How come nobody bikes on the moon anymore? Back in the day, you used to see people riding bikes on the moon all the time, you know, just free-wheelin' it in space. Somersaulting over outcrops and popping wheelies over crates and generally just being awesome, until they decided to head back to the fire pits to jump over those. Mmm, those were the days. Makes a person all nostalgic for a better time, a bike-ier time. Sort of makes a person want to race across 26 tracks on 6 different worlds with 20 different unlockable characters, doesn't it? Well, then, I guess you'd best start playing CycloManiacs, the newest game of racing mayhem from robotJAM and LongAnimals.
The controls are easy to learn but hard to master, with the [arrow] or [WASD] keys to control the bike, and tapping [X] or [space] to bunny hop when you can. If you get launched into the air, you can hold down the directional keys to somersault. Perform tricks in mid-air or pop wheelies to build up your stunt bar, which, when strong enough, can temporarily unlock a huge boost to your speed. Just make sure you're facing up before you hit the ground. Crashing in CycloManiacs will set you back to the last checkpoint you passed, represented here by a checkered flag. It may not sound like much given how frequent checkpoints appear, but even seconds here can set you back to last place when the other bicyclists are hot on your pedals.
You'll initially only have access to a single track, but completing certain challenges on it will unlock even more. Each track you unlock comes with a new set of challenges, and range from the modest, such as finishing a track in a certain amount of time, to the insane, like getting fifteen total seconds riding a rear-wheelie on a mostly uphill course. These tricks get easier, however, as winning races and completing challenges earns you money you can use to upgrade your bike's various aspects. Since these upgrades are applied to all characters, you can swap back and forth between your favourites without missing a beat.
Analysis: The length of your love affair with CycloManiacs will largely depend on how patient you are with feeling out the fiddly controls. I found myself having to repeatedly tap the [left] and [right] keys to maintain my balance both in air and on the ground. It eventually became like second nature, just something I compensated for automatically, but it can still be frustrating to people just expecting to leap right into things. The physics still seem a little off, even after you get used to the controls. Why your bike behaves like you're trying to ride it over a wildly undulating bowl of Jell-O is beyond me. There's also the fact that your opponents aren't subject to the same set-backs you are, and aren't penalized for their crashes.
But once you've found your rhythm, you will discover that the game is just like riding a bike. (Yes, I know I'm witty.) The controls will feel more and more natural to you the longer you play, and you'll be able to worry less about face-planting and more about pulling off eight consecutive somersaults. While the tricks you can perform are limited, the variances in tracks and terrain add a new level of skill each time, and keep it from feeling stale.
Surprisingly, for me, at least, CycloManiacs' let-down wasn't the hard-to-master control scheme. It was the lack of a multiplayer function. With such a huge cast of characters, the game is practically begging for it. This is the type of game you can easily lose hours at a time in, and it would be so much better if you were competing against a friend for high scores and fast times. Pulling off a complicated series of spins and wheelies by a hair isn't nearly as satisfying as it would be if I were rubbing it in a dear friend's face. We can only hope that they have plans for it somewhere down the road, since it seems like the next logical course.
While it may take some practice and patience to perfect, CycloManiacs is still a surprisingly fun little racing game with loads of personality. The sheer mass of achievements available and the "skillz" required to unlock them will keep completionists busy for a long time. The rest of us will just revel in being six years old all over again, barelling down a hill at top speed and shrieking our joy into the wind. Until we skid facefirst across the pavement and want our mothers. But until then? Ride the wind, baby. Ride the wind.
Heh, I was playing this earlier. Kinda hard really, and I never managed to get to the second boost level. And am I the only one that thought the other bicyclists were a bit too fast?
I guess I'm just a bucket of whine...
Alex: once you get a few new bikes unlocked, and upgrade your speed/acceleration... you'll be a master in no time.
My question is... has anyone beaten the Haddock? I'm stuck at 64 achievements on Kong. I made a thread on the forums there, and it seems that nobody has been able to beat him. I can consistently get to the "half pipe" obstacle around 24-25 seconds into the race, but I lose so much speed/distance trying to get up the right side of it, I get overtaken. It seems that you NEED to get a boost before reaching this point, but there just isn't enough time/distance/speed to pull off enough tricks without being overtaken earlier. At least, I haven't been able to come close in 100+ attempts.
-Tass
*gasp!*
Tasselfoot can't do it? It must be hella hard, then.
ehh... okay but not enough to hold my attention for too long. the secret to winning (or coming anywhere close to it) that took me a while to figure out.
always
wheelie
Hi all.
