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by WrathofAnubis
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by Xplayerlol
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by Bob
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by Bob
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by WrathofAnubis
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by Bob
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by WrathofAnubis
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by WrathofAnubis
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by Xplayerlol
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by P2shka
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by WrathofAnubis
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by WrathofAnubis
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by Bob
104 Reviews:
WrathofAnubis
An expansive, impressive needle/adventure game. Pristine visuals, excellent music, engaging bosses, and interesting jumps? What more could you want? How about extreme length, beautiful ambient effects, and toggle-able align hints! I think I'm in love. Effort and charm just pour out of this game, from the neat little save animations to the subtle shifts in the sprites and background - one boss even has eyes that track you as you move around the screen! Sprite choice and level design are spot on, and each stage has a distinct, original theme. There's enough personality in the music and stage design to remind me of some amazing commercial games like Dustforce.
Starts off mildly difficult, and graduates to rather difficult, but mostly due to sheer quantity of platforming/bosses, not excessive needle-y jumps. Level design and save placement are quite fair, and the helpful tooltips and align hints are just icing on the cake. The game lets you choose a forking path at various points, choosing either the boss or some (slightly) harder platforming, but I went back and did both every time just because the game is so fun. The difficulty of the bosses is very comparable to the platforming as well. A must play for experienced players, but I'd also encourage newer players to give it a try too, even if it's rough at first. Absolutely worth your time.
[2] Likes
Starts off mildly difficult, and graduates to rather difficult, but mostly due to sheer quantity of platforming/bosses, not excessive needle-y jumps. Level design and save placement are quite fair, and the helpful tooltips and align hints are just icing on the cake. The game lets you choose a forking path at various points, choosing either the boss or some (slightly) harder platforming, but I went back and did both every time just because the game is so fun. The difficulty of the bosses is very comparable to the platforming as well. A must play for experienced players, but I'd also encourage newer players to give it a try too, even if it's rough at first. Absolutely worth your time.
Rating: 9.5 95
Difficulty: 65 65
Mar 31, 2015
dono
honestly i fucking love this game and idk why. i really shouldnt, i have absolutely no nostalgia for this game or anything, but its just really fun needle wise and avoidance wise. visuals are really good and the music choices slap, kinda sad hard mode never came out.
[1] Like
Rating: 8.0 80
Difficulty: 65 65
Feb 21, 2021
shign
A very good needle game, and probably the best game using corridor needle. It has 5 stages, each one with its small detail that make it different from others. Platforming is enjoyable and well crafted, my only grip being an excessive use of the ledge jump because even if aligns are always given for hard jumps, ledges are still bad. At the end of each stage, you are given the choice to either do a harder needle screen or an avoidance (not true for the last stage). Hard needle screens are cool, sometimes a bit too precise but still cool. Avoidances are somehow a mixed bag, the last two are among the best avoidances I have played but the others while being not bad, are less interesting and kinda similar. You can do both if you want and even if you don't gain anything from doing it, the game says that you're 10% cooler if you do so, so I did it :). For the last stage, you have to do a really cool chase section followed by a mendatory boss. I'm not sure why the maker choose to put one at the end, but putting this one was probably the best choice since he's not too hard (almost all the other bosses are honestly harder), interesting and short enough to not be annoying to those who don't like it.
In overall, a very good game that proves that corridor needle isn't always aids needle and some avoidances are good enough to make it worth playing alone. Would really recommend if you haven't already played it.
[1] Like
In overall, a very good game that proves that corridor needle isn't always aids needle and some avoidances are good enough to make it worth playing alone. Would really recommend if you haven't already played it.
Rating: 8.8 88
Difficulty: 67 67
Jul 16, 2020
SenorHardcore
Dont like the Final Boss. Rest was :ok_hand:
[1] Like
Rating: 4.0 40
Difficulty: 75 75
Jun 10, 2018
Quof
Overall, a very solid game. I really enjoyed the needle in the first two stages and had a good enough time with next two as well, for a total of four stages I had fun with. As someone who just does not enjoy avoidances whatsoever, I truly appreciated being able to skip bosses and do hard needle in place of them. The button to show which align a jump needs and where to get it was also appreciated and is something I would like to see in more games just so I don't have to count columns and all that stuff. The save balance leans towards providing as many saves as possible, which I much prefer to games where saves are handed out stingily. There's so much good in this game that I feel really disappointed that the final stage of the game stumbles so hard.
Starting at the very beginning of stage 5 (or the boss needle of Stage 4, though since that's optional I don't want to focus on it), MELTDOWN's difficulty spikes up. Stage 3 was a step up from the first two stages, and Stage 4 was another step up from that. These steps up reflected a nice difficulty curve. Stage 5's jump in difficulty, however, was a brutal spike. I died 7,500 times getting to the end of Stage 4. By the time I reached the end of Stage 5, I had around 14,000 deaths. My death count nearly doubled from the final stage alone. On its own, the final stage being a difficulty spike wouldn't be so bad, but my problem is that the difficulty mostly arises from an over-reliance on tiny 2f-3f jumps. If you haven't mastered those, you will have a very very bad time, because the bulk of saves have their difficulty built around the fact that anything but a very tiny jump will send the Kid's head careening into a spike. It's pretty obnoxious and not very fun to play. The needle is still well designed in general, it's just spoiled by the hardest parts of each save without fail being 2f-3fs (or at least, extremely small jumps). It just ended up being more frustrating than fun to play, especially due to the difficulty being so much higher than the rest of the game.
