Omegaland

Despite looking like an smb clone that should've been free from the start, this game is actually quite nice. It gets a bit repetitive at times, but there was only a little grinding and I didn't have to replay for getting all of the achievements, albeit I don't know if this is by chance or design There are issues like the main menu being very minimalistic, no gamepad support (it works with Steam Input, where I also discovered I can change the character gender on the fly) and you need to use a "noadmin" beta in order to run the game without giving it admin privileges (this should be the default IMO) There are also parts that aren't easy on the eyes. If that's a non-issue for you then I recommend it as an smb-like platformer with a twist or two

[h1]Before I played Omegaland, I had a small pp, no friends, no gf, depression, and no life. These things havent changed, but the game is pretty good[/h1]

This is obviously someones first game they made and released for free and thats fine, i liked that you play as a leprechaun because it instantly invoked a story line and plot that was obviously to clever for the creator of this game to come up with because you have an option to not play as a leprechaun. It made me think whoa... What if the first Mario game was about a leprechaun trying to get all of his gold back from monsters instead of an itallian plumber trying to save a princess. Really cool twist an idea thats just money left on the table because the creator of this game just wasn't clever enough to realize that he almost accidentally made something incredible. lol, anyway, its free and downloads in like 1 second so check it out lol

Omegaland starts out as a promising love letter to Mario that I found better than Mario Bros 1, 2, and Lost Levels. Except the invincibility star music made me feel like I could more swagger into a bar with cigar in mouth, wearing a trench coat and matching hat, with a woman hanging on each arm- rather than obliterate any enemy I touch. Coins actually mean something and collecting them is kind of the main focus of the game, as they can buy upgrades and the like. But then after you complete the first part of the story, the game literally and figuratively takes a dump on itself, and what became a fun platformer, turns into a nightmare. Firstly, the difficulty spikes tremendously. It goes from like World 1 difficulty of Super Mario Bros to World 8 in an instant. It's a steep learning curve that I was not ready for. This wouldn't be so bad if the game didn't pretty much stop giving you health. You buy hearts in the first part of the game to increase maximum health, and then they just stop giving you stuff to replenish them. Some levels give you hearts occasionally, but for the most part you'll be forced to play many with only one hit. This wouldn't even be too bad if it weren't for the fact that you can barely see enemies sometimes due to the graphics, and one can never be too sure if you can stomp on them or not. And the worst thing about not having health is all the cheap ways you can get hit, which basically all stem from you jumping up or falling down and bumping into enemies you couldn't see prior to jumping or falling. That's easily the biggest reason I got hit and lose my precious hearts. In the second act of the game the levels quadruple in size. They're long and hard, with no checkpoint, so you're starting the whole thing over if you die. Yet occasionally they do throw in a short, easier level too, so you never know what to expect, like Forrest Gump eating his blasted chocolates. This is a shame, because there's a good amount of exploration to be had in almost every level. But you'll never live to do it. I just ran to the right whenever possible, taking the quickest and safest routes to get to the end, missing who knows how many secrets in the process. But easily the most annoying thing in the whole game is it literally takes a dump on you. Every. Three. Minutes. The graphics get all wanky, and the turds come crashing down. If you aren't hiding under anything, you're dead. You eventually get a shield that can protect you from this, but its limited, and doesn't change the fact the whole thing doesn't add a single thing to the game. It just forces you to stop playing, and can effectively ruin your chances of completing a level. I also found a potentially game ending dilemma if you buy an upgrade too early. Fortunately I narrowly avoided this. The aforementioned shield has charges. The amount of charges can be upgraded. You can't access the final levels until you do this, In addition to falling turds, there are these glitch things they shield you from. You need the full amount of charges to run through all the glitches to get into the final world. But during the level you're doing this, there are spikes shooting up from the ground. This is all fine and good, unless you buy the spike shield upgrade. If you buy this upgrade before doing that level, it will likely be impossible to beat it. For the shield doesn't use up a charge when you actually make contact with spikes, turds or glitches. Oh no, it activates when you come somewhat close to them. So for this level, you have to jump from small platform to small platform. In between each platform is a pit shooting spikes up at you. So basically, you can't stand on those platforms without the shield activating twice at a time for each spike coming up from in front of you and behind you. I only had one charge left when beating the level (remember I didn't have the spike shield upgrade.) So in other words, you can only mess up once, or you can't beat the level. If it's even possible to. Your precision and timing would have to be beyond normal human ability to do it. And even the final level, I practically lost because again you need a certain amount of shield charges. I made it with one to spare, when it should have been like 15, because every time I went near a spike, it would waste one. Sure, it made the level a lot easier, but not if it makes it so you have to retry it until you get lucky. Oh, and one very hard level would glitch sometimes when I died, so I'd have to close the game and restart. I didn't lose any progress the four times this happened, so not the end of the world. Overall, great potential that is destroyed by bad ideas, though there is a few good ones in there too. The controls/handling are tight. Like so solid. That's really what saved this game for me.

Free old school platformer the game is pretty amazing, after about halfway through, the level design really really kicks it up a notch.

It was so much fun, until the glitch levels... they kill the entire experience!

What if Mario was woke? Cute and quirky game with a twist. The game honestly overstays its welcome, would have loved to see it cut down like an hour or two and its hard to call it a polished experience. But I think it executes its twist pretty well and has a good amount of ludonarrative harmony with its message and the game system it uses to tell it. If you are curious I'd say give it a go. I don't think it will work with everyone but its rather short and free.

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