I'm going to break from the consenus of our reviewer team and go out on a limb to feature this one for you for a few reasons: the game ran perfectly fine on my Mac without any lag issues; I really enjoy the art style of this game; and it appears that we're in another slow period for compelling new Flash games. So, please don't hate at me if you don't enjoy this one.
Amaaxla's Gravity 2 is an exclusive offering from the folks at Albino Blacksheep. It's a physics-based platform game of momentum and gravity, somewhat reminscent of an entry into one of our previous game design competitions (Angular Momentum). The objective is to collect crystals and reach the exit of each level. Collecting crystals is very important in that they allow you to purchase things in the shop and unlock other levels. Be sure to run the 'Graphics Configuration Level' in the options if your computer isn't the fastest thing around.
Photosensitive Seizure Warning: The loading screen for this game flashes and could potentially induce a seizure in those susceptible to them.
Analysis: The silhouette art style is wonderful and evokes memories of (Mani)Fold, GunRun, Zumbakamera's Bendito Machine, and perhaps even a little Loco Roco. All this beauty comes at a price, unfortunately: this is a very unforgiving game. While the game encourages you to explore its secrets, impossible-to-see bottomless pits seem to imply just the opposite. The author says "take time to look around" but then when you do and venture into an area that you were not supposed to enter, your 'reward' is to start again from the start of the level, which will turn off many casual players.
It would have been an infinitely better design choice to allow the player to continue from just before the point at which they died, such as with a system of checkpoints, and without penalty.
Still, it's the most compelling Flash game I've seen recently, and so here it is, for what it's worth (it's free):
Cheers to Kirkpad for suggesting this one! =)
Just a fair warning, the intro has flashing colors.
color flashing at start was annoying. I'd randomly lose control of the ball as well, due to that and since it happened 6 times on the introductory level I wont be playing this one. Its a shame too, I liked what I saw.
yeah, that flashing disturbs a lot
The loading screeen is horrendously irritating. and its a good game, although its a little slow... until you've been playing a level for a good chunk of time, and then miss a "jump" and die. And then it isn't fun any more.
Another warning: I don't usually have problems running games at highest quality, but I had to turn off just about everything in the graphical options to run this one at a reasonable pace.
Extremely linux-unfriendly. And the first level has an irritating bit which is almost impossible to get over. First one was better.
Sorry to join the chorus of haters, but there's nothing that I dislike more than having to run through a level thirty times because everything depends on getting one part perfectly right. If you miss you have to loop around the same boring maze again. Some indications of areas on the track from time to time would be nice.
That was a lot of fun... but I don't know what they were thinking with that flashing intro.
Okay, great game, but dang it, I'm NOT playing all the way through level one again to make that stupid jump.
That was a fun game. I didn't get very far, and I'm in no hurry to do level 1 again (sidenote: I listened to War at least twice before I gave up on level 1. (But it's a great album, so I didn't care)) Anyway.....thanks for having such awesome site!!
this is a pretty game, but it really could do with something that didnt make you start the whole level over, and also with the balls actually bouncing.
Avast Antivirus warns about a Trojan attack when I try to load the game. It might be a false alert, but I decided to abort the loading nevertheless.
[Edit: False positive. Flash Player has a security sandbox to prevent this sort of thing. -Jay]
I liked the game. It does indeed remind me of Angular Momentum, which I really enjoy. It's very unforgiving, and having to restart from the beginning will probably drive away the less determined. But have you guys forgotten how many times you had to replay a Mario level before you could move on! Perhaps having check points to return to would give it more apppeal. But the challange is what makes it worth coming back for. Play a little today and see if you don't do better tomorrow.
The simple graphics are fine and don't distract from gameplay. The sound is absorbing and half the time I don't even notice it.
As for the flashing screen... it appears that it was only a very brief part of the intro screen, and although I've only made it to level three so far, I don't believe it is part of the play field. My machine is definately not state of art but I haven't had any lagging issues running at the highest setting yet.
Thanks for making the executive decision and posting this Jay :-)
My computer's no spring chicken any more, and after running the config level I still came out with the highest settings. I turned down background particles and turned off rain, though, since I figured 'sluggish' and 'timing' didn't mix.
Nice game, beautiful, but yeah, the 'back to start' penalties make it old very fast.
*clicks on game*
AHH AHHH MY EYES IT BURNS AHH THE LIGHTS AHH.
