danbo's review is excellent, check it out too.
Partners-in-crime Ribbiks and Grain of Salt take a break from their usual challenge mapping antics to put out a platforming-only WAD that's, shockingly, one of the best platformers I've ever played.
I think the problem with most platformers that I've tried (though I don't play many) is that the movement has to be pretty damn engaging to warrant focusing the whole game around it. I found Celeste just okay (high heresy, I know) but I can attempt stupid pointless jumps in Super Metroid for hours because the movement feels so alien and interesting.
It turns out Doom's bizarro physics (Absolutely no air control + lots of momentum + straferunning) work pretty well for this too! On top of this, Ribbiks and GoS hack together a weird Archvile-jump-on-command whose explosive flinging properties heavily depend on your speed and direction. It's all very analog, and the whole thing takes a while to get used to, but that's the point: it's about the tactile feel of play, almost like Katamari Damacy.
Levels are very lenient with the difficulty and only require a fraction of the gems in each level to be collected before you can move on to the next one, so you can try different challenges if you get stuck, though I would have liked to see a few more freeform areas where you can just jump around. I would be remiss not to mention these two's fearsomely honed ability to create atmosphere in the Doom engine, especially the last 3 maps. It's clear that after a decade in the scene, they know how to use color, lighting, architecture, and MIDIs (Ribbiks composes here too!) in ways that work with the engine's strengths.
While I was writing this I loaded the WAD up to check some things, but got sucked in again without thinking. Honestly feels like SM64 more than any other platformer I've played. Recommended to basically everyone. An absolute joy!
Partners-in-crime Ribbiks and Grain of Salt take a break from their usual challenge mapping antics to put out a platforming-only WAD that's, shockingly, one of the best platformers I've ever played.
I think the problem with most platformers that I've tried (though I don't play many) is that the movement has to be pretty damn engaging to warrant focusing the whole game around it. I found Celeste just okay (high heresy, I know) but I can attempt stupid pointless jumps in Super Metroid for hours because the movement feels so alien and interesting.
It turns out Doom's bizarro physics (Absolutely no air control + lots of momentum + straferunning) work pretty well for this too! On top of this, Ribbiks and GoS hack together a weird Archvile-jump-on-command whose explosive flinging properties heavily depend on your speed and direction. It's all very analog, and the whole thing takes a while to get used to, but that's the point: it's about the tactile feel of play, almost like Katamari Damacy.
Levels are very lenient with the difficulty and only require a fraction of the gems in each level to be collected before you can move on to the next one, so you can try different challenges if you get stuck, though I would have liked to see a few more freeform areas where you can just jump around. I would be remiss not to mention these two's fearsomely honed ability to create atmosphere in the Doom engine, especially the last 3 maps. It's clear that after a decade in the scene, they know how to use color, lighting, architecture, and MIDIs (Ribbiks composes here too!) in ways that work with the engine's strengths.
While I was writing this I loaded the WAD up to check some things, but got sucked in again without thinking. Honestly feels like SM64 more than any other platformer I've played. Recommended to basically everyone. An absolute joy!
Reviewed on Dec 05, 2022