WCCC's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[JelloTetrix]

If it doesn't fit, you haven't applied enough force.

[FRIDAY NIGHT FUNKIN']

The ability to press 1-4 instead of LRUD would go a long ways. SCGMDX had this in later installments, and while I didn't prefer it for its horizontal format, this vertical format has me thinking otherwise. I know it's more assets and such, but it'd be nice.

Also: Just cleared the game on a quick playthrough of easy, to see how it played. And yeah, skeleton dudes are somehow the hardest, even on easy. I think it's the minimal tells in body language and constantly shifting definition of what each note sounds like. I like that you experiment along the way, though.

[Adventures With Anxiety!]

A good story. I don't know what else to say, but it speaks a lot to people these days, myself included. But I guess this means Thanos was right.

[Plazma Burst 2]

Ah, yes. This brings me back. A classic then, and a classic now. The ragdoll physics and small screen size have certainly jarred me, but not as much as me realizing that I'd beaten the game with both alien and human gear on impossible back in the day. I figured out the Ctrl+Mousewheel trick. I was surprised that it was recommended to a reviewer, as it feels backend, but I guess that proves it's an established lifehack. Getting used the ragdoll physics again. I'm remembering how nice it was to be able to literally dive for cover, or grab onto ledges dynamically... Plus splitting your enemies in two on a sharp corner feels great. I've just gotta get my sea legs again.
You might recall, but I was the guy who emailed about player levels having broken level transfer syntax, some years back. I do hope it brings some new blood back into the game, as it's one I make a pilgrimage to every couple of years. Right on schedule!

EGurt responds:

Oh, my syntax errors could have been a right thing for one more spooktober :D Hopefully it got better :)

There been problems when moving to next levels too, I think I remember those.

[A Grim Chase]

Very clever ending. Wink. Moreover, a very unique game from pretty simple mechanics. Not punishingly hard. Not overly serious. Not a huge brain-breaker or reflex tester. Just a little slice of chill, and there ain't nothing wrong with that. Ice zombies got me tho.

[Tactical Weapon Pack 2]

Pretty good stuff. Simple, but funner than I'd have expected. Seems to have a lot passed down from MW2's sort of energy. Only complaint is the game memory leaks, seemingly leading to high score submission and achievement connection breaking. Then, things like having prestiged and getting X headshots or X kills don't register during that session, and are never registered again. Prestiged as level 50 yet I don't have 1K kills, 1K headshots, or prestige as my trophies. Odd stuff.

[RAKUGA FANTASY]

Playing this, I find the concept is interesting, and the execution is technically well done on several levels... But my god, is nothing ever explained, and the broad catalogue of things you're expected to figure out in a matter of centiseconds is absolutely infuriating to no end.

The instructions are often obscure, I must've seen about a dozen minigames thrown out, easily a half dozen if I'm misremembering, and usually there's only 2 or 3 words, at most, to describe what's going on.

Hell, I didn't even notice the instructions existed at all, due to their brevity, and the complete lack of time given to read them. Combine that with nothing attempting to bring your attention to the instructions, (flashing, color-coding, a tutorial, etc) and you're just looking at pictures wondering what your input does in this bizarre instance.

Meanwhile, even after having realized the instructions field even existed, some games have you push buttons in sequence. Some buttons are labeled outright, others, such as the wheel washing minigame, give you less direct instructions. Others seem to display a single, constant control, only for it to suddenly change with an instant cut. Not flashing, or fading, or any sort of obvious transition. Some instructions give you plenty of time to complete them, after figuring out what you're looking at and glancing the instructions. Many are extraordinarily time sensitive, to the point where you have almost zero chance of victory the first attempt.

Case in point: I have played the Fast Food Register minigame 5 times. I know there's buttons correlating to arrows, and that each button represents food, and I am supposed to give a chain of 2 items as the order. NONE of the controls are labeled, and even after having put in combinations, including without error, I still have no idea why victory isn't achieved.

