THUMPER

JayMoyles wrote:

It's hard as nails, for sure, but the fact that each level is broken up neatly into checkpoints means you never feel like it's an impossible task to beat a level. Plus, the feeling when everything clicks and you nail two or three sections on the trot flawlessly is a great feeling.

Disregard what I just said - Level 4 was designed by a cunt and anyone concerned about this game's difficulty should probably give it a miss. I've spent literally half an hour on the final section and I can't do it. I can't wrap my head my head around when to stop holding the button to move to another lane to hit the next marker and the fact the final section demands you hit every marker usually results in me dying. I'm not even halfway through this whole game yet and I might have hit a wall.

Settling down for a nice relaxing evening, what shall I do, maybe I'll play some Thum-

JayMoyles wrote:

Disregard what I just said - Level 4 was designed by a cunt and anyone concerned about this game's difficulty should probably give it a miss. I've spent literally half an hour on the final section and I can't do it. I can't wrap my head my head around when to stop holding the button to move to another lane to hit the next marker and the fact the final section demands you hit every marker usually results in me dying. I'm not even halfway through this whole game yet and I might have hit a wall.

Wow level 4 is hard. Took me a long while to get a grasp of the rhythm in the final 2 parts of the final section, and once I had the rhythm in my head I still made several mistakes.

There's a nifty auto-save so you can always resume from wherever you give up but it feels like the sort of game you want to blast through an entire level in one sitting. Level four has 30 stages, none of which are easy. However, a few stages in I managed a couple of perfects and really felt like I was on a roll. It's when you lose that momentum that things start to edge towards frustration. In those circumstances I know the wise thing is to take a break, a couple of days/weeks off, then give it another go. It's just very hard to talk myself into doing something like that because it's a fast paced game that screams, just one more go!

That's exactly it, Muss. I'm dreading diving back into the final boss section of Level 4 now, but I was too frustrated to continue on at the time. What I'm dreading even more is the fact that there are several more levels, each likely packing crueller and more finger-gauging mechanics for me to "enjoy".

I use the D-pad to steer my little bugger about because I can't be dealing with a dead zone in such a rapid fire game. The rigidity of the Joy-Con buttons sure does a number on my thumb though!

Through the first few levels I was trying to perfect everything. All that went out the window about half way through level four, which became more a case of survival. I think the game's much more manageable if you're alright with sacrificing that score and doing the safe thing of holding A a lot and focusing on just making the turns and listening out for the audio cues. Still that won't get you past a final boss which requires perfection.

What helped me figure it out was focusing on just doing a the first couple of nodes/blocks perfectly, not worrying about the rest. Once I'd cracked the first left-to-right, the rest all fell into place as the rhythm stays constant from thereon.

Crikey, lads, it's sounding less and less like I'll be getting this one. Such hard. Many challenge. So difficulty.

Yep, and Level 5 doesn't let up on the difficulty. I've thrown any semblance of trying to get a decent score out of the window and was actively ignoring several mechanics in order to simply progress through the level. To me, that's stripped a lot of the fun away from the game. I know that's down to me not playing very well on these later levels, but the sheer frustration I'd have to endure to get good enough to blast through these levels perfectly simply isn't worth it. I'm going to persevere and beat it - hate leaving games unfinished - but it's not one I'd actively recommend outside of the first few levels.

I'm still happy with the purchase and will certainly be plugging through as many levels as I can over the course of the coming weeks. I've enjoyed the challenge but it requires a lot of mental stamina and dexterous fingers, to the point where I couldn't fully recommend it to anyone.

I'm the sort who enjoys some really tough games - F-Zero GX on Master Difficulty or your Super Meat Boy's - and this game is close to those, but it's let down by having levels that are just too long.

Don't get me wrong, I love a challenge too - Dark Souls, Super Meat Boy, Isaac, all favourites of mine - but I think your point about the levels being too long really holds true. The controls are starting to feel fiddly too. I can't wrap my head around how your fingers would need to move to have a perfect run on these later levels.

Oh, and your point about ignoring the nodes and focusing on the turns... wait till Level 5, Muss.

Phew. Just had to play level 5 after reading your post, Jay. Absolutely hated stages 5-5 and 5-6 with the introduction of that node moderator. This game feels best when you generate momentum and that fellas the antithesis of that Like, I know when I'm missing nodes Mr/s Moderator, I'll go back and do better later to get a better score, ta. I don't want you making it mandatory.

Having said that, once I got my eye in I thought the level was far easier than 4. There were certainly a lot of stages where I really struggled to do the flying ring bits, and I'd often just ignore those (if they make those mandatory in level 6 ).

I'm sympathetic to the controls feeling fiddly at times - I've certainly given my controller a few dirty looks - , but I actually think that feeling is a bit of a red herring. It's the noisy screen and limited time you get before seeing the obstacles that, even with a good ear for the audio cues, can make the controls seem much worse than they might actually be.

With practice, I was knocking out some perfect runs on sections I couldn't even have conceived of back in my level 1 days. But that's the problem really; other than repeatedly dying, when am I likely to practice? I know score attack games are designed to have one keep coming back, but there's no option to do a single or limited number of sections in a training mode - you gotta do it all in that big ass run.

Speaks volumes as to the game's challenge that my B ranked run made it to 61st globally on level 5!

ZeroJones wrote:

Crikey, lads, it's sounding less and less like I'll be getting this one. Such hard. Many challenge. So difficulty.

I own the game and this makes me not want to play on!

To be fair, Level 4 is the peak of the game's difficulty so far. Levels 5 and 6 were much easier by comparison - whether that's me getting decent enough at the game or genuinely easier levels is up to you to decide.

Finished the final level today

Going to have a go at the play + mode before I call it on Thumper but it definitely gets easier after level 4. Level 9 isn't even that hard unless you're gunning for a high score... until the last 3 sections anyway - you're required to do some really precise lane changes and jumps which is, no.

That being said, when the game plays like its early levels it's very, very, good. Challenging yes, but more hard to perfect than hard to finish. Some of that gets lost in certain levels though, and there are even some individual stages that are over 3 minutes long

Thumper's a very good game a lot of the time, but also a very frustrating game some of the time.

I've hit another wall with a mid-boss on Level 7. It's creating the track just in front of you as you go and the game gets so visually intense at this stage that it feels impossible to react to the obstacles in front of you as well as hitting all the nodes. I turned off the game in a huff last night before beating up some fools in ARMS.