WannaFest 22

Creators: Cherry_Treehouse, Natsu, renex, Floogle, Kousaku-P, Renko, Samiboule

Average Rating
9.4 / 10
Average Difficulty
57.3 / 100
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Tags:

Adventure (27) Gimmick (11) Boss (14) Story (8) Masterpiece (2) 3D (2) Art (4) minigames (1) Action (1) 2.5D (2) FM_2022 (15) Variety (1) Achievements (2)

Screenshots

  • by Natsu
  • by Natsu
  • by Natsu
  • by Natsu
  • by Natsu
  • by Natsu
  • by Natsu

Creator's Comments:

Natsu [Creator]
Update: Version 1.2 is now available, with several balance changes, notably to the final boss. Be sure to update!

After the events of I Wanna Be The Guy, The Kid is invited to a game show hosted by an imposing figure! Fight your way through several game challenges to compete for a high score. Do you have what it takes to master these games and win the grand prize?

Developed by Cherry Treehouse for Fangame Marathon 2022's Blind Adventure event, WannaFest 22 is a fast-paced rollercoaster through hidden gaming gems of the past!

Features:

-> Several stages faithfully based on cult classic games
-> Fast-paced gameplay focused on variety and scoring
-> Unique and exciting boss encounters
-> Crisp, colorful graphics and catchy music
-> Reprising voice actors from the original I Wanna Be The Guy
-> Plenty of achievements and extras
-> Full controller support
-> English and Japanese (subtitles) support

This was a heavy collaborative effort, no single stage was developed by only one person.

We worked really hard on this, we hope you enjoy it!

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Tagged as: Adventure Boss FM_2022
[21] Likes
Rating: N/A       Difficulty: N/A
Sep 24, 2022

81 Reviews:

egg
If you are unspoiled on this game, stop looking at this page, go download the game and play it right now, then come back. I will not be touching on any specific content of the game in my review, but knowing absolutely nothing about this game is (what I believe to be) the best way to experience it. I hope you love it as much as I do.

Over the last couple of years, I have felt very little desire to play fangames. In my mind, I am done until *the* game comes along and proves itself to be worthy of attention. Once or twice per year, our community is blessed with one of *the* games. This year, WannaFest 22 is *the* game. To be clear: I was a playtester for this game, but I fell in love with this game the second I started watching its premiere during Fangame Marathon. When I was asked to playtest, I was entirely elated. Despite my obvious biases, I genuinely believe this is one of the best fangames ever made.

Every stage is an homage to classic games, most of which were sadly forgotten by the majority of people. The positive of this is that the people who grew up with these games or otherwise have a soft spot for them will be extremely pleased to see them receive attention from Cherry Treehouse. The games referenced and their relative obscurity notwithstanding, the game has extremely impressive attention to detail across the board. Where most fangames that reference older games arguably fumbles is inconsistency and/or inaccuracy. One of WannaFest's biggest strengths is more subtle than the average player would consider: every single stage's assets were manually ripped by members of Cherry Treehouse. When you are approaching your homage game from a more intimate angle like this, you will find a lot of little quirks and nuance with things ranging from graphical oddities to exact values for unique mechanics. While it seems like a small touch, it adds up and makes the game feel a lot more like a cohesive passion project than a game which simply mismatches graphics from Spriters Resource and calls it a day. Obviously this isn't the only good quality of the game; it has massive replay value, the music picks are bonafide jammers, the original graphics are beautiful, there's not a single segment in the game that is even remotely unfun... this particular quality is just one that is unique and was worthy of praise and deserving of explication.

WannaFest 22 is the pure embodiment of love. It is a love letter to video games the creators grew up with, and it is a love letter to the very game that started it all: I Wanna Be The Guy. Even Kayin said they don't need to make "I Wanna Be The Guy 2" because Cherry Treehouse already did it for them. Despite a large portion of it superficially coming across as "just" other games, WannaFest 22 is an extremely special and important game to me. It doesn't possess qualities that a lot of modern community members would probably consider key to a special game, but the qualities it does possess are inspiring and impressive to say the very least. This game is one of the few that has genuinely made me emotional, and I am so proud of Cherry Treehouse for seeing this project through, and not slacking where others likely would. Thank you for making this and reminding me that this community isn't just about stupid drama and insanely difficult grinds.

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[31] Likes
Rating: 10.0 100       Difficulty: 60 60
Sep 24, 2022
KittyGame
I'm not afraid to say it; I really did not like this game.

To me, fangames are about making something new. The original IWBTG was a brand new and unique adventure built on classic video game sprites and references. It was a novelty, but it was really interesting and captivated me when I first discovered it in middle school (along with Boshy and Kill The Guy). I feel that, for the most part, games have continued to follow this trend. This game, however, does not feel like that, and instead feels like a reference-fest with little to no originality par the final stage.

