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.
I've submitted:
378 Ratings!
378 Reviews!
790 Screenshots!
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378 Games
378 Reviews
ElCochran90
For: I wanna VANILLA
For: I wanna VANILLA
Played during September.
It's a paradox; better put, it's a waste of potential. はなもげた had the best intentions: an interactive game with variety, nice graphics and a reward system that wants you making progress, unlock nice thingies and make each experience new. But this doesn't have the charm and replayability of Nemega's Be the Cat. It's like a roller-coaster: exciting during the first time and quite redundant around the fourth replay. The biggest incentive is the interactivity with the community and comparing/sharing results with the beautiful people present in this site, but again, if the community happens to agree with the opinion that the game gets repetitive and boring quite fast, there is really not much of an incentive.
I recommend it for a full playthrough of each game mode twice or thrice, but not for getting all achievements/skins/tilesets because, well, there are many fangames out there to be played. More honestly, that's not the real reason: if the gameplay variety was as vast as the amount of rewards and unlockables, there would be a point in achieving them, but there isn't. I applaud the graphic effort and how it wanted to make the community close (no Troll Face clap like the one in the game), but this suffers from the same problem Candy Crush does: it's doing the same thing again and again, and it's not worth it.
Also, I DON'T recommend this game for speedrunning because bosses are a big, generic and unnecessary waste of time.
Extra points, of course, for making a good try. I recommend it for beginners that are not fans of old-school games (I am kind of discovering that I might prefer old classics).
Biggest recommendation? I know it is difficult and requires resources and time, but even Solgryn did it: add a Nemega-like live Multiplayer mode and this would be a different story. Still not the best, but certainly much better.
[2] Likes
It's a paradox; better put, it's a waste of potential. はなもげた had the best intentions: an interactive game with variety, nice graphics and a reward system that wants you making progress, unlock nice thingies and make each experience new. But this doesn't have the charm and replayability of Nemega's Be the Cat. It's like a roller-coaster: exciting during the first time and quite redundant around the fourth replay. The biggest incentive is the interactivity with the community and comparing/sharing results with the beautiful people present in this site, but again, if the community happens to agree with the opinion that the game gets repetitive and boring quite fast, there is really not much of an incentive.
I recommend it for a full playthrough of each game mode twice or thrice, but not for getting all achievements/skins/tilesets because, well, there are many fangames out there to be played. More honestly, that's not the real reason: if the gameplay variety was as vast as the amount of rewards and unlockables, there would be a point in achieving them, but there isn't. I applaud the graphic effort and how it wanted to make the community close (no Troll Face clap like the one in the game), but this suffers from the same problem Candy Crush does: it's doing the same thing again and again, and it's not worth it.
Also, I DON'T recommend this game for speedrunning because bosses are a big, generic and unnecessary waste of time.
Extra points, of course, for making a good try. I recommend it for beginners that are not fans of old-school games (I am kind of discovering that I might prefer old classics).
Biggest recommendation? I know it is difficult and requires resources and time, but even Solgryn did it: add a Nemega-like live Multiplayer mode and this would be a different story. Still not the best, but certainly much better.
Rating: 4.3 43
Difficulty: 30 30
Oct 19, 2019
ElCochran90
For: I wanna be the Noizu
For: I wanna be the Noizu
First half is a very great adventure and genuinely funny experience, and the second half is downright terrible up to the point of almost ruining everything. This is a trap game, so expect frustration, especially during the last chase sequence, which wastes your time with traps that are hard to predict/guess after minutes of grinding. The game seems to have been made by two different people, but it isn't.
Surprisingly, however, it happens to have a story, so that adds depth to the whole thing, and has charming sequences, again, only during the first half. Great ideas during the first part and bad ones during the second part combined with references to Kayin (good thing), Heaventrap (good thing) and Love Trap (uhm) brings along a game I would recommend trying for its semi-experimental nature, but don't expect anything outstanding.
Some songs are amazing, btw, especially the clear screen one. Also, this game contains one of the best traps of all times.
