140 [Review by Uzzbuzz][Update July 23rd, 2017]
140 now has a 4th level which has an added layer of challenge over the other 3. Without dying, there is about an extra 8 minutes of gameplay, but that becomes much longer when going for the mirror mode achievement.
140 is a minimalistic 2d platformer game with three (+3 mirrored) short levels of gameplay in which the player must essentially bring keys to doors in order to continue to progress through the game, with each level having a unique boss encounter.
Mechanics/Gameplay - What can I say? It’s as basic a platformer as you can get, almost. You move, you jump, you jump some more, you flip gravity (not on command), and there’s a few obstacle elements involved as well. For the short, few hour experience (even that’s stretching the gameplay), the game does evolve in its mechanics, and although all that you can do is move and jump, there’s a certain neat rhythm to the game which all entities follow. For example, in certain areas, gravity will flip every once in a while, and it becomes a matter of timing your jumps to the music. The music is what indicates when most things tend to move or change. Blocks will move to a certain rhythm as well; even the bosses!
I did not once encounter a bug while playing this game, but as it is so simple and clean, there is not much to break. There are a few creativities in the platforming, but overall nothing too exciting done to the simple mechanic. 6/10
Fun Factor - It was short, but it was just the right amount of shortness. For what it was, a cheap indie platformer with a couple of achievements, I did have my fun for a little while. I did get slightly frustrated when it came to the no checkpoint mirror levels, but that did not last very long. Overall it was a good experience but probably not something I’d play again. The replay value just wasn’t there, even though they tried to make some. 6/10
Graphics/Animation - You could probably make all the assets for this game in paint in a single day. Don’t get me wrong though, it does look nice enough, but it’s nothing to drool over. Everything is composed of simple shapes, mostly squares/rectangles, and bland color fills. On some obstacles there are some effects like white noise and color tweening, and the player itself has a shape tween making it triangular in air, and circular while moving on the ground.
One aspect of the graphics I like is that the background is meant to emphasize how important the music is: it is a series of bars that manipulate based on the music playing, helping the player to subconsciously time jumps and avoid obstacles. Also, the animation when you put a key in to get to the next area is pretty nice as well. 5/10
Music/Sound - 140 is a game that uses music properly. Not only is it there for the players to hear and enjoy, but it also improves the experience, since without it, the game gets a bit harder. You don’t have too many platformers where rhythm an underlying active mechanic. I’m just rather impressed how they made music that is actually helpful to the game be enjoyable as well. In 140, the music IS the sound effects. Now although it does this, the composition is nothing complicated or memorable, but bonus points for usability. 7.5/10
Replayability - Nothing to see here~ No, really. You have three levels, okay? Once you beat those, you get to do them again. This time, the levels are mirrored and you get no intermediate checkpoints, not even before the bosses. That’s the whole game; nothing more, nothing less. 2/10
Level Design - In 140 there are no enemies except for bosses. Everything that will kill you is a passive obstacle of some sort. The level design is pretty clever, as the mechanic expands over the short span of the game. Nothing feels reused or boring, at least not until you get to the mirror levels, so perhaps that is why a short game was opted for by the developer. You’ll mostly be dodging instant-kill walls, instant-kill blocks that move, and pits. That’s pretty much it, so it’s nice that it stays fresh even for the short amount of time you’ll probably be playing this game.
Now I want to talk about the three bosses, since they are a unique part of the game that probably took a fair bit of effort to design. I don’t want to spoil them completely, so let me start off by saying they all rely on rhythm, as expected. The third boss is something you wouldn’t expect in a platformer, as it is a sort of mind game. You are in a top down mode and you have four choices of where to put your character every “wave”. The boss has an alternating pattern of moving you either clockwise or counterclockwise a certain amount of spaces, and it is up to you to position yourself beforehand so that you are facing the correct way after the boss moves you about. It gets pretty fast too, so it may take a few tries. I thought it was a nice change from just jumping all the time, although it was a little strange how the final boss (all the bosses for that matter) do not rely on the skills you build up for the entire game of platforming, as they are more dodge orientated. 7.5/10
Achievements - I did say there were only three levels, the game is a basic platformer, and there is a mirror mode. That’s exactly what the achievements are: plain and bland. Three achievements for beating the three levels respectively, and another three for beating their no checkpoint, mirrored counterparts. Boooooring. The game is not bad though~ 5/10
Pros:
+Easy to get into
+Music plays a useful role
+Unexpected bosses
Cons:
- Very short (3 levels)
- Bland atmosphere/graphics
- While interesting, bosses are somewhat irrelevant to core gameplay
Overall Score: 5.6/10
3.0