TumbleSeed

I want this to be the most 'glowing' negative review I can possibly write. [b][i]TumbleSeed[/i] is really awesome.[/b] I *love* the mechanic and how, like [i]Spelunky[/i], you will hit difficulty spikes that can really only be overcome by gitting gud. The 'quests' do a great job of encouraging you to get better. Succeeding feels great. The artwork and music are superb. It puts a smile on my face when I play. [b]Seriously, [i]TumbleSeed[/i] is great fun all around.[/b] [i]Essentially, there are 'levels' that you traverse with an item reward (seed variant) mid-way (think gold chest room), and a town with shops and goodies at the end.[/i] Great, items/powers add complexity and strategy. I was totally on the road to addiction, until I came to grips with the items/seeds. The problem with the items is that they nearly always have a 'detriment' associated with them. In an already very difficult game, this makes them more-or-less something you find yourself avoiding. Ok, so what, who cares? [...

I started playing this game after the very recent update that adds 4 pre-generated levels that gradually teach you the complex mechanics. I've completed those in a couple of days and I've taken a few stabs at the procedurally generated adventure mode. While it's still a hard game I'm really enjoying it, and I don't feel anything close to the extreme frustration that reviewers of the earlier version of the game mention. If you haven't played the game because you heard that it's "too hard", that's a solved problem (As long as you enjoy perma-death rogue-likes). Props to the team for recognizing that and fixing it. So far I'm really pleased with it, and it is already worth the $11.99 I payed during the sale. I'll update the review in the future to mention if it caught my attention in the long term like other rogue-likes like Spelunky

First of all, the developer for this game doggedly insists on selling it as a roguelike. They seem to believe that because the maps can be randomly generated and (like most arcade games) you can get game overs, that makes it a roguelike, which, that is not how genre works. You don’t just say it’s part of the genre and then it magically is. What this actually is is a very traditional precision arcade game. It’s literally that old game where you had a wood box with a maze and had to tilt it to roll a marble through it without falling into holes. And as an adaptation of that game, it’s quite good, and I had fun with it. Like many arcade games, though, its problem is that it only has one thing to offer, and at a certain point you just move on. I enjoyed the old wooden marble maze thing as a kid, but I wasn’t going to do it nonstop for 25 hours, and I’m not going to play this game for that long either. I’ll pick it up intermittently when I have time to kill and am in the mood...

TumbleSeed is a pretty great modern arcade game and a nice variant of the '83 arcade machine, Ice Cold Beer (Zekes Peek). It's a challenging game of rolling a ball by controlling the two ends of the rail the ball rests on, while avoiding hazards, such as holes and spikes, and avoiding the various enemies the encounter within each level. Great artwork, Great sound and gameplay that maybe unique to most. Strangely enough, if you play a lot of helicopter simulation, those skills translate well into this game. The developers did a smart job with keeping the artwork simple, but unfortunatly they squander is by making enemies that blend into the backgrounds (bombs in holes, tiny insects). While playing the game you will mostly focus on the lower half of your screen so it would be better if all enemies/hazards stood out within your peripheral vision. I've also run into cases where there were holes hidden behind forground objects. The game features an adventure mode, which is basically you t...

I've played steam games for a long time with hundreds of games in my library. This is probably one of my most favorite game I've played on steam. Also I am horrible at it but I keep playing it to try and improve and get better. The procedural generation is done well and makes the game feel fresh giving the player a new challenge every time he starts a new game. The music is simply relaxing and beautiful and fits very well with the theme And the aesthetics of the game is simply pleasant to watch. the unique gameplay mechanics adds a layer of depth and skill. I am very much surprised at how much I enjoy this game. A definite 2 thumbs up for me.

This game looks beautiful and has amazing music and atmosphere, but honestly. It's too difficult. And I'm not saying that lightly! I can appreciate a good challenge in my roguelites! But this game will destroy you to death. I know there are people who are skilled enough to make it to the top of the mountain, but I'm just not one of them. I don't have the time to invest in run after run, building my personal skill level to meet what the game expects of me. If you're just an average person like me, you need to take the punishing difficulty into account and ask yourself if you're really up for the challenge. I wasn't, and found myself feeling fustrated rather than having fun. Good game, if you think losing is fun. [spoiler] It is! Just not here. [/spoiler]

TumbleSeed isn't actually that hard of a game. Sure, I didn't start playing until the Four Peaks update which has reportedly made the game remarkably easier to learn and play, but still, I want to make this point about my experience: 20+ hours into Spelunky, I still haven't even beaten Olmec; I have, however, taken down the boss at the peak within 10 hours of playing TumbleSeed. I kind of want to say TumbleSeed might actually be an [i]easy[/i] game because of that, because it is. The boss at the peak isn't all too difficult to take down once you get the hang of the movement. That doesn't mean it isn't fun, though. Similar to Spelunky's hell run, TumbleSeed has something quite similar that I still haven't really come close to beating. It's really difficult. Besides, the base game is strong on its own. Mastering TumbleSeed's movement is a blast. It's unlike anything I've ever done in any other game I've played. The usual style of movement in a vast majority of the games I've played is e...

A game built around a novel concept (its control scheme, of course). Has enough content and enough challenge and enough interesting mechanics to justify itself. The work that went into its visual design comes through clearly in the simplicity and consistency of its presentation. Unfortunately, the game's novel control scheme never makes the leap from being a source of difficulty to being a source of enjoyment. Every enemy and hazard in the game, from the grubs in the first area to the jumble of enemies accompanying the final Adventure Mode boss, would be trivially avoidable with a conventional control scheme. This means that even at the very end, when you've finished every quest and learned everything the game has to teach you, the game's difficulty doesn't come from pushing the limits of the novel control scheme to maneuver and act in ways that would not be possible otherwise, as one normally expects from a game designed around a novel mechanic; rather, it comes from the fact that it...

TumbleSeed is honestly one of the most enjoyable games I've ever played. I would recommend this game for anybody to try, but it also might not be a game everyone will like. At first glance the game looks simple. It had a cute aesthetic, there is a clear gimic to character movement, and the overall objective isn't anything novel. For me it wasn't until I started watching some gameplay and had some of the nuances explained to me that I really took an interest. First off: the game is extremely challenging. It will take hours of play just to become comfortable with the control scheme (which is the same for any game with a new control scheme). You will die a lot and this might be frustrating. You may feel the game is being unfair. However, once you gain mastery of the controls, learn to stay composed, and understand how the various powers, enemies, and interacting game mechanics work, everything feels just right. At that point it's entirely about being up to the challenge, planning ahead...

TumbleSeed is a much slower roguelite than the ones that have hit the mainstream recently: Nuclear Throne, Spelunky, Binding of Isaac, etc. We're talking several orders of magnitude slower: killing a single enemy early on requires thoughtful planning and careful, patient execution, and even with the seed powers you might get later, you have to exercise great patience to ensure the kill happens. In a single run, it has taken me as long as 10 minutes to clear the first area of the mountain. The beauty of TumbleSeed, in my opinion, is this emphasis on planning and thought. Execution, while still extremely important, takes a backseat. Enemy patterns are simple and easy to learn, but movement is very difficult, so TumbleSeed asks you to find the SAFEST routes and solutions, rather than the quickest. Enemies can relentlessly chase you down. If they hit you you face possibly losing a lot of resources, but worse, they can put you into a position you didn't plan around. All in all, TumbleSeed...