Cloudberry Kingdom

[Randoman]

Has anyone play Cloudberry Kingdom? I just got it on my Wii U today, though it's been available for the PS3 and XBox 360 for a while now.

(keep in mind, this is a video of the beta version and the features in the final version differ significantly)

Here's a video of the final version (XBox 360 Version, but all versions are practically the same):

I played it with my brother today and it's lots of fun. Despite the insane looking levels it shows in the previews, it's actually starts off quite nicely and fairly, with the difficulty getting bumped up slowly in later levels. All the levels I got Game Over in so far never felt impossible, it was all just a matter of getting the timing right. Also, hesitation has actually proved to be the most fatal hazard in the game, ironically. It's strange how it's actually much safer to just jump into the hazards and weave your way through them than wait it out for an ideal path while dodging another hazard.

The multiplayer is actually quite awesome, since your partner(s) won't drag you down as much as you'd think. You only officially lose a life when all players die (so players can't really drain lives from each other), you go through each other and can't touch each other and interfere, and you can share enemies as platforms by synchronizing jumps. You can still mess each other up with platforms that fall after being stepped on for too long, but as long as you stay at within a 1 second gap of the lead person, there shouldn't be a problem.

Edited August 3, 2013 by Randoman

[Jedi]

This game does look quite fun. I was watching it via ProtonJon when he was streaming acouple days ago.

[Zera]

This is a randomly generated platformer, right? It must have taken some serious effort to program, especially since the levels generate differently depending on the difficulty and the abilities you use. It looks like the perfect game to hone my platforming skills.....

[Randoman]

Yeah, it randomly generates levels, which I still find quite impressive. It also adjusts to your skill level, and will lower the difficulty a lot if you died a lot before finishing a level (it feels weird when a later level becomes rather easy as a result, but I wouldn't complain since levels 45 and onwards get hectic), or make it jump up in difficulty if you're finishing levels too easily (it won't do that for the first 10-20 levels though, since that'd be quite unreasonable). It'll also bring down the difficulty if a level introduces a brand new hazard, but I find it reasonable since throwing a new hazard in a hard level can be quite unfair.

I've made it to chapter 5 of 7 in story mode today (each chapter has 40 levels, and unlike all the other modes, they're set in design so that players all around the world are on a level playing field for the main mode). So far, none of the levels in story mode were completely ridiculous and none of them were "get the path right down to the pixel" hard. Then again, I was playing with my 3 younger brothers and quite a lot of the time, they carried through for me on the levels. It's definitely a lot more fun in multiplayer.

If you're interested in it Zera, I'd higly recommend it, especially if you have a friend/sibling that's really good with platforming games. Just be prepared to die a lot (they start you off with 20 lives, so that helps a lot) and remember you can always use coins to purchase help (it's 25 coins for an automatic extra life, but you keep every coin from the level you start off on when it comes to purchases) like having the CPU show a path, having a bubble show a safe path to the exit, or even activate slow motion.

[Zera]

What would you rate it on a scale 1 to 10?

[Randoman]

Probably an 8 so far, though maybe I should be a bit more lenient since it's a download only title and not a full retail game (this is actually the first download only title I ever bought and played on a game console). With the randomly generated levels, the game has a lot of longevity and replayability, though the really simplistic controls with just move and jump (no B Button Dash needed, no usable weapons or projectiles) can feel a bit lacking. Besides the levels being frustrating and hectic (which is both a good and a bad thing), that's really the only complaint I have with the game regarding the