Overhyped?

[taekwonbrando]

Playing the game and man watching these reviews is making me cringe. Games like this fall by the wayside so often but this didn’t because the dev got a big youtuber to publish it. Now tons of people are foaming at the mouth over it, many even calling it a masterpiece. It’s a blob platforming around totally random stuff. Gameplay is tight and the music matches the visuals but is that all it takes to impress people nowadays? Anybody feel the same way? If you’re in love with it can you explain why? There are good metroidvanias releasing like every other week it seems, what makes this amazing to you? I’m genuinely curious.

Edited May 10 by taekwonbrando

[Ashen_Embers]

I downloaded it because it's right up my alley. I actually didn't hear about the game, so it's a nice surprise on PS+. 

[FutureSanik]

I can use a slinky and a yoyo, thats enough to know that the game is good

But on a serious note, it isn’t overhyped if most people are turned off from it when they first saw it come to PS+ Extra.

More indie games should be given the spotlight as much as Dunkey is giving for Animal Well’s dev.

There’s nothing even remotely wrong with it and that’s before I even finished it.

I hope more games published by BigMode will be as promising.

[grimdeath999]

I'd never even heard of the game till it was picked up on PS+ which was a really good move by the developer/publisher as it's definitely brought a nice spotlight to it. I also really like it's aesthetic, also the idea of a non-combat metroidvania is quite interesting so I'm excited to play it and see how they pull it off!

[DaivRules]

I’m not sure I have the same definition as overhyped… there’s very little hyping… or anything… being discussed about this game here on the site. I wouldn’t have even looked into this game, but now that I have because of this thread, it looks really interesting and I’m considering putting it on my list of games to pick up. 
 

Looks like it’ll get a Limited Run release so I’ll be ordering it when it becomes available. 
 

 

[DrBloodmoney]

Literally never heard of this game, so I'm gonna say no?....

[shadaik]

Unless they completely fumbled the controls, this looks absolutely amazing and is way underhyped.

[HuntingFever]

1 hour ago, DrBloodmoney said:

Literally never heard of this game, so I'm gonna say no?....

This^

 

I had never even heard of this game until a few days ago when the trophy list first appeared.

[Thornhorn7]

its like a cross between halo 2 and halo 3

[RaidenXS]

I think OP got hit with the targeted content. Not his fault but it sucks being stuck in one. My YT algorithm gets f'd pretty regularly

[Juzota]

I've literally only seen the videos dunkey made about this game + this topic. Not much of a hype to be honest.

[DaivRules]

I'm starting to think some people think giving a positive review to a game is "Overhyping".
 

[otaviooo9]

It is overhyped because is the first animalvania openwell type game.

[InsomniWrench]

It's not even my type of game and I'd never heard of the dev or YouTuber associated with it, but my timeline on twitter has been flooded with this game. Looking at some of the replies here it just looks like the algorithm decided to throw the game at me. Same might've happened to OP.

[ThatMuttGuy]

I wanted to like this game, but it's no Knack 2, baby. 

[aZombieDictator]

The game might not be for you, but it's deserving of all the acclaim. It's a fresh breath of air in this stagnant market, the game feels so fresh and unique, feels great to play, the sound design is awesome. 

 

It's just all around a master craft of game design.

 

I'm very happy a game like this is getting the attention, Billy Basso did such an amazing job and dunkey did a great job finding the game to market it.

 

We need more stuff like this in the gaming market.

Edited May 10 by aZombieDictator

[HusKy]

Gotta say, the game is gorgeous in it's own way. Kinda mind-blowing it was made by a solo dev including custom game engine. The whole game is only 34MB on Steam (101MB on PS5).

Edited May 17 by HusKy

[DaivRules]

1 hour ago, RaidenXS said:

I think OP got hit with the targeted content. Not his fault but it sucks being stuck in one. My YT algorithm gets f'd pretty regularly

 

44 minutes ago, InsomniWrench said:

It's not even my type of game and I'd never heard of the dev or YouTuber associated with it, but my timeline on twitter has been flooded with this game. Looking at some of the replies here it just looks like the algorithm decided to throw the game at me. Same might've happened to OP.

Seems like you both might be right and is probably a good reminder that just because someone is seeing (or in this case deluged by) something online, doesn't mean that everyone else is having that same experience. 

 

When it comes to these algorithms: "Great, you've pinpointed it. Step two is washing it off." 

 

[Helyx]

Looks great.

 

 

[mattPilky69]

I played for about 3 hours last night, and I love it.  I prefer MVs that don't hold your hand and guide you from one point to another.  And some of the puzzles end up being brain-teasers.  I saw someone refer to it as a MetroidBrainia, and I think that's an apt term.  Finding all the secrets and eggs is going to take some time, and I can see this being a trophy list that isn't completed for a couple of months until the community finds all the secrets and easter eggs

 

It's simple, the graphics are great, and it reminds me of the loneliness and isolation I felt when I first played Super Metroid.  Personally, it felt like there was more scrutiny on Dunkey because he talked a big game about "only publishing good games", and so far he's 1 for 1.