At the very least, though, the stage ends on a high note. The final save is basically free of 2f-3f shenanigans and is generally well balanced over all. It's long, but fun to execute and satisfying to beat. The bobbing of the screen as the Kid jumped around made me feel physically ill, but I'm not really sure how you could do a vertical level like this without something like that happening, so I can't critique the game for that. If this save had been the end of the game, I would be more or less satisfied with it. But instead...
An avoidance final boss. As mentioned, you can skip bosses with extra-hard needle if you so wish for every boss in the game... except this one. Clearly the developer knows that a lot of needle players don't like avoidances. Clearly the developers knows that following up a stage of pure, hard needle with an out of context avoidance fight is not the best thing to do. He went out of his way to make optional needle screens and the select screen for each, after all. And yet... the final boss is a forced avoidance fight. It's as if the developer knew what he was doing was wrong, yet did it anyway. (As an aside, the developer's commercial game Phantom Jump suffers from a similar problem. The final boss in the game was ridiculously hard and had little to do with the platforming present beforehand). Naturally, I dropped the game immediately. My pet peeve is final bosses of games having little to do with the actual gameplay done beforehand, and the last thing I want to top off a grueling stage of 65-70 level needle is an avoidance. The elevator would have been a fine conclusion to the game, but instead, an avoidance - when every other avoidance in the game had been optional. Talk about ending on a sour note, when the final stage was already in a bad spot on its own.
In conclusion, MELTDOWN is a great game... until it isn't. The first four stages are fun and worth playing, but the difficulty spike near the end with (imo) largely unfun needle sours the experience, and the forced avoidance fight at the end is basically a slap to the face. I would say MELTDOWN is worth playing until the end of stage 4, and if the boss needle there or the beginning of stage 5 starts giving you a hard time, to just drop the game cold turkey. I don't believe it's worth pushing through.
[1] Like
Starting at the very beginning of stage 5 (or the boss needle of Stage 4, though since that's optional I don't want to focus on it), MELTDOWN's difficulty spikes up. Stage 3 was a step up from the first two stages, and Stage 4 was another step up from that. These steps up reflected a nice difficulty curve. Stage 5's jump in difficulty, however, was a brutal spike. I died 7,500 times getting to the end of Stage 4. By the time I reached the end of Stage 5, I had around 14,000 deaths. My death count nearly doubled from the final stage alone. On its own, the final stage being a difficulty spike wouldn't be so bad, but my problem is that the difficulty mostly arises from an over-reliance on tiny 2f-3f jumps. If you haven't mastered those, you will have a very very bad time, because the bulk of saves have their difficulty built around the fact that anything but a very tiny jump will send the Kid's head careening into a spike. It's pretty obnoxious and not very fun to play. The needle is still well designed in general, it's just spoiled by the hardest parts of each save without fail being 2f-3fs (or at least, extremely small jumps). It just ended up being more frustrating than fun to play, especially due to the difficulty being so much higher than the rest of the game.
At the very least, though, the stage ends on a high note. The final save is basically free of 2f-3f shenanigans and is generally well balanced over all. It's long, but fun to execute and satisfying to beat. The bobbing of the screen as the Kid jumped around made me feel physically ill, but I'm not really sure how you could do a vertical level like this without something like that happening, so I can't critique the game for that. If this save had been the end of the game, I would be more or less satisfied with it. But instead...
An avoidance final boss. As mentioned, you can skip bosses with extra-hard needle if you so wish for every boss in the game... except this one. Clearly the developer knows that a lot of needle players don't like avoidances. Clearly the developers knows that following up a stage of pure, hard needle with an out of context avoidance fight is not the best thing to do. He went out of his way to make optional needle screens and the select screen for each, after all. And yet... the final boss is a forced avoidance fight. It's as if the developer knew what he was doing was wrong, yet did it anyway. (As an aside, the developer's commercial game Phantom Jump suffers from a similar problem. The final boss in the game was ridiculously hard and had little to do with the platforming present beforehand). Naturally, I dropped the game immediately. My pet peeve is final bosses of games having little to do with the actual gameplay done beforehand, and the last thing I want to top off a grueling stage of 65-70 level needle is an avoidance. The elevator would have been a fine conclusion to the game, but instead, an avoidance - when every other avoidance in the game had been optional. Talk about ending on a sour note, when the final stage was already in a bad spot on its own.
In conclusion, MELTDOWN is a great game... until it isn't. The first four stages are fun and worth playing, but the difficulty spike near the end with (imo) largely unfun needle sours the experience, and the forced avoidance fight at the end is basically a slap to the face. I would say MELTDOWN is worth playing until the end of stage 4, and if the boss needle there or the beginning of stage 5 starts giving you a hard time, to just drop the game cold turkey. I don't believe it's worth pushing through.
Rating: 6.8 68
Difficulty: 70 70
Jun 2, 2018