Thanks for the review of our game.
Tass, I've uploaded a new version with an easier Haddock. You're right, it was way too hard :-)
Plus, you can now unlock a Haddock costume. Who can say, hand on heart, that they've never wanted one of those.
Cheers,
LongAnimals
I could overrun the haddock (beat it on first try, mabe luck), but I don't get how to do a sneaky start. (and that piano annoys me)
to do sneaky start, just start the race, DONT press any buttons. and just press up just before the "GO".
I have all the medals now accept the ones on the moon, AND the piano chase one. Please someone tell me the secret of completing the piano chase level, I'm a completionist and if I don't finish that level I can't continue to the moon :P
I really want to play this game, and I get as far as having chosen my character. Then the race seemingly begins, but all I see is a black screen and the Pause/Mute button. Any ideas what could be wrong? And yes, I have the latest Flash player installed.
Other bikers are hackers, if I crash I get sent back to the last flag but oh no, they're fine to carry on.
how do you sneaky start in Sunset City: Car Park?
Is the moon race winnable? I can boost nearly permanently, but I can barely get in the top 10.
BTW, secret to this game:
Take Sir Colin. Then you can get free infinite summersaults by bunny hopping and holding left or right.
[Edit: Spoiler added ~ Kayleigh]
Long: glad you addressed the Haddock... but I think you made it too easy. It's now, by far, the easiest of the 5 bonus levels. The Haddock wasn't even on the screen for 90% of the race. Whereas the other 4 were all right on my behind the entire race.
Got 70 achievements. Got a video that will be up soon showing some of the harder ones.
-Tass
Has anyone had problems with the 5th race at the outlands. It is still locked for me even though I have the penguin.
Completed the game...
but I just got
Rick Rolled
By
Haddock
Darn it
"How come nobody bikes on the moon anymore?"
This is why I love Jay is Games. Not only do you review the most interesting games, but your writing is so damned entertaining! =)
Is there any possible way to get in first on the moon? I am sir colin with a level five boost, and then, I see the final flag, and do a victory jump. Nobody else is on the mini-map, and I suddenly die when I hit the ground.
Seriously, what's up with that?
You may want to make it so it is possible to WIN before you post a game
Really, really fun game! Farty pants just killed me! :D Not sure if I rate 4 or 5 stars yet. (so few games got 5 stars from me!)
The only thing, in the physics, that bothered me was that you lose speed even if you land on a down slope, like if the wheels have an enormous rotational inertia.
Now, I love the songs! (are they made specially for the game?) But a couple of them seem way off the game mood. Too slow or depressing.
How do you get Sir Colin? The game says that if you don't crash on Outlands: Zig-Zag, that will unlock him, but I've done that several times with several bikes, and it won't work. What's up?
Nevermind, Colin's profile, and the Achievement List are wrong. Colin is unlocked on the Glacier.
Mostly fun, but at times it seemed the achievements were the main point of the game, rather than having fun racing/jumping/etc.
I also found a point where you can fall through the glacier forever! (If you go past one of the deep crevasses. I think at some point it gave me huge air time but I couldn't see what it was).
It seems like a couple of the cyclists are much much favorable to others,
for example,
farty pants is all you need for pretty much all of the stunting achievements, let alone all of the others. He can flip so easily you can sustain a x5 boost for almost any map.
Hmm, possibly my strategy of assuming all the bikers were the same wasn't as wise as I thought. Guess I'll be returning to this game, then.
I FINALLY got first place on the moon, and all I got was a singing haddock?
How on Earth does that make sense? (then again, that was the planetoid)
Grrr... I need help.
Having trouble doing the 10 second wheelie.
Did he make the haddock harder again? I just got to it, and I'm finding it pretty impossible. Already done all of the other chases.
@Leppy
I believe the best characters for rear wheelies are the ones with a much larger back wheel than front wheel. Try Spoke, Mr. C or Cycle King
I'm surprised no one mentioned the soundtrack. I LOVE the music. It's exactly the sort of laid-back Indie-rock stuff I like, I guess. Does anyone know who wrote/performed the music? Because bravo! :)
I can't beat the piano. :( I'm addicted to this game, unbelievably...
Power of posting. Now I have to get a 10 second single wheelie and 60 seconds of air time...ughhhhh...
I completed most of the game using only cycle king, mr. c, farty pants, and sir colin. Or at least, only really achieving anything with them. The piano level is killing me, though. Any tips?
