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CanusAntonius
For: I wanna stop the Heart Beats
For: I wanna stop the Heart Beats
Review based on Non-Olympic Version (EX).
Stop the Heartbeats is one of the most well-produced Adventure games out there and delivers with a load of passion. Full of variety and exciting segments, it's undoubtedly a must-play for all who enjoy fangames.
This really feels like a true love letter to the video games that Tonkotsu enjoys, and is laid out in stages that represent each one of them. In one segment of the game, you'll go through one of the most interesting Celeste stages in a fangame, whereas another is a Pokemon area with over 50 random encounters you can find. There are various gimmicks throughout the world, none of them requiring much skill to learn thus making them pretty friendly. The bosses are quite a spectacle as well, with quite a lot of them being pretty enjoyable. By the end of the game, you'll also be invited to partake in an optional secret hunt that will unlock whatever unfinished content is beyond a great door. These secrets are absolutely insane, some of them are whole levels, one is literally a 100-floor game you have to do deathless, and another requires speedrunning the entire game.
I will mention that Stop the Heartbeats came close to being my favorite Adventure game, but so many factors dropped it out of the running pretty quickly. First, the game does have a lot of traps, and while some are funny I also found a lot to be placed near the end of saves, even ones that weren't exactly easy. I also thought the platforming started to fall short near the final few stages, it becomes far too Needle-y with stupid jumps like T-Bones being placed at the end of long saves (and again followed by a trap) or is riddled with visual challenge gimmicks that keep the screen in darkness. Bosses also have the fault sometimes of having way too much health, to the point their fights actually become boring especially when they keep their hardest attacks at the end and are way easier up to that point. I think my last general complaint is that every boss in the game has some sort of unskippable cutscene, this was extremely damn annoying and took up probably like 15-20 minutes of my playtime, just add a fucking skip button.
But these factors aside, I think the main thing dragging this game down for me is the absolutely pitiful endgame fights in the final stage. The first involves an Attack-Avoid format in which you gotta rotate through about 8 phases, with all the hard shit being the last few (this is also a big problem with every other boss too). The final phase is extremely chokable and even ends with a fucking trap as the final attack. The second fight is an avoidance that is extremely unbalanced and once again saves its hardest stuff for the later parts of the fight, which basically ends up being an extremely fast burst and shooting. And of course, there's the final boss, it once again starts with an annoying unskippable cutscene and also felt pretty under par compared to literally every other boss in the game. This whole stage felt like such a disappointment to what the game was before, don't end your game with terribly balanced fights or a boss that ends with a trap, it truly made me walk away with a sour taste in my mouth.
Overall, I do still think Heartbeats is an amazing game, but I also wish if the final update comes out that it actually tackles these issues I have as well. There's so much potential here, I really would love to rate this game a 10 someday because I think it truly deserves achieving that, but for now, I just cannot. Either way, I'd still recommend it, and hopefully one day we'll see the finished product in full.
[1] Like
Stop the Heartbeats is one of the most well-produced Adventure games out there and delivers with a load of passion. Full of variety and exciting segments, it's undoubtedly a must-play for all who enjoy fangames.
This really feels like a true love letter to the video games that Tonkotsu enjoys, and is laid out in stages that represent each one of them. In one segment of the game, you'll go through one of the most interesting Celeste stages in a fangame, whereas another is a Pokemon area with over 50 random encounters you can find. There are various gimmicks throughout the world, none of them requiring much skill to learn thus making them pretty friendly. The bosses are quite a spectacle as well, with quite a lot of them being pretty enjoyable. By the end of the game, you'll also be invited to partake in an optional secret hunt that will unlock whatever unfinished content is beyond a great door. These secrets are absolutely insane, some of them are whole levels, one is literally a 100-floor game you have to do deathless, and another requires speedrunning the entire game.
I will mention that Stop the Heartbeats came close to being my favorite Adventure game, but so many factors dropped it out of the running pretty quickly. First, the game does have a lot of traps, and while some are funny I also found a lot to be placed near the end of saves, even ones that weren't exactly easy. I also thought the platforming started to fall short near the final few stages, it becomes far too Needle-y with stupid jumps like T-Bones being placed at the end of long saves (and again followed by a trap) or is riddled with visual challenge gimmicks that keep the screen in darkness. Bosses also have the fault sometimes of having way too much health, to the point their fights actually become boring especially when they keep their hardest attacks at the end and are way easier up to that point. I think my last general complaint is that every boss in the game has some sort of unskippable cutscene, this was extremely damn annoying and took up probably like 15-20 minutes of my playtime, just add a fucking skip button.
