I'll focus on this game, but touch in to compare with the others.
First off, the options menu is comically bad, it's all sliders-that-aren't-actually-sliders, and it's different if you pause inside of the game where it tells you the actual values. The level select menu is also confusingly bad, you can go forward/back either one or ten levels, that's it. This is important because you need a specific star count to unlock levels, so if you want to look for the ones you're missing, you have to click through all of them one at a time. Any kind of quick select would be appreciated.
Controls:
Game is mouse and spacebar only, and spacebar is optional.
Left click/right click to thumbs up/offensive gesture at your fans and haters respectively.
Spacebar to deploy helicopter-chute. [but didn't you say this was optional?, yeah, I'll get to that]
Directional controls are entirely look based, which feels pretty intuitive. Movement is surprisingly reactive and you can take corners you really wouldn't expect.
There is no restart option, you have to exit to menu and re-enter.
Gameplay:
The gameplay loop is simple, each level is a score attack to unlock up to 5 stars, levels have a star requirement to be unlocked. Each level you get dropped into the air above an obstacle course of abstract shapes, floating cityscapes, and emoji-cubes, gaining score from the risk of your moves.
Mechanically, this mostly comes down to 'hugs' and 'kisses'. Hugs are the continuous score you get from being near objects as you fall, they also boost your multiplier based on how close you were. Kisses are a one time score bump for the first time you get close to an object. You also get points from hitting score plates or making the correct hand gesture when passing a crowd, but these are more supplemental in most levels, or at least dependent on you also getting hug multipliers.
Each level after the first you have two hearts, the first time you slam into the top of something you'll be launched back up the level, the second time ends your run. [Which raises the question for me, why have two hearts instead of one?] Sometimes when you get launched up you'll be placed immediately above another object and take your second hit. As far as I can tell, ending your run losing your second life is no different to landing with your chute. There's no penalty for death or reward for landing in the designated area.
Level design/changes:
I only want to touch here on something that's unique to this game, the emoji-cubes. In the intro level the game explains that these are the optimal path to take, but that's not really it. Because the cubes are still objects you get hugs/kisses off of, they don't mark the way, they *set* the way. There's not room for finding your own path, because if you want the points to keep going you need to stick with the pack. I'm still not sure if this is an intentional subtle jab at artists and influencers riding trends, or the need of your character as an artist to get attention, or players only wanting the game thing over and over, or some way to give the required path personality?
Music:
The music is overall generally higher quality, I have no idea if it's licensed or original, there are no credits. The songs are now randomized with every run, which has it's ups and downs. Playing the same level isn't as repetitive, but levels also have less of an identity.
- There is also VA for the tutorial in the first level, they immediately get a number wrong.
Personality:
This is the final nail in the coffin for me, but also makes me wonder if people who hadn't played the previous ones would feel the same way. There's these hints of a personality, but that's all they are. This game is so inoffensive that the remnants from the previous games feel like sharp edges.
On remnants and sharp edges, the steam page feels like it was made for a different game closer to the originals. The two line plot is a summation of the earlier games that makes no appearance after the intro. The only incredible feature that's true is there's more than 0 levels, the spray paint doesn't even come back in this. And maybe this is me missing them or they're only in later levels, but I'm pretty sure there's no cars? Maybe I've been too focused on the cubes.
The change in game controls has disincentivized looking around, so while things are prettier you won't really be paying much attention to what's going by, but if you do focus out, you'll find more genetic backgrounds than the former multi-story in universe adverts. I don't think having these visual style changes is a major negative on its own, but it certainly impacts the overall bland feel of the game.
I set this down after about an hour and went and played some Aaa... For the Awesome! and honestly, I like it more. I'd rather have a janky game with some punk spirit and off kilter writing. I really hope I didn't put more thought into the meaning of the cubes than the devs did...
