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Topic: Thumper

Posts 41 to 60 of 84

JoeDiddley

@G0dlike a bit off topic but I hope all I well and you aren't too sleep deprived playing this game!

Switch: SW-2923-8106-2126
Steam ID: joediddley
https://myanimelist.net/profile/JoeDiddley

SKTTR

The 10 minute gameplay showing all 14 levels of world 1 almost sold me. How many worlds are in the game?

Switch fc: 6705-1518-0990

ThanosReXXX

@SKTTR Bottom of the page, underneath the last picture has the answer for you in detail:
https://www.bit-tech.net/gaming/2016/10/14/thumper-review/1

The entire 2-page review is good too, and will give you a good idea of what to expect.
Hope that helps.

'The console wars are like boobs: Sony and Microsoft fight over which ones look the nicest and Nintendo's are the most fun to play with.'

Nintendo Network ID: ThanosReXX

ThanosReXXX

@NEStalgia I think you will also appreciate the review I posted in the comment above this one. In some places, it mirrors what you already told me, so what's described there, will probably come across as very familiar to you...

'The console wars are like boobs: Sony and Microsoft fight over which ones look the nicest and Nintendo's are the most fun to play with.'

Nintendo Network ID: ThanosReXX

NEStalgia

@ThanosReXXX haha, yeah. The reviewer goes off on way to many far too prosaic tangents for my tastes but the points are mostly spot on

NEStalgia

ThanosReXXX

@NEStalgia Well, he certainly got the "feeling desperately alone in a cold, vast space" vibe right. At least, that's what I got from playing it back then. That, and an abnormal heart rate...
EDIT:
And he also gave a good explanation of why the sound doesn't seem to match the gameplay at times, like you also observed.

Edited on by ThanosReXXX

'The console wars are like boobs: Sony and Microsoft fight over which ones look the nicest and Nintendo's are the most fun to play with.'

Nintendo Network ID: ThanosReXX

SKTTR

@ThanosReXXX Very good review. I'm intrigued.

9 worlds x (up to) 30 stages sounds like very good content. That's definately more than 100 stages, if even the first world has around 14 stages.

Switch fc: 6705-1518-0990

ThanosReXXX

@SKTTR The number of positive reactions both in the game-related press and of people having bought this so far, also people in this thread that I persuaded to give it a go, would suggest that you too won't be sorry for getting it.

Of course, nothing is 100% sure, but let's just say that if you can find 2 or 3 solid reasons for being interested in playing it, then you could certainly do worse than buying this game...

If you decide to get the game, be sure to let me know once you've played a bit, I'm looking forward to your findings.

'The console wars are like boobs: Sony and Microsoft fight over which ones look the nicest and Nintendo's are the most fun to play with.'

Nintendo Network ID: ThanosReXX

SKTTR

I watched a few more videos, and there are is an issue I'd likely have with the game. I feel it's getting repetitive sooner than I'd like. Yeah, as the player you have to be so immersed in this that you likely wouldn't notice because your eyes need to keep track of glowing lights and blinking curves, but from the stages I've sampled it seemed the gameplay, course designs, visuals, and audio never change that much, it seemed like it's just getting harder and flashier and the rest of it is looping. So, yeah I'd like something with more variety and gameplay, but I can see the appeal (especially on VR) for this psycho turbo-paced reflex game.

Edited on by SKTTR

Switch fc: 6705-1518-0990

ThanosReXXX

@SKTTR Valid points. Although I always say, that with a whole lot of games, watching videos just doesn't cut it and believe me, Thumper is one of those games. It isn't an awarded game for nothing...

Just watch the Jack Septic Eye video where he plays Thumper and see how he reacts to it, and it might become clear to you why this game is so good:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcfoZ8iotqU

The first time I saw it (last year at a friend's house who has it on Steam) I didn't think much of it, other than it having a decent old skool rock vibe, mainly because of the colors that made me think of album covers from back then.

And then I started to play it, and what happened is pretty much what is described in that review I pointed out to you earlier. The game simply grabs you and it is like you just HAVE to get to that next level. There was never any feeling of repetitiveness for me, only a desire to get through those levels, and man do they get hard in the end, so it is also not a game that you'll finish in no time, it is going to take some grinding but in the positive way, because all factors combined simply make this a very exhilarating experience.

