VR Platforming on a Pogo Stick -- Welcome to Stilt

 A few weeks ago, someone noted you could pick up a normally $20 game for $2 called Stilt. I'm a fan of picking up VR games for $2 . . . especially when they turn out to be pretty good games!

I've talked a fair amount about VR platforming games here on TFN. Astrobot during the COVID era was what initially made me fall in love with VR. Back in November 2023, I boldly declared that No More Rainbows was the evolution of VR platforming because it lived in the era post-Gorilla Tag and used arm movement to get around.

Stilt firmly resides in that same category as No More Rainbows. In this game, your arms are basically pogo sticks, and you use them to bounce around classic platforming puzzles to collect stamps and gift boxes. 

Feels straight outta Mario

I say classic platforming puzzles intentionally because that's part of what differentiates this game from No More Rainbows. The platforms, obstacles, and enemies feel more like something out of an old-school NES Super Mario game more than anything, and it's every bit as difficult in many ways.  

Stamps!  GOTTA GET THOSE STAMPS!

Stamps are pretty much like your standard classic Mario coin or Sonic ring. Much like Sonic, your stamps are also your key to staying alive.  If you lose three hearts during a level, you can start over from a checkpoint for the cost of 10 stamps. Gift Boxes are what you're trying to earn throughout the levels. Each level can cough up to 5 gift boxes: 3 for completing objectives in the levels, 1 for surviving to the end of a level with a lot of stamps, and 1 for racing to the finish quickly.

I do like how you climb into these mailboxes to start a level

As you progress through the levels, you'll find pogo leg power-ups that convert your regular pogo legs into awesome pogo legs. They feel a bit like gadgets that Inspector Gadget might have used (Could you imagine if this was an Inspector Gadget platformer instead of what it is?):

- Fireball pogo leg -- you can shoot three shots at enemies in rapid succession before entering a cooldown for the gun.

- Slow pogo leg -- you can slow down time to help you dodge better or freeze puzzles for a few seconds for a better view.

- Magnet pogo leg -- you can suck stamps toward you for collection.  

- Swing pogo leg -- you can shoot out a vine and swing from it, giving you extra height or distance.

- Glider pogo leg -- you can use it like a helicopter blade for a short time to carry you far across the map or toward a goal quickly.

- Rocket pogo leg -- you can blast in any direction quickly for an extra boost

- etc. (I don't know if I've found all the legs yet)

As you progress from world to world, you eventually hit walls where you have to deposit gift boxes into a mailbox to open the wall and let you through. The first levels use Green boxes, which can only be inserted into the green mailbox. The next set of levels uses Purple boxes, etc.

My current wall I can't pogo past

So far, I'm through the first two walls of gameplay as I'm making my way up to what appears to be some kind of tentacular type of monster, which certainly is the end boss.

Pointing my pogos in the general direction of the big bad boss!

I've heard some mixed reviews on this game, and I get it.  The "classic" platforming vibe feels a bit dated, and your pogo-sticking self doesn't really have a lot of charm.  If there is a complaint from me, it's that . . . compare this game to No More Rainbows, and you're missing charm, and THAT is what I wish I had more of.  Max Mustard had charm. Astrobot had charm. Lucky's Tale was oozing in charm. In comparison, Stilt is, well, stilted in its lack of charm. Then again, I haven't played multiplayer yet, which is where I imagine I'd maybe find a bit more of what I'm looking for.

THAT SAID. YAY VR PLATFORMING FUN! I don't want you to think that I'm not having fun with this game. I am, and for the crazy price of $2, I'm getting more fun than I bargained for.

Don't fall into the quicksand!

I'll be reporting more on this game, and hopefully, when I soon beat the end boss. Until then . . .

Happy Dueling!

100 percenting Max Mustard!

You may or may not have caught my post about Max Mustard before. It was a bit buried in the midst of another post, but I've been having a ton of fun playing this VR platformer.  It's definitely unique in the space in several ways, especially in the way it has a simultaneous gun-and-run play.

I really don't want to bash this game AT ALL because it's incredibly fun. Anyone who would make a platformer in VR has my immediate respect. All the levels are meticulously handcrafted with great care and consideration, and honestly, it's a brave design feat by itself.

