Delicious FruitLatest Reviews
Cthaere
For: I Wanna [VERB] the [ADJECTIVE] [NOUN]
For: I Wanna [VERB] the [ADJECTIVE] [NOUN]
Rating based on "innocent" (normal) difficulty on a previous version of the game.
I Wanna [VERB] the [ADJECTIVE] [NOUN] is a 32 pixel needle game which appears to be an easier FTFA like of medium length. The visuals are simple, pleasing, unobtrusive, and consistent with other similar games.
As for the gameplay... There are problems. Save balance is a major issue, for once, which would likely make a playthrough on hard/vhard (the difficulties that seem more "intended") a much more painful ordeal. The jumps themselves, while facilitating more complex movement than you'd expect from an FTFA like, do not get to the level of consistency one would expect/hope for from an FTFA like (which could be also due to the relatively short save length) and has a few particular repeat offenders that feel both inconsistent and frustrating to die to due to appearing to be easy but heavily affected by keyboard/vstring "luck" (full vspeed ledge landings, and the turnaround diagonals). In general, the enjoyment I personally find in FTFA likes is making the seemingly impossible become consistent - Jumps should appear hard so that dying to them feels acceptable, yet either still have a consistent manner to execute them through a setup, or be performed by a string of comfortable (yet precise) inputs to so that the jump feels as though skill of execution is the determining factor in passing or failing. As one can see, this contrasts with the previous points of contention.
This game has an extra screen (or two? I already forgot, if there are two then I'll focus on the last one as it is the more important of them anyhow), which features shorter save length and tighter jumps. To be perfectly frank, some of these felt like luck. Particularly the first jump of either of the final 2 saves. There's also an align issue with the bottom middle save (EDIT: fixed in new version). While there are some cool things here (the jump from the corner through the plane on the top left is really good, and the water plane was also fun), they do not really fit in the context of the game and the parts that felt like luck made me almost want to quit.
In conclusion, I would suggest prospective players to avoid this unless they're significantly better than me at FTFA likes (which, to note, I have cleared Say Something). As for feedback and suggestions for improvement, I'd personally want to see slightly longer saves of jumps of the type I described above - Either hard & precise-looking but with a consistent setup, or jumps that feel natural to do (doublejumping out of corners raised by 2 blocks, tbone diagonals, water dplanes are great example of this).
[1] Like
I Wanna [VERB] the [ADJECTIVE] [NOUN] is a 32 pixel needle game which appears to be an easier FTFA like of medium length. The visuals are simple, pleasing, unobtrusive, and consistent with other similar games.
As for the gameplay... There are problems. Save balance is a major issue, for once, which would likely make a playthrough on hard/vhard (the difficulties that seem more "intended") a much more painful ordeal. The jumps themselves, while facilitating more complex movement than you'd expect from an FTFA like, do not get to the level of consistency one would expect/hope for from an FTFA like (which could be also due to the relatively short save length) and has a few particular repeat offenders that feel both inconsistent and frustrating to die to due to appearing to be easy but heavily affected by keyboard/vstring "luck" (full vspeed ledge landings, and the turnaround diagonals). In general, the enjoyment I personally find in FTFA likes is making the seemingly impossible become consistent - Jumps should appear hard so that dying to them feels acceptable, yet either still have a consistent manner to execute them through a setup, or be performed by a string of comfortable (yet precise) inputs to so that the jump feels as though skill of execution is the determining factor in passing or failing. As one can see, this contrasts with the previous points of contention.
This game has an extra screen (or two? I already forgot, if there are two then I'll focus on the last one as it is the more important of them anyhow), which features shorter save length and tighter jumps. To be perfectly frank, some of these felt like luck. Particularly the first jump of either of the final 2 saves. There's also an align issue with the bottom middle save (EDIT: fixed in new version). While there are some cool things here (the jump from the corner through the plane on the top left is really good, and the water plane was also fun), they do not really fit in the context of the game and the parts that felt like luck made me almost want to quit.
In conclusion, I would suggest prospective players to avoid this unless they're significantly better than me at FTFA likes (which, to note, I have cleared Say Something). As for feedback and suggestions for improvement, I'd personally want to see slightly longer saves of jumps of the type I described above - Either hard & precise-looking but with a consistent setup, or jumps that feel natural to do (doublejumping out of corners raised by 2 blocks, tbone diagonals, water dplanes are great example of this).
