Reviews for Labyrinth: SoS

[Kajenx]

It's actually pretty fun, and I liked the character's ridiculous jump animation, haha. I think the randomizer for the levels needs work, though. It's a bit like someone just when into MSPaint and used the airbrush to place tiles, haha. Treasure chest were often stuck in the walls and stuff. Maybe this is actually secrets? I just thought of that lol, but it doesn't clue you in to how to find them, so I'm not so sure.

Luckily the controls were fun enough to keep it interesting, and the art and music was nice. If you do a sequel though, please invest some time into the level randomizer. I'd suggest designing small level "chunks", like various small series of platforms/floor patterns, and then stringing them together randomly into larger patterns so it gives it a better flow (I was thinking about doing this for a future William and Sly game). A lot of what makes a platformer fun is the rhythmic aspect of it, you know? Maybe scrap the random levels and just make them by hand is another option? The pure randomness of the levels made them all feel a bit similar, which is an ironic outcome.

It was still pretty fun, none-the-less! :D I haven't played very far, but I might come back to it later.

PestoForce responds:

Sounds like you need to play more! ;-)

The stuff inside walls becomes accessible with certain wall-breaking powerups. The fact that those scenarios exist is a hint that those kinds of powerups are possible without needing an overt tutorial explaining it. (at least that was the intent)

For a sequel I have some ideas on how to make the random levels feel less chaotic. The way you described the level chunks is actually how I did the randomization in this, but there's still lots of room for improvement in my approach.

I would like to do more hidden stuff also in a sequel... I kept thinking of William and Sly while playing and how you could walk "behind" terrain and have it fade out to reveal hidden areas... I think that'd be cool in a game like this. W&S was another inspiration for this I think, thus the 4-legged protagonist! ;-)

[patwotrik]

I created the account just to review this game. It was love at first sight. Absolutely amazing!

First the intro screen. I got reminded by Faxanadu. I know there's a game (or a couple) that would fit better, but I can't remember. I'm just saying that the title screen really says "this is something", and that's rare. Great music.

Then comes some intro scenes actually worth watching. Nice job. Even here it's great music.

After that there's a loading screen with humor that never gets old. Nostalgia. Speaking of nostalgia, that's the basic feeling around this game, without being just some salute to the old games. It's a good game that can talk for itself.

Then the game starts. The music is, again, amazing, but this time even more. I'm listening to it while writing this review and I don't get tired of it. This could easily be a real NES classic song. Maybe something could be made with a noise channel, but it's not needed.

The game is self explanatory. Destroy the orbs, find exit and fight boss. Simple in a nutshell, and when I hit the s key there is no annoying tutorial. Splendid. Often a tutorial is a sign of bad design. Also, the tutorial both removes the atmosphere and the illusion of reality, and insults me. "Press right to go right. Good, now press left to move left. Good, now try to jump with up arrow." GAH! I'm not retarded. It's really good that you didn't put in a tutorial that shows up the first thing that happens.

I start to play. The controls do feel nice. The dragon is easy to control. It's a bit like Megaman. If you do something stupid it's your own fault and you've got no one to blame. The camera is nice and smooth. The overall graphics looks good, and I do like the backgrounds and that they are moving at a different speed. If I really want to find something to complain about here, it would be that the building blocks has better graphical quality than the main character, but to be honest, I don't know if it would improve the game to correct this. It's a thin line.

I'm playing around and wonder why I can't shoot sometimes, and then I realize it's because I'm damaged. Hello Zelda. When I get hit by an enemy I jump back. Hello every bloody hard NES game. Suddenly I see the little dragon (I will call him Bubaran from now. It's a combination of Bub from Bubble Bobble and Samus Aran from Metroid.) almost fall of an edge. Oh, how cute. I just love the details of this game. I get a power up that let's me glide, which make stuff much simpler, and when I see the power up double jump and Bubaran rolls to a ball. This reminds me of Metroid. When I fight the first and second (that's how far I've come now) they also takes me back about 25 years in time. The bosses remind me of Bubble Bobble and SMB 2 and 3. Please note that when I in this review say something like "this reminds me of ..." it does not necessarily mean that this game is anywhere near what it reminds me of, but I get an overheat (see what I did there?) of associations.

The weapons are nice, and I love the fact that I have to stand back for the explosion. Really nice work. So far I've tried rockets and grenades. The rockets killed me at first shot by the way. The game over music is also great. I start to feel a huge need to google "great synonym" because it's actually really hard to not say "great" in figuratively every sentence when reviewing this game.

GREAT WORK!
Absolutely amazing. No doubt about it. I can't understand how you managed to do this.

I'm desperately trying to figure out what NES games (or other songs) the music reminds me of. The first second reminds me actually of the guitar duel in the movie Cross roads. Some parts sounds like Castlevania. There may be some Megaman too, but there are definitely some parts that sounds like the dungeon in Zelda 1. I will probably not get any sleep until I've nailed all associations.

Downsides

Yea I know. From what I wrote above it's hard to believe that this section actually exists, but it sure does, and it's not to say "there are no drawbacks", cause there are.

One thing that annoyed me was that I could not turn of the sound in game. Not that I really wanted to do it, but needed to hear a youtube video, and I was forced to exit my progress. Even bad games usually have this option in game, so why not? Strange design choice. Also, why not make it possible to change controls in game?

Another thing I did not really like was the super jump or whatever the name was. It made Bubaran really hard to control, and places I easily could jump into was suddenly hard to reach. Note though that it could be a matter of practice.

But apart from that, Great work! I'm in love with this game.

(It would be nice if this could be released as a native Linux game. Not that it's needed, but it would just feel plain nice.)

PestoForce responds:

Thanks for the glowing (and detailed) review! It made me happy to read it all!

You can turn off sound by pressing "P" to pause, then, in the pause menu, there's an option to toggle sound on/off.

Also, the controls can be customized from the main title screen.

The jump powerup is a bit of a mixed bag, I usually skip getting it because it carries with it some lack of control because, once you leave the ground, you're at the mercies of gravity!

I'm glad you picked up on all the references! I'd say this review made my day! :-D :-D :-D

P.S. I hope you'll check out the musician, Genclops', stuff from the links next to the game or in the game itself!

[ToonCastleTV]

haha wikkkeddd

PestoForce responds:

:-D

[tsukiyomaru0]

This reminds me a lot of Spelunky, but is more original, I do think so.

PestoForce responds:

Well, Spelunky was a huge inspiration for this, but this can't compare to Spelunky's complexity, but I appreciate the sentiment!

[vampiretodd]

I have nothing to say about this game except-It's awesome!! And this is only a minor compliant because I know this isn't really something you have to do or fix but I would much like it if you could make it to where I can change my control scheme. Because my doesn't work. I would be able to enjoy the game further if it wasn't for my blasted up key. No matter, you deserve 5 stars. Why should the grass bend with the wind if it doesn't want to? Maybe it wants to stay put because it doesn't want to bend. Really fun game, now if I can only find a suitable keyboard that can work then I can throughly enjoy this game without any limits.

P.s. Abobo's Big Adventure was an excellent thrill ride to play through, difficult but still fun to play.

PestoForce responds:

Thanks for the review! You can customize the controls from the main title screen menu!