[5] Likes
Surprisingly, however, it happens to have a story, so that adds depth to the whole thing, and has charming sequences, again, only during the first half. Great ideas during the first part and bad ones during the second part combined with references to Kayin (good thing), Heaventrap (good thing) and Love Trap (uhm) brings along a game I would recommend trying for its semi-experimental nature, but don't expect anything outstanding.
Some songs are amazing, btw, especially the clear screen one. Also, this game contains one of the best traps of all times.
Rating: 4.6 46
Difficulty: 45 45
Sep 8, 2019
ElCochran90
For: I wanna take the Timemachine
For: I wanna take the Timemachine
Rating based on 100% completion. Difficulty rating is based on completing the game on NORMAL Mode on both the 0.74 version and the 0.77 version. Review is based on the 0.77 version. Difficulty rating for easiest difficulty: 45.
This game punched me in the face with groundbreaking fangame awesomeness, SO EXPECT SPOILERS ALL OVER THE PLACE (correctly marked, of course). Influka is definitely one of the most underrated creators in the site and has an appeal that will make Western players at least scratch their heads or raise their eyebrows. There are many reasons that I can use to defend this breathtaking success:
1) It is a tribute to the original outstanding and almost equally underrated great games: I Wanna Be The Guy and I Wanna Be The Boshy. Solgryn made something genius back in 2010, and I have rarely encountered deliveries that have pushed it down my rankings: unseen production value, smashing creativity, a true tribute to the retro era of videogames, an original engine (that didn't always work for the platforming, I admit), memorable boss fights, a final boss that was destined to be a legend, a beta prototype for online multiplayer gaming, character selection, endless variety, a long adventure, great soundtrack, and the freaking list goes on. Now take the Genesis 1:1 of fangames that happened in 2007: Kayin, a creator that Kamilia and Influka never stopped thanking. The amount of rules it established for over 9,000 (no meme intended) future deliveries was, and is, a sensation felt either in that game or in other fangames that, even today, try to resurrect the old era of fangames, such as Vegetable 1 & 2. Not everyone today is a fan of the platforming, gimmicks or engine of the original; I find it a brilliant, frustrating (in a good way) creation that sparked creativity all over the place and became a worldwide challenge and an Internet sensation. That game is the reason we're all here, but being objective, I find myself replaying Kayin's beautiful piece on Normal difficulty again and again even today.
Well, Timemachine does everything stated above and multiplies it by 1.5. How? Number 2 answers that.
2) This is a fangame that creates its own ambitious macrocosm using a cliched time-travelling plot argument to depict several worlds with less variety than Boshy, but with more creativity than the Guy, with more effectiveness than both, equally memorable bosses (most of which are taken from the two key moments mentioned above), and a spectacular final boss that uses the same concept of Kamilia 1: a non-avoidance vocaloid boss that summons the powers of all the previous bosses you have faced. This became popular in later Influka's projects. The final boss is the perfect example of how to use instrumental vocaloid and, along with the graphics and concept, make it one of my favorite final bosses of fangame history. It is atmospheric, exciting, rhythmic and challenging at the same time, placing you in th challenge of dominating, at least, 2 out of 5 attacks in order to be successful (this, of course, depends on the difficulty chosen).
3) While making huge nods to Guy and Boshy that feel like tributes instead of plagiarism, the game feels authentic. It does implement the most common engine, but also there is a ton of original content within its constant references. It is rare to see a game focused AS MUCH (literally 50%) on bosses as it is on platforming. The stages, some people claim, are too short, but they happen to take you as much time, in average, than the normal stages. This is an odd formula but within the context of this effort it did wonders. It never made the game repetitive in its screens and that is a big plus. Sometimes less is more and Influka doesn't waste a single screen. Secret bosses, although familiar faces, are also a blast and the game reuses them in amazing ways. The combination between Mario and Sonic will surprise you, or not, because you have already played Boshy and know the reputation of those guys.
4) The production value and soundtrack are spectacular. If I made an imaginary ratio of Influka/Boshy production value, I would come up with a 93%. Just like in Boshy, this is never a detriment to the game or platforming, UNLIKE in some instances of Boshy. Needle is never unfair (maybe just ONE jump of the second screen of the second stage), gimmicks are fantastic and graphics interact greatly with it.