Am I expected to push down arrow for that? Z? Confirm them by double tapping? I honest to god couldn't tell which it is, and I've completely run out of patience to keep trying. If it's "High punishment, low reward"... Why bother?

The visual design, in terms of how intuitive things are, has one foot in "simple, I guess", and one foot in "raging dumpsterfire". I honestly can't speak as to what it is in any single moment, but it's by no means only the latter.

Against enemies, I found I sometimes won flawlessly, sometimes lost without dealing any damage, and plenty of inbetween. These results ranged greatly, even when against the exact same foes, and I think that shows a level of potential inconsistency, due to the interpretation and execution of each minigame.

The end product is extremely obtuse, dictated often by RNG (particularly in regard to which challenges are or are not thrown at you), and offers little reward, once the minigames are done... Other than having won a cute minigame, I guess.

I sat down and gave it 9 goes, and for 9 goes I saw what happened, thought "eh?", and then died in some bizarre, obtuse circumstance that had me saying to myself "What? Fuck that.", due to a starvation of instruction/information paired with fairly hard difficulty, even on "lame" mode. Not sure what the difference between the 2 even is, having tried them back to back...

If you're trolling with this game's very existence. It's working.

I've had a grand total of almost zero enjoyment playing this oddity, but on a technical level I can tell it's all quite sound and that love and care were put into it. On that level, it doesn't deserve a zero, or anything close, but I can't personally give it any volume applause, at least relating to entertainment, either.

Clearly something here... But not an inkling of it suits my tastes.

[Leap Jet Bear]

You know, I feel the experience is 50/50. Overall very good, don't be deceived, but I feel like there's some drawbacks to be had.

Let me just open with praise. Great music, great sounds, great visuals, original concepts, EXCELLENT level design, and a good breadth of content. It's masterpieces like this that make me dig around in the platformer section of NG to begin with. I could not rate this piece anything less than 8/10 on a clean conscious as proof of how damn good this piece is at its core.

The problem for me is style and philosophy. It gets hard as all hell. Borderline impossible in some feets. I'm straight up resigning on level 17 due to my dry eyes and cramped as hell wrists.

My single biggest gripe: Memorization and stealth spikes.

The timed spikes are one thing, but the proximity spikes have fast deploy times (needing to reaction in over 1/4 of a second or so is simply fatal, if even that), completely invisible nature, and eventual spam-tacular overuse simply grows absurd. I'm fine with a few levels using it, or maybe once or twice per level, but it just grows to a point where every other place you could set foot suddenly decides to murder you completely and utterly without warning.

That's fine, but they start appearing in places that are central to any kind of reprieve, or places where danger is not a theme. Adding a need to remember one trap laid out near blue switch X just makes you die and restart.

Does it add to the game's lifetime? Sure. But does it add any fun or true challenge outside of memory? Not really, in my honest opinion. And that's what gets me. I'm being kicked to curb out of almost pure sadism, and I get nothing in return out of the trade. Maybe it's just my tastes expecting something else, but for me this is a constant nuisance.

Secondarily: Long, long stretches of actions with no reprieve. I have never seen a platformer with as long of rapid fire hazards as this. It gets to be very exhausting, and you want a moment to catch your breath and recenter yourself, but that ends up not being given for considerable expanses of space. Moreover, even if it just comes down to memorizing it all, doing a few dozen chain actions to clear an area over 20 seconds requires immense focus and quite frankly leaves me wanting to blink one hell of a lot. It just ends up drying out my eyes more than I feel overtly challenged. It's really a cramp in how much I get into things before just feeling that the insanity is growing oversaturated. And after you clear one of these giant reflex piles? Well, you can bet there's another one waiting for you of comparable length.

Truth be told I'd love to keep digging into this game, but it's very taxing on the wrists and comfort to keep pursuing, and everything that goads me on to keep pressing myself just gets met with a lot of small annoyances that drive me further away.

I imagine I am the exception, but either way it's a good piece at it's core.

8/10, 4/5 ~WCCC