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Scarygirl


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Rating: 4.7/5 (172 votes)
Comments (91) | Views (5,715)

JayScary GirlScarygirl is a huge (hours long) and absolutely stunning platform game just released today by a collaboration of companies, including art direction by concept creator, Nathan Jurevicius, an Australian-born artist now living in Toronto, Ontario.

Update: We have decided to hold off on publishing a review at this time due to the myriad bugs and control issues the game suffers from at present. It's disappointing to see a game so beautiful be marred by so many gameplay issues. We are hopeful that Touch My Pixel takes all the constructive criticism they are receiving in the comments and give the game several iterations of quality-control and refinement. We would be pleased to give this game a follow-up review should that happen.

Be sure to read our full review of Scarygirl.

Also worth noting is the servers the game is being hosted on were unprepared for the onslaught of traffic the game is receiving, no doubt due to its visual appeal. So, Touch My Pixel is asking people to be patient until they can address the traffic overload, which is compounding the frustration players are experiencing.

Play Scarygirl

91 Comments

First impression:
Very good graphics!

Well explained in how to use everything and reletively straight forward in what to do.
Enjoying it so far!

Be interesting to see the full review!

Thanks! :D:D

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JC Lisbon April 14, 2009 6:58 PM

This is already the most graphically impressive flash game I have ever seen. And I'm still going through the intro.

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Love the art direction, graphically competent. Controls are a bit (a LITTLE bit) loose for me, and the load screens are a chore.

Still, great game so far.

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GQWeasle April 14, 2009 7:36 PM

Jay, I missed them few fish/gems as well.

A bit tough to catch hand-holds (have to be perfect), and the spin attack could reach a bit further, but so far so good.

The swimming is a slight pain to get a hold of (no short moves to readjust your position). I was happy that there was no mad rush to make it to the next air pocket though (Sonic gave me nightmares over that when I was a kid, and untitled story drown me more than once more recently).

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This is a beautiful game. The physics are a tad slow, but I love the visual narratives. I've seen this artists' web designs for over a decade now. Great characters and color comps.

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GQWeasle April 14, 2009 7:42 PM

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Game looks stunning.

Controlling is a little bit weird. Kind of wished they would have made up jump instead of d.

Just started playing so I'll probably come back with more later.

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Anonymous April 14, 2009 7:49 PM

Haven't played much, just to the second level, and I think it's quite charming.

One qualm though: I died and returned to a checkpoint, but I had lost all the gems and fish I had collected up to that point. That means that if I wanted to go for a completion run, I would have to trek back to the beginning anyway. I don't know yet how important the different item collections are, but if they do play some role, then checkpoints are actually somewhat interfering. It would be better if it returned you to your actual state at the checkpoint, rather than just baseline zero, just in a different spot on the map.

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harpdevil April 14, 2009 7:51 PM

A beautiful game and obviously a huge undertaking, the pleasure of this game is marred by floaty jumping and landing physics. It's often unclear where you can land, where you will fall off and when you can grab a ledge, often a pixel-precise affair.

While the presentation of Scarygirl is superb, this comes at the price of laborious load-screen times which detract from the experience. This coupled with the aforementioned loose control scheme mean you will be playing this game for the first few levels, and likely stop after that.

Scarygirl has a strong collection dynamic, with stats at the end for each level, and even new mini-games to collect and play. 100% completion will be left only for the strongest-willed kleptomaniacs however, as a cornucopia of annoyances stand in your way from Level 1 onwards.

It's well worth a play, though sad that while your eyes will be screaming "yes!", the weak control scheme and host of hard to find, easy to loose collectables will have you just plain screaming.

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Anonymous April 14, 2009 8:23 PM

It's gone from "quite charming" to annoying. No doubt everyone will be commenting on the difficulty in ascertaining just what exactly is a platform (and more importantly, just where a platform ends), and other associated spatial difficulties. I also have an issue with the "fish fly out when you get hit" mechanic. I realize that fish=life and thus it's sort of a Sonic-y idea, but you're still supposed to collect them, so you have to run around amid danger in order to get them back. Frequently, I saw them fall to some unreachable (or greatly backtracking) locale, or, more often, onto something damaging that I had to hurt myself on again in order to retrieve (thus throwing out MORE fish, that I then needed to retrieve, potentially going on from there). I'd rather just lose the life.

It's a gorgeous little (or not so little) game, this is. Kind of reminds me of the old days of computer games when video and voice capture were brand spanking new. People wanted to show it off, and there were plenty of games that got caught up in the multimedia of it all. So I'll praise the collaboration for pushing forward the art on the medium, but sadly they didn't do enough to integrate it into the game part: the part where I contribute. Shame, too, because this looks like a entertaining concept and story, but I won't be finding out what it is.

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Game loads in IE but not in Firefox for me.

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I think it's fun, but I also don't like how the jumping is hard to control. I find it hard to jump onto things without falling off half the time.

