15 different areas where 10 look awful, or making a single area look great, like Thenader2's neon games.
I respect the people cherishing this classic, and I could see (although with difficulty) why this is considered as one. This is, however, not my type of adventure fangame. NOT RECOMMENDED.
P.S. Now I remembered that there was a "Difficult Start" option at the beginning. I don't know what that does and I don't want to know.
Rating: 2.8 28
Difficulty: 45 45
Oct 21, 2018
ElCochran90
For: I wanna Bread
For: I wanna Bread
An Asian bread ventures out into finding valuable lessons about himself, facing his own past, fighting evil and embarking on an adventure. To my surprise, this is actually a needle game with very fun jumps and a nice balance between platforming and bosses sections. More than an excuse like in "I Wanna Make a Sandwich", the bread here symbolizes inner struggle and transforms a seemingly ridiculous excuse of a character into something fun to play as! Who would say!
It is very short and should prove as a decent experience for experienced beginners. Do not miss this one out. I often lost track between when it was being serious and when it wasn't, and believe it or not, I am sustracting points because I saw no satisfactory resolution to the main character in the ending (hey, the premise took itself too seriously so I did too), but it is worth the adventure I say. I just felt empty in the ending. But nice visual design and music choices compensate some big flaws.
Recommended.
[0] Likes
It is very short and should prove as a decent experience for experienced beginners. Do not miss this one out. I often lost track between when it was being serious and when it wasn't, and believe it or not, I am sustracting points because I saw no satisfactory resolution to the main character in the ending (hey, the premise took itself too seriously so I did too), but it is worth the adventure I say. I just felt empty in the ending. But nice visual design and music choices compensate some big flaws.
Recommended.
Rating: 4.8 48
Difficulty: 35 35
Oct 16, 2018
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