Max Mustard is a Beautiful World that's Meticulously Hand Crafted with Loves and Hugs

I wanted to make a platformer for WIMO Games, and if I had been given just one more game jam game with the company I would have done one of two things:

• Finished the underwater game jam game we were working on the previous year
• Formed my own gosh darn group and made a level of a VR platformer
  
  

Every time I brought up making a platformer to our team, my design director shuddered and told me straight up NO every single time. Why? Because a platformer of any kind involves a lot of meticulous hand-crafted design with timing, spacing, charm, and interest. Basically, it's a big time sink that will be debated endlessly because of its difficulty or lack of difficulty . . . and also because it was seen as niche and not enough profitable return for your expensive efforts.

As a designer who loves crafting levels, I would have LOVED a chance to shine here. 

So, for those reasons alone, I don't want to bash Max Mustard AT ALL, and as I said before, it's incredibly fun. 

Sigh, but that said, there were a few things that made me pine for more adventures as Lucky the Fox or Astrobot. In this category of platformer where you follow behind a character, I'd put Astrobot as my number one VR platformer, followed by Lucky's Tale, in third place Max Mustard, and in fourth -- I'd put every single player-made platforming minigame you can find in Dreams VR (which is a lot of them). (Sorry there's no mention of Moss -- I still feel bad I haven't finished it yet.)

I wouldn't put any of those in the same category as No More Rainbows or Outta Hand (still need to play it), they're a different, more-athletic platforming genre for me, which I also love. 

Ok, now that I've put that out there . . . You gotta play Max Mustard if you're into this stuff. It's happy, it's fun, and it's well done. Level difficulty isn't really an issue outside of 2 or 3 levels, and that makes it an easy breezy experience that's just pure happiness.

I beat the game last week and had an absolute blast beating the final boss. 

Because of that, I decided last night to return to the game and make a run at 100 percenting it. DONE! Good times!

Oh that awesome 100 percent completion feeling!

The only problem here is that it wasn't as challenging as I had hoped, and definitely nothing like when I was tearing my hair out playing Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze. VR games are naturally harder than most gaming experiences. It's proven that people just slow down when they're playing VR Games and struggle a bit more than in regular games, but that said -- I could have used just a touch more challenge here.

On the other hand, the real challenge came on the levels that weren't platforming. The hardest levels to beat were definitely those with timed shooting minigames. It would always take me 5-10 tries, and sometimes much more than that, to beat those levels.

Now that those small critiques are out of the way, what a great game! And really kudos to the developer for using so many innovative techniques to make each level play different from the last. The head nods to other games like Frogger and Galaga filled me with joy. The weird nose-less flying elephants you were saving were super cute. The verticality of the levels was fantastic. The music was fun. The art was fun. All of it was fun. My inner child loved every minute of it. More! Bravo!

Nose-less flying baby elephants . . . aka Mudpups

. . . and I mean that . . . MORE!  Please VR Platforming developers, don't stop. I would take a VR platformer over a shooter any day and we need more developers making games like these. Thank you for your efforts and for making games like this. They really are incredible works of art.

Happy Dueling!

No More Rainbows: Not Mushroom for complaint!

I'm continuing to have a great time playing No More Rainbows! Although I'm technically on World 4, I went back to World 2 over the weekend and furthered my progress on smashing all the unicorns and eggy guys.

The theme of World 2 seems to be more of a forest jungle covered in giant mushrooms and logs. Although, there does seem to be a DJ party going on in the midst of all that, but that's just what eggy boys do. They party no matter where they are and MUST BE SMASHED TO STOP!

The track they're getting down to sounds a little like You Spin Me Round by Dead or Alive

Just like any good platformer game, each world introduces a few new mechanics for you to play with. World 2's new mechanics seem to be:

1- Ladder jumps -- This is where you use both of your controllers to jump up a crevice in a wall between two platforms.

2- Log climbs -- This is where you use both of your controllers to grab a single platform and scale up in like climbing a log. 

A ladder jump leading to a log climb!

3- Zip-lines -- You've used your claws to climb, but now you get to dig them into a ball and ride it like a zip line as you swing through the air.

Wee! Zip lines!

World 2 also introduces a few new obstacles. 

1- Sliding Walls -- Giant slabs slide open and close where you need to time your jumps correctly to continue.