Also, I'm really bad at the third level, and having to start over at the beginning of the level annoys me. I guess there's probably some sort of checkpoint in the level, but I haven't gotten to it yet.

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This is absolutely GORGEOUS!!!!! Thank you so much!

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Anonymous April 14, 2009 10:17 PM

Pretty much echoing a lot of the other commenters. Beautiful, but terrible game mechanics that make it a chore to play. Combine the mechanics of, say, Knytt Stories with this kind of art and you'd have a winner, though. As it stands I didn't bother past trying to figure out how to swing my way up the tree house. No patience for crappy gameplay.

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Pixelated April 14, 2009 10:32 PM

Ah good, it works. At first it came up with an error and I had to restart, but it works fine now.

For a flash game, graphics are quite nice. Seems like a fun game.

I'm stuck at

the swimming part. I have the key, but I can't get past the lock. Is there a key to use an object that I haven't found yet?

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I found a glitch. I was swimming down to the left and went through a wall somehow and vanished there. My air still ran out though. :S Anyone else have this problem?

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I managed to put up with the floaty physics up to the swimming level. The fact that I die so soon and that the swimming controls are awkward makes it highly annoying.
Overall, the game is beautiful, but is marred by awkward controls. Otherwise, I'd play it to the end.

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What a shame. I was beginning to rather enjoy the game, near the end of the first level. But the second level (swimming) is so awful that I just don't feel like trying to get past it.

Basically, there's no continuity in the swimming controls. You can't control your direction unless you are moving, and moving is too fast. So you either are sitting while a creature decides to hurt you, or you are swimming uncontrollably into a different creature that decides to hurt you.

Looked nice, anyway. For some reason, it reminded me of the graphics styling of Psychonauts, one of my all-time favorite games. (Which, sadly, doesn't play under Parallels 3. :'( )

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himitsusj April 14, 2009 11:15 PM

Longtime visitor to the site, but this is my first time commenting; I agree with several of the people above. The game itself is beautiful to look at, with lovely music/sound effects and charming graphics, but the controls are hard to handle. Also, it seems to be laggy quite a bit on my computer? I don't know if that's a problem with just me. I wish the controls were sharper, and that attack radius/ledge definition was more clearly defined, and the load screens are a bit disruptive (though not too bad).

It's the controls that frustrate me the most, though. A lot of times I'd find myself miscalculating a jump, then trying to fix it, only to land myself right in the middle of a heap of enemies...that in itself will probably prevent me from getting very far.

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I'm currently stuck in forest level. I can't find a way to get past swamp elder. I would really appreciate some help.

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I encountered a bug in the swimming level. It reloaded at the checkout after I died, and suddenly acted as if I was above water instead of swimming. I plunged down to the bottom of the sea like a rock.

It'd make a good cartoon. I'll leave it at that.

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Darn you Jay - I started to explore this based on your "hour long" comment. Here it is an hour and a half later and my progress is less than impressive. I had to sign up so I can continue this tomorrow :-)

I can't say anything that hasn't already been said. Yes, the graphics, music and all are impressive. The opening cut scene is a definite hook in to play. And Yes, the controls seem a bit fuzzy at times but I found they got easier as I went along.

All in all, it's a nice treat. Tomorrow I build my bike!

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Thank you all for your comments, they mean a lot, both the praise and scathe.

If you're finding the controls a "sluggish" or slow to respond this is most likely your browser being, well, nasty. The best thing I can suggest to fix that is to close other tabs / windows of that browser. I know it sounds ridiculous, but it does seem to help!

Swimming mechanic: we realise it can be a little like fast and unmaneuverable sometimes but this was better than the feeling of molasses you get if it's a lot slower. Hope it's not too much of a turn-off for you all.

Restarting from a checkpoint: The idea of losing everything you'd collected was partly technical but mostly to give a point to dying. As there are no lives this at least means you can only get 100% on a level if you complete it without dying.

The confusion as to what is a platform: I know. We thought about this long and hard and decided to just be true to the artwork. We could have gone along the times of "Yoshi's Island" where they put thick black lines along all surfaces, but it really was about weighing these things up.

We're looking at implementing configurable keys and levels of quality at the moment. We're also looking at making a stand-alone download version which "should" in theory be able to go fullscreen, and run a little faster. Here's hoping!

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Amazing and so nice!

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I love the music. A lot of games don't have the right music to set that mood y'know? But still, I found myself screaming at the computer "HURRY UP!!! WHY DO YOU TURN AROUND LIKE YOU'RE STUCK IN BULLET TIME!!?!?!?! ARGGHH!!!"

I think it would be a waste not to at least try and re-wire the physics/controls of this game. Vector-y/flash-y games always seem to be the worst for this kind of problem. I find pixel art games, and of course, all the old games, hardly ever have these problems. The art is maybe less stunning, but the terrain is clearly defined, the movement is fast and fluid, the gameplay works.

