D
Deleted member 125677
Unconfirmed Member
I've always thought this game looked fairly interesting, even before I owned the device to play it on. It's fair to say the game did deliver.
Campaign
The campaign mode is divided into albums, all with level design and music made by different developers / musicians. For example the album 'Cities' has level design by Pyramid Attack, music by Beck, 'Corporeal' has leveled designed by Superbrothers, music by Jim Guthrie, etc.
This gives the game a fair amount of variety, and I enjoyed exploring the different soundscapes that each album provided. The campaign is not very challenging at all, and its purpose seems to me to be based around experiencing the different worlds and music rather casually. Collectables are distributed freely, mostly directly in path and in plain sight. It's a very enjoyable experience, helped by one of the better soundtracks released in the last couple of years.
Death Mode defense force
Now this is where the fun begins. It's a set of arcade like challenges based on some of the mechanics - one for each of the levels in the campaign. I'm aware that these levels are not universally appraised. A lot of people disliked them because they were generally too hard, and to some degree based on luck as you get a random distribution of a set amount of notes to collect within a given time limit.
Here's an example. One of the harder challenges: "Break-a-Noids".
Another one: "Galaxanoids":
Why are these levels so interesting? I've always enjoyed really trying to get a grip on the game mechanics that a game offers. Speed-running levels is usually a good method to do so. However, when speed running memorizing levels are an important part and as such, it often becomes a matter of remembering inputs as you rush through.
But in this scenario, the random distribution of notes, combined with the harsh time limit, forces you to learn how to move about as quickly as possible in a limited terrain (the challenges are all one-screen levels). Since you can never be sure of where notes will spawn, memorizing paths and inputs will get you nowhere. Instead you have to focus on learning to maneuvre your blob in the best possible way, knowing when to speed up, when to cling, and when to fall.
The counter argument to this will be: "You'll have to get lucky with the note distribution to succeed." Maybe so. I'm not sure, but I felt like after playing each level for a while, pretty much any distribution of notes could theoretically be collected. Even in Galaxanoid. If, in the end, the challenges rely on both a bit of luck and skill, I'm at the very least certain that skill plays the most important part.
I got hooked and finished the game in three sessions.
tl;dr: Fantastic experience, great design, visuals and music. The Death mode challenges in this game forces you to learn game mechanics in an unrivaled fashion, and it's therefore a really interesting game.