If you're like me, you're what people might call "unpleasant" in the morning when they were feeling charitable, and "My face, my face, you bit my face" when... not. People like you and I need to take a lesson from the weird little mechanical spider protagonist fella of this puzzle-platformer and instead spring out of bed with a cheery "Hello Worlds!" Yessir, then we'd be ready for a good, honest day's work of standing on ledges in parallel dimensions, combining worlds, and collecting coins to open floating crayon doors, just like your grandpappy used to do!... no?... well, not mine, but someone's grandpappy, surely?
Each stage consists of several screens placed next to each other, each containing a copy of your protagonist that moves in unison with the others. The goal is simply to reach the exit of each level; move with [WASD] or the [arrow] keys, and open doors with the [spacebar]. Easy-peasy? The problem is that an obstacle in one screen will affect all of them; you won't be able to proceed, for instance, if a wall is in your way in one screen even if the others are clear. You can, however, use this to your advantage; standing on a ledge in one screen will let you reach places that might have previously been too high in others. You can press [C] to overlap all the screens so you can see how to proceed (although you can't move while you're doing this), and holding [V] will rewind a chunk of your time, while [R] will reset the whole level. And of course, you'll get a higher score (and more stars to unlock new levels) if you finish a level as quickly as possible and collect all the coins on screen. And just when you think you've got the hang of things, Hello Worlds! adds new wrinkles as you progress, such as doors that open or close existing screens.
Analysis: Similar to 2009's Continuity, Hello Worlds! was made by a group of computer science students (from University of Washington this time), and represents a new gameplay concept implemented very well, and turns what would otherwise be a mediocre platformer into something interesting and different. Often, simply pressing [C] to get the lay of the land is enough to help you figure out how to tackle the screens. The trick lies in getting your brain and your eyes to cooperate, and that's easier said than done, especially when you start throwing timing and reflexes into the mix. The levels can be challenging, but rarely mind-numbing, and you get that nice warm, fuzzy "Ah-ha!" sensation when you figure out how to proceed and finish one flawlessly.
Which sort of helps make up for how little personality the game has. It's a clever concept, it's implemented well, and you feel satisfied with yourself when you're done, but you're left with a sense of "Well, now what?" I can't help but feel a bigger, bolder design would have made the whole thing much more memorable and "fantastic" instead of just "cool". It wouldn't take much; a protagonist with a personality, or environments that were a bit less bland.
Hello Worlds! is a clever take on the platforming genre, and one I'd love to see taken in new, interesting directions. It offers a satisfying chunk of gameplay that uses just enough mental might to make you relieved you haven't rotted all your brain power away yet with reality programming or most of HBO's summer lineup. The devs have also promised that more updates and levels are forthcoming. So fling wide your front door and loudly proclaim your intentions to take on the world. Just... remember to put on some pants first. You don't want a repeat of last week, do you?
This keeps crashing Firefox if I try to change the quality, and without changing the quality everything is really laggy. Is anyone else experiencing this?
Cute! A little short/easy for me, but I liked the overall concept and it was fun to figure out. Between the lair and the other elements that were only used in one or two levels or not at all (like the cannons!), there's a lot they could do if they did more with this. I'm looking forward to any new updates.
Loved it. Puzzling: Check. Not punishing: Check. Innovative: Check. Doesn't abuse Level objects (like ridiculous numbers of coins?): Check.
This game has everything I need in a first class platformer.
It's a great game, but it's painfully laggy on my ancient laptop. I usually don't mind having to change the quality, but for some reason, the game just doesn't let me, and there isn't a quality switch coded into the game... Maybe it's just me, but I feel this is a pretty major oversight...
Cool, one of my suggestions made it to JIG...thanks, Dora! ;} I loved how this game added the
doors that change the current screen/world.
I think this could be developed further to make for some really interesting level designs. Great job by these guys, imho.
Commander Jim, I had the same problem. Just right-clicking was enough to freeze Firefox for me (version 3.0.1.9).
I was able to play in Chrome though, and I loved this game. I was able to get enough stars to reach all the levels except the ones that required 55 stars.
Most of the puzzles were just hard enough for me to feel clever when I solved them. Exactly the way I like it. I only had to abandon a couple without solving them.
I liked that the required times were usually long enough for even me (!) to complete the level above par.