I don't see why modern games, casual games, online games should have so much trouble finding the right balance. You shouldn't have to sacrifice the artistic integrity of the game for it to work well. I guess functionality should always come first. You can't hang a painting on a crumbling wall.

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I'm a real sucker for pretty art, so despite the "floaty" physics as some have described it as, I've reached level 7 inside the tree.
But now I'm stuck due to what I think is a glitch

because I can only find 4 of the 5 purple gems, then every time I fall back down past the mossy platforms controlled by the second switch they stop moving, and the game sort of dies by only focussing on the part of the screen where scarygirl is.

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I was enthralled up until the treedweller level... then I hit some sort of bizarre glitch state that made the game unplayable, and restarting just doesn't help.

The screen stops auto-scrolling (or continues to, but it takes up to a minute to catch up with you). The enemies stop moving and yet ARE still moving, you just can't see it... not that the game registers you were hurt until 30 seconds have passed.

On top of the weird graphical leftovers I started falling through the middles of platforms. Great-looking game though. I just wish I could play it further. :(

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Gorgeous game, but absolutely unplayable.
I found myself thinking of platformers such as The Fancy Pants Adventure or Running Forever which, while graphically basic at times, are undeniably easy to control.
Was really looking forward to this upon seeing the screenshot, but I was really disappointed.

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This is beautiful and I love everything about it the first level, but the swimming controls were just too frustrating. The duck/dive key seemed to have no effect? If that was fixed I would play this to the end, but I died three times because I couldn't steer around the fish...

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Seletta and Dan: that happened to me too. I ended up restarting the level and that seemed to fix the problem temporarily. Eventually I got to the city level but the screen freezes became so frequent that I just couldn't continue.

I wonder how many levels there are. I also wonder what happens if you make the other choice:

I ended up choosing to follow the treedweller to the tree of knowledge. I had to fight the tree of knowledge in a cool 3D level. The other option was to go and chat with your less-reliable friend. I'm not sure if there are any real ramifications to this other than an extra boss to fight.

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I'm not sure if this is a glitch or not:

I couldn't beat the level where you had to ride on a bike to reach the forest, so after awhile I gave up and left the computer. I just reloaded my game and now I'm at the Forest entrance without ever having to beat the bike level.

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I didn't get to try it. Norton Anti-Virus won't let me. *sigh* My "home page link" is to the that companys virus information information page.

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Like most on here I agree with all the good points of the game

Very good looking and quirky colourful and imaginative

I played on easy cos thats were I like to start
I played for 42mins 5 of those being unable to move past the getting the bike parts....very much out of platform practice!!

I have a lot of patience but gave up trying to do what I know I would be very lucky to do.
Will run it past the kid .....she has faster reaction times!!

Ma's Cup of tea score 8 mugs all with 2 sugars

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Agree with everyone. Absolutely gorgeous game and excellent presentation, but simple gameplay frustrations caused an early exit for me. It shouldn't be that hard to jump up the very first tree in the game. I had no idea what I was jumping onto and even if I did I would slide past it due to poor physics.

I think it was a mistake to put the water level second as that level has atrocious controls. Maybe change it to "follow your mouse pointer" or something different cause I really can't see too many people stomaching that part and getting past it.

You clearly have an artistic talent but I would recommend teaming up with someone with gameplay skills and/or asking a few people to test it first. Thank you for the game though. =)

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Dr. Worm April 15, 2009 8:30 AM

If they fixed up some of the clumsy controls, this would be a masterpiece. Right from the start of the intro my mouth was hanging open at how beautiful it looked, especially for a flash game.

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I played through the first level, got all treasures and fish. Then I tried to save, and now the game is locked up on "the server is thinking." Great, just great. :(

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1) Grabbing mechanic is irritating, as you have to catch the very edge of platforms and press up.
2) Some bugs make me drop off the screen or stop the camera movement.
3) It's really irritating to get 4/5 collected items and fall down a pit and have to start. All. Over. Again.
4) It'd be nice to see how many of X, Y and Z there are to collect in a level.
5) However, not a bad game. Varied and graphically excellent.

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Well, what can I say? After reading through the comments here, I decided to try and endure the glitches to see if I could, in deed, make it to the end of the game. Afterall, the intro is absolutely beautiful and I was lured by the hours long review - eh... quote in the review.

After playing for several hours, I did run into the same frustrations previously posted here. The controls were tough, especially during the levels that required swimming. I didn't like that at all, and found myself thinking "not again!", during each one. Also, as someone mentioned, I didn't enjoy losing my fish after miscalculating a jump and inevitably landing on an enemy. I didn't understand why my lost fish landed in unreachable places, i.e. the 'spikes'.

