Cool game, it had some decent art and the platforming was great. Stuck on level 24.
Reviews for "Goat in The Cave"
Nice game, but why can't I use the w key to jump when I can move the goat with a and d?
Awesome!!
Got to level 32, then lost m patience. 27 was a very tedious level, even if not hard. I hate have to wait for platforms.
Got to lvl 22.
This was a pretty basic 2d platformer.
If you're a fan of such, then you must have heard of the indie hits: Super Meat Boy, Escape Goat 1 and 2 and VVVVVV. This game feels like an amalgamation of the core mechanics behind those other platformers.
It's very small in scope, having only the most basic of dangerous 2d platformer mechanics, and as you'd expect it lacks polish, with a stark contrast between the styles of your player character, the background, foreground and objects that move.
This is Newgrounds, if you expected anything else in those categories, throw some money the dev's way so he can polish it and release a complete product on steam.
But with the flaws now pointed out, I have to say, what this game does well, it does incredibly well.
Despite the weird overall composition, important objects pop-out, so there's never any issue with reading what's going in the game. You know when something can be touched, you know when something is a threa and you know when something is moving and how it moves.
The animation is also perfect. No jaggy movements, consistent velocity and direction for objects, No visible seams in the paralaxing. Everything is fine in this department. The goat really reminds me of Escape goat in the way it animates. And out of all the divergent artsyles in this game, I like the goat's the most, I wish the entire game was done like that. The high contrast makes it an easy object to follow with your eyes and the coloured glowing outline reminds me of Nihiliumbra.
Music is, as advertised, pretty fucking relaxing and it really fits a cave setting.
Deaths are quick and to the point as they are in meatboy. You can fail quick and get right back into the race. No exasperating respawn times. They're also punctuated with a satisfying blood explosion.
On the subject of deaths, they are very fair. I cannot commend the dev enough when it comes to how well he made the hazards. You can immediately tell what is dangerous. Spikes only kill you if you really touch them. I've even seen AAA games that do that dumb bullshit where the very sharp spike has a rectangular collider and instant death. Luckily none of that nonsense in this game. You can almost lick the spike without a worry.
I guess the lack of bs also comes from the controls being very responsive, the great jump arc and the generous ammount of control you have in the air.
Progress-wise the game has a good difficulty curve, with the challenge ramping up pretty well, always having safespots to analize the situation from and new gimmicks never overstaying their welcome.
Sadly, I haven't found any way to improve your characters abilities. In this regard, the game lies more in the meatboy school of platforming, where your core abilities are all you get and the challenge is always timing and reflex based, never a puzzle.
There are a few odd desgind decissions here and there with new challenges being introduced at the end of the level, but with these one screen levels I can't complain much. You die and you learn.
I would like to complain a bit about level design. It's mostly pretty solid, but ti does have some oversights. Some hazards, like certain falling spikes are skipable. At first I assumed they were a trap for those who overshoot jumps, but you can get out of the way of those skipable spikes anyway so it holds back the game since levels have a single correct path and these deviations are pointless. Also some levels are impossible to run through. Sometimes you just hav to stop, trigger a spike, fall back and wait. Same with waiting for platforms. While these by themselves aren't terribly bad bits of level, the waiting isn't that long, this design clashes with the core mechanics of the game which very closely ressemble meatboy. While I like to stop and weigh my options, it's a game with a single correct path and fast-paced mechanics, so they waiting bits and non-respawning falling spikes clash hard with the rest.
In conclusion, my only real complaints about this game are that it's a bit too derrivative of super meat boy in its core mechanics and escape goat in its main character design and movements. Some small level design decissions are a bit misguided as well.
If you were seeking a straight-forward, incredibly well-built and free difficulut but fair 2d platformer and can put up with some hobbyist level visuals I cannot reccomend this enough.
Kudos to the maker of this.
P.S. A small complaint I have about well-made games on NG. WHY THE BLOODY HELL CAN"T I SEE HOW MANY LEVELS THERE ARE IN TOTAL. So many games I good gave up on, not knowing I had to power through just a few more stages. More devs need to include a damn world map or complete from the start level-select screen.