But these factors aside, I think the main thing dragging this game down for me is the absolutely pitiful endgame fights in the final stage. The first involves an Attack-Avoid format in which you gotta rotate through about 8 phases, with all the hard shit being the last few (this is also a big problem with every other boss too). The final phase is extremely chokable and even ends with a fucking trap as the final attack. The second fight is an avoidance that is extremely unbalanced and once again saves its hardest stuff for the later parts of the fight, which basically ends up being an extremely fast burst and shooting. And of course, there's the final boss, it once again starts with an annoying unskippable cutscene and also felt pretty under par compared to literally every other boss in the game. This whole stage felt like such a disappointment to what the game was before, don't end your game with terribly balanced fights or a boss that ends with a trap, it truly made me walk away with a sour taste in my mouth.
Overall, I do still think Heartbeats is an amazing game, but I also wish if the final update comes out that it actually tackles these issues I have as well. There's so much potential here, I really would love to rate this game a 10 someday because I think it truly deserves achieving that, but for now, I just cannot. Either way, I'd still recommend it, and hopefully one day we'll see the finished product in full.
Rating: 8.5 85
Difficulty: 60 60
Nov 1, 2022
Gaborro
For: I Wanna Escape The Haunted Mansion
For: I Wanna Escape The Haunted Mansion
Just a nice and simple halloween adventure game. Lots of details that you wouldn't expect on a maker's first attempt at a game more involved in this genre. There are other small details that could be changed to make the experience smoother, but overall, I enjoyed it anyways.
[3] Likes
Rating: 7.5 75
Difficulty: 55 55
Nov 1, 2022
yangshuoen [Creator]
For: I wanna practice something
For: I wanna practice something
Practice
[0] Likes
Rating: 6.8 68
Difficulty: N/A
Nov 1, 2022
Gaborro
For: I Wanna Be The Durian
For: I Wanna Be The Durian
Some really nice visuals for a needle game. Stage 3 gets very tough.
[0] Likes
Rating: 7.5 75
Difficulty: 75 75
Nov 1, 2022
BoshyGo11
For: I Wanna Marenol
For: I Wanna Marenol
A rare combination of cool to dodge attacks and great synchonisation, also relatively accessible.
[0] Likes
Rating: 9.7 97
Difficulty: 60 60
Nov 1, 2022
Neji_Rock
For: I wanna punch Pieceofcheese in the face
[0] Likes
For: I wanna punch Pieceofcheese in the face
[0] Likes
Rating: 7.0 70
Difficulty: 45 45
Nov 1, 2022
CanusAntonius
For: I wanna go the Spookventure
For: I wanna go the Spookventure
Once again another really fun adventure game from Erik, this time feeling like a combination of some of the design points of his older games like End my Growth with Big Shot's platforming style.
I was quite a fan of the overall gameplay in this one, it felt very refined and unique, and of course, was accompanied by very artistic visuals as you might expect from Erik. There's a neat level of variation between each stage, primarily coming from the inclusion of different types of enemies all over the place. The bosses are also pretty neat, I actually believe I like the first one the most due to how much the environment changes during the fight, it actually felt like one of the coolest fangame bosses I've played for that aspect. I think my only complaint for the game is I felt like the skulls woulda have been nicer to serve as jumpscares that don't actually kill, end of save traps feel very weird in a game like this.
Overall, definitely a recommended game from me, it's a really solid Erik fangame that is perfect for the spooky season.
[1] Like
I was quite a fan of the overall gameplay in this one, it felt very refined and unique, and of course, was accompanied by very artistic visuals as you might expect from Erik. There's a neat level of variation between each stage, primarily coming from the inclusion of different types of enemies all over the place. The bosses are also pretty neat, I actually believe I like the first one the most due to how much the environment changes during the fight, it actually felt like one of the coolest fangame bosses I've played for that aspect. I think my only complaint for the game is I felt like the skulls woulda have been nicer to serve as jumpscares that don't actually kill, end of save traps feel very weird in a game like this.
Overall, definitely a recommended game from me, it's a really solid Erik fangame that is perfect for the spooky season.
Rating: 8.5 85
Difficulty: 50 50
Nov 1, 2022
TTBB
For: I wanna be the Halloween Party Night!!
For: I wanna be the Halloween Party Night!!
Very fun!
[1] Like
Rating: 8.9 89
Difficulty: 70 70
Nov 1, 2022
Lucien
For: I Wanna Be The Durian
For: I Wanna Be The Durian
Tagged as: Needle
[1] Like
Rating: 7.0 70
Difficulty: 75 75
Nov 1, 2022