Aqorel

When I decided to rank all the games in the CosmOS 9 bundle in my head, it was inevitable that one of the 9 games would have to be at the bottom of the ranking. That's not to say that game is bad, just worse than the other 8. However, in the case of Aqorel, which for me is the worst game in the bundle, this also means that it is a bit rough. The positives is that the main puzzle mechanic of changing the "flavour" of different fruits is pretty interesting, especially when you want to take a fruit somewhere without going through a geyser of another flavour. The little helper dudes that come along later are also interesting, as you'll have to managem how you'll deliver or retreive fruits from them. The visuals are also pretty cute, I like the use of pastel colors and lighter tones, it's very pleasant to look at. The negatives, on the other hand, outweigh the positives for me. Firstly, the music is too repetitive and monotone, it's annoying and I quickly turned it off so I could still play the game. Secondly, and this is the biggest problem: this game is quite boring. Not only is everything so slow, you have to wait around standing still so frequently waiting for cycles to happen, or the helper dudes to come over, or for mechanisms to finish moving. It's tedious to the point I started dreading some of the last levels, wishing there weren't anymore so the game could be over sooner. There is one level near the end with many pink knifes that need to be slowly activated and switched around, which just straight up feels like busy work. It takes too long to go anywhere and even longer to wait for things to happen. I was very much looking forward to this game with its visuals, but was thoroughly disappointed. I don't like using such strong negative words, but it's the truth and I apologize.

I don't have it in me to leave a negative review for this game. I wouldn't recommend seeking this game out in particular nor do I think people will play it very long once they have. If you put this game in its proper context I think it's fine. What is that context? It's part of the CosmOS 9 Bundle which is this really cool idea for a 90s style... scifi... fictional games console for funky space aliens. In reality it's a bundle of short indie dev puzzle games with that overarching alien theme. This game is consistent with that theme so I think it succeeded in what it sought out to do. It might not be an exceptional game on its own but I don't know that it has to be. I think it's fine being a CosmOS 9 game and I enjoyed it for being that. I never finished the game and I may never finish it, I don't know we'll see. I thought it was a little lackluster overall because it's really just a simple puzzle game there isn't a whole lot of depth to it but the puzzles were entertaining while I was playing it. It reminds me of a puzzle game you would find on DOS back in the day and I can almost guarantee if we were still in the DOS days this would probably have a fan base because it's not a terrible game and back then if the game wasn't "terrible" it was "sorta good/decent". As for modern standards, it's a little too short and simple to be appreciated by a majority of gamers who want more substance in their games. That is all.

Es un juego sencillito de puzzles lo suficientemente "complejos" para tener que darle una mini vuelta a alguno de ellos y lo suficientemente faciles como para que puedas tomartelo como una experiencia relajante. El arte esta cuqui, te lo pasas en una horita o poco mas, y por lo que vale esta bien.

A cute little retro-styled puzzle game. Check it out on the CosmOS 9 bundle if you like indy puzzle games

Here are my issues with the game: - The animations are all way too slow, causing players to wait even on "speed up mode" - Making the fruit follow physics is neat and adds to the experience, but it causes a lot of jank, especially when the player is being impatient. This can and will cause fruit to fall off the edge and revert progress. - There are too many holes, making it too easy to fall off or lose a fruit and lose progress. - The puzzle difficulty ramps way too slowly, causing the beginning to be a slog. - Everything is spread too far apart. Having to spend 10 seconds walking from one element to another in order to complete one step of a puzzle is not fun. The only things that are okay are the sound design and presentation. This is not a good puzzle game, and sadly the least enjoyable of the pack.

Low effort puzzles of simple color matching and mixing that turns into throwing and other "acrobatics" with the slowest and least consistent movement controls.

It's just so dull. It's maybe an hour in length but 26 minutes in and I can't bring myself to give it the courtesy to spend another half hour on it to complete it. You know you're dealing with a poorly built puzzle game when you can see how to solve a puzzle within five seconds but it takes entire minutes to execute because of how slow and janky the controls are.