After I complete a level, I'm stuck at the score screen. My little man is there, and there's a door - but I can't go in it, there's no "next" or "menu" button... I can't advance. Is there something I'm missing, or is the game being buggy on my machine?
i liked it, a tad on the easy side, but in general it seems like kind of a mellow game anyway.
ended up getting all 80 stars(i think that was all of them). there were some clever puzzles, and most of the level designs just felt right.
it's easy to see why some of the 55+ levels were scrapped but there's a few that are quite neat, the tetris level made me smile atleast.
@Bluey
I pressed spacebar to advance
Cute, but the melancholic music and puzzles that are a bit on the easy side kinda put me to sleep on the halfway mark.
I think I would prefer a more hostile version with enemies and/or deadly traps, though I understand why plenty of casual gamers feel that the game such as it is perfectly hits the spot...
I Need help with Teardown in Twilight Zone. Can someone show me a video or word it the best they can? I can
only get the room in the lower right destroyed.
I can't destroy the room in the upper right because
The moving platform in the lower left doesn't move as far as I need it to.
To the power of posting I was doing it wrong. It goes like this.
You destroy the rooms in this order upper right lower left lower right
Team Hello Worlds! here.
Thanks for the review! We are regularly updating the game with new levels, features, and bug fixes. So check back often!
Any and all comments you leave are appreciated, and we are attempting to fix the bugs you are experiencing. We are also continually balancing the game to provide you with the best experience possible. Thank you for the feedback!
Team Hello Worlds!
Anybody get past "Slide" in "Worlds End"?
@Cyberjar88
Here's how I did it, there may be a more elegant way though:
Use the middle trampoline on the bottom right (BR) world to move onto the platform on the top left (TL) world.
Open the door (platform moves to middle), trampoline onto TR.
Open door (platform moves to middle), drop down to TL.
Open right door (platform moves right), trampoline onto TR.
Trampoline onto BL.
Open door (platform moves to middle), drop down to TR.
Drop down to TL.
Open door (platform moves to middle), open left door (platform moves left), trampoline onto TR.
Open right door (platform moves right), trampoline onto BL.
Open right door (platform moves to right), and walk to finish.
So... does anyone know how to do "Lattice" in the Cave? I can't figure out how to do it...
@jesssss for Lattice:
Choose the door you haven't used before. If there's more than one, pick the closest.
That worked for me.
@jesssss
You can only move horizontally and vertically within the lattice. You can make a quick map using the second screen (not the solid one). I'd written it down, so here it is:
Bottom middle, up centre, up right, down right, down left, up left.
I'm having trouble with Cyclical Paradise in World's End, and Climb in The Cave. Can anyone help me?
Does anyone have any idea how to complete "Floater" in the "At Worlds End" set?
anyone get all the the coins on stair stepper?
The only Level I can't beat is Hanoi. I don't have the tiniest clue how it works. Can somebody help me?
I, too, found this painfully laggy, though I blame that on my laptop; will try Chrome suggestion later.
However, I was wondering if it's just me experiencing a glitch whereby the up-key won't register a jump? I default to the arroe pad, rather that wasd, but only left and right arrow keys seem to be working, I have to use 'w' to jump.
HOW DO YOU COMPLETE "LATTICE?"
Its super crazy!
Anyone gotten past "Sideways"? I'm having trouble getting all of the coins. :-S
nm, I figured it out. Haha.
@cahos
It's a
Tower of Hanoi
puzzle. Look it up and then
look at how the blocks move relative to how you click them
I can't get past "Climb" in the cave. Does anyone know how to do it?
Can anybody help me get past Acrobatics in The Lair? It's the only one I can't get past. It's not that I can't beat the level... I can't get the time or coins because I don't think it's possible help!
how do you get all the coins on ladders in the apprentices realm.Any help?
Mirror in The Lair is driving me CRAZY!!!!!
I too am having trouble w/ the mirror level
Anyone know how to beat it?
Grah! I too need assistance for the level called "Mirror". I got
the doors on the red block world to disappear
but I can't get it to work for any of the other worlds. None of the walkthroughs I can find go to the extra levels!
OMG! Power of posting! I'm not really sure how I did it, but I think that what happened was that I
Set up the blocks in the worlds to match the "mirror" on the other side of them all, except the blue (I don't know if blue has to be last, but that's what worked for me). Then, set the blue to match, and the doors for that one will be replaced with finish doors!
That's how I did it, anyway.
To beat Lattice, (someone asked above) it's actually really easy.
Here is a hint:
When you go through a door, goes to a secondary world that allows you to go vertically or horizontally.