The controls were frustrating at times, but not as much as the game freezing. Once I got to 'The Market', I had to restart several times, update Flashplayer (again?), and restart several more times. The last time it froze, I just waited it out and after a minute or so, I guess the machine caught up with itself (btw, I'm using a nice pc, XP, with FF 3). I even closed all but the window I was using, and it still froze. That was annoying.

There were two other minor problems:
1 - the console games never worked for me. The screen (black and red and looked sort of like a tv) never loaded after clicking the game I wanted to play. I reloaded via right-click because the 'Restart' link froze the window.
2 - I had to fight the tree several times because after having to restart due to freezing, my game didn't save. And, those wondering, yes I did sign up to save with my email.

Now, aside from the glitches/bugs, I did actually enjoy playing enough to stick with it. I loved the originality of the platform and rather enjoyed having to determine whether I could jump on something or not. The art was pleasing to look at and I didn't get bored. I would say, if the bugs were ironed out, it was one of my favorite platform games.

To Misky:
The Swamp Elder

Attack the little black things coming out of the other thing's pipe. Then they won't hurt you and you can pick them up (action button). Hold down the action button until you get close to the elder and then release to throw the black thing to the elder. It'll blow up and after several times, kill him.

One last thing, I was disappointed with the ending. I guess I thought the game would go on forever, but it, in fact, ended very abruptly for me. Aside from that (giggle), I loved the game!

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I love the graphics, the burton-esque atmosphere and overall presentation - gorgeous, imaginative and intriguing. I must say I was immediately charmed by the game.

However the actual platforming is very subpar. The controls are clumsy, the platforms are very loosely defined and the sonic-like losing of the fish when hit is a bad design choice. I'm also not a big fan of constantly respawning randomly appearing enemies especially with the controls/platforms the way they are. Often I wanted to explore a part of the level which ended up MUCH more frustrating with all the falling, bumping into enemies and trying to climb back up.

So all in all, my impressions are mixed. It looks like something that should be commercial but plays like a lousy flash platformer. I feel this is a game I would gladly pay for the privilege to play IF the platforming was at least on the level of an average SNES game. Since it is free, I don't know how appropriate it is to focus so much on its flaws instead of praising the wonderful production values...

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Have to add this.. this game feels like an opposite of "Untitled Story" when it comes to graphics and the gameplay enjoyment. Scarygirl probably has the best graphics in a Flash game I have ever seen, Untitled Story looks like a child's drawing in Microsoft Pain. But Story feels and plays like a dream and this is MUCH more important in my book...

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Argh. What a shame. To the developer: You are on the right track with looking at games like Yoshi's Island. In its current form, this game is unplayable (although pretty).

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Thanks Seasons of Autumn; I never realized they were pickable.
I'm still trying to play this game despite all the troubles, bugs, controlling difficulties, loading problems, etc. But as a last drawback I found myself in a loop at the end of forest level; I get the 'end of level' message, but then the next level never begins to load (I waited for a whole hour), and if I refresh I find myself in the beginning of the level I just finished. It's enough strugle for one day, maybe I'll try again tomorrow.

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Jay: Duly noted amigo. I apologize for casting aspersions :-)

To paraphrase (or more like mangle) the old carpenters adage; I should have read twice and correctly commented once.

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I think the comments here are skewing just a touch towards hyperbole.

Yes, the physics are just a touch floaty--reminded me of LittleBigPlanet actually. But some of you are acting like this makes the game unplayable, which is just nuts. Yeah, yeah, I get that different people have different tolerance levels for imperfections, but come on...unplayable or broken this game is not.

Some of you are complaining about the silliest things...like the fish flying out when you get hit. This would be a HUGE problem if there was a requirement you collect every fish before finishing the level. But there is NO such requirement. Collecting all the fish is a bonus.

Anyone complaining about dropping fish when they get hit is basically just complaining because they're so obsessive compulsive they can't stand the thought of losing even a single fish. And to those people I say, play better. Don't get hit and you won't loose fish. I think that's the point.

The water controls are tough, but they aren't any worse than the water controls in...say...Mario. And if Mario, basically considered the greatest platforming series ever created, can get away with difficult water controls then why not this game? Practice, have a little patience, and note that in the underwater levels the creators were nice enough to let you keep your fish when you get hit.

On seeing what is and isn't a platform...yes, it requires a little bit of trial and error. No, it isn't perfect. But if you just take a little time and experiment you can figure out what is a platform and what isn't without THAT much pain and misery.

On grabbing ledges, again--no, it isn't perfect. But broken it is not. You just have to learn to get a feel for where you can grab and where you can't. Like any game learning how to interact with the world is key to enjoying it.

The game saves after every level, so there's no rush to beat them all perfectly the first time out of the gate. My point is, stop stressing out so much. If you miss a fish or some other collectible come back later and explore. Take the time to play through and get a feel for the controls. Once you learn to compensate for the physics it isn't that big a deal.

