Overhead Consistence
Today, we bring you the follow-up to Overhead Persistence, the mouse-control game that's so fun to play, you can almost forget that it's frustratingly difficult as @#$^%, and if that blankety-blank cursor hits the bleeping wall ONE MORE TIME I'LL...
Err, pardon me there. What I meant to say was: yes, the just-released Overhead Consistence is another mouse maze game, but please bear with me... this one's good, even if you don't normally go for manual dexterity games. If you don't believe me, go check out the aforementioned Overhead Persistence, reviewed here in March. Has JohnB ever steered you wrong?
Upon starting the game, you are presented with 5 houses which you need to pass: Tutorial House, Candy House, Forest House, Pixel House and Haunted House. Each contains a series of levels for you to navigate through. When you complete the last level in the house, you are rewarded with a significant upgrade. Although they are arranged according to the level of difficulty, you can complete them in any order that you wish.
Overhead Consistence falls mostly in the same vein as its predecessor, sharing the same flashy graphic style, and the same basic goal. However, it does offer a few twists. I won't go into exact details for the gameplay (although I will warn you to keep your keyboard handy) because it would spoil the rewards that you can receive by collecting Intelligence Items.
Collecting Intelligence Items is probably the most improbable reward system you could conceive of, and when I first read the description, I thought "This is about the stupidest idea I've ever heard." And yet, once I started playing the game it began to make a lot of sense. The way it works is this: as you play a level, a progress bar gradually begins to fill up. Every time it fills up, you get intelligence items, which allow you to access hints, game tidbits, bonus levels and special cursors. The crazy part: even if you just sit there and do nothing, the bar fills up! This may seem a little strange, but the idea is to reinforce the "Consistence" theme - you get rewarded for taking things slow and enjoying the graphics and the upbeat jazzy music. Most importantly, it means you gain something even while you fail 30 times trying to pass a level, taking the edge off of the frustration this type of game inevitably causes.
So take it from me, a guy who prefers thinking games and has all the manual dexterity of a nicotine-starved marmot: this one is worth the effort.
Created and submitted by James. Cheers! =)
Up a bit late, are we? But it really is an excellent game, even though I probably have less dexterity than you.
Kudos to the intelligence bar. I'm not normally a patient gamer, but the bar did give me a mentality that I was gaining *something* even when I was failing miserably (Pixel House, anyone? grrrr). Not my kind of game at all - but James, you found a way to keep me playing much MUCH longer than I normally would.
Plus, I spent a lot of time trying to cheat the system by
moving my mouse immediately after clicking the level start button getting it onto the goal a couple of times, bypassing the level.
That kept the action side of me interested ;-)
its a lot of fun! I don't have a very steady hand though and I kept reflex clicking! whoops.
Wow... that was hard..
I managed to "complete" the game. however i didnt manage to do the final level (scrolling one) in the end i ended up with 250+ points. I liked the unlockables, good idea and kept me going.
Guide to having endless fun with this game:
1) Give your friend at work a link to this game. Wait until addicted.
2) Get USB extension cord. Put USB extension cord in extra USB slot of your friend's computer.
3) Put the other end of the USB cord near your computer.
4) Every once in a while, plug YOUR mouse in the USB cord and twitch the mouse.
5) Repeat until fun.
i cannot believe this hahaha its sooo fun and it pretty much gets to ur nerves that sound that makes everytime you go wrong aargh! did you notice that the music theme, sounds like the old pink panther cartoons?
excellent choice here jay.
haha although i swear to you im going to break my mouse over this game jajajajaja
w0000000 great!!!!!
Much more fun than other mouse-moving games i've tried; the point system keeps it interesting. Having trouble deciding whether to use my touchpad for precise movements or my mouse for more fluid control. Also, not sure if it was intended, but the choice of 'a' to reset the bar is nice and dvorak-friendly. Great game.
Heh, it took me until 624 points to beat the game. Wow that last level (Haunted House) was haaaard! Yet it was just the right level of insane difficulty + shortness to make you wanna keep trying xD.
Goodness me - dost I detect the music from N.O.L.F. upon loading the game? That certainly brought a smile to my face!
I, surprisingly, am addicted to this game. Very nice adding on the point system. I was never interested in these types of games, until now! Excuse me, I need to play the game some more.
Hooray! What a great surprise! My computer was broken so I didn't enter JIG once in the last weeks and now there's the follow-up of my favorite (or most frustrating) mouse-controlled game! It is still loading, but by the description it'll be great!
Arrrrgh! The fact that Enter sends you back to the menu, thereby losing your place mid-house is REALLY frustrating. Why did I hit Enter even after being explicitly told not to? The cursor change textbox. Standard UI design always has Enter being an "accept data entry" key. Muscle memory wins over in-game warnings. After it happened the second time, I gave up playing.
Fun game! I didn't actually finish the last level, but I found a neat cheat that helps you skip through most of the levels:
If you have a mouse with a scroll wheel, you can use the scroll to "jump" outside of the normal bounds of most levels. It's somewhat tricky, as there are spacing issues, but if you try it a couple of times with different spacing eventually you'll see you can jump outside! Then you simply have to travel the outside of most levels, find the ending, get the correct spacing, and "jump" back in. Some levels are harder to do this, as the borders are larger, and the very last level it's impossible.. almost makes me think the creators of this game knew of this trick. hmm..
