Day 190 - Pipe
Platformer, ALIEN, Immersive Sim ·
Sam’s Take:
I was thinking about ignoring the election for this project, but since we reviewed a game about voting yesterday, and we’ve been very transparent about current events in other reviews, it feels weird to just completely ignore it. I like these reviews being both a time capsule and a diary. So I’m just getting it out of the way here, I’m extraordinarily upset about the results of the election. It will determine quite a few of the conversations I have and actions I take in my real life. However, as I’ve established, I write these reviews for myself, and I’d like them to be a bit of a sanctuary (and we don’t get nearly enough views for me to even consider a need to use this website as a platform or anything like that).
There is probably going to be a lot of high profile newsworthy material coming out in the next few months, and odds are it will not be talked about here. Know that these news stories not being mentioned here is not some pass to ignore the world, or some ‘keep politics out of muh games’ ignorant trash. It’s just that I don’t want this site to become about politics, and since I will be thinking about politics A LOT, the only way to do that is to let them live outside of these reviews. I talk about politics a lot with my family and friends; I’d like to use this space for something else. If it is okay with you, I will not talk about this again at length in this space.
OKAY SORRY ABOUT THAT! Pipe is a game about zooming around as a pipe. You can get shot by turrets, but I don’t know where my health bar is. There are locked doors, but I don’t know where the keys to unlock them could be. I had to figure out the instructions for myself, because the readme just tells me how to do useless extra shit.
I like how fast the pipe goes, I like that you can bounce off walls like you’re on a minigolf course, but I just can’t figure out the metagame of it. With no goal or gameplay loop, it kind of ends up being nothing but a fun thing to fuck around with for a few minutes. This is (of course) another game jam game, so I do encourage the dev to take this speed and movement, and take some more time to design some gameplay/levels around it. There is absolutely something to be built out of this movement, which is really all you can ask from a game jam game. Pipe gets a pass. Pass the pipe. Haha. Weed. Fuck.
Recommend: A kind no.
Replay Percentage Chance: 0%
Time Played: 7 Minutes
Skeeter’s Take:
I’m a fan of the Metroidvania genre, or as I like to call it “Hollow Knight”. Pipe does a few things that put it over the ledge into the genre. You can discover secrets and hidden passageways and have to avoid some obstacles and enemies.
Did I mention you are a Pipe? Oh, yeah, you are a pipe on rocket boosters and control how I imagine a pipe on rockets to control. It’s fast, clunky, and hard to handle (Hey, little thing let me light your candle). I constantly found the basic walls being a bigger obstacle than the turrets themselves.
Recommend: No thanks
Replay Percentage Chance: 2
Time Played: 7 minutes
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