Rating: 5.0 50
Difficulty: N/A
Oct 12, 2022
Arle17
For: chrimbuschampion_secretsanta_gaming
[1] Like
For: chrimbuschampion_secretsanta_gaming
[1] Like
Rating: 4.0 40
Difficulty: 20 20
Oct 12, 2022
RandomChaos_
For: I wanna Trash Needle
For: I wanna Trash Needle
Tagged as: Needle
[0] Likes
Rating: 1.5 15
Difficulty: 55 55
Oct 12, 2022
RandomChaos_
For: I wanna dip the Crusty Benis
[0] Likes
For: I wanna dip the Crusty Benis
[0] Likes
Rating: 5.1 51
Difficulty: 62 62
Oct 12, 2022
Kilgour22
For: I wanna be the Phantom Needle IV
For: I wanna be the Phantom Needle IV
60-floor needle game that has original screens that match the source game for the visuals in terms of platforming style. It's great overall; what keeps me from giving it a higher rating, however, is the inclusion of very precise jumps that break the flow of the game. I didn't so much mind the difficulty balance, but how the difficulty spikes occurred.
Others have talked about a few of the harder screens. I generally agree with their assessment, though I don't think 37 save 2 is quite as hard as it's been made out to be, and I would argue that 59 also deserves a special mention for its difficulty, like 58. (I essentially first-tried 60...) Note that the elevated difficulty on these screens may be a huge turn-off for players who are good enough to enjoy the rest of the game but not quite ready for the hardest screens.
If you have the skill, it's a great game with lots of content. It kept me busy for nearly two hours, which is pretty darn solid for a needle game. Play it if you like standard needle.
[1] Like
Others have talked about a few of the harder screens. I generally agree with their assessment, though I don't think 37 save 2 is quite as hard as it's been made out to be, and I would argue that 59 also deserves a special mention for its difficulty, like 58. (I essentially first-tried 60...) Note that the elevated difficulty on these screens may be a huge turn-off for players who are good enough to enjoy the rest of the game but not quite ready for the hardest screens.
If you have the skill, it's a great game with lots of content. It kept me busy for nearly two hours, which is pretty darn solid for a needle game. Play it if you like standard needle.
Rating: 7.3 73
Difficulty: 75 75
Oct 12, 2022
phgQED
For: I wanna elm
For: I wanna elm
This game is more difficult for me to review than Elk. I think several conceits it makes towards the precision needle genre are very well executed (constant align and valign display, hint document), but that overall it was a less fun experience to play. While there is always a certain amount of restriction to the way a particularly difficult jump is performed, there are mechanisms within that execution which can still leave the player feeling in control of their experience. In Elm, because so many of the jumps only work with an incredibly specific strategy, there is much less incentive to test various input combinations. Most of the jumps, when aligned properly, will feel like full jumps that somehow magically just work, and while there's not necessarily anything inherently wrong with that (it's even highly enjoyable in small doses), it leaves me with a feeling more like I'm manually playing a TAS than actually experiencing the needle for myself. Also, in a game that is specifically designed to be oriented around valigns, it boggles my mind that there is not an option to simply save your valign. Maybe setting up a random-seeming number by bonking your head repeatedly or numpad cancelling is what people find enjoyable about valign required jumps, but to me it's just pointless setup time that prevents me from actually attempting the jump. I don't have to redo my horizontal align every attempt... anyway.
The aesthetic, ethos, and presentation of these jumps seems to me to serve as sort of a science sampler, a little peek into the jump laboratory where needle scientists are poking away at the pixels and subpixels to make the world's most complicated jumps. That type of magic is really cool when it lets you feel like you're an integral part of the equation, but here, I more felt like I was just being shown what to do rather than being allowed to determine that on my own.
I would still recommend checking this game out as a sort of window into a highly valign-dependent precision jump world, but the experience of playing it was not necessarily my favorite thing.
Oh, it's also worth mentioning that this game suffers from at least one frame of input lag even post-patch, and that it also suffers from an engine save bug (which you can mitigate by running jtool in the background). It also has a full-screen flash every time you reset, which was somewhat visually painful. All of these things negatively impacted my experience.
[0] Likes
The aesthetic, ethos, and presentation of these jumps seems to me to serve as sort of a science sampler, a little peek into the jump laboratory where needle scientists are poking away at the pixels and subpixels to make the world's most complicated jumps. That type of magic is really cool when it lets you feel like you're an integral part of the equation, but here, I more felt like I was just being shown what to do rather than being allowed to determine that on my own.
I would still recommend checking this game out as a sort of window into a highly valign-dependent precision jump world, but the experience of playing it was not necessarily my favorite thing.
Oh, it's also worth mentioning that this game suffers from at least one frame of input lag even post-patch, and that it also suffers from an engine save bug (which you can mitigate by running jtool in the background). It also has a full-screen flash every time you reset, which was somewhat visually painful. All of these things negatively impacted my experience.
Rating: 5.5 55
Difficulty: 66 66
Oct 12, 2022