My final thought would be this. No, this game isn't perfect. And yes, we should feel free to critique it. But I feel like some of you are losing the forest to the trees. There's a fantastic game here and the designers did a lot right and should be getting more credit for that IMO.

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I was able to play the game all the way through and I have some comments:

a) The game is just gorgeous, and that, plus the variety of tasks and levels kept me going

b) I encountered bugs, particularly in the marketplace and the golden onion level that forced me to restart the levels over and over again

c) For a free game, it was a rich experience. If I had paid anything to play it, I'd be a bit perturbed at how slow the controls responded at times.

With a little revision, this could be a classic!!

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Let me naturally say, this game is graphically amazing. The fact that it is a free, browser-based game is stunning to me. With that said, I would also like to echo many statements that this game needed some serious beta-testing before release. All the numerous problems have already been mentioned several times, but I'll touch on a few again:

1. Jumping probably should have been attached to the up arrow. It's more natural, and there wasn't any need for rushing through areas, so the use of jump away from movement controls just seems odd.

2. A lot of folks liked the music. I thought it was a little too static, but this is barely a complaint.

3. Jumping around form platform to platform was annoying. Often times, after I mysteriously latched onto something, I unfortunately would fly over the next platform back to the ground. When you can't efficiently platform in a platformer, it gets on the nerves.

4. I'll agree with some that fish dropping/loss is a minor complaint, as they are not necessary to acquire to pass any levels. These implementations are likely around to further explore the fascinating world and artificially lengthen the game. However, when you add them for such purposes, only to take them away from the player at every turn, I no longer find a point to collection.

5. Someone mentioned that Mario can get away with poor swimming controls, and gets rave reviews. That may be, however, it should be mentioned that such swimming levels are not introduced very early, and those levels often are the most-annoying part of a Mario game. Additionally, the swimming controls in this game are not challenging or interesting, but instead frustrating. It's hard to pinpoint what my problem is exactly, but I'd venture to say they are simply ineffective. Sure, a player could deal with unresponsive and confusing controls, but they have a time limit (read: oxygen) which only adds to difficulty which is not game-based, but controller-based. This is never a good thing.

I wish I could have given the game a better chance, because I can see the shear amounts of manpower behind this. But, when trying the second level involving the swimming controls, all I could think was, "Oh boy, enough of this nonsense." *clicks red X*

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I enjoyed what I managed to play, but after receiving a fatal error page in my browser after completing the swimming level, I quit. I'll try again once the hype dies a bit, and maybe I won't run into so much server traffic.

I was a bit confused with some of the controls - I never was a wasd player, so utilizing d to jump was hard to get used to. After swimming around a while, I got used to it, but I was really glad when that level was over.

In general though, it's interesting. I think it really would work better as a download, once some of the little issues are fixed.

Great atmosphere to it. It's definately something I'll come back to after a while. (Like I said before, once the hype dies down a bit.)

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I'm so sad: I managed my way up to the junkyard level but now when I want to load it, it gets stuck at 99%!!!! So frustrating!
At first I was too having problems with the swimming controls but I finally got the hang of it. I'm no game expert, and I can definitely see the control problems, but the gorgeousness of the art and the great music really does it for me. This is a real esthetic EXPERIENCE. So please fix it!

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If you're having problems getting the game to load I can suggest a few things:

* Close other browser windows / tabs
* Close other programs, especially large memory hungry programs such as photo or video editing programs

We've been trying to get Flash to give useful errors when it runs out of memory, but it seems it's just not built for it!

If we can make a download version it should at least help. Sorry for all the problems people are having. We did have a two month beta testing period but most of these issues were never raised. We're working as quickly as possible to get them fixed.

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Hmmm, all I get is an empty white box, but judging from previous comments, maybe I'm not missing out on much...

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subtlegoat April 16, 2009 9:14 AM

This game is really amazing in so many ways - visual, narrative, detail, puzzle. It's possible to play and enjoy it on many different levels.

Anyone experiencing control problems should certainly a) restart their browser (and try to keep a minimum of browser windows/tabs open), or try an alternative browser. I struggled along in Safari for a while, then got the bright idea to try Firefox, which went much better and smoother - a completely different gameplay experience. It became possible to learn and master the controls, because they remained consistent.

Flash is not an infallible medium! And this is a free game - I can't believe people are being so awful about it. I've seen games with much more serious issues being given great receptions by the commenters on this site. Perhaps its downfall is how incredibly polished and professional it seems, you want it to be perfect. Well, in a fresh browser, it's close enough for me.

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I love this game, its freaking awesome. I didn't really have any issues with the water level, and managed 100% on the first level. Either way though, I saw someone else is having the same problem as me.

I cannot get junkyard to load beyond 99%. I have cleared cache and all, and tried 2 different types of browsers with the browsers being the only things running. Not sure on whats wrong.