2- Rocket Launchers -- Occasionally you'll run into a rocket launcher where you'll need to avoid the incoming projectile. (Don't worry, they move slowly)

3- Love Bombs -- The boss of World 2 likes to slam down love bombs out of the sky that explode into a cloud of killer hearts.

It's like a 2-ton punch of Valentine's Day

The zip lines are absolutely my favorite part of World 2. It makes me want to look up what other VR games have zip lines in them. It's a really fun mechanic that just hits differently in VR. (Of course, zip-lines have nothing on one of the mechanics in World 3, but I'll get to that in the next post.)

In the shop you can find a nice skin to match your adventures in World 2, as long as you have the unicorn guts to buy it. So far I've unlocked both World 2 and World 3's skins and I love them both. 

I'm adorable!

Since my last post I've been able to 3 star many more levels. Basically, you need to run each level at least twice. Once slowly to collect all the egg men and unicorns and once again to beat it in 45 seconds -- but on your follow-on runs, there's no need to collect eggs and unicorns all over again, you just race to the finish line.

It's been a lot of fun! Onward to worlds 3 and 4!

Happy Dueling!

No More Rainbows: Evolution of the VR Platformer

If you've read my VR posts from the past, you'd know that I'm a big fan of Astrobot and Lucky's Tale. Both are fantastic platformers. I couldn't really get into Moss as much (need to give it another go), but in my mind those three games were/are the gold standard for VR Platforming games in the past.

Now we live in the apocalyptic VR world of "post-gorilla tag." I've actually never played Gorilla Tag, but I know all about it. I've watched several YouTube videos. I've watched my son play. I've watched my friend's son play. It's a horrifyingly ugly looking free-to-play game that had epic multiplayer action where the controls and design of the game trumped everything and won the heart of millions and most likely taking its place in the top 10 VR games of all time just from a popularity standpoint. 

I should probably play it a couple times. It's a free download after all.

You just can't deny a VR multiplayer game that draws in these kinds of numbers.

It uses a very simple and genius mechanic. You use your arms to jump and move. That's it. I mean, yeah, there's like six multiplayer games of various types, but really, at the core of the game, bouncing and moving around with your arms is the game, and it's super fun. Because you're using your arms to move, there's less motion sickness. It's genius.

Jump, jump, jump, SMASH A UNICORN!

As I understand it, No More Rainbows used to be called Dingleberries and had been in development for a couple of years. (Pretty fun to look at the game in greybox.) I think I heard it was a VR Arcade Brick and Mortar Store exclusive for a while, but I'm having trouble finding a source to back that up (file this one under stuff-you-hear-in-a-game-dev-Team's-chat).

In the end what we have is a really fun evolution of the platformer where you play as THE BEAST and your objective is to destroy the rotund, little egg dudes that are just having a cute, happy time. There are four worlds for you to explore in the campaign mode with a total of 28 levels across them. So far I've only played up to world 2 after a really fun Boss Battle at the end of world 1.

NO MORE RAINBOWS, EGG BOI!

A really good innovation here is that the beast has claws, so not only do you hurl yourself from platform to platform, but you can also grab your claw onto an edge and climb up, you can snatch a berry and chuck it at things (including a basketball hoop), and (of course) slash things to your delight.

Watch out for pokeys and kill that rainbow!

To add to the replay-ability, each level has a speed run leaderboard, and this is just further proof that I'm not very good. There is a 3 star objective to each level, and I don't think I've gotten many stars . . . uh . . . it'll come with time! There's also a few casual and competitive tag games ala gorilla tag.

Lots of game modes to keep your busy

The game itself is a really big shoulder work out as you continually slam your arms downward to get big jumps out of your beast. I was doing a mini-game race around world one this morning and, although I beat it, I think I might need to put my shoulder on ice now. Ouch.

It's interesting to see that this is a paid game with a cash shop inside of it. You don't see that in VR games typically. I don't mind it at all, and I imagine if I was big into the 3v3 scene, I might even purchase an outfit to peacock a bit with my team mates and competitors.

I'd need the bow body of course . . .

I'll be playing this one to the end and talking more about it. 

Of important note: Just a mere two weeks ago, another platformer game that would fall in this new genre launched called Outta Hand. Apparently it was all the rage at the last Gamescom. I'm liking this experience enough so far that I'm pretty sure I'll give that game a shot as well.

Happy Dueling!

