
FreezeMe is an outstanding blast from the past. It borrows so many ideas from Super Mario 64 that the resemblance is almost uncanny, but ultimately there's enough new content here to constitute its own quality experience. The game isn't as polished as it could be, but FreezeMe provides an enjoyable romp through the format of an old school 3D adventure game.
The story of FreezeMe is as thin as your typical Mario adventure game: Villain "Fat the Cat" has visions of a dog-free world and has kidnapped your dog "M". Your character, named "R", must go on a quest to rescue your dog while collecting a variety of pig coins. Right after the story begins you're thrown into the action, and instead of featuring an annoying series of tutorials the game simply tells you to check the manual (accessed via the + button) to learn what you need to do. Even though this approach means reading several screens of instructions, there is something pleasurable about returning to the time where we relied on instruction manuals and intuition over having our hand held for every new mechanic.

The main overworld hub contains four different worlds. You are tasked with collecting golden cubes, which involves completing a variety of different quests in each world. Some cubes are obtained by collecting green pig coins which you can trade in for a cube, and you gain these green pig coins by helping out characters in each world or by completing challenges in the hub world that become available as you progress through the game. Each world has some scripted quests, such as beat the boss, collect 150 red pig coins or beat another character in a race, but also has a variety of missions unique to that specific world. All of these aspects can be readily compared to Super Mario 64 and other retro 3D platformers, but the developer has never denied those sources of inspiration.
Missions often challenge the player by requiring some serious platforming skills, although sometimes the challenge is in dealing with controls more than the actual straightforward platforming segment. Controls work well for the most part, but there are situations where players may become frustrated that their character didn't respond as intended. You can double jump, kick, do a side jump upon skidding to a stop, jump and dive (which is also your method of running) and briefly freeze things in the environment with your camera; the latter is the most unique. While a novel mechanic, it's rarely needed to progress in the game, and it seems like it could have been utilized in more ways. Eventually you unlock "Rage Mode" by beating a certain boss, and this introduces a few new mechanics into gameplay, such as the gliding ability that is shown at the end of the game's trailer.

You can use a variety of different control methods, including the Wii Remote / Nunchuk, the GamePad and a Pro Controller. The GamePad allows you to freeze items by tapping the screen, and that implementation is extremely helpful in dealing with moving enemies and bosses as you can simply look down at the controller's screen (which supports off-TV play) and intuitively freeze them.
Each world contains a boss battle, and all of them proved to be a disappointment in relation to rest of the game's strengths. These encounters are boring and unimaginative, and the requirements for beating them are not entirely consistent at times. Enemies are not noteworthy either, as they are mostly just small variations on the same design, and not particularly difficult to deal with.
The worlds themselves are another matter entirely. Each individual world feels like its own distinct magical place, and the game's structure that dictates you reside in each world for a fair amount of time results in an expertly crafted overall experience; players are encouraged to explore the environment and discovers many challenges on their own. If you have difficulty understanding what you are supposed to do the camera pans over the relevant part of the map at the beginning of each mission to give you a hint of where you need to go. A nice touch is that teleport stations are also scattered throughout the game, and simply touching one activates it and allows you to return to that area any time.

You won't be blown away by the visuals, but everything looks vibrant and fitting for the genre. Unfortunately, there have been some framerate issues for those who install the game on an external hard drive, so the developer recommends you prioritize some space on your system memory for FreezeMe. As this review is based on a playthrough on system memory the framerate was never a problem. There are, however, numerous instances of clipping and graphical flaws if the camera rests on particular angles, but these are a minor concern overall. The character models and environment function well and create a pleasant atmosphere which is further built upon by an upbeat yet charming soundtrack. The music in the game is very well done; tellingly it retains its appeal despite having to revisit the same worlds multiple times to collect cubes for different missions.
Most mission objectives are reasonably clear without being overly direct. The level design is smart and simple; it feels clean as it enables you to figure out your plan without being too opaque. Levels sometime contain light puzzles that you need to solve in order to obtain a golden cube, but they never become overwhelming, sometimes erring in the other direction of being too simple.
