P.U.S.H

what's with all these game titles that are acronyms that also start with P? Ah whatever, this time, it's a "Propelling Unit System for Humans."  Mmmmmmkkkaaaaayyyyyyy

so this game is a puzzle platformer in which you have to place charges at certain points in the map, which you then detonate with proper timing to propell you to your desired destination.  Imagine if there was a mod for Team Fortress 2 where you have to get yourself to certain areas of the map as the Demoman by placing sticky charges all over the place.  Now imagine that from a 2D platformer perspective.

Everything is done relatively well with the exception of one thing.  Let me get the praise out of the way first so I can get a'nitpickin.

The game feels great to play.  Your character has a cool motion blur when being propelled, everything feels very fluid, and the charges are powerful enough to make you feel like the son of Thor.  On top of that, the sound direction is flawless, the music putting you in just the right mood to figure out some puzzles, and the visual style is...well, it's nothing outstanding, but it gets the job done and gets it done well.

alright, now for that one fatal flaw.  The loading times.  Ooohhhh, the loooooooaaaaddddiinnnggg tiiimmeessss. A game like this involves a lot of trial and error.  A game like that can NOT afford to have unnecessarily long iteration time.  It turns the entire experience from rewarding to frustrating with unbelievable efficiency.  Thank DigiGod there's a level select with all levels available from the start, or I might not have gotten through this one.

All that aside, though, the rest of the game really is very well crafted.  There are multiple levels of "win" you can achieve, and once you get the best ending, they let you toy around with the physics in an empty room for a while, which is a good way to unwind after all those genital-crushingly difficult levels.

I don't play the majority of these games to completion, mostly in the interest of time, but this one was able to get me through the entire experience, which in and of itself is a mark of its quality. If only the iteration time was a bit less infuriating, this game might have taken its place among my favorites.

That's all I got for now.  Until next time, stay...keep staying...it's going to be a while.

Links
https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=25988

P.H.L.O.P

It's worth pointing out that this game's title stands for "Physics Has Limitless Observable Possibilities," which is ironic for 2 reasons.

First is just the simply fallacious nature of the title.  I don't know much about physics, but I do know that there is in fact a finite set of observable phenomena and anyone who says differently is just a Michio Kaku wannabe who tries to sound smart with fancy semantics.

But before we get too off-track, on to point two: this game's physics engine (which is what the entire game is based on) is broken.  At any given moment, the marble that you're trying to guide to a goal can drop straight through the tracks you've set up with no warning.  So I guess in the contrived world of P.H.L.O.P, physics has a still limited, but vastly less so, set of observable possibilities.

But if the game were playable, how would it hold up?  Not badly, I suppose.  It's a puzzle game where there is more than one right answer to any given problem, which is always a plus in my book.  With the exception of the partially intangible blocks, everything behaves like you'd expect it would, so I guess this game is pretty well put together otherwise.

and...that's it.  It was a clever concept with good overall design that just needed a little more polishing and playtesting before it was ready to be called a "good game."

That's all I got for now.  Until next time, stay limitless

Links
Unfortunately Named Flop (see what I did there?): https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=410