Anyway I love the game and would quickly download it if you guys end up making a downloadable copy.

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Very pretty!
The floaty jumping is slightly annoying, but I found that the worst part was the lack of checkpoints. Because of the floatiness and the necessity of waiting for moving parts in some areas, it simply takes way too long to thread my way allll the way back to where I was. I gave up after dying on the bike parts level with 4/5 pieces. Frustrating.

But the style is enough to make me want to try again sometime.

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Thanks for the comments guys,

FYI I am currently working on the gameplay issues, controls, overall feel, swimming.

We have had a lot of issues with the servers not handling traffic, which caused frustrating load bugs. These, along with some other bugs, should be fixed now.

Jayisgames - thanks for holding out on the review, we are working hard to get ontop of things, but there are only 2 of us and lots of things to do (as always)

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zbeeblebrox April 17, 2009 12:54 AM

Man, this is why this site is so awesome.
It's like we got to be impromptu post-beta beta testers!

It's crazy, because there are so many web game aggregation sites out there, but so few places where there's a community eager to offer feedback and that bothers to be discerning.

Anyway, I'd say the opening cut scene alone was worth the price of admission. It's quite a charming game though, and I'm greatly interested to see what happens after some of the bumps are ironed out.

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-= Game Updates =-

The game has been updated in response to users feedback, with more to come at a later date.

Changes include:

* tighter "physics"
* new control scheme: UP for jump, SPACE for attack and activate
* no more false virus alerts
* new servers for faster loading
* completely new swimming mechanic: you just press the direction you want to go - should be easier for those people who have to rotate maps to find their way.

Have fun, and please keep the criticism, and praise, coming.

Tarwin - Touch My Pixel

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Like a few others, am frustratingly stuck at 99% loading Junkyard. Also tried all the same things, clearing cache, 2 different browsers, flash update, etc...

Love the game, would like to play more!

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The new controls are much better, but the only problem is that when you want to use action,

you tend to shoot a pie (in the level before the yellow onion)

I am wondering what happened if you choose to follow another path before the city...

I'm presently a bit stuck in the Yellow onion

I gave the musical notes to the guy on the stairs and my character just kept running straight to the band. Now she does not move. I wonder if I should make her take the alcohol before going. But then the controls get a bit out of hand

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Has anyone:

met Chihoohoo?


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beachie841 April 18, 2009 1:02 AM

Love the game! It's beautiful - and everything seems to be working very well.

I can't get out of the Junkyard level because I can't get to the 5th bicycle piece.....I'm sure this is a user error - but does anyone have any hints? I keep dropping back to the beginning when I try to jump to the right to get the 5th bike piece. arrggh.

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@beachie841:

If I remember well:

There is one that you can access with the moving gondola.
After the one where you go over an acid pool. If you go back to the middle and take one of the gondolas that goes down but on the central pillar. I'm not sure I'm making any sense there... sorry. Hope that helps

Does anyone have a hint for the Yellow/Golden Onion Bar ?
Am I stuck or is there a bug ? My character keeps running into a wall without me being able to control her.

I really love this game! The music and the graphics are so pretty!
It is clever and colourful.
I like the little green fuzzy things that walk on the ground of the bar... and the treedweler was very cute too!
Thanks for releasing such a great game!

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Retried this beautiful game because I noticed they'd changed the controls- much better! I got to the forest level you reach via dandelion, but I hit another problem I just have to whine about:
While swimming in the swamp water near the end of the level, I pressed down, and died instantly when I swam below the screen, sending me back to the beginning. First of all, no save points? and second of all, it just felt mean to make that fatal with no warning....

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@Tymbri -

Save points are represented by red and white barber poles. I also noticed the insta-death from the bottom of the water in the forest/swamp levels. I found the white angry birds to be more mean to be honest since they're so accurate and they stop your jump in mid-air if they nail you, which they often can because they lead their shots a little too well, and this on the medium difficulty.

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@tymbri
there is a savepoint in the middle of that level, after the swamp elder.

@ElliotM
haha - thats funny that you say it is aiming at you, as the birds motion and release of spores is actually just totally random... passed the turing test tho i see :P

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I agree about the control changes-- swimming is a thousand percent easier.

But how do you load a saved game? The only place I've found that lets you load a saved game is after the first level where it asks you to sign it.

And how do you navigate the bouncy things in the Forest Entrance? I can never get high enough to reach the next one, and the one time I did I promptly fell off. Very frustrating.

I really really want to like this game, and I do, but it's little kinks like that that make it needlessly difficult and keep me from wanting to continue playing all in the same sitting. Which leads me back to my loading a saved game question.

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beachie841 April 18, 2009 5:08 PM

@Sphax -

Thanks for the advice. That is one of the bike parts that I already have.

The one that I'm looking for now is to the right of the ferris wheel gondolas and the "cave" to the next level. I can't seem to make the jump to the bike part on the right - I keep dropping back down to the start off point. I can occasionally see bike part there - I just can't make it to the platform.