 

EDIT: Nevermind, it seems there already might be an egg guide out there.  I'm going to continue on and try to get all the eggs I can without a guide, I'm loving the environmental and platforming puzzles a lot

Edited May 10 by mattPilky69

[iamthedotcom]

It may feel overhyped if you don't recognize that the tone and timbre of the user reviews are likely matching Dunkey's ridiculous hyperbole and sarcasm. There is also a bit of hype surrounding it because of the way it was created. You want to root for the single-person developer. The gameplay, music, and even game engine are bespoke and created by only a single person. Unlike the hoops that Concerned Ape had to jump through to get published, there is a general sentiment that we want this to go well because it is a game made by and published by gamers. 

 

It is a good game with a good "story/making of" that people want to see succeed. It really does help that the game backs it up with tight platforming and great puzzles, which are honestly higher quality than some AAA developers. It is polished, didn't live for years in early access, and the code is so well done that it clocks in at around 80-100mb depending on the platform. 

 

Still not as good as Knack 2 though 😉

Edited May 10 by iamthedotcom
Grammar is hard.

[BENJAM1N_LINUS]

Probably. It may be great and is probably still going to always be at least somewhat overhyped simply because of dunkey.

 

But my question is, does it transcend it's genre? I am not a fan of metroidvania's in general and the puzzle/experiment until you figure out the secret nature of it is even less appealing... But despite that does this game have that special something that would pull in even me? 

 

My go to example, I hate like 80% of every rougelike I've ever played but find Hades to be one of my favorite games ever, the exception to the rule. 

 

 

[iamthedotcom]

10 minutes ago, BENJAM1N_LINUS said:

Probably. It may be great and is probably still going to always be at least somewhat overhyped simply because of dunkey.

 

But my question is, does it transcend it's genre? I am not a fan of metroidvania's in general and the puzzle/experiment until you figure out the secret nature of it is even less appealing... But despite that does this game have that special something that would pull in even me? 

 

My go to example, I hate like 80% of every rougelike I've ever played but find Hades to be one of my favorite games ever, the exception to the rule. 

 

 

Totally understand. Everyone has their favorite genre which is why I'm thankful to live in the golden age of indie games. Subjectivity of personal preference makes it really hard to know for sure what will resonate with any particular individual. However, based on your comment, I'd say this should be a game you should skip. While It is a tight, competent, and artistically interesting game, if you don't like metroidvania's, you should avoid this game.

 

 

[taekwonbrando]

10 hours ago, mattPilky69 said:

I prefer MVs that don't hold your hand and guide you from one point to another.  And some of the puzzles end up being brain-teasers

I appreciate this response and agree I like that it doesn’t hold your hand and you get right into it. To everybody never hearing of the game, yeah we just got hit with the algorithm differently.

8 hours ago, iamthedotcom said:

It may feel overhyped if you don't recognize that the tone and timbre of the user reviews.

 

The gameplay, music, and even game engine are bespoke and created by only a single person.

 

It is a good game with a good "story/making of”

Nah it feels overhyped because of what I said. People are calling it a masterpiece and saying it is amazing. It’s a ball jumping around in a dungeon with a bunch of random ideas packed in. The visuals match the music and the gameplay is tight but there is nothing more to it. There are tons of indie games, especially metroidvanias, that match that description that release so frequently today.

 

What I was saying is exactly that the “making of” of the game is causing the game to be more appealing than it is. The guy never had to do it all solo, especially not the engine. That’s his choice for wanting to cut costs long term and make it more lucrative for himself if it takes off. He took that risk but that shouldn’t transcend the game into masterpiece territory. He also likely did it to teach himsef. I do love making of stories myself but I would never call The Room an amazing film, the making of it was extraordinary though.

 

Maybe if this came out around when Fez released I would understand the “amazing” praise as it would be a rare bird but from what I can gather people just want to love it more because a YouTuber published it and a solo dude made it. It’s a neat 5 hour long game, in an oversaturated genre and market. Something like World of Horror is leagues more interesting imo. I guess as a programmer who has messed around in Unity and seen how easy it is to make a platformer nowadays, I’m just taken aback about how easy it is to impress people in this day and age, over a decade after Meatboy and Fez. Have some thing jump around, add an ambient track, some totally random designs that follow a theme (animals), just make sure it all follows the same palette, get an influencer to push it and it’s a 10/10. In a way it’s great news for game devs. 🙂
 

By the way, none of this was meant to crap on the game or bring others’ enjoyment of it down. I personally like it, not amazing to me but I like it. I really was just surprised by the immensely positive public reaction to it and wanted to hear regular people’s reason for that instead of some influencer’s review.

Edited May 11 by taekwonbrando

[Remilia Scarlet]

You have a very strange definition of "over hyped".