Preliminary: Wow the music in this! (hear it here

Wow and on preliminary play... the controls are very responsive, it's very fast-paced and to-the-point, it's got Lode Runner/Super Mario style allowing you to drop decent distances down to a platform. I was already through 4 screens before I stopped to type this... yep worth a full playthrough. This may be the first true follow-up to Manic Miner that felt fresh and fun and not just brutally unforgiving, fast-paced easy to figure out fun and probly with a difficulty progression that will eventually be C64-challenging! Meanwhile I'm over here bopping to the music haha. Now the only question is how many screens are there... (seems to be 32, seems doable enough)

Look: 6/10 Very barebones and basic. This often would earn itself a 7 because that's just the way of this era of platformer--odd, random enemies and basic look. But the UI wasn't striking at all, nor was the main menu really (tho nice colors), and none of the enemies--save mayyyybe the Hammer lol--felt cute like a lot of these C64 and Speccy platformers have.

Sound: 8/10 Great jam! Could listen to it all day! C64 really delivered in the sound front!

Play: 7/10 I love that you can level select so you could try get to know these levels and the fastest routes. Otherwise, you can also just play them to survive and finish them like I did! That's, in my opinion, how you encourage replayability! Even tho you can't move mid-air, this feels very smooth and the true successor to Manic Miner (at last!). At least you can grab onto ladders mid-air! Ha. Those basic things really matter in these early platformers because I know they were possible to program even in C64 games so when they're missing... Now if only you could jump off mid-ladder.

Because of how fast-paced the controls and gameplay are, and how forgiving it is with a level select since I don't really care about score, I found myself deliberately doing close calls, seeing what I can and can't do, seeing if I can get the dynamite-thing (what is it I'm collecting? lol) and get past the enemy all in one fell swoop. And that makes it fun, which is after all, what I play games for. Pro-tip: because you can fall from any height like in Lode Runner it's fastest to drop from a ladder etc when going down, instead of doing the uh polite thing and going down slowly :-p

Feel: 7/10 It does feel a bit low-budget as others have noted, like tho most the collision masks are great the rockets seemed really goofy and the graphics were very bare-bones and some of the common [frustrating] platformer elements that people loved back then were really just not programmed in rather than intentionally not there ha (which I was thankful for), but most Manic Miner and Lode Runner clones felt low budget anyway! Heck, a lot of C64 games felt low-budget. So as long as it's fun and approachable imo! (Wait... it turns out maybe the rocket collision masks weren't that bad and really just the slamming pillars hurt you? cuz the witch didnt hurt me either... I've been avoiding enemies but maybe they just deplete your Power faster? odd... or is my version broken? Boo!)

Attachment: 7/10 Despite that oddity/possible glitch/hack?, for the first 11 Screens I felt like this really could be another new Favorite! But it was starting to get a bit repetitive, and to think still 20 more unique screens! Hopefully it gets something more fresh... But now with that glitch known, I tested it more and yea enemies don't hurt me. So Imma have to get a new version. Boo! Whether I am willing to play it through again will determine a lot about the Attachment score, and goes to show how valuable having that Level Select is!

Yay! I got a proper working version and I think I feel up to playing through it again! That music really is a big part of that. I also just found out the Filter Level on the main menu allows you to effect the bass in the music :-p Far out

Welp unfortunately, now with the enemies working properly lol, turns out I see more of the low budget people talked about. The collision masks were clumsy and there's no encouragement of jumping over enemies--they really just act as roadblocks to have to maneuver around, thus exploiting the time factor. Which is fine, but I like games that reward precise jumps and last-minute dodges. Too bad, because there is a lot of potential here. Maybe I will return to it without the layer of disappointment from last night to today ha, separate from that context the fast-paced responsive gameplay may prove to be more alluring, plus with the level select and great music, but for now, moving on for sure.

Completion: Through Level 15 with enemies not working properly, Through Level 4 with enemies working properly but not because ran out of lives just because tired of it Playtime: ~30 mins