Astrobot and Lucky's Tale -- two peas in a VR pod

It's hard to think of something made in 2016 as being the OG VR Platformer, but really the Oculus Rift has only been around since 2016 and that's really when commercially viable VR headsets started to become available. (Shhh Nintendo Virtual Boy fanboys . . . just lemme call Lucky's Tale an OG VR Platformer, ok?)

A couple years ago when we all went into lockdown for Quarantine, I discovered a love for Astrobot on the PSVR. I was legitimately kinda losing my mind in lockdown, and Astrobot was the perfect escape. It felt like on some of those levels, I could just lean back and enjoy the digital world around me, and you can't escape the similarities between Lucky's Tale and Astrobot when you play them.

In Lucky's Tale and in Astrobot, you, as the camera, float along behind the hero of the story on a track. This is completely different than say how platforming is handled in the game, Moss, where you are viewing the level from a darkened side view. Lucky's Tale and Astrobot both have a really charming and cute hero that gushes with personality, and of course, they're both VR Platformers.

I need to find a better way of recording gameplay from Oculus, but for now, here's a little "silent" movie of some Lucky's Tale Gameplay. (btw, I should make a side blog post about how awful VR gameplay footage is to show around . . . it doesn't capture the essence at all and always ends up super jittery or super zoomed in . . . ugh)

A friend of mine was talking about the ingenious use of VR's ambionic sound in Astrobot. For the layman, that means when a hidden robot is sitting in a location saying "help me," you get a sense of direction to where they are hidden in the level. I wish there was more of that in Lucky's Tale. It's just done better in Astrobot.

The obvious difference is that Astrobot uses the playstation controller, and the input for Lucky's Tale is done through your two hand controllers. I do think that both are successful in using the controls in clever ways, however.  In Astrobot you can fire ninja stars and grappling hooks with the touchpad. In Lucky's Tale, you throw bombs and use headset view positioning to target.

Another obvious difference is that Lucky's Tale is much shorter than Astrobot, but also came at a lower price point. 

End credits "playroom" in Lucky's Tale

Both characters from Astrobot and Lucky's Tale were charming enough that they both got a sequel game. Astrobot introduces everyone to the PS5 in Astro's Playroom and I wouldn't doubt that there will be an Astrobot 2.  Lucky's Tale has the Super Lucky's Tale and the New Super Lucky's Tale on the Switch. Interestingly enough, neither of these follow on titles are in VR.

KAYUTE!

Ultimately I liked both games enough that I kind of want to try both Astro's Playroom and the New Super Lucky's Tale. 

The next VR platformer game I need to take a look at is Carly and the Reaperman. I'm loving this genre of VR game enough that I feel comfortable in exploring around here . . . perhaps enough time has passed that I can even give Moss another shot?

Happy Dueling!

Nice Mice and Lots of Brawl Stars Spice

Heya!

How's your quarantine going?  Lemme know in the comments.

As for us, we've been watching a lot of Netflix and Prime Video. My wife got sucked into Ozark, and man is that stuff dark. It's awful watching a family put family first while breaking every moral code known to man and slowly descending a stairway to hell. Netflix has also presented us with a few interesting movies I probably wouldn't have watched otherwise, like Dinner for Shmucks.

Lately I've just had a big pull to my phone and the PlayStation VR.  My PC hard drive dying might have also played a little part in my PC game absence.

Forever my family has been on the hunt for our copy of Moss that we got for Christmas. Yup, we've been looking for our copy of the game since it got put to the side in favor of Beat Saber and then "lost" in the shuffle of Christmas cleanup.  Eventually we decided to really clean the kids area upstairs and pecked through every corner. This whole time I've been looking for a CD case, but come to find out it was a simple piece of paper with a downloadable code on it.  In fact, I almost threw it out when my wife handed me a big wad of "looks like junk" papers. 

What is Moss?  Oh!  It's an adorable story-based 3D platform puzzle game where you go through a series of levels playing as an adventuring mouse named Quill.

The only problem, as said earlier in the post, I watched Dinner for Shmucks the night before I started playing the game. If you're not familiar with the movie, Steve Carell plays an idiot savant who makes taxidermized mice dioramas.

Now I can't help but think that I'm playing inside of one of these creations when I play the game, which is a great game, but now it just has this taxidermized mice diorama shadow over it. I'm going to need a bit of time to forget the movie so I can enjoy the game.