5) I was mentally struggling with the fact of including this as another point or not, because it is related to the bosses, but damn it, the Game-Terminators were a fantastically surreal and challenging addition. Korean drugs to the third power multiplied by memes, these terminators are unforgettable in many ways and when you stumble upon them you WILL literally have a face reaction, either positive or negative. Difficulty peak is high, but the randomness is oddly irresistible, and even if you don't understand Korean, you will have a laugh if you didn't hate the idea since the beginning. Also, knowing the origin of these memes adds a lot. It's such a bizarre instance. I always welcome experimentation in all art forms.
Boshy, as of today, has over 110 reviews. Guy has 90. This should have at least 65 reviews. It deserves a lot of popularity; however, due to personal reasons, it is a gigantic shame that this fangame later became private, and recently public again for a short time, and for an older version. The sequel has the same problem. I am no one to criticize such decision, but people that want to remember what initially brought us here and are still capable of extracting all the possible enjoyment out of it should come back to this game, because I consider it more important than Kill the Guy or Cultured. If My Heart Goes On has over 90 reviews for being a meme game, what does a unique and ambitious effort really deserve?
OH! How to play? After playing it many times because of pure joy, my personal recommendation is:
1) Normal
2) Auto-Fire ON (It is actually a game with bosses DESIGNED FOR THIS PURPOSE)
3) 0.77 Version
[3] Likes
This game punched me in the face with groundbreaking fangame awesomeness, SO EXPECT SPOILERS ALL OVER THE PLACE (correctly marked, of course). Influka is definitely one of the most underrated creators in the site and has an appeal that will make Western players at least scratch their heads or raise their eyebrows. There are many reasons that I can use to defend this breathtaking success:
1) It is a tribute to the original outstanding and almost equally underrated great games: I Wanna Be The Guy and I Wanna Be The Boshy. Solgryn made something genius back in 2010, and I have rarely encountered deliveries that have pushed it down my rankings: unseen production value, smashing creativity, a true tribute to the retro era of videogames, an original engine (that didn't always work for the platforming, I admit), memorable boss fights, a final boss that was destined to be a legend, a beta prototype for online multiplayer gaming, character selection, endless variety, a long adventure, great soundtrack, and the freaking list goes on. Now take the Genesis 1:1 of fangames that happened in 2007: Kayin, a creator that Kamilia and Influka never stopped thanking. The amount of rules it established for over 9,000 (no meme intended) future deliveries was, and is, a sensation felt either in that game or in other fangames that, even today, try to resurrect the old era of fangames, such as Vegetable 1 & 2. Not everyone today is a fan of the platforming, gimmicks or engine of the original; I find it a brilliant, frustrating (in a good way) creation that sparked creativity all over the place and became a worldwide challenge and an Internet sensation. That game is the reason we're all here, but being objective, I find myself replaying Kayin's beautiful piece on Normal difficulty again and again even today.
Well, Timemachine does everything stated above and multiplies it by 1.5. How? Number 2 answers that.
2) This is a fangame that creates its own ambitious macrocosm using a cliched time-travelling plot argument to depict several worlds with less variety than Boshy, but with more creativity than the Guy, with more effectiveness than both, equally memorable bosses (most of which are taken from the two key moments mentioned above), and a spectacular final boss that uses the same concept of Kamilia 1: a non-avoidance vocaloid boss that summons the powers of all the previous bosses you have faced. This became popular in later Influka's projects. The final boss is the perfect example of how to use instrumental vocaloid and, along with the graphics and concept, make it one of my favorite final bosses of fangame history. It is atmospheric, exciting, rhythmic and challenging at the same time, placing you in th challenge of dominating, at least, 2 out of 5 attacks in order to be successful (this, of course, depends on the difficulty chosen).
