The Fancy Pants Adventures games were some standout flash games that I played to no end as a kid. Parkour platforming with an unmistakable sense of flow. I even played the XBLA/PSN title to completion. The series left my consciousness as I grew older, but to my surprise, Brad Borne never stopped making these games.
On the positive side of things, the simplistic art style and fluid animation is in full swing for this game. There are a lot more level gimmicks at play here, like portals, rails to grind on, poles to swing down on, and your new tool, the ink pen. In terms of platforming, the ink pen can be used to ride around in any direction on special surfaces, and it feels extremely good. Everything combined makes for some of the coolest platforming in the series, in my opinion. It reminds me of Rayman Origins in how everything flows together.
The other use for your ink pen is combat. Combat in the XBLA/PSN title felt like an afterthought, but I'm willing to excuse it here because of how much more options you have. Aside from melee attacks feeling snappier, you eventually get the ability to dash through enemies, and fire your ink off like a machine gun. While it still kinda feels like an afterthought, the combat was a lot more fun in this title.
There are a few problems I had with this game, mainly that the levels are nigh-unmemorable. It's all really cool in the moment, but none of the locales you run through feel very distinct, it all kinda blends together. Game also crashed on me a couple times. It's also about the length of a flash game, clocking in at about 2-3 hours of playtime. Definitely wait for this one to go on sale, $10 is a bit steep of an asking price.
The game ends on a cliffhanger, but y'know what? That's ok with me. It just means that Brad Borne is gonna keep working on this series, and that I'll have more to look forward to in the future, and that there'll be a new piece of my online childhood to discover. Looking forward to the next one, no matter how long the wait may be, or how short the game may be.
On the positive side of things, the simplistic art style and fluid animation is in full swing for this game. There are a lot more level gimmicks at play here, like portals, rails to grind on, poles to swing down on, and your new tool, the ink pen. In terms of platforming, the ink pen can be used to ride around in any direction on special surfaces, and it feels extremely good. Everything combined makes for some of the coolest platforming in the series, in my opinion. It reminds me of Rayman Origins in how everything flows together.
The other use for your ink pen is combat. Combat in the XBLA/PSN title felt like an afterthought, but I'm willing to excuse it here because of how much more options you have. Aside from melee attacks feeling snappier, you eventually get the ability to dash through enemies, and fire your ink off like a machine gun. While it still kinda feels like an afterthought, the combat was a lot more fun in this title.
There are a few problems I had with this game, mainly that the levels are nigh-unmemorable. It's all really cool in the moment, but none of the locales you run through feel very distinct, it all kinda blends together. Game also crashed on me a couple times. It's also about the length of a flash game, clocking in at about 2-3 hours of playtime. Definitely wait for this one to go on sale, $10 is a bit steep of an asking price.
The game ends on a cliffhanger, but y'know what? That's ok with me. It just means that Brad Borne is gonna keep working on this series, and that I'll have more to look forward to in the future, and that there'll be a new piece of my online childhood to discover. Looking forward to the next one, no matter how long the wait may be, or how short the game may be.