Some design aspects go a little too far in mimicking Super Mario 64, however. One of the first missions has you running up a circular mountain - complete with rolling black weight balls - in order to fight a boss, in a section that could generously be described as an homage to Mario 64's Bob-omb Battlefield. This evoked feelings of nostalgia, but also a little bit of frustration at such a blatant copy of a previous game. Thankfully FreezeME is self-aware of this over-indulgence, and even occasionally pokes fun at itself through signs like "GET A LIFE – The Plumber." Some have also compared this game to Super Mario Galaxy, but although there are limited sections where you can manipulate gravity, at its heart it is much more similar to the N64 title through its design, worlds, controls, and adventure.
Conclusion
Fans of Nintendo 64-era 3D platformers will find it hard not to enjoy FreezeMe. The level and character design, mechanics, music and structure are all love letters to the seminal N64 launch game. It brings back the sense of adventure in a cartoon world that has largely been missing since the demise of the 3D adventure platformer, and it ticks all the right notes of nostalgia. Still, occasional issues with controls, graphics and enemy design, coupled with the fact that (despite the freezing mechanic) the game feels like a less polished version of Super Mario 64 and thus not especially original, hold back the game from achieving the heights of its spiritual predecessors. Despite those limitations FreezeMe is an exceptionally crafted game from a one-man development team, and it's a fun adventure worthy of your time and money.
Comments 64
'Poi' looks better than this, shame its not coming to Wii U anymore
Nice to see it got a good score. I'll definitely purchase this at another free time. Right now, I've got Fire Emblem Fates in the mind.... and the wallet.
Putting the rating at the top gives some people little reason to read the review. Bad move imo
For a 1 man team this seems very impressive, can't wait for an UK release!
I try to view this game on it's own merits but the only impression I get is an uninspiring Mario 64 clone. I wish the developer well though.
I agree with the vast majority of the review. This is a super fun action platformer that belies its origins as a game developed by a one-man-team. Bottom line is, if you enjoy 3D platformers and want the genre to come back, you should seriously consider supporting FreezeME, because it absolutely deserves it..
@Spoony_Tech How does that remotely does that? Anybody who don't care for read would probably just scroll all the down to where the score is anyway. That and a simple score doesn't really doesn't do a good job of telling about the game.
@Spoony_Tech It's not like people can just scroll all the way down effectively ignoring the review all the same... oh wait, they can.
It's what I used to do to at least get an overview of what they thought of the game before actually reading all of it, mostly if the game turns out to be bad.
I'm glad you guys came through with a review for this right on time. I noticed the game on the New Releases section of the Wii U eShop like 10-15 minutes before this review was posted, saw the $9.99 price, remembered hearing decent stuff about it and was keen on purchasing an eShop card for it before the $9.99 price went up tomorrow. I never get Nintendo games without first reading up on NL's reviews so this definitely helped at the last minute.
I'm a bit disappointed to hear that there's only 4 worlds and to a lesser extent, that boss fights aren't good and that controls can be clunky, but for $9.99 I suppose it won't dent my wallet that hard. I got FAST Racing NEO at full price and I don't even play it anymore after beating the single player stuff, so whatever.
@sWiTcHeRoO @Chaoz The problem is for those that don't want to see the score before they read the review now can't do that. Some people like to read the review and figure out the score from that. What you both say is true but this just makes it too easy to just say I'll read it later and never come back.
Downloading it as we speak. Or write. Whatever.
It seems like a good quality game at a decent price, but the game seems to have no identity of its own. It wouldn't hurt to have a developer and an artist, and/or a storyteller who can infuse some personality into his works.
Regardless of the quality and price, I have little interest in playing what is essentially a generic Super Mario 64/Galaxy clone while the originals are available on the eShop. A little personality and a unique aesthetic would have gone a long way.
Good thing I bought it at its launch price. Eventually, somewhere down the line, I'll actually download it.