And even though on first sight, there's a lot of the same there, you simply don't notice it during playing it, because you'll need all your senses to stay on the track and perform the timed moves, and the beat changes to it, so in essence your creating your own game, so to speak.

The only people I would not recommend this to is people that REALLY don't like rhythm games, or people with a heart condition, and that's not meant as a joke, because the game can really get your heart pumping at elevated rates at times.

EDIT:
And when I do watch videos of games, I always watch videos with commentaries, because there's no better indicator of the vibe or essence of a game, than reactions of other people. Those silent gameplay videos just don't compare and are only useful for a look at the basic stuff.

Edited on by ThanosReXXX

'The console wars are like boobs: Sony and Microsoft fight over which ones look the nicest and Nintendo's are the most fun to play with.'

Nintendo Network ID: ThanosReXX

NEStalgia

@SKTTR It's a rhythm game, so yea, repetitive is kind of a core mechanic. It wouldn't be much of a rhythm if it wasn't repetitive. The trick is actually keeping up with the repetition

It's not a game like Disgaea or Zelda that you kind of buy and soak hours into. It's an arcade cabinet kind of game through and through. You sit down for 20 minutes and $4 and you leave 90 minutes and $25 later. Then you do it again the next day. But I wouldn't ever consider marathon play of this thing. It's extremely difficult and encourages pumping quarters in to continue (though you don't have to pump quarters in, thankfully) by addicting you to get to "just one more checkpoint, I know I can do it!"

If you don't like rhythm games, difficult games, high-focus high-adrenaline games, you'll loathe it. If you don't like arcade type games you won't like it. If beating time trials in Kart or doing pretty much anything in FAST Racing or WipEout is your thing, you might like it. You don't notice the repetitive visuals because you're so intensely focused on a single line of sight along the track for any glowing objects, you don't ever actually look at the rest of the screen anyway. It's just wallpaper.

It's not exactly a rhythm game, but it's also not exactly not. Hit the right button while holding the right direction at the right time, comes from rhythm games, but since you're MAKING the rhythm by doing it right, not following an existing rhythm, in some ways it's more of an action game that draws heavily from future racers (FAST, WipEout, F-Zero) in that your real gamplay is watching ahead for the curves, "jumps" (lights) and track changes more than paying attention to a rhythm. It becomes a rhythm game again when you have to focus on memorizing a repeating pattern to succeed at boss battles. Regular tracks are a little bit more future racer, bosses are a little more Guitar Hero.

Personally I wouldn't nominate ANY rhythm/arcade type game as "GOTY" material. But a worthy game to experience, certainly. It's a game I'd go back to periodically for the rush, not a game I'd focus on completing.

NEStalgia

SKTTR

@NEStaligia

Hey, you know what kind of repetition I mean. The re-use of old graphic and music assets over the course of the game, with just more crazy special effects. I mean, yeah there is quite a bunch of different themes, but from my sampling most of them get re-used until late game in the 100? levels. There is almost no difference going from one world to the next other than difficulty rising and one new gameplay element per world.

Thumper is less of a rhythm game and more of a highspeed reflex game anyway.
Do you know ThruSpace 3D High Velocity (WiiWare), Art Style light trax (WiiWare), and lilt line (WiiWare).
Those have the combination of gameplay and music I personally really enjoy. Plus they were cheaper. 8€, 6€, and 5€. So all 3 games are 1€ less than the entirety of Thumper. Thumper probably takes the crown of being the fastest and flashiest, but I favor gameplay and music over graphics and this is why I wait for a sale.

Switch fc: 6705-1518-0990

Joeynator3000

sees it on sale on Steam
...Thumper isn't on sale on the Switch is it? lol

My Monster Hunter Rise Gameplay
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzirEG5duST1bEJi0-9kUORu5SRfvuTLr

Discord server: https://discord.gg/fGUnxcK
Keep it PG-13-ish.

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/Joeynator3000

Nin10dad

Thanks mate. All good and baby is doing absolutely fine! I'm completely sleep deprived though. Wouldn't change it for all the tea in china 😂@JoeDiddley

nintendad.co.uk

Twitter @nintendad

Switch - SW-5274-3655-0708

Nin10dad

It's always going to be the way! Puyo Puyo Tetris is already available for £17.99 on PS4, still full price on Switch. @Joeynator3000

nintendad.co.uk

Twitter @nintendad

Switch - SW-5274-3655-0708

JoeDiddley

@G0dlike that's great to hear. With 2 young ones myself I understand the sleep deprevation. Which just adds an extra layer of trippiness when playing a game like this requiring lighting reactions!