3) While making huge nods to Guy and Boshy that feel like tributes instead of plagiarism, the game feels authentic. It does implement the most common engine, but also there is a ton of original content within its constant references. It is rare to see a game focused AS MUCH (literally 50%) on bosses as it is on platforming. The stages, some people claim, are too short, but they happen to take you as much time, in average, than the normal stages. This is an odd formula but within the context of this effort it did wonders. It never made the game repetitive in its screens and that is a big plus. Sometimes less is more and Influka doesn't waste a single screen. Secret bosses, although familiar faces, are also a blast and the game reuses them in amazing ways. The combination between Mario and Sonic will surprise you, or not, because you have already played Boshy and know the reputation of those guys.
4) The production value and soundtrack are spectacular. If I made an imaginary ratio of Influka/Boshy production value, I would come up with a 93%. Just like in Boshy, this is never a detriment to the game or platforming, UNLIKE in some instances of Boshy. Needle is never unfair (maybe just ONE jump of the second screen of the second stage), gimmicks are fantastic and graphics interact greatly with it.
5) I was mentally struggling with the fact of including this as another point or not, because it is related to the bosses, but damn it, the Game-Terminators were a fantastically surreal and challenging addition. Korean drugs to the third power multiplied by memes, these terminators are unforgettable in many ways and when you stumble upon them you WILL literally have a face reaction, either positive or negative. Difficulty peak is high, but the randomness is oddly irresistible, and even if you don't understand Korean, you will have a laugh if you didn't hate the idea since the beginning. Also, knowing the origin of these memes adds a lot. It's such a bizarre instance. I always welcome experimentation in all art forms.
Boshy, as of today, has over 110 reviews. Guy has 90. This should have at least 65 reviews. It deserves a lot of popularity; however, due to personal reasons, it is a gigantic shame that this fangame later became private, and recently public again for a short time, and for an older version. The sequel has the same problem. I am no one to criticize such decision, but people that want to remember what initially brought us here and are still capable of extracting all the possible enjoyment out of it should come back to this game, because I consider it more important than Kill the Guy or Cultured. If My Heart Goes On has over 90 reviews for being a meme game, what does a unique and ambitious effort really deserve?
OH! How to play? After playing it many times because of pure joy, my personal recommendation is:
1) Normal
2) Auto-Fire ON (It is actually a game with bosses DESIGNED FOR THIS PURPOSE)
3) 0.77 Version
Rating: 8.3 83
Difficulty: 65 65
Sep 4, 2019
ElCochran90
For: Not Another VVVVVV Game
For: Not Another VVVVVV Game
A new favorite.
Dethroning Kill the Guy, Boshy, the drastically underrated Diverse, and Marathon itself regarding the VVVVVV gimmick (QUT sucks), arzztt delivered this new fangaming piece of Western legend to the community exactly one day before my birthday, perpetually crowning himself as the king of this subgenre, if it could be considered as such. Considerable needle skill is required (shockingly much less than in Chill Needle 2, which is underrated in difficulty), but following Cavanagh's original vision from beginning to end and incorporating the standard fangame engine to the formula, he creates an intensely exciting and mostly inventive adventure game for the kid with brief comedy instances for lighting up your weekend. You're guaranteed at least two hours of creative level design.
There is no difficulty curve intended; rather, it is constant since the beginning, incorporating different gimmicks in each of the stages. It is quite messy, but doesn't harm gameplay significantly, although it is puzzling that the last stage had, in my opinion, some of the easiest screens of the entire game. However it is the spirit that counts, and it was greatly achieved here.
Grudges? Well, yes, since no game is perfect (maybe). The first one is the aforementioned diffiulty curve. The second one is that the volume is awfully designed, and I don't use this word lightly. Music can barely be heard, and sound effects are loud. 40% of VVVVVV's experience was its soundtrack, which is faithfully used here, no remixes. In order to appreciate the music, I had to raise the volume too much, and whenever I tried a "secret" (remember that if you look for secrets, arzztt hates you), my eyes would be shockingly pierced to the point of pain. The red and blue coins, which are implemented greatly for variety and fair challenge, sounded too loud also, as well as shooting. This harms the ENTIRE game. All the way through it. Finally, there are screens in stage 2 of questionable difficulty, and I have to highlight the Tax Break screen. REVIEW EDIT REQUESTED BY ARZZTT: A corner is actually not required before the ending of a long save in that screen. However, I saw no other way to pull off the jump due to the screenwrap. This corner, suspiciously, does not have the ussual response others do, so I was led to believe I was actually doing it the right way. That screen took more than 10% of my deaths, but well, that's on me.