Ggggrrr, Arrrgh.

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Finally Managed to pass the Yello Onion... It was just a big bug ! It is really annoying me because I had to do this level at least 6 times before managing to pass it...
Next level is where you meet:

Chihoohoo

It is a great one because

You are fighting with other characters in a kind of arcade mode fight with combos ! It was a lot of fun!!!

But now another bug and I am forced to redo the whole thing all over again...

@Isi: You can load a game by clicking on the TV screen on the upper left corner. Than click on Load/save game and You'll have to imput your email adress and password. They will next ask you if you want to save your progress now or load a level.
The bouncy things in the forest are frustrating... Try combining your action button ( space) with a jump. You'll jumb while turning and you'll get higher.

@beachie841: Sorry for getting everything all confused. Just figured that out after posting my comments.
I don't remenber having trouble reaching the last piece of bike. Maybe using a combine jump (space+up) will work ? Or are you sure the platform that go away after you step on are still around ? Maybe you should just start with the platforms again
( I could not try it more than once because when I did this part, if I felt I found myself obliged to start all over again because of a bug so I tried very hard the second time...
Hope it's not getting too frustrating now !

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This game is a joy and a frustration. The new controls are easier, but new problems have cropped up - at least on my computer.

Either the spacebar stops working and I can't perform any actions, or scarygirl mysteriously flies off the screen for no reason at all, or (most often) the game freezes. The Marketplace is where I'm having most of these problems.

In the previous level, the background was marred by "snow" - only after the updates.

None of the games I have collected have ever shown up on the console.

Lastly, when I load the game, I never know what level I'm going to get. (I did clear my cache after the updates, and I have only one login name.)

Any suggestions? I'm about to start Marketplace for the umpteenth time.

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to everyone who commented on the save points: I know what they look like, but so far in this game I have reached 2 save points- one within 5 minutes of starting, and the one in the second stage of the swamp. It just seemed kind of random. I like save points!

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Actually, I was in the junkyard level, and I'm not sure if this is a glitch, but somehow I had a pink "ray gun" looking item. I'd like to know if this is how I can remove those annoying red guys who throw fire balls at you? and, if so, how do I get this thing back!?

Thanks

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I reached the last level. I was also a bit disapointed by the end.. so quick ! But the rewards were quick nice escpecially

The screen saver with the Yellow Onion Band !!!

Overall I really loved the game. The fact that they are so many different ways of playing make it always interesting and amusing. I liked the fact that some levels are really different like

The bike level, the fighting level, the sewer level and the fish level

The music is also very well done but I particularly enjoyed the little details like that were placed all over the game, the little monsters walking around etc...

Even though the bugs and control problems makes it a bit tricky by moment, I really feel like playing it again to try to obtain a bettr score, follow the treedweller and find all the consol games.

It was wonderful experience and I'll come back for more !
Thanks a lot to the creator :)

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beachie841 April 19, 2009 8:25 PM

I am really loving this game - Kudos to the creators.

I think I found a bug. Junkyard level - yellow cave - if I fall off the platforms (which I keep doing) I don't die - but I can't continue either! Scarygirl disappears without her skeleton rising up. I can still see the screen and pan to the right and the left, but I can't jump out (like with the acid pools earlier in this level). The only thing that I can do is click on the tv and start the level again.

So frustrating.... I wish I could give someone my info to get me through the level.

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@tonypee, those birds pass the turing test in spades then, lol. However, I think I know why they felt less random and more like carpet bombers:

I believe the ai for some of the angry birds are programmed to keep up with you, such as the second and third ones you see in forest3.

If you are racing ahead to get away from them because of low health, like I did on several occasions, it will attempt to keep up with and ahead of you, resulting in "less-randomized" spore shooting that I saw. The result was very uncanny but highly effective, though annoying :)

I finally met Chihoohoo and:

should have known to expect a fight, lol.

This fight isn't for everyone and in overall toughness between the Tree of Knowledge fight and the Chihoohoo fight, I would say that ToK is easier, at least for me since I'm not that skilled at 2D streetfighter-like games.

Here is what I ended up doing to win:

First Bouncer:

I had the easiest time with him. Spin, long punch, and uppercut were all pretty effective against him if you timed it right.

Second Bouncer:

This one was really hard for me and almost made me give up. :(

What I ended up doing was

going all out with spin/whirlwind spam ( -> + D) as fast as I could while next to him. However, just standing next to him will give him many free hits because of the hit box of his spiky chin, so you must mash buttons as fast as you can to stay ahead in dealing damage if you're going to try it.

Jumping and getting him to jump so you can hit him easier was my brothers strategy but I couldn't pull it off since he would often charge me while I was landing. I also couldn't seem to do more than one move while in the air and this left me feeling a bit too vulnerable to be jumping around against him and his long reach.

