Cavern of Dreams

Cavern of Dreams started strong and rapidly declined around the halfway mark. Way too many symbol recognition puzzles, many of which are hard to even notice, let alone interpret - an odd thing to lean on when emulating low res textures of 90s games. By the third world, I found myself feeling lost after every other puzzle. The game doesn't naturally guide you towards many of the objectives. It even confuses things by incorporating multiple locked doors/gates in each level with a hint "there must be a mechanism nearby", but really, they are just shortcuts between worlds that you find in later levels. Another odd choice when many of the challenges are opening doors with nearby switches. I found it tonally inconsistent. Environments towards the end become quite dark and gritty. We know spooky levels like Mad Monster Mansion can work if they're kept bright and lighthearted, but this was an odd juxtaposition. The biggest offender by far is the needlessly punishing drain/hole throughout most of the last world, which means that any slip up - frequent with the game's platforming mechanics - results in a 20-40 second runback. A complete disrespect to player's time. Maybe some N64 design conventions were better left behind.

Great game mainly focused on setting you in its atmosphere. I have replayed through this game probably about a dozen times at this point. It's quiet and gentle in a way I don't think many games with somewhat challenging platforming and puzzles manage to achieve. Highly recommend.

Cavern of dreams is a great old school 3d platformer with some genuinely great ideas and sequences, but ruined by painful controls an awful last area, and a serious case of identity crisis. The first half of the game is fantastic, environmental puzzles and simple platforming, great aesthetic and for a while it'll take you back to the N64 days. Unfortunately it then tries to ramp up the difficulty for the later areas and that's when the controls start to fall apart - it's hard to put into words exactly what is wrong with the jump system in this game, but it just doesn't feel good, you have to do a second sequential jump to gain enough height for many jumps but the timing window is too small, and there's seemingly no concept of coyote time or input buffering and poor detection of whether you are considered on the ground or already airborne. Bad enough as it is, the game uses a ton of uneven ground, which means on any given occasion where you are required to jump high, you have to time it just right while standing still in case the game thinks you are already airborne due to the slight elevation differences on the surface you are on. Painful. The last area also seemed to want to go in a borderline masochistic direction with failed jumps resulting in one way teleports to dungeon areas, along with a bunch of puzzles which didn't really make much sense in my opinion.

[h2]Whimsical exploration with old-school platforming charm.[/h2] Cavern of dreams is a cute and whimsical solid platformer with solid gameplay and a well designed world. You're tasked to fetch and collect eggs and find other collectibles. The more eggs you find unlocks new abilities that help you on your quest to... well, find more eggs. I wasn't crazy about the graphics at first but I later discovered that the developer had "blurry filter" turned on by default. It made the game look noticeably blurry to me, and I honestly don’t understand why that was the default setting. I missed the N64 era growing up, so maybe that style appeals more to people with nostalgia for it, but personally I found it distracting. Thankfully, turning the effect off made the game much easier on my eyes. Even after disabling the blur, the visuals still felt a bit too retro for my taste. I think it would have been nice to include optional higher-resolution textures or a more modern visual mode alongside the low-poly retro style. That way players could choose the presentation they prefer without losing the game’s charm. I played on a 1440p monitor, and I suspect the retro visuals may look even rougher at 4K resolution. Oddly enough, though, this feels like the kind of game that would fit perfectly on the Steam Deck. Overall, it’s a fun old-school collectathon platformer with charming world design and plenty to discover, and it’s definitely worth playing if you enjoy exploration-focused platformers. [h2]8/10[/h2] [h3][url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/45905648-Gork%2527s-Game-Grind/]Check out my curated list of games[/url][/h3]

It is a really cute and fun 3D platformer, reminds me a little bit of Spyro, with the egg collecting. The graphics definitely feel like early N64 graphics. My only complaint is that controls are a bit janky and to do a double jump is a bit troublesome, but other than that, it's a superb little game made with clear passion. (Also, if the dev sees this, can you make toggle options for camera bobbing/jumping etc etc? I am prone to motion sickness real bad and I could not play any longer due to the way the camera works, especially when in motion).

Started nice, but really enjoyed it less and less as I continued. Movement is either too slow, with a plodding move speed and pitiful jumps, or too fast, rocketing and diving around with little control of where you're going. Puzzles became more and more unclear, including one that didn't seem to have any hint at all. The game tells you that you can complete it without any abilities which is just blatantly incorrect. There's no brightness option and very few options overall, so playing required me turning up the brightness of my Deck or playing with muddy faded textures. I could go on about the many little things the game doesn't do right but the important part is that all those little things add up to one big miss.

Excellent platformer that very well replicates the games that inspired it. Great story and conclusion that really ties together the theming and vibe of the game. Starts out cute, gets more serious, much like the message it conveys. Out of the indie platformers I have played, this is easily top 3. Get it!

Short but VERY sweet! I played this game during an internet outage and could not WAIT to get internet back to leave a review! Cavern of Dreams is a pretty straightforward collectathon and eases you in with some basic platforming challenges that make use of the very fun speed-focused movement system, but it slowly morphs into less of a platformer and more of a puzzle game. Even though I picked this up specifically to play a platformer, I didn't mind the switchup because the puzzles are really unique and satisfying to solve! There are a lot of secrets to find, really fun levels to traverse, and even [spoiler] a surprising wealth of postgame/post-100% content hidden around the world! [/spoiler] It took me a grand total of about 5 hours to beat at a leisurely pace and another hour to clean up for 100%, and while I loved every minute of it, I really wished it was a bit longer, especially since the completion checklist would have you believe there are more full levels than there really are. When I realized I was in the last level, I was just dreading the end because I felt like there was so much more this game could do! The story is very simple, the basis almost ripped straight from Spyro, but there's a little bit of meat that slowly gets uncovered as you play. There's a surprising amount of environmental storytelling and some hidden lore, and nearing the end, I started getting really attached to the characters and world in a way I haven't felt since Undertale! Cavern of Dreams tries to emulate the style of an N64 or PS1 game (it's very obviously inspired by Banjo-Kazooie and Spyro), and while some cracks show in the graphics and controls, it completely NAILS it in the vibe. There are a lot of mysteries in this game that never get solved, strange characters and environments that make you think about what's going on in this world beyond the bounds of the game. I get a very specific feeling when I play an early-lifecycle N64 game, and this game gives me the same feeling. It tends to go on sale for around $5 during all the major sales, so while I wholeheartedly recommend buying it at full price and playing it right away, you won't have to wait long if you're stingy.

banjo kazooie if it ate a kindnessberry

From nostalgia to coziness to slight frustration and so on, this game was a refreshing trip I couldn't put in a box with many other games I've played. It's not the longest game, but you also don't feel ripped off. In my opinion, the length fits it well. It's not a perfect masterpiece, nor does it try to be. Instead, the game tries to evoke specific feelings in you, and it definitely succeeds.