Given my love for all things N64, this has me intrigued. Glad to hear it has off-TV play support too!
Yeah, I don't think I'd like this one in spite of my love for collectathon platformers. Sounds pretty uninspired.
@Spoony_Tech I'm reading it on my tablet and the score is still on the botton, unless you mean that little tiny number that I passed right over b/c I'm old and blind. And it's really small.
I do agree w/ you about the reasons for putting it on the bottom, sometimes I like reading the review before seeing the score, usually for something well know. For indies like this I read the score first, then the conclusion, then decide if I want to read the rest. I actually read it all for this one. I'd get it, reminds me of the early Spyro games on PS1, but I've been buying up a bunch of games lately I really should play. This is on the - let's see how My Nintendo works - list. I bought a bunch of games w/ my DDP credit.
I always love the old fashioned 3D platformers, so this game looks interesting to me. It's slightly disappointing that it leans too closely on to Super Mario 64 instead of trying to be its own thing.
There's too many other games I've been wanting to play for me to buy this now, but I might pick it up at some point.
Thanks for the review. Still willing to support the guy. I also agree with @Spoony_Tech, the surprise is not there anymore.
Control problems, and camera problems? ^_^ Then it really is a throwback to the days of the N64!
Fun game. Great level design and the imperfections somehow add to the charm. I really like this game
I think this will be my first gaming purchase of 2016.
After reading the review and watching a gameplay video, this game looks really cute. Clearly RNC is not a character designer. The protagonist could have been more interesting, but she's inoffensive and that's the only complaint from what I've seen. Very impressive for one person.
I wish the main character was less... plain? I don't know, something about her just turns me off from this game, makes it seem a lot less magical/adventurous, when it's just some plain looking person with a camera running around a crazy-ish world, it's a little jarring to me
Looking awesome! Can't wait for the UK Wii U release!
I may pick this up eventually. Right now I have enough games to play though to occupy my time...
@Spoony_Tech Oh, you! Always looking for something negative in literally everything. How fun.
It's worth the $9.99. Glad I got it before the price goes up.
What was the name of the 3D platformer about a guy with a detective hat that's in the works?
How long does it take to beat this game? Is there any replayability after beating it?
Sounds good enough! I really hope they fix the problem with external hard drives before the game releases in Europe.
I didn't notice the rating was at the top until it was pointed out to me, so I think it'd be easy enough to ignore.
Even then, reviews are supposed to be informative and the number doesn't make sense without the text backing it up anyway, so it's fine by me.
As for the game itself, it's definitely not one of my favorites but I can see the developer going places and I can certainly recommend this to hardcore collectathon fans.
@Jacadamia @Aerona The main character is based on the girlfriend of the developer so... You pretty much just said that his girlfriend is plain and not very interesting, how can you two be so mean? XD
@BakaKnight She also seems to be quite young, so o.o;
Nice review and nice score! Might download someday, but where are the release-date and price? On the old site you could always find this information to the right. That information is important, I would like to see that back!
Sounds very nice. When is the EU release?
This is actually quite impressive, if I had a WiiU, I'd definitely give it a go.
@Pahvi It's been mentioned before that this game has an automatic camera option if you play with a certain control scheme (Wiimote/Nunchuck, I think?). I consider that to be one of this game's best features and something that arguably allows it to surpass SM64.
Sounds good. Add to Wishlist...
I haven't played a new 3D platformer in ages so I will definitely be picking this one up in the near future and with this and Yooka-Laylee I will be one happy camper. Collect-a-thons always were some of my favorite games so I am very pleased to see a resurgence in the genre I played so much as a kid. Hopefully some of the bigger companies like Nintendo pay attention to how well they perform so they can decide if they want to have a go at making a new one themselves!
@Spoony_Tech I fully agree with you. Who wants to see the conclusion before the details and particulars of a game? This is a game review not a Tarantino movie, can't believe you took flak for that!! 0_o
Bit surprised this got such a good score as I have the PC version and thought it was pretty meh. I've also got A Hat in Time and Poi, and A Hat in Time wipes the floor with the other two, it's really shaping up to be something special.