Here is the solution if you're just lazy:
Go through the door you are at.
Go to the door on the right.
Go back through the door you came through.
Go to the top door.
Go back through the door you came through.
Go to the right door.
Go back through the door you came through.
Go to the bottom door.
Go back through the door you came through.
Go to the far left door.
Go back through the door you came through.
Go to the top door.
Go back through the door you came through.
Go to the right door and finish the level.
Mirror: Match the blocks as they are on the side you cant get, make sure to do blue at the end!
OMG!! Thank you soooo much for the walkthrough to `Lattice` in the `Cave`
I can't do the level 'Slide'. Does anyone know how to beat it? If you do I would be soooo grateful!
While I liked the concept, I found the game play to be infuriating. The controls were over all unreliably sensitive; sometimes, barely tapping a directional key would send me flying off in that direction, other times I could pound down on the keys and get little to no response. It made the game frustrating to the level of being unplayable. I run Chrome as my browser, and my computer has little trouble handling similar (and more graphics-intensive) games, which leads me to believe it is the game itself. Which is a shame. It ruined what was otherwise a perfectly enjoyable game for me.
I just cant get passed "Floater" in "At Worlds End" I always end up with 2 coins left. I saw a video on youtube of a guy doing it but the 2 I had left magically disapeared halfway through so I still couldnt beat it. Its the only level I have left, and the only star I have left to get before I can use
the cannon on the credits page
Can someone help? I've finished every puzzle except for "selection." I just don't get it.
Nevermind, wow I'm dumb.
Fun little game. Out of curiosity, how many special stars are there? I've got 102 stars, having collected every star on every level except Caves (on which I have no stars -- the level got too long and I decided to get up and do something else for a bit).
I really liked the level design for most levels. Most of them took two to three run throughs to get all the coins and down below par time -- chalk that up to my perfectionism though: I wanted to get par time and all coins in the same run.
A few little details: I really like the fact that in the main overworld, the big doors turn gold once all the levels in that section are gold. Definitely useful for keeping track of where I'd been.
I didn't like that it was frustrating in some sections to even access some levels. I'm looking at you "At World's End."
I really liked Lattice and the memory-based one. They were good examples of levels that required some recollection of the game map in order to proceed. Caves, on the other hand, just got tedious. Not more difficult, which would have been fun and/or challeging. Just boring.
Also, even though I have no stars for Caves, I was able to
Use the cannon on the credits page to access the challenge levels.
Not that I'm complaining :) But the authors might want to check if that's really the behavior they want.
Also, discovered a bug in "Mirror"
After I lined up the four blocks, instead of the exit appearing, the set of doors in the screen with the red block disappeared.
I had to quit the level and start it over to get the exit to appear.
I'm also having trouble with "Selection". I have completed all other levels but cannot figure out how to collect all coins or get to the red door.
For selection you need to note two things bout the top section:
The doors on the right move the platforms that they are on.
and
The loctaions of the platforms on the left.
To complete the room:
Match the platform pattern to get the bonus star. Mirror them to get the coins/regular star.
I need help with floater please!!
Help, please. I have carefully collected every star on every level, and have 41. But I need 42 stars to enter "At Worlds' End." Does anyone know where the 42nd star might be? Do I have to replay every single level to find it?
Brit, here's how I finished "Floater":
Wander around collecting all stars except two in the BL screen.
Work your way to the green door in the TR screen:
Jump to the far right of the big blob at the top of the TL screen.
From there, jump to the TR corner of the TR screen. Don't jump too high, or you'll hit the roof and have to work your way back up again.
Remove TR screen, move to green door in TL screen, remove screen.
Collect last two stars, go to green door at BR screen, remove it, and you're home free.
As for my own problem, I just replayed some beginner levels faster and seemed to collect more stars.
For some reason I cannot get the Large Star on Pathway. Anyone have any help? Thank you!
2 hours and 121 stars later, game finally done. Highly entertaining, though sometimes it got a bit challenging. Good game though :p
Really great game. Challenging without being frustratingly hard.
Similar to Continuity which I also highly enjoyed.
Yea, I'm having problems with the Big Star in Pathways from "The Pit"
Wow this is very good. Gave me a little headache though with continually glancing around the screen but it was a very good twist to puzzle platformers!
My only complaint is that the music with the march-like drum part added to my already aching head. And there wasn't a cat option for character. XP But the little turtle in the tophat made up for it!
And that wasn't a spider, it was a crab haha!
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