Cavern of Dreams

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).

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.

A game with absolutely immaculate N64 vibes (visually, at least) that is unfortunately torpedoed by utterly mutilated controls and clumsy level design, both of which combine to create an experience that has no earthly idea what it wants to be: a Banjo-esque collect-a-thon, a Mario 64 styled sandbox for platforming, or a speedrunner's game focused on movement tech. What you get is the worst of all these worlds. There's a part of me that really wants to finish this, since it feels, from the visuals and tone, like the sort of B-game that you'd rent from a video store in the early 00s- something like Tonic Trouble, Toy Story 2, or Space Station Silicon Valley. But it's been a long, long time since I met a game with such an utterly frustrating conception of movement, one that feels like it's handicapping me and beating me down at every turn, making even the most visually trivial platforming feel like a gamble. It's difficult to state how unpleasant it is to play a 3D platformer where I am so unsure of even basic traversal. The best approximation I can manage is that it feels like I'm trying to operate the game while sleep paralyzed or half-dreaming; that fugue state where you expect things to work a certain way but your brain isn't awake enough to manage the reality of the situation. It reeks of the modern indie platformer obsession with "speedrun tech" and "expression options" instead of something wild and crazy like "competent controls". Each of Flynn's moves feels like it was wrenched from a different game entirely, like they're not meant to work in concert with each other or the levels as presented. The prime examples would be the high-jump and the roll: the jump, which is often called "Mario 64 style", ignores that in more Banjo-built levels that kind of run-up skip-and-a-hop fails to function as well- especially when your basic movement is so floaty in comparison to the tight momentum-sprint Mario had. The roll gives you an absolutely comical amount of speed for the size and layout of levels, rarely seeming like something you actually want to risk doing, and furthermore being connected to a speed boost mechanic that seems to rear its head accidentally more than intentionally, thanks to the sloppy and wobbly gliding/floating skill also triggering it. Given that BK is such a huge influence (so much so that you rip off some level ideas entirely) I have no idea how you'd arrive at this strange pick-and-mix control and movement scheme. That weird style bleeds over into the level design, which feels like some crunched down version of the bloated, directionless, spidery designs that DK64 frequented. What you end up with are worlds that aren't fun to explore and feel like a trial to move around. Now, normally I wouldn't spend so long trying to contrast a game to its inspirations or other titles in the genre, but this one seems to beg for it: like so many other retraux titles its seemingly able to coast on vibes and its ability to offer a decent simulacrum of what people's vague memories/nostalgia might tell them that games of the era were like. But when you actually understand the way those titles were built and why, you're able to see through the ruse, and then, left without a solid skeleton, it collapses in on itself.

A fun, dreamy collectathon that has more charm than it know what to do with! The platforminging is super floaty, which I'm not usually a fan of, but somehow it works here. You have a small collection of abilities you get throughout the game and navigating the cavern of dreams is very fun to do. As the worlds lean more into the nightmare side of dreams you'll be seeing some... unsettling things. The music is very chill and reallyy sells the ambiance of the various locations, and the supplemental information you can find in the form of little encyclopedia cards gives characters even more charm than they had initially. This game gets my total reccomendation for any 3D platformer, Collectathon, or N64 heads!

Tiene el mérito de ser el peor plataformas 3d que he jugado en mi vida. Que ya solo por eso se merece que le haga una reseña. Es tosco, soso, no tiene nada de especial, y para más inri, la optimización en nintendo switch/nintendo switch 2 es lamentable. El único punto positivo que le pongo al juego, es que puede cumplir la misma función que ver la vuelta ciclista en verano. Dejarte completamente dormido, es decir, una siesta reparadora. Los que le han puesto valoraciones positivas al juego, me imagino que serán los amigos del creador.

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.

[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]