Long Tail

Great puzzle game where you have to aim a line (called a pass) to have it pass through a block, and keep going but make sure you don't paint yourself into a corner and find out at the end that's there's a block that you can't get to because your passes have blocked it in. That has happened to me so many times. Prepare to have to redo levels many times until you are able to finish. And there's no one right way or path, you can choose to go wherever you want. If you want to get a "Perfect" rating, however, you have to pass through a block each time you make a line, which is difficult. In that sense there is probably one way to do it to get a perfect but my point is you can still play the game and finish a level as long as all the blocks have been gone through. The early levels do a great job of introducing the concept of what you're supposed to do. Then it starts to get more difficult. Later spikes are introduced (of course! gotta have spikes) that are an instant kill if you hit them. I can't wait to find out what else is in store in the later levels. And that brings me to another positive element in the game: on the level select screen you can select ANY level you want! The levels are not locked until you complete the previous one like lots of games but instead you can go ahead and select later levels, skip levels you have difficulty with. This is a great feature for me because I tend to get stuck and get sick of replaying the same level over and over again and I want to see what the next level is like. In this game I can! That is so wonderful. You know what else is wonderful? The developer! He responds to questions on the board and even asks for feedback on what we think would be good to add to future levels. Which means he's still committed to his game, it's not like "this game is finished I'm moving on to a new game" like so many devs do. I love developers who have positive interactions with gamers. Final thought: the music is a surprise, quite upbeat but not too much that it would distract. I like it. A lot of minimalist puzzle games have soft quiet music in the background but this game has music more like an action game. I paid for this game, I got it on sale I think 10% off, and I do not regret my purchase at all. This is a clever little puzzle game and I highly recommend it.

[b]april 2023 edit:[/b] 8 new levels and a new mechanic. [b]long tail[/b] is a minimalist [b]draw a single line puzzler with a twist[/b]. normally these take place on a grid, gotta find a way to cover all the tiles, maybe even connect dots of different colors, etc. in this case though, you're collecting coins scattered around all sorts of layouts by dashing around, [b]no grid to stick to[/b]. sounds like a cakewalk, you say? well... there are [b]50 levels[/b], all unlocked from the start, and you can take your time with small steps, as it were, and eventually succeed, especially with [b]unlimited undo[/b] at your disposal, working even after running into spikes and dying or finishing the level. the challenge, optimal as it may be, comes from making sure [b]every move grabs at least one shiny, resulting in a perfect solution[/b]. no timing, timer or move counter, if there are 10 coins it doesn't matter if you grab them one by one in 10 moves or 2 at a time in 5 moves. and it's probably obvious from the title, but [b]your tail doesn't disappear[/b], much like in classic [i]snake[/i], so can't exactly dash around willy-nilly. an important distinction is [b]you can dash into your own tail[/b]. this is all explained in the [i]how to play[/i] section, along with the controls, which are mouse to aim, left click to dash, right click to undo. couldn't be simpler and it works as it should. spikes are one of the few mechanics, unsafe surfaces, just avoid them. transparent blocks make you bounce off them, but it would be nice if the game showed the complete route if the destination is another transparent surface. and since no puzzler can exist without portals these days, they also show up on a few levels, plus gates to unlock. graphics are minimalist and colorful, nothing wrong there, and [b]lighting shows where you can aim from the current position[/b], which is neat. audio is fine too with some uplifting electronic beats as background music. there are separate volume settings, language options, also while playing, and full screen mode got patched in. it's usually windowed mode that's missing, the one here can be resized. it's really fun, though [b]gets tricky even if you're not going for more than 'good enough' like I did[/b], and it's pretty much all or nothing, no rating system or anything. the price is not too bad, [b]more levels are coming later[/b], but I'd really like a screen shake toggle. it got reduced while undoing (it was really bad) but there's still some both during movement and undo and being able to turn it off completely would be nice.