Edited on by JoeDiddley

Switch: SW-2923-8106-2126
Steam ID: joediddley
https://myanimelist.net/profile/JoeDiddley

NEStalgia

@SKTTR Yeah. Not advocating for or against the game (I'm not Thanos, I'm not trying to hook addicts ) But I can say that it's a game you really have to try yourself (and honestly have to play more than the very slow paced world 1) to actually "get". The videos really don't convey it well. You keep talking about visuals and I keep thinking "what visuals? I haven't see any visuals yet!" When actually playing you pretty much never (ever) look off the track, so you don't even see that ambient stuff in the backdrop. If you stop to look at it you're not going to survive very long. They could have left a black screen with nothing but what's on the rails. Players would never notice, it's just for spectators.

Musically it's just....weird...there really is no music, just that droning sound of chains banging on oil drums or a mechanical march of a dread army or something. The gameplay itself produces the "rhythm"....or in my case doesn't...I suck enough to just C rank everything and scrape by with a fairly nonrhythmic soundscape....but hey, I'm making it through And those rare moments when it forms an actual beat are delightful. I think this thing should be required play for anyone aiming at being a drummer. It's a weird mindset but I recognize it as the same thinking a drummer has to go through.

Agreed it's more of a reflex game, to a point. I'm not familiar with those games you list, so I can't offer comparisons. But the one place it crosses over is that...there are patterns (that's where I'm talking about drummer comparisons) that you effectively HAVE to learn the pattern to really advance. For boss battles it's an actual memorized pattern that comes in waves (and you have to pass all 4+ sequences perfectly to clear it), for regular levels, burried in the action is a rhythm pattern to it. And it's a lot easier to do a lot better if you can recognize and repeat the embedded rhythm pattern. One stage in world 4 I did yesterday, had all these turns and some of them had high speed S-turns (leftright, rightleft) and some didn't. It's MUCH too close and fast to do it on reflex. Finally I recognized the inner-beat pattern, and realized when those S-turns were. BUT the catch is, since you ARE the one creating the beat pattern by not sucking, you really can't miss any of the reflex-based visual indicators leading into the turns, otherwise you won't have the beat to follow to time the turns right. So it's a mix of getting the visual reflex right, to uncover the beat pattern laid out, to use the rhythm to react to the hidden obstacles. You have to get EVERYTHING right. And if you miss, you ahve to keep your internal metronome (and an instinct based prediction of where the beat was headed) to survive the rest, barely hanging onto the track. )

It's a spirit crushing kind of difficulty that somehow compels you to try again until you get it right. This thing SERIOUSLY should have been designed as a cabinet to gobble quarters. They'd have been rich.

In a way it's a hard game to recommend to anyone at all. It's infuriating, it's frustrating, it's unfair until you realize what you're supposed to do, it requires utter perfection all too often and endlessly retrying until you get it right. And yet it somehow fuels some addictive instinct to keep going at it even if you're the kind of gamer who normally gives up as soon as you get frustrated (where's the easy mode??)

I think a demo would benefit the game heavily. It's the kind of thing that easily can hook you when you try it, and yet it's difficulty and concept is a turnoff, even while you're playing, despite that fact that you're totally addicted

NEStalgia

ThanosReXXX

@NEStalgia Me trying to lure people into trying a game well worth playing? Why, I would never...

'The console wars are like boobs: Sony and Microsoft fight over which ones look the nicest and Nintendo's are the most fun to play with.'

Nintendo Network ID: ThanosReXX

NEStalgia

@ThanosReXXX LOL, your recommendations have my wallet $36 bucks lighter and counting....

NEStalgia

ThanosReXXX

@NEStalgia Multiple? Do you mean the ACA Neo Geo games? Otherwise, I wouldn't know which other ones besides Thumper.

'The console wars are like boobs: Sony and Microsoft fight over which ones look the nicest and Nintendo's are the most fun to play with.'

Nintendo Network ID: ThanosReXX

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