Third Bouncer:

This guy was also hard but I managed to come up with a strategy of

turtling and attacking only with long punch.

Hold forward the entire fight. When he isn't near you, hold block so you stand still. When he gets near enough, quickly release Block and press Punch once or twice and then immediately Block again to protect yourself from the counter attack. Some of his attacks will get through the block (?) but you should be okay if you are careful.

I must say I really like this game despite the bugs. The mashup it creates by bringing in different kinds of game play is really awesome.

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Excellent game! The graphics are very impressive, I can't imagine the time spent on creating this game!

I encountered some serious bugs though.

The good thing is that the bugs seem to appear randomly, so you can always restart a level wishing it all goes well next time... It was the case for me on two levels (Tweedweller's lair and The Marketplace). I had to restart them over and over in order to finish!

The bad thing is the save system. I ruined my progression three levels to the end of the game, due to another bug:

I was just finishing the Onion level, when the game froze just before moving on to the next one. Luckily (as I thought), the next level was unlocked, through the console. Except that when I clicked on it, it got me instead to the "Build your bicyle" part (???, way back). Stupidly, I played with the game until the bike was built, so on to the next level... But when I checked the console again, the save system locked all levels after the "Ride" level, erasing my progression. Pretty annoying.

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Decided to revisit this game after hearing about the updates.
Despite initially hating the controls, i learnt to deal with them, and they became a minor issues in comparison to all the major glitches that are in the game.

Although game controls so much better now, but problems are still occurring.
On some levels, upon falling in damaging water, it becomes impossible to get out. Why not just have this sort of stuff kill players if you can't get out of it? Isn't an instant death better than a certain gradual one? Obviously, the water only partially damages players because you're meant to be able to get back out of it, but on a lot of levels, this doesn't seem to be the case.
I'm on the Marketplace level as I'm writing this, and cannot finish it due to the fact that Scarygirl decides to walk off screen or jump into the void on a whim.
Please, for the love of god, fix this game, because it's fantastic.

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@sphax: Thanks, that helps a lot.

I was a little confused at first with what to do with the Forest Elder, but I figured it out and now I'm stuck at the second half of that level, but I'll get it. I think the game bugged the last time I died-- it went black, stayed black, and wouldn't reset me to the checkpoint. Not too annoying, as I was going to take a break then anyway.

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How do you get pass the underwater level? After I talked to the octopus in the submarine and got out, went up I could not get to what-is-that power generator. Any idea?

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you are able to just out of the water - there was a slight but for a few hours as we were re-gigging the keysetups and this is the only place in the game where you jump out of a water based level to land... its normally the other way around- eergh. try again

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Anonymous April 22, 2009 4:20 PM

Yeah, what gives?! I'm at the same point 9diov is, can't finish the underwater level. Is there something I'm missing? HELP!!!

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Anonymous April 23, 2009 2:23 PM

@9diov I was having the same problem. You have to talk to the octopus twice. The first bubble tells you you have to ride the bike, which then puts the bike picture on the left. Once that flashes press the bike icon and the directions to get out will show up in the octopus' talk button.

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Robynthegeek April 25, 2009 3:20 PM

I absolutely LOVE this game!
Graphics are great and controls are much improved. I could have used a little more direction at first for how to fight enemies, and that the eggs could be good (rather than just deadly mines). Overall just a gorgeous game, and one of the best, immersive flash games I've played all year! Major kudos.

That said, I can't seem to get past the junkyard level.

I get a bug (or maybe it's just a really annoying difficulty thing!) where I fall off of the moving platforms and fall right through other moving platforms and the solid ones at the bottom and get stuck in the green goo and die instantly. Every time I slip off the tram things this happens, even when I start with full health. Maybe it's just because it's such a long fall.

Off to try again!

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I just played the game

It is absolutely amazingly unbelievable. I can't even find the right words to try and describe it.

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I'm stuck

in the junk yard where you have to collect the bike parts

what do I do?

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Sylocat May 16, 2009 11:16 PM

According to the game's website, the game has been updated as of May 8... it advises you to clear your caché if you've played before.

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Anonymous June 14, 2009 5:27 PM

I don't know what to do after Bunnyguru!

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I got from my house to bunnyguru's cave (where he is floating/meditating with a teacup. I pressed talk and it showed me a vision of riding a bike to a domed-temple. I press an arrow and bunnyguru light up glowing. Now what do I do?

Thank you!

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Anastasia January 20, 2011 6:08 PM

What are the names of each level?

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how can I login to the game?I need to save game progress, it's impossible to finish game in one stroke!!!!!!The "load and save level" requires login or signup, I signed up for many times using different email, but only "checking your details is fun for servers"

Another Big BUG:there's no "back to Game button" after I signed up!!!!It's riduculous to play from the very beginning after I finished 10 levels!This drives me crazy.

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