Don't get me wrong. I liked Dinner for Shmucks; it's a really funny brom-com flick and the mice dioramas are definitely adorable . . . I just can't get them out of my head when I play the game, so it's spoiling the experience.

As for mobile games, I'm still playing quite a bit of Brawl Stars. I'm up to 7242 trophies as of this morning and climbing (stops to play a couple games of Showdown with Bibi). I'm up to 7258 trophies as of this morning and climbing!

I really love this little mobile game battler. I'm also pleasantly surprised by how vibrant the creative community is for this game. I mean, it is a Supercell game, so it's to be expected that it's a quality game and would have a following, but if you haven't checked out their "maker" website for the game, you're missing half of the fun. Their current campaign is titled Bibi and Bae: Hero or Villian? The request is that those artists who can make 3DMax skins for the game choose to make a model that represents either character as a hero or villain, and there are some super cool skins being made here.

MikeblueG has created a skin that re-envisions Bibi as a futuristic gladiator that definitely got my vote.

The good news for me is that I ordered a new PC hard drive and have a couple games I'm eyeing for future blogposts! 

Happy Dueling!

Taking a VR Vacation From a Quarantined Reality

Something that's been rolling around in my head since I was "all-in" on Project Gorgon is that I really just want to play some games with quality graphics. It really does feel like I was living in graphical hell for several months, and now I think I'm naturally craving a bit more quality.

Last Christmas brought my kids the joys of the Playstation 4 and the Playstation 4 VR. For them the biggest hit, and all they really wanted to play, was Beat Saber. I couldn't even get in time on the PS4 because they were constantly on it or the wand controllers needed recharging when it was "my turn," and to be honest, all I was thinking about game-wise on my spare time was P:G.

Fast forward to today, we're all in quarantine from the Covid-19 pandemic, and I've been going a little crazy being cooped up inside the house all day. The kids lost interest in Beat Saber months ago, and so finally I was able to sneak on to the PS4 and play a bit myself.

Hittin Easter like ... pic.twitter.com/hCLZZ3wnm4

— The Friendly Necromancer (@FriendlyNecro) April 12, 2020

It's so incredibly cool to play this game, and not only that . . . putting on the VR headset completely separates you from what you typically see with your eyes. You're in the videogame world at that point. You look around and all you see is space and the floating cubes that demand they be lightsaber-ed in half by the funky beats dropping in your ears.

After getting a pretty good workout from Beat Saber, I moved on to another VR game that my kids had hardly touched: AstroBot.

I love this little guy so much

I guess what I most wasn't prepared for was the absolute visual vacation I was about to undertake with this game. No longer was I trapped inside the quarantined walls of my home staring at screens. Now the frame of the world around me was gone, and I was living inside what felt like a Disneyland ride.

After playing one level of AstroBot, I ran downstairs to my family and was like, "Why didn't anyone tell me about how amazing this game is?" They looked at my like I was insane, and yes, I was kind of freaked out. Honestly . . . freaked . . . out.

My family loves Mario-eque platformer puzzle games as it is, but AstroBot feels and plays so incredibly well. I paused several times to just sit back and enjoy the world I was now vacationing in inside my own home. I think I actually started to tear up a bit from smiling so much while playing this game. AstroBot was exactly what I needed.

Dance little man, dance!

The spot pictured above was one of those points where I just laid back in my chair and watched the waves rolling, the sky scrolling, and the palm trees animating rhythmically in the distance.

This is now something I've been putting an hour toward every day this week, and so far I've been high up in the sky walking through canyon rock trails, inside the belly of a whale, and, yes, even down to a dark cave full of bats and traps. Last night I was trapped in a spike ceiling room where I had to throw ninja stars at buttons before the spikes impaled me. It felt awesome to finally experience that. HAHA!

That's another thing about this game, you really get to use the touch pad sensitivity of the PS4 controller.  At points during the game, your controller is used to throw ninja stars, squirt water, shoot out a grappling hook, and even launch your little astro-bot buddy into the sky.

This game just has so much going for it. It's so much fun that I actually can't wait to play it again and continue on my vacation from a quarantined reality. It really feels like the perfect time for this kind of game to enter my life.  What a treat.

Happy Dueling!