Top 50 Favorites: #49
A serene audiovisual spectacle - uses its pixelated pageantry not for cheap nostalgia points, but for honest-to-God authentic dreamscape texture. My biggest complaint - and make no mistake, this is certainly a complaint in this case - like with many games of this ilk, is that it's just too short (in this case almost feeling incomplete by its ending); and the add-ons - rather than more exceptional story levels - are instead just a bunch of creator tools. If that's your thing, that's probably really awesome - but personally I trust more talented people to make these sorts of levels rather than me fumbling to make my own. For reference, Hohokum is my favorite video game ever made - so naturally I was floored at the prospect of what that game's DLC in this game (two products with such wondrous, deeply emotive music directly connected to their visual auras during the creative process coming together) could have brought.... but instead it's just a bunch of lines and dings and shit that I don't know how to use. Obviously that is 100% a me problem, and does essentially very little to hinder my love for this overall - one of the most wholly original modern bit platformers ever painted onto a screen. Has the ability to transition naturally from 'calming stroll down a pleasant lane' to 'fuck fucking motherfuck goddammit how the fuck did I fucking die there??!?' with a sharp sense of control. Shame that such an auspicious vision like this hasn't spawned any sequels since, where imo it clearly deserves some. Beck, deadmau5, and some exemplary original tunes shine too brightly here to be forgotten.
A serene audiovisual spectacle - uses its pixelated pageantry not for cheap nostalgia points, but for honest-to-God authentic dreamscape texture. My biggest complaint - and make no mistake, this is certainly a complaint in this case - like with many games of this ilk, is that it's just too short (in this case almost feeling incomplete by its ending); and the add-ons - rather than more exceptional story levels - are instead just a bunch of creator tools. If that's your thing, that's probably really awesome - but personally I trust more talented people to make these sorts of levels rather than me fumbling to make my own. For reference, Hohokum is my favorite video game ever made - so naturally I was floored at the prospect of what that game's DLC in this game (two products with such wondrous, deeply emotive music directly connected to their visual auras during the creative process coming together) could have brought.... but instead it's just a bunch of lines and dings and shit that I don't know how to use. Obviously that is 100% a me problem, and does essentially very little to hinder my love for this overall - one of the most wholly original modern bit platformers ever painted onto a screen. Has the ability to transition naturally from 'calming stroll down a pleasant lane' to 'fuck fucking motherfuck goddammit how the fuck did I fucking die there??!?' with a sharp sense of control. Shame that such an auspicious vision like this hasn't spawned any sequels since, where imo it clearly deserves some. Beck, deadmau5, and some exemplary original tunes shine too brightly here to be forgotten.