.. anyway, great game. The last level was hard enough that I decided to just not try to long.. those paths are so small!
>After it happened the second time, I gave up playing.
Exactly. Despite the warnings, I'd call this patently bad game design, no? Why ever would you want to punish your player for hitting enter?
Tips for the uncoordinated Windows user:
1. Start Menu - Settings - Control Panel - Mouse - Pointer Options: set mouse speed to as low as possible.
2. Start Menu - Settings - Control Panel - Acessibility Options - Mouse - Use mousekeys: Press the numpad keys to get pixel-precise movements.
3. Start - Programs - Acessories - Accessibility - Magnifier: for a super close up view of the map, set magnification to 9.
Frustratingly, even with all of the above help, I couldn't get past level 2-4. I pressed the wrong key, and it failed me. That's a poor design choice. Why am I being punished for such a minor thing?
There needs to be a way to turn off the music. It got old fast and I wanted to be able to listen to something else.
Otherwise, lots of fun.
oh, and
the mouse wheel trick was just what I needed to get past where I was stuck
Enter as the means to return someone to the very, very beginning was a poor design choice, indeed. I didn't see what people meant until I tried typing in stuff for the cursor text. Then I just hit Enter like what you usually are supposed to do for data entry (strangely, the first time I clicked Submit like what you're actually supposed to do in this game), and poom! I kept my intelligence items, but lost my progress and double-speed intel bar, meaning I have to do level 1 all over again. Second time I was returned to the very beginning I just gave up, though I have to say that this did a pretty good job on loosening the atmosphere so that I don't feel like screaming and breaking things when I mess up like I would if I'd tried harder to finish the first game.
I was at the beginning of the pixel house when I accidently pressed enter for the cursor changing box and I freaked out. BUT, you can get back to the house you were on by going to the level select screen and you should end up at the house with the appropiate level intelligence bar :)
Although I must say, I hate the mouse click fail much more than the enter key. I died a few times at the end of a maze because of a spontaneous finger click :3
It just happens! :(
frog level 30/40, score:27456
no cheats :-)
The size of my browser is driving me nuts!!! I have to scroll up to see some of the map!
I'm amazed how a game can be so polished AND amateurish at the same time.
For instance - the unlockable reward system well seems thought out, but the cursor-changing system by typing the new name looks like it's in an early test feature. Top that with the fact that leaving the field blank drops you to the title screen and erasing your progress - a very nice feature, indeed.
Furthermore, the music and atmosphere have a nice amusing 60's feel. BUT there is no mute button, which means that if you want to switch to doing something else, you'll have to endure brass horns in the background or shut your speakers off.
The game has varying levels, yet doesn't have a save system. Even more, clicking some of the rewards drops you out of the game to the title screen. Whee.
Pixel house made me smile, and manoevering through Marios was fun. BUT, this house has only three levels, the second of which is dull and uninspired and feels out of place.
Finally, about 50% of the game is a bad Ball Revamped clone - for a game that tries so hard to be original, this felt cheesy somehow. Also, dying with the ball doesn't have that irritating "FAILED" screen but all the other levels do. VERY iritating and unnecessary. This part of the game made me wish I was playing another Revamped sequel instead of this.
All in all, thi is a more enjoyable game then Persistence, which had levels that were WAAY too long. Also, the retro feel is great and catching. But it needs MUCH more polish - at least mute button and progress keeping would be a big improvement, and those kind of things really aren't that hard to implement.
Okay, if it matters, this is my reveiw:
Music: 6/10
reason: nice music, although VERY frustrating, if always repeated.
Gameplay: 7/10
reason: Okay playing, good way to kill time, but as baba44713 said, a rip off of the revamped series.
Graphics: 10/10
reason: In two words, Very good!
Frustration: 9/10
reason:Very frustrating at times! (no offence meant)
Yes, as someone else noticed - the whole sound track is ripped straight off of the soundtrack CD that came with N.O.L.F.
I doubt that had a CC license...
BREAKING NEWS!
Overhead #16 : Elements is coming out!
Sadly, the site is currently D E A D.
The reason due to this is beacause the site got hit by a cash fraudulency by 1&1. THEY'RE SUCKING MONEY!
So it's closed for a few weeks. Try Newgrounds. It still works.
Sorry, what I meant to say is, THEY'RE BEING SUCKED OF MONEY!
Jay, I noticed you have an account on YouTube.
yay, overhead: elements!
exciting stuff.
This as well as Overhead Persistence are dead links. :/
This from the author's website:
"Hold the phone! I'm back! I'm doing my best to sort out all issues, and am hoping for a relaunch shortly!"
"I have three games in production! Hold tight!"
I expect the links will functioning again soon. In the meantime, Consistence can be played at Newgrounds...
http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/382743
whoa, if you go to www.acridrose.co.uk now, the author's released a pic of their new game and redesigned the website. I think theyre planning on having a website dedicated to the game (called BLOBINK). Looks impressive none-the-less.
Lulz. All your cheat-voiding tricks are no match for me! ;D
Blobink seems to be another Okami-like game. It says it's based on DE BLOB.
Update