*runs around in circles*
Okay, now that i'm done with that...
This game isn't half bad. I like the graphics (although the black and red make it kinda spooky), the music is... OK (though I don't like it), and the thing that really seems to ruin this game is the restart-entire-level-if-you-die thing. I think it's a good game, but the restarting really ruins it. I just restarted level one twice, but I keep falling at those jump things at the end...ish part.
Luckily, this game didn't lag at all for me, even though everything was set at High and On. Woot!
I couldn't even get past the first level. There's a spot where you have to make it up this steep cliff to get to a booster, but I just couldn't cover the last bit of height to reach the booster. Any tips? I tried to conserve more momentum on my run-up, but the behavior of the ball is somewhat counter-intuitive. If you hit the floor at the wrong angle, all you momentum just disappears, when it seems like you should be able to keep going.
. . . huh, jumping from cliff to cliff, that's a new trick here, I wonder what happens if I don't make this jump . . . what?! I can die?! And it sends you . . . oh never mind. I don't like red anyway.
When I started playing I thought "OMG!!! LOCO ROCO!!!!" (a game I adore).
After five silent minutes of running through the tutorial level looking for the last crystal... I realized
This game is not Loco Roco...
:(
I miss the singing little guys and the fun colors...
Yeeeeeah, that flashing random colors loading was in really poor taste. (I am epileptic but thankfully nothing happened.) PLEASE put a warning on that. :\
As for the game itself, I have to agree with the above commenters...it's like LocoRoco, except without any fun.
Amaaxla's Gravity wasn't my bag, for the reasons many people have mentioned, but I really enjoyed the Angular Momentum game linked to in the article.
oh my gosh, the loading screen gave me a seizure! :] but other than that, the game was fun for ten minutes, before I got bored...
I really liked the gameplay, but there's way too much in each level (well, I only saw level 1, but I can't imagine it gets easier in the later levels). I wouldn't mind repeating most of a level to get to the end if it was only about a minute, but it felt like I had spent about 10 minutes in the level 1 before I died. It would take more dedication than I've got to remember the details of the terrain to know where to slow down and where to speed up.
Also, I liked the gravity switch in the introductory level, but as far as I could tell, or as far as I got, there was no gravity switch in level 1. I wasn't sure if there's something to hit to get the gravity switch, or if it's a feature of that zone in the maze.
Dang, it looked like this was going to be a fun game.
Not much to add here, except to agree that having to go through the whole level again after dying five minutes in does get tedious.
Someone above compared it to repeating Mario levels... I'm not so sure about that. I suppose if you've run through a Mario level a hundred times it might start to get tedious, but there's so much going on there that it holds your interest. Here, though, once you run through a level once there's really not that much reason to go back to it--except the desire to finish it, and for me that desire just isn't strong enough.
Oh, and I also agree that the flashing intro screen is in extremely poor taste. I'm not epileptic, but come on. It doesn't even come close to fitting in with the rest of the game's aesthetic. In fact, it kind of reminds me of the opening credits to Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
Wow, I've never seen such an unhelpful set of comments for a game on jayis. I suppose there's a lot to dislike, but the review said as much. BUT, if you are trying to play through it, did anyone find any hidden areas on the first level? I've got 600/700 and only missed 1 or two crystals. So I think I'm missing something.
On level 1:
There is a secret tunnel with 9 crystals beneath the waterfall near the start of the level.
I have to say, I don't like this game. Moves too slow, I feel like I don't have as much control over the ball as I'd like, and I couldn't even get through the tutorial without giving up in frustration.
But I would much rather see another game like this appear on JIG than the ever-increasing flow of even less playable "professional" games and "escape the room" games that seem to dominate this website.
Please review more games like this. It's a real shame when I don't visit this site in a week, and can't find a single thing I want to click on the main page.
[Edit: We don't build the games, we just review them. The trouble is, developers are not creating the games you desire. -Jay]
Gravity is too heavy.
After your reply I didn't expect this to show up on here.
How wrong I was ;D . The game barely runs on my computer, but I could see how some people would like it. It sort of reminds me of that old Magnetize flash game.
This game is an excellent game, and I am stuck on level 5.
I get about 1100 points and get to a part where the only ending seems to be to float up into space. If anyone has any suggestions please leave a comment.
Matador, how the heck did you get past level three! I can't get off the starting point.
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