Time Bomb Set: Get Out Fast

Don't get me wrong, I am amazed that this was done in 48 hours, the complexity and scale of the game was huge for jam game. But it is easier to talk about things which would need polishing.

• Too few health, and bigger enemies swipe too much health by attack
• Healthpacks disappeared too quickly, no time to grab them
• Enemies from pipes came too often and immediatly without warning if you were on same height.
• If you froze enemy while getting hit by it, I would get stuck on it, especially Turtlesection I would lose tons of health as I couldn't just kill it.

I tried to get over the freeze the turtle section several times, twice I had a bit more than 300 seconds on my timer and just couldn't get over (first turtle, I just missed it all the time, and when I hit it, I missed second or third) and time run out. At last attempt I tried to get over I managed, and had like 5 or 10 health, and game continued even harder jumping sections, then I died and ragequitted :D

When you died often and went back with upgrades, getting over first level was much faster every upgrade, which was nice. Really annoying big green bats weren't so annyoing anymore. But in the beginning it was really annoying to lose health in the beginning, because I knew I wouldn't survive other levels. If you didn't have to die so often (more health etc), going back to the beginning wouldn't be se bad thing. Game just felt unfair.

So, because you had project file uploaded, I decided to open it, changed following things:

• Doubled Big enemies reaction range
• Healthpacks stayed longer
• Starting with 99 health
• Ammos double the size (easier to hit everything)

And now with previous experience/knowledge I could complete without frustration, and getting 100% was extra challenge. Now game was bit more forgiving.

Unfortunately game didn't add anything new, basically timer for Metroid. Game was really well made and large game otherwise, but it did not have enough originality on game mechanic point. Otherwise, extremely well done :)

Nice graphics! I included it in my GM48: Countdown compilation video series, if you’d like to take a look. :) https://youtu.be/MHzNKYCzwks

I'll start with some things you executed well. The art was nice, the juxtaposition between pixel art and high-res lighting was interesting. The levels were long enough that it kept the game interesting, and you seemed to have a variety of enemies to encounter. Parallax on the background and particles were a nice touch!

Now some things that could use some work. Immediately after you die, you are tossed back to the beginning of the game. This is okay for some games where the tedious parts are omitted or there is some persistence in what you've completed (enemies killed, doors destroyed) but in this case I was left to play the game over and over. This leads to what otherwise might be slight hiccups if encountered once or twice to becoming a repetitive and grueling process that the player must face every run. These annoyances can't be avoided and add up. I couldn't complete the game because I became too frustrated. Other issues I noticed were the health pickups disappeared too quickly to grab, the ceiling enemy would fall extremely fast and was quite unforgiving, and some hitboxes were a little bigger than most players would anticipate.

Overall I think the game could use some work on making the player feel less disadvantaged and reduce the repetition that one faces, but otherwise this was a solid entry. Good use of mood and atmosphere, the game had a consistent world that felt quite Metroid-y!

I want to start by saying that the environmental art in this game is fantastic. The levels look incredible, especially with the glow effects. I am curious how you did those. However, the gameplay is eh and could use some changes to the feel overall. Also, the sounds are too loud and get annoying after a little while. I was also annoyed that every death put me back at the very beginning of the game.

Again, way too difficult :'( I gave up in the 3rd lava room (bottom right) after getting the ice beam and the CD stuff. The top part seemed impossible too, tried two times but I couldn't even get after the first turtle.

Let's get this out of the way first: the games looks REALLY good, and you did a pretty good job emulating metroid with the music too. And when I manage to do what I want (I absolutely hate Z/X/C, especially when jumping is one of them... there's a big rectangle key just below that's perfect for jumping) the gameplay fells good too.

Now, here's my list of complaints :D

• Everything feels too claustrophobic, I know it's metroid and stuff, but from the green things that have huge hitboxes to the jumping sections where you keep hitting your head or enemies, it always feels like there's not enough room, and with the overall "trial and error" difficulty, this gets really frustrating
• getting out of morphball set back the shot to default
• enemies need to drop health. as it is it seems like the best way to play is to just kill yourself once you get an upgrade (I don't even know if you can get back from the morphbomb without taking damage). An if you mess up in the first two rooms you just want to give up right away since that's 1/3 of your health.
• the flying things that get out of pipes are terribles. on their own they can be okay since you can just run, but with other enemies (esp. the green ones) it's too hard. And you can't even just jump over them (except if you're lucky) since their spawn timing will make them appear at different levels.
• monsters don't stay frozen long enough. you barely have time to jump on them before they get out. It's even worse with the top challenge, because the first turtle is like right on the wrong height, where you need to jump and shoot a the last second, but you can't just aim up to freeze it from the ground.

There's potential, but remember you'll always be better at your games than other people.

Good sound and art, nice effects and the game was very solid in size, it's well put together for a jam.

I do have a few gripes with some of the design. The difficulty is a bit too high for a jam game, for some reason the health disappears really fast and is very scarce. The enemies can quickly become frustrating, though this is somewhat remedied once you get he ice beam. Trying to climb to the top of the ice beam challenge area is very maddening due to how hard it is to hit them when jumping.

There are a few bugs, like getting your head stuck when coming out of morph ball and collisions feel a bit too large sometimes.

So I get the game is emulating Metroid but I feel you could have added a bit more of your own flair to shake things up.

I managed to get 92% of the items, so I think I must have missed some discs or something (I did try to get them all though). But nice job adding all those little secrets in a jam game for replayability.

Good job on the game and it is well made, while my experience was a little dampened by frustration. I still enjoyed it overall!

Hey there :) Your game looks really nice and all with cool effects. However it's just metroid so I don't see the innovation that much. Also I didn't really have fun considering the difficulty.

(note: prefer avoiding the zxc combo, as some keyboard have yxc instead)

• Is it only me that experiences heavy lags in lava rooms? Seems like the game slows down a lot whenever inside those, otherwise it's fine.
• Shooting at enemies is frustrating at moments. They may be in that small spot where you gotta wait until you jump down to shoot them
• Speaking of which, you should have an adaptive jump height, like, when you stop pressing the jump button, your character falls instead of continuing to jump
• The green bugs are a pain. Their hitbox is (or seems) incredibly huge and they do tons of damage. Weird to have them as early enemies.
• Drags on for some part, especially because of these bugs. What I like about whomps in mario games is how running can allow you to run pass them and they don't explode
• The gameplay could focus more on the countdown The lag and difficulty is what made me stop after about 15 minutes

That said, graphics are nice, I really like how the lighting is!