Despite this being a good game, I do think that arzztt surpassed himself more recently with Chill Needle 2, which is amazing, and paradoxically, even if it is not entirely a VVVVVV game, it does contain the best VVVVVV fangame experience you will ever have. Yes, this game is a revolution in that department, but it is also the foundation, and Chill Needle 2 took it to another level using the same structure of featuring 3 stages for then combining them into one unforgettable challenge.
Note also that we have a contender for the best creator of Clear Screens ever, and since you won the Run the Simulation race, I sincerely hope you saved your fabricated triumph screen for your next game, because if you do use it for your next game, I will also laugh forever. Hard.
P.S. Also, unlike Chill Needle 2, this game doesn't insult you if you look for secrets.
[2] Likes
Dethroning Kill the Guy, Boshy, the drastically underrated Diverse, and Marathon itself regarding the VVVVVV gimmick (QUT sucks), arzztt delivered this new fangaming piece of Western legend to the community exactly one day before my birthday, perpetually crowning himself as the king of this subgenre, if it could be considered as such. Considerable needle skill is required (shockingly much less than in Chill Needle 2, which is underrated in difficulty), but following Cavanagh's original vision from beginning to end and incorporating the standard fangame engine to the formula, he creates an intensely exciting and mostly inventive adventure game for the kid with brief comedy instances for lighting up your weekend. You're guaranteed at least two hours of creative level design.
There is no difficulty curve intended; rather, it is constant since the beginning, incorporating different gimmicks in each of the stages. It is quite messy, but doesn't harm gameplay significantly, although it is puzzling that the last stage had, in my opinion, some of the easiest screens of the entire game. However it is the spirit that counts, and it was greatly achieved here.
Grudges? Well, yes, since no game is perfect (maybe). The first one is the aforementioned diffiulty curve. The second one is that the volume is awfully designed, and I don't use this word lightly. Music can barely be heard, and sound effects are loud. 40% of VVVVVV's experience was its soundtrack, which is faithfully used here, no remixes. In order to appreciate the music, I had to raise the volume too much, and whenever I tried a "secret" (remember that if you look for secrets, arzztt hates you), my eyes would be shockingly pierced to the point of pain. The red and blue coins, which are implemented greatly for variety and fair challenge, sounded too loud also, as well as shooting. This harms the ENTIRE game. All the way through it. Finally, there are screens in stage 2 of questionable difficulty, and I have to highlight the Tax Break screen. REVIEW EDIT REQUESTED BY ARZZTT: A corner is actually not required before the ending of a long save in that screen. However, I saw no other way to pull off the jump due to the screenwrap. This corner, suspiciously, does not have the ussual response others do, so I was led to believe I was actually doing it the right way. That screen took more than 10% of my deaths, but well, that's on me.
Despite this being a good game, I do think that arzztt surpassed himself more recently with Chill Needle 2, which is amazing, and paradoxically, even if it is not entirely a VVVVVV game, it does contain the best VVVVVV fangame experience you will ever have. Yes, this game is a revolution in that department, but it is also the foundation, and Chill Needle 2 took it to another level using the same structure of featuring 3 stages for then combining them into one unforgettable challenge.
Note also that we have a contender for the best creator of Clear Screens ever, and since you won the Run the Simulation race, I sincerely hope you saved your fabricated triumph screen for your next game, because if you do use it for your next game, I will also laugh forever. Hard.
P.S. Also, unlike Chill Needle 2, this game doesn't insult you if you look for secrets.
Rating: 6.8 68
Difficulty: 60 60
Aug 24, 2019
ElCochran90
For: I wanna kogda titkami devki tryasut
For: I wanna kogda titkami devki tryasut
SUDALV, you'll have to explain this one to me.
[0] Likes
Rating: 1.0 10
Difficulty: 39 39
Aug 24, 2019
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