I forced myself to play some more of this recently, and I don't see how anyone could play this and A Hat in Time back to back and give this more than half the score they'd give A Hat in Time. If anything I'd say that saying A Hat in Time was merely twice as good would be doing it a massive disservive.
Hopefully it'll be coming to Wii U, or NX at least.
I did sort of enjoy Armillo (another 3D platformer for Wii U by Indie), so I think I'm going to give this a try. This game is pretty impressive considering this game was developed essentially by one person.
Downloaded the game last night. As a huge fan of Banjo-Kazooie, Conker, DK64, and most of the other N64 platformers, I felt I had to give this a shot. Initial impressions? Not impressed. The controls feel very off, especially the jumping. Camera's worse than Super Mario 64 too. I think it's an okay effort but definitely lack polish. With a little more time and TLC this game could've been good, but as it is, it's just okay. I hoping for better.
@Captain_Gonru " So you have to tap where it should be, and then it shows up and works."
Yup, that's how it works on my Android tablet as well.
Saw an open box of AC Series 2 cards sitting near the cash register at Target. I have a feeling they simply don't know where to put them, even though there are spots by the amiibo, I'm not the sure the employees know that. Lots and lots of AC amiibo toys there, full of them. I think the thrill is gone. Or maybe if the game didn't suck? Should have built a real AC game here, I think they might have sold then.
I do think Pokemon NFC cards and toys will sell well though.
Pokemon >>>>> AC
I'm a bit confused regarding the rating. The review mentions several things that the game doesn't do well:
*It borrows so many ideas from Super Mario 64 that the resemblance is almost uncanny
*The game isn't as polished as it could be
*although sometimes the challenge is in dealing with controls more than the actual straightforward platforming segment
*there are situations where players may become frustrated that their character didn't respond as intended
*you can freeze things in the environment with your camera; the latter is the most unique. While a novel mechanic, it's rarely needed to progress in the game [in other words: they just copied SM64 and then added a mostly useless feature so that it looks less like a blatant copy? I mean, come on, it's even in the name of the game! So the freezing mechanic should be crucial in this game, otherwise it's just a tacked on feature to distract from SM64.]
*Each world contains a boss battle, and all of them proved to be a disappointment
*These encounters are boring and unimaginative, and the requirements for beating them are not entirely consistent at times
*Enemies are not noteworthy either, as they are mostly just small variations on the same design
*You won't be blown away by the visuals
*there have been some framerate issues for those who install the game on an external hard drive
*There are, however, numerous instances of clipping and graphical flaws if the camera rests on particular angles
*Some design aspects go a little too far in mimicking Super Mario 64, however. One of the first missions has you running up a circular mountain - complete with rolling black weight balls - in order to fight a boss
*This evoked feelings of nostalgia, but also a little bit of frustration at such a blatant copy of a previous game
[BTW: Why doesn't the list function work anymore? I couldn't add bullet points with (asterix)(space) as mentioned here.]
But still it gets 8/10? That doesn't seem to be in balance with other reviews on NL. Beatbuddy for example had less bugs, was totally original and got only a score of 6/10.
Why? @MegaVeggieMan
I've never seen a review on NL that mentioned so many critical points and yet gave the game such a high score. 8/10 means it's a really good game, not just an average game (6/10) or a game that genre-lovers will adore (7/10).
Seems to me like it's pure nostalgia that led to this score.
I think, by the standards that NL set with previous reviews, this game should at best get a rating of 6/10 or maybe even 5/10 because of the lack of originality.
@Pahvi What do you mean exactly? The camera in SM64 was totally fine in my opinion.
And judging from this review and the review on NE - without having played the game myself - I'd say the camera is worse than in SM64.
