hi, welcome to my first weekly thing. this monday i'd like to talk about a game i've been whittling at for the last week (without much luck, but plenty of fun), Tumbleseed.
Tumbleseed is best described as a (literal) delicate balancing act between a roguelike (procedurally-generated levels, loss of items at death, notoriously difficult, heavy on replay value (think Mystery Dungeon, Faster Than Light, Spelunky, Diablo, etc.)) and the most intense game of marbles you've ever played. using a vine, the player is charged with rolling a seed back and forth while ascending a mountain-path, avoiding precarious holes and a host of unique enemies along the way. although the path is randomly generated upon each play, nothing about its gameplay is unpredictable—rather, as any good roguelike, its mechanics are ironclad and your only surety in the shifting world.
securing different power-ups (30) upon your ascension, each play-through is a vastly different experience as you learn to adapt to the hostile mountain's environs. one play you might find yourself blasting your way through with the laser-flowers or the pistol-seed, while another might see you stealthily climb using the cloak-seed or the jump-seed (my nicknames, as i've never kept one long enough to remember the name). the possibilities are as endless as they are unpredictable. on paper the journey may seem short-lived, sojourning through 5 areas before facing the game's end, but lord knows that aside from divine intervention you'll be spending plenty of time in the forest (like me) before you're even fit to slay your first lip-snake (again, my nickname, but i sure hope they're actually called lip-snakes) or narrowly divine your way across't the holey grounds consistently.
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| (there's the lip-snake!!! i hate it!!!!) |
i like Tumbleseed a lot!! and many of the same reasons that i enjoyed Spelunky (although a very different game) are found here as well. it's one of those games whose mechanics stick with you outside of the game; i find myself constantly balancing the mouse on my computer screen and tilting my phone absent-mindedly when scrolling (slowly!!) through content, as though i'm subconsciously fine-tuning my motor skills for my next journey up the mountain. it's a difficult game to master, but i think that makes it a game that's all the more enjoyable for just being a fun game to play. when i mentioned "whittling", i really meant it. the reward in playing isn't manifested in achievements or unlockable content, rather in the pure unadulterated fun of becoming intimate with a cunning and beautiful (beautiful!!!) world. the game's soundtrack is fantastic, and at moments is reminiscent of Disasterpeace's stunning soundtrack to indie game FEZ. the game also reminds me of the similarly organic plot-line'd Studio Amanita's Botanicula: seedlings righteously seeking to fight for the greater good (wayyy less drug references, though.. make of that what you will).
Tumbleseed is only $15, which is a fantastic steal for this terrifying(ly cute) pinball "roguelite". i played it on my Nintendo Switch, which i think is the ideal setup as it's one of the first 3rd party games to really realize the use of "HD Rumble"—it actually feels like you're rolling a marble from left-to-right and that Flabbergasts me.
my verdict: play Tumbleseed.
(images from tumbleseed's official website, except for the last one, which is from my own righteous journey ✊ )
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