Category: Reviewless

Games that don’t have enough reviews to generate an average review score, or profile features limited game.

Fugue

Fugue is a game, and a basic game at that.
For those who saw the “music” and “melody” part of the description on Steam, ignore it. This game has nothing to do with actual music, there just happens to be music creation, of sorts, within the game. If you’re a music nut, this game isn’t for you. If you like to relax and do simple “1+1=2″ maths with the pay-off being you make a four note “song” then it is.
Now that that’s out the way, let’s get down to brass tax.

Pros:
– It functions as a game, which is a lot these days, apparently.
– Stylised like drawing on a piece of paper is aesthetically pleasing.
– No learning curve, almost not enough to have an age barrier, the puzzles are so simple.
– Everything works smoothly, and is self-explanatory.
– Lack of music is made up with ambient noise such as birdsong or light traffic, which is equally pleasing and provides a calming, almost meditative atmosphere.
– When you complete the puzzle, the tiny song is played back and is quite nice amidst the ambient noise of the street.
– The maths simple, but it’s not just addition, it throws other assortments of puzzles at you.

Cons:
– The description of the game is a little misleading for some people. They mention music stuff twice, and it leads people to thinking that this is a more music-based game, which it is not.
– While there’s no shortage of levels and different puzzles, it gets to a point where you already know what you’re doing in the 40th puzzle and there’s nothing new. I’ll suggest stuff below.
– The motorbike in the ambient noise is damn loud, I took off my headset to find it wasn’t actually a real one.
– While not really a con, I’d like more levels.
– Not a lot of the “songs” actually formed nice melodies.

Alright, so this little game is great. If you’ve just finished an enraging match of whatever multiplayer game you’re into nowadays, or you had trouble Getting Over It, this game is pleasant enough to just gently ease you out of it.
Even if you’re still angwy about it not actually being a music game. Occasionally, it works better than my Chamomile tea.

When it comes to suggestions for the game, I see people on steam take a musical approach to it, and that’s completely fine as they wish for the game to be more musical.
I, however, will take my inspiration for my suggestions from another game with moving objects. Match 3 games, especially Chuzzle. A way to bump the game’s puzzle up a notch could be to have some notes locked in place, or have notes tied to each other, so if you move the bird up from 4 to 5, the one that it’s attached to moves up from 3 to 4 and so on.
Then yes, finally, maybe the idea about chords, I’m no music person, so I have no idea how they’d do that, but it sounds tricky, so I’d like it.

All in all, I recommend this game. I would not say it is worth its £3.99 price for the amount you’d actually play it. Perhaps wait until you have a coupon, or it’s on sale.

Zesty Rating
7 Out Of 10 Paws

A fun little puzzle game with musical notes, but not much else musically. It has fooled numerous people into thinking it’s actually a music game, but is really just a simple maths game. Cute, calming and generally pleasant. Worth a shot with a discount.


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Action Rush

So, here we are, in Action Rush. We start at the precipice of a rocky, floating island after just having come out of a very India Jones looking temple-like place. Flaming torches on stone pedestals, huge towering columns and dark shadowy corners. Completely contrasted by the protagonist, the woman, this woman that we are given looks so damn improper that not only am I questioning why I’m here playing this game, but also questioning why this woman is even here.
Apart from that, the next things you see are big floating words on the edge of the cliff saying to follow the path.

Then nothing.

None of the images in this article in any way represent what the game actually looks like. Some aspects are the same, but most of the trailer and screenshots are misleading.

This is the only “tutorial” you get. It doesn’t explain to you that the cards that you collect along the way are unlockable abilities, and it doesn’t explain the little hovering sword things are that you’ve reached a checkpoint which saves your progress. I only found these things out after I went back and got the card after a few times failing the endless jumping puzzle because you NEED the double jump this first card gives you. (Not to mention you can jump while stationary which, as you would expect, makes you do a stationary jump. But use Shift while in air, after jumping stationary, you will start zooming “forward”)

Nevertheless, even from looking at these screenshots provided, they still adhere to the fact that this game is a big CTRL+C, CTRL+V spam.

There is nothing much else to say about this game. The music isn’t dramatic, so it doesn’t provide that necessary feel of a race, and all the assets you jump on being copy-pasted and no variation to it whatsoever, it honestly puts you out of the game.
The second level, however, is a whole new bag of beans with “fall away floors” that don’t work half of the time and no clear guidance as to which way you’re supposed to go. The game generally being a mess, I just decided to not even further progress with it.

That and all the assets are floating mid-air, there was absolutely no effort to make the levels look like believable areas. It’s literally just floating assets.

Pros:
– The game itself from a “distance” looks nice enough.
– The music is equivalent to static noise or ambient song, enjoyable enough for some.
– Asset placement is clean, there are no graphical errors or glitchy looking objects.
– All Controls Work

Cons:
– All assets within the game, no matter how well-placed or how suitable the game looks from a distance, does not make the fact that the game is one big copy-pasta of the same elements. Playing the game for the short amount of time that I did make me see it so quickly. It’s the same asset, over and over again. Even if they’ve managed to make it look different, it’s still the same asset!
– There is no sense of “Race” or urgency, the game literally has the word “Rush” in it yet gives no reason to apart from a timer with too much time on it.
– DESPITE looking fine, the actual hitboxes for the game are particularly bad, and some aren’t even set. Glitching your character through some platforms or just being “false platforms”.
– The woman is super out of place, and dances? With Q and e? It’s so improper and there is honestly no reason for the emotes like dancing.

That, and look at the background. It’s such a cheap attempt at creating a scene, but it actually just stops at the horizon and is nothingness from there.

In conclusion, don’t buy this game. It has no soul whatsoever due to the lack of the effort on the dev’s part to make something more than just a few things you can jump between. It’s so cheap. Insanely cheap, and I’m not making a remark on the price it is, once again it’s the effort.
If you’re super enthusiastic about 3D, 3rd person jumping platformers, go on and play it. I do warn you, you’ll hate yourself for it.
I pray that you’re one of the silly people like myself who already had this in their library due to buying game bundles from sketchy websites. Don’t actually go out and buy this, as buying games like these enables people to think they can make a quick buck from these (un)passion projects. You’re honestly better off playing Cloud Escape.

Price: £2.09
Time To Complete: 36 minutes.
Achievements: 35
Cards: No
Worth The Money: No

(I’ve done it, I’ve found the old image they used to advertise the game, which better encapsulates what this game actually looks like.)


Zesty Rating
1 Out Of 10. You are Snow White, and this is the apple offered to you.
Play any other jumping platformer game instead. By far one of the worst ones yet due to the lack of effort and overabundance of copypasting assets. Not worth your time or your money. No challenge, no love and no soul. Better off playing Diamond Hands: To The Moon.

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