@shani As I'm sure you know, review ratings are subjective, and this is my opinion of the game. While there were some problems with the game, it works on a similar level to my favorite game of all time, Mario 64. I do discuss these issues in the review, but taking into account that this was made by a single person (not the most famous game designer of all time with an incredibly talented group of people and vast amounts of resources), I found it easy to overlook the negatives and focus on the main takeaway, which was that the game was fun. Freezeme was a great experience!
The screenshots look great for this. I'm reexcited lol
@MegaVeggieMan:
Don't get me wrong, I'm aware that reviews are always subjective. In fact, there is no such thing as objectivity.
But the ratings should still be comparable, otherwise they become arbitrary and meaningless.
In other words: a 8/10 in one review should always mean the same as a 8/10 in another review of a different NL-staffer.
I mean, numbers are an absolute way of measurement, not something that is relative to the opinion and taste of the reviewer. So you should always be able to compare them properly, no matter who wrote the review.
Aren't there some internal guidelines for NL ratings (I know that other gaming sites have those guidelines and they even publish them)?
What really confused me though was the sheer number of negative things mentioned in the article in contrast to the rating.
In my opinion, if you want to give a game such a high rating, it should be impossible/forbidden to mention so many critical points. Or in other words: If you mention so many critical points, the game can't be rated that high. that should be self-evident if you ask me.
It's also just counterintuitive as a reader. It's like saying: "This movie is soo uninspired and full of terrible mistakes but it's one of the best movies I've ever seen!" You understand what I'm getting at?
The 3D platformers are coming back and no one can stop it!!!
@shani Sure, I certainly did list a lot of little issues that could conceivably negatively impact the experience for some people, but the purpose in doing so was to raise awareness of them in case those are especially important for any one person. For me, none of those problems significantly detracted from the experience – I loved the game despite the issues, which is why the review also contained a fair amount of praise.
I got hit by the first boss and this happened

8/10 for sure.
I was excited about this game and bought as soon as I read the review. The game controls terribly and virtually makes it unplayable/enjoyable. I've played about 3 hours of the game and called it quits.
I have all the respect for the single guy that made the game, but it's not the best.
@Captain_Gonru Sorry, I misunderstood about the Windows vs Android phone, got it now.
@Pahvi Oh you meant that, the four c-buttons (which later evolved to the second analogue stick on Gamecube).
Yeah, but I don't see the big difference between having four buttons (like a d-pad) or an analogue stick. They're basically the same, regarding their functions. An analogue stick just allows for finer movement (although only if the game supports that).
I thought you meant the camera itself, like it was buggy or something (as it is in soo many games up till today, apparently FreezeMe is one of them).
@Captain_Gonru A new Windows phone?
I returned to the game with the pro controller and I'm enjoying it more now. It was difficult for me to use the game pad in this game
Seems impressive if this was made by a one-man development team. Think I'll get it eventually.
Roughly how many hours of gameplay does this game offer?
Is there any sort of postgame?
@BakaKnight XD oh... So basically it's a nice idea for a character, just maybe not the most imaginative or best executed one
Does anyone know when this have comes to NA?
Going to get this looks a good laugh
So this is basically a modern SM64? Great! I hate SM64 because I find it much too archaic and borderline unplayable.
Started it today since I've been craving a good new 3D platformer for years, but so far I'm pretty disappointed. Even some of the second-rate platformers from the PS2 era like Vexx hold up better, especially in terms of controls. Jumping is really twitchy and you constantly overshoot things, the sudden boost of speed you get from doing certain jumps completely throws off any sense of momentum, and you can't really change your trajectory midair as well as you can in Mario 64. I always felt Mario 64's controls were a bit stiff, but they were at least precise and reliable. Hitboxes are also pretty bad, the jumpkick never seems to connect with anything.
It's ambitious in it's size, it's nice to see another 3D platformer with levels this big, and it's especially impressive given that it's just one guy behind it. If anything, I'm glad other people got into it so it seems like his hard work paid off, but I really can't get into it, the game feels far too clumsy to me.
@BarryDunneIGS yes.
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