So, I want to play on the moon, but can't beat the stupid piano.
How does one activate cheats on Kongregate? Can one? Without logging in?
As soon as I posted it, I got it. So nevermind me.
The trick is
to anticipate that one ramp after the flag about halfway through. Jump as soon as you hit the flag, before you see the ramp, if that's the part that's tripping you up, like it was me.
Hi,
I have JUST beat the piano, and I do have some tips. Not much of a spoiler really, but oh well:
Play the level several times in a row and try to get a feel for when the bumps, rocks and ramps come. Bunny-hop over/into as many of those as you can, to avoid losing speed.
Oh, and be lucky! :P
Cheers,
Marcelo.
I need the bowler brothers I cant do it
but i can beat the haddock you just need to keep going and have level 9 in all upgrades
I need help on how to get a higher boost level than one comment back soon.
There's a glitch it seems. When I pressed the cheats button on the main menu, it erased all of my saved game data. Has anyone else had this problem. Is there a way to fix it?
I was playing and I found after I got Ron, my boost became WAY easier to use.
I just can't make it to 5x boost on Outlands:Zigzag, even with a maxed out Sir Colin :( what makes boost work? It seems completely random to me.
I enjoy this game BUT...
I have the same problem as Loglamier: I was about 2/3 through and It erased all my progress. Starting over seems daunting!!
Help anyone?
Any hints on beating the Party Balloon race with Letter F? That's the only one I just can't seem to beat.
I have used Cycle king for the more mundane medals, like collecting the tokens.
@JIGuest, Here's some help for beating the balloon.
As soon as the race starts, lean forward, and do your front wheelie. Hold it as long as you can as often as you can. Get that boost rating up. Also, get a feel for where the bumps are in the level, and try to bunny hop over them. Make sure you've been buying speed upgrades too.
For those who can't figure out how to boost:
Tricks fill your trick meter. When your trick meter is full, it initiates a boost. If you keep filling your trick meter while boosting, it will multiply the boost. The easiest to do this with is Sir Colin or Farty Pants. They spin so easily that you can do front flips by just bunny hopping and rotating forward. Keep those tricks coming, and the boost will blast to the x5 multiplier! Good Luck!
For the 10 seconds Rear wheelie:
I used Mr. C and as the race started, I backed up instead of going forward. Then I got the Wheelie started, but I did not hold the accelerator. Instead just tap it and keep the wheelie going. once you think you reached the 10 seconds, touch down, and blast to the finish. REMEMBER! You only need to beat the NINTH place computer so that you do not end in TENTH. You do not have to be first, just not LAST.
EDIT:
Used Cycle King for the 10 sec wheelie. sorry bout that.
RE: Getting the 3x, 4x, 5x Boost.
Justin is right; use Farty or Colin. All you need to do is stay put when the race starts and continually do stationary flips until you get all the boosts. Also, your jumps power increases when you're boosted, so you can pull of doubles and triples.
After you got your required boost, head for the finish line! I still managed to finish third in 'ZigZag' after getting that 5x boost!
I love this game! My favorite guy is Cycle King.
A couple things to know for newbies to the game:
1) Boost is automatically stored and used after the boost bar maxes; Boost gets generated when you do tricks. Front and back somersaults, front and back wheelies, and Air Time (staying in the air for over 1 second). Boost gets used AUTOMATICALLY, so in order to get extra boost levels, you need to do a bunch of tricks while in boost mode, which happens to be far, far easier than non-boost mode.
2) Each racer has obviously different bikes; The placement, traction, and weight of each players wheels differ from player to player.
The players with the 2 furthest wheel distances (and thus the hardest to control and use) are the Bowler Brothers and Mr. C - Neither of them are recommended for use.
The 2 players with the best traction are Billy Boneshaker and The Cycle King.
The 2 players with the least traction and fastest speed are Sir Colin and Ron. They also have the most unique wheel placement (other than, obviously, the bowlers and trikeceratops). Subsequently, Colin is also the player with most "death zones" (places a player can be hit and have to start from the last checkpoint.) Ron has the fewest of them, but happens to have such a narrow wheelbase that he's likely to tip over if not controlled properly.
The 2 players with the most well-rounded and user-friendly wheelbases are The King and Spoke.
3) Coming in last negates ALL achievements you could have won, so avoid coming last at all possible cost if your trying to rack up medals.
4) Brake is the least useful skill, unless your intentionally going in reverse very often, which isn't always a bad thing.