I understand that the past blind adventure games for Fangame Marathon were always like this. However, as time went on, people began to get sick of this trend of rehashing retro games and reprogramming them into fangame stages. So why is it different for this one? Why is this game so praised when it has some of the most uninventive stages in the entire blind game series?

I guess I can start with the few pros this game has: the 3D work on this game is phenomenal. It's a feat of programming excellence to get fully 3D environments working in GameMaker and looking beautiful as well, so props for that. I will also say that even though stages are rather uninventive, they do a decent job of looking visually accurate to their source material. The choice of games was also very creative (thank you for not picking another Mario stage!).

My biggest issue is that this game has very little to no originality. Every single stage except for the final stage is as close to the source material as possible, with the only changes being the level design and the Kid replacing whatever protagonist is present in the original. This is just so baffling to me; why would I play this when I can just play the original. This is especially true for stages like the Parappa stage, which is essentially 1-to-1 to the original game with no changes except for some lyrics being changed to be fangame references (haha). The Gunstar Heroes and Sonic CD stages follow closely behind as they are incredibly similar to their source material. This game, out of all of the blind adventure games, has the lowest level of creativity. And it's not like the bar has always been like this: there are some standout stages in previous games (Kirby Golf, Contra, Castlevania IV) that go further than the source material and add something uniquely "fangame-y". This game does not reach that level at all, and it's disappointing to see.

In conclusion, I fear this game represents a bad omen for the future of fangames. Fangames are the GB Collab, or the Farewell Medley, or Freezemind, or any other unique experience. And if fangames are starting to become overproduced, rehashed nostalgia fests, I don't want to be in this community anymore.

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[22] Likes
Rating: N/A       Difficulty: N/A
Nov 15, 2022
Wolfiexe
WannaFest 22 is a wonderfully made adventure, filled with a lot of charm that for me encapsulates a lot of the joys of fangames, and the wide spread of variety that they can offer the player. I had the privilege of racing this blind during Fangame Marathon, and there wasn't a single part that I wasn't smiling at. And now, playing the fully polished and released version a few months later, it's cemented itself as one of my favourite adventure fangames that I've played.

As it was the blind adventure fangame for FM2022, it followed a similar trend to past games, with a tight focus on re-creating and rebuilding well known existing games in the world of I Wanna be the Guy. WannaFest does it at a very high level with the design, with no segment ever feeling like it verges towards frustration.

What I feel it particularly excels at though is the variety. Every stage feels distinctly memorable, and a lot of the time not something you'd be familiar with seeing in fangames. I think this can always run the risk of one or two stages not vibing too well with some players, depending on personal preference. But I believe the general design and pacing of the game is so tight that just about everyone can enjoy the content the game has to offer.

The production value is also just on another level to 99% of fangames. Visually it's a treat, and a few stages I feel are up there as some of the most impressively produced fangame stages that exist. The work that must have gone into the production I feel is probably very irregular when looking at general fangame production, and a behind-the-scenes look would be very interesting to see.

There's also a ton of replay value, with a full achievements menu, statistics which can alter a thing or too depending on how you did, and some other neat bonuses to check out! There's lots of polish which never felt totally necessary, but all just added up to make the experience that much cleaner, and ultimately is very much appreciated.

One last thing I have to praise I'll leave in a spoiler tag due to the nature of it. I always enjoy story in fangames because it makes things feel more cohesive and memorable, but getting the original IWBTG voice actors to reprise their roles only made it all the more special after all these years, and that's just honestly awesome to see. And of course bonus shoutout to Natsu for nailing the chain-smoking New York cop at the end, which probably did irreversible damage to his throat. A tough, but perhaps necessary price to pay for the game's ending.

Overall I can't really fault the game. If you like variety, adventures or even just fangames at all, you owe it to yourself to give WannaFest a shot.

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Tagged as: Adventure Gimmick Boss Story FM_2022
[22] Likes
Rating: 10.0 100       Difficulty: 60 60
Sep 24, 2022
Chatran
This game is incredible, not a moment was unfun along the way. Definitely one of the greatest games I've ever played and there are now at least 3 more games I want to play in the future just from their representation in this.

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[16] Likes
Rating: 10.0 100       Difficulty: 58 58
Sep 25, 2022
Duncan
I was about to rate this 5 out of 10 because there was no big chungus, but hearing him say "big chungus" in the goemon area, i knew it was a 10 out of 10

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Tagged as: Adventure FM_2022
[16] Likes
Rating: 10.0 100       Difficulty: 61 61
Sep 24, 2022