OMG!! I LOVE THIS GAME!! PLZ DON'T BLAM IT!!
Reviews for "about-face"
Almost gets five stars because it takes a fairly simple concept of world switching on jumping (not sure if it's totally new or just something that hasn't been done notably well before) and makes some ball-bustingly difficult levels with it from both a logic and a pure platforming skill standpoing. This is just one of many reasons why Newgrounds > some other site that's overrun with idle games that literally beat themselves with no skill from the player.
Would've been five stars if it weren't for that troll of an ending when you get deep enough into the secret area on the replay.
Its a awsome GAME.. WOW blew my mind. Awsome concept!!!!! KEEP UP
The style and atmosphere are a perfect 10/10. Though the platforming might be just a little bit too fast. If everything moved around no more than 20% slower I'd say the game was perfect.
A fresh take on a standard platformer mechanic. Each platformer with jumping usually presents player with different variations of a single challenge: to trace a parabola-like curve with a jumping object in an environment with a simulated gravity. The player usually has to make an exact parabola that current level design requires in order to move forward. Since all the action occurs in a front view, the obstacles cannot be walked around, only jumped above or slide below.
In this game jumping, this almost intuitively graspable for any gamer action, is supplemented with the dimension switching mechanic. Thus making each jump player actually does two actions instead of one and has to account for the results of both of these actions simultaneously. This challenges familiar perception of game's most fundamental action and estranges the entire gameplay experience. Great level design also enhances this feeling: almost each new level presents new twist and forces player to adopt new skills to a set of rapidly complicating challenges. One of the most enjoyable moments was the one where I unlocked the double jump ability. I could not have thought that this game could have bring anything new to the table and was expecting more levels with variations of already uncovered mechanics, but suddenly almost heard author’s voice, saying: “And what if we go one step further and apply this new feature to a double jump mechanic? What kind of level design possibilities will it produce?”. It was a moment of a true in-game dialogue and self-discovery for me, since I felt as if author has accounted for some of my expectations, which I have not even known about yet, and has built his game around them.
After this moment though, challenges have grown in difficulty exponentially and I was completely stuck few levels later and forced to leave the game. As many other platformers, this game requires player to develop a semi-athletic skill in order to beat it, a task that I, unfortunately, have no time and desire to accomplish. Few times, though, I caught myself on a feeling that not all of the intricacies of game mechanics were explicitly shown or explained to the player; the reason of my failure was unclear to me: whether it was because I have not mastered enough some particular skill (i.e. jumping high, running fast, precise timing, etc.) or because I did not know about some of the actions that are currently available to me.
Unfortunately, since I was unable to complete the game, I have not uncovered its entire story. The entire audio-visual metaforical justification, so to speak, of reality-switching mechanic is fun and interesting, but not to the point where it actually fills all the formal aspects of the game with a new meaning.