(Обзор на русском тут: [url=https://kknights.com/posts/2562-long-tail-odnim-roscherkom-cherez-shipy-zerkala-i-portaly]> тыц <[/url]) A small step-by-step puzzle that's a little harder than it looks. • In each step, we draw a line from the previous point and make a new wall. The goal is to collect all dots. + 42 levels: the firsts use a fancy geometry — then spikes, reflections and teleports are added. + Freedom: most levels have several solutions, you can solve levels in any orders. + Fast undo and restart. The lighting helps to see possible moves. + Small price on sales. = To get a level achievement, you must collect a dot at each step. Most levels are OK, but a few had exploded my brain and I spent an hour to solve each of them using tricks. 🤯 – I'd preferred to see more game mechanics. (The game was received as a gift).

Long Tail, to prosta gra logiczna. Mamy swoją kostkę, którą wybieramy kąt pod którym wystrzelimy ją na planszy, a za nami pojawi się kreska/ściana. Ściana ta jest nieprzenikalna dla naszej kostki, więc łatwo można się odciąć od złotych kwadratów, co nie jest zalecane, bo aby ukończyć poziom, to trzeba zebrać je wszystkie. Trzeba więc tak kombinować, aby znaleźć optymalną drogę i nie zablokować się, a najlepiej przy każdym ruchu zebrać przynajmniej jeden złoty kwadrat, co nagradzane jest osiągnięciem. W późniejszych poziomach pojawiają się gumowe ściany, kolce oraz portale, co urozmaica rozgrywkę. Problem w tym, że zwykłe przejście gry zajmuje około godziny. Kreska, która pojawia się za nami poza przeszkadzaniem, w łatwy sposób potrafi pomóc graczowi, odcinając przykładowo całą ścianę kolcy, portal, czy też gumową ścianę. Daje to możliwość łatwego obejścia, nawet najbardziej skomplikowanego poziomu, co niestety rozwala rozgrywkę. Mi zwykłe przejście gry, bez zważania na osiągnięcia zajęło dwie godziny, ale tylko dlatego, że gotowałem przy okazji zupę, a potem ją jeszcze jadłem. (Pomidorowa jakby ktoś pytał :)) Oczywiście jeśli chcemy zdobyć osiągnięcia, to trzeba trochę wysilić mózgownicę, aczkolwiek nawet wtedy rozgrywka nie usprawiedliwi ceny za tę grę. Na steam jest sporo małych gierek pokroju Long Tail, które są tańsze. Gdyby gra kosztowała przysłowiowego dolara, to może dałbym jej naciągane 5 i polecił, ale w przypadku tak małej zawartości nie jestem wstanie polecić tego produktu zwłaszcza w tej cenie. Na koniec nadmienię tylko, że gra działa poprawnie i nie robi błędów, a muzyka jest całkiem znośna. [h1]OCENA: 4/10[/h1] [b]PLUSY: + Można wysilić mózgownicę + Brak błędów MINUSY: - Zawartość nie usprawiedliwia ceny - Małe urozmaicenie rozgrywki - Mała, prosta, nijaka[/b] [h1]Zapraszam do obserwacji naszego kuratora: [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/26553378/] ŚWIAT RECENZJI[/url][/h1] https://store.steampowered.com/curator/26553378/

Intuitive geometry/kinetic puzzle game. The undo button and shadow system showing what is within your reach make this very easy to use. There is no "correct" solution since there is leeway in the way that each piece is collected, it's not on a grid so the cumulative difference in angles of each shot can lead to some tight but unexpected solutions. That freedom to be creative is what I like about this game while still keeping it puzzly. Cool music too.

Includes the blessed undo-last-move button with no usage restriction. I could never see the intended routes in games, so I resort to using the undo often; here it was for some micro-adjustment to barely brush a coin - just enough to collect it and get a better angle on the next one. Coins conveniently light up when aiming to indicate successful collection if travelling along the chosen trajectory. Later levels include spiky walls which cannot be touched, rubber walls which cause rebounds, and portals. Eight more levels introducing removable walls have been added in an update; these walls disappear upon collection of a certain number of coins. Getting 50 perfect passes took seven and a half hours.

I like it, it feels like the real challenge is to get a "coin" (didn't know coins could be square) on every line but the game doesn't force you to complete it like that, which is good because getting a coin on each line can be insanely hard even at the early levels. Good visuals for a small little game like this, really like that you emit light which shows you where you can shoot.

got bored of this game pretty quick