Bungluwa, a word of obscure origins, can be loosely translated as meaning: "to make a robot jump rapidly towards the exit point while collecting light bulbs and avoiding things that make it blow up". Coincidentally enough, this also happens to be the basic premise of the game with the same name. Bungluwa, a new retro vertical platform game by Dirk Bunk, tasks the player with controlling a robot, called BGW 10k, with various mechanics hindering the robot's main goal of reaching the exit.
All levels have a time limit to complete. Some levels require you to reach the exit at the top and others at the bottom. Sometimes the level will scroll vertically adding another dimension of pressure. Oh, and there's all these saw blades and spikes that should probably be avoided.
The robot is controlled with the [arrow] keys or [WAD] with [spacebar] also being used for jumping. Jumping is primarily what this robot does and there is an interesting mechanic involving the use of a jumping power meter and multi-jumping. If there is power in the power meter the robot can continue jumping similar to a double-jump in other platform games. With no power in your power meter, no more jumps for you! Fortunately, either not jumping or grabbing one of the plentiful light bulbs found in each level will refill the power meter allowing BGW 10k to continue his quest.
Even when the robot is mangled on spikes or shredded by saw blades the cheerful pixel- rich graphics and thick 8bit analog music and sound effects inspire the player to jump higher and faster the next go round. Certain design decisions like the random background color of each level show an impressive attention to detail.
The 18 regular levels and 6 bonus levels are quite short and the time limits are reasonable so there's very little frustration or rage-quitting for any player with moderate platform skills. Players more experienced with platformers can decide to try grabbing all the light bulbs before reaching the exit for an added challenge. Let's go grab some light bulbs!
Rage quitted after 6 levels... and I thought I was ok at platformers...
I'm with Edd, I persisted through 6, hurled my keyboard halfway through 7
On level 8 I exploded inside.
Tough game, but found it fun none the less.
Just got all the achievements except the
Yeah, this got a pretty early rage-quit out of me too. Forced scrolling is the least fun thing about platformers.
The game itself seems to be just the right amount of difficulty...it's when I start trying for the achievements that I "rage" quit. ;}
I thought the game was okay, but once the game started glitching on me with delayed responses or completely ignoring my commands and doing whatever it wanted, THAT'S when I quit. A person can only take so much punishment you know?
Brilliant, I love it. I think the difficulty just adds to the sense of achievement you get when you actually get an achievement. It reminds me a lot of the Cave Story speed run, minus the shooting ability but still very enjoyable. It's hard for a game to make me frustrated unless, as Apocalypstic said, there are obvious glitch issues, which personally I found none of. It's not a very replayable game, as the levels have little to offer aside from repetitive heart-attack moments where the robot is milliseconds from being lost off the screen, only to be saved by (eating?) a precious light bulb and thrusting his way upwards. Well polished.
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