5) There's 1 level of "-sault" for each level of boost; To my knowledge the only 2 players capable of achieving a quintuple somersault or back-flip are Colin and Ron.
6) Different terrain sets offer slightly different performance for players. Players with more traction tend to have an easier time on sand, while players with less traction have easier times on concrete maps. That being said, not every players follows this (for example: RoboJam should have high traction, but tends to be better for the Volcano than the Desert)
Hope this all helps :)
Viva la gigante
I hope that helps a bit.
How do you get the achievement get boost to level 3?
@FM4K
Actually, I have achieved a quintuple forward somersault with quite a few racers. Farty Pants is one I recall off the top of my head, but I know I have done it with others.
I was able to get six frontflips, it came up as (multiple frontflips) on the moon. Has anybody gotten 7 or more?
how do you activate cheats
I beat the game, and I got a singing haddock? Odd..Yet it is Platenoid...
@Valty, I got 8 w/ Sir Colin, but i used a cheat. Got 6 on Volcania though. (no cheat)
with elvis, got a 20 sec rear wheelie on moon stage *chuckle*
to beat the haddok, remember that there is 1/2 rocks after every flag!
the piano: easy
just get a sneaky start, watch the mini map and keep eyes open for those pesky little rocks!
Hope this helps ^^'
cycle king
how do you get a sneaky start?
Im stuck near the end of the game and cant get level 4 or 5 boost. Ive been trying to do as many tricks as possible during boosts but nothing seems to work. Can you anyone help?
Just finished the game, great game indeed!! Was addicted to it there until I finished it!!
Any ideas for a sequel?
i am stuck on sunset city i cant unlock it please help me
for the piano chase... just keep holding up. lean forwards as well, it helps you go faster. I just beat it on my first try, i didn't jump at all.
How has no one beat the Haddock? I beat him in 2 tries, easy. And by the way, the trick to the boosts is just to jump up and down and keep doing somersaults until you get the boost you need. This is only possible with Sir Colin or Farty Pants, though. And Spoke is the best at back wheelies.
On the Piano Chase Special, I was trying everything - leaning forward for the downhills and flats, leaning back slightly just before the uphills, memorizing where the rocks were so I could jump at just the right time to clear them, etc. Then I tried something simple and beat it on the first try.
Get a sneaky start, and hold the up arrow. That's it. Let the bike do what it wants and just hold that up arrow. I beat the piano on the first try, after many, many frustrating previous attempts.
Woo, a game I can complete for once.
Farty Pants seemed by far the best cyclist as he spins so quickly in the air and still has great traction. It's easy to keep the boosts going by bunny hopping and doing a front or back flip between jumps. My record was 7 spins by the way.
The only times when it's better to pick someone else is for the back wheely challenges when it's easier with a large back wheel. I used Mr. C for the 10 second single wheely.
The other exception is when going for the collection challenges. I found a well balanced cyclist like Dragon Bracket is slightly better for these.
All the chase challenges are pretty easy. Just get the upgrades and keep accelerating. All you really need to do is correct slightly to get good landings to keep your speed up from the small jumps.
How in the world do you get a "sneaky start?" Thats the only achievement I'm lacking and I cant see anywhere in the instructions how to get one.
how do you get to level, 3, or 5 boost. im really stuck and need some help. Also where do you enter the cheats?
just hold up and keep your balance, i did that and beat him first time!
Holy crud. Does anyone else get that
Letter F is a reference to Number Six from the original "The Prisoner" series? I love clever references to things...
i beat the game! okay!
Sneaky Start
Press up right before the word "Go" comes.
Level Whatever Boost
Use Letter F. Don't go when the word "Go" comes. Instead, keep doing a frontwheelie and hold it. To get to the next boost, stop the frontwheelie when the red is past the words "Boost Meter".
Planetoid: 15 Somersaults
I haven't beaten this yet, but I got 14. Use Sir Colin and do a single somersault when you go up a ramp about 1 1/2 inch above the ground.
I have beaten the haddock it was fairly easy, but i need to know who is the best character for doing wheelies???
For the haddock dont do any tricks just drive hold down the acceleration the whole time and hold the right arrow key as much as you can it gives you boosts..
who do you play to get ten sec. of rear wheeleie on the moon?
I Unlocked all achievement but I cant unlock 'the Bowler Brothers' please tell me suggestion....
Has anyone had problems with the 5th race at the outlands. It is still locked for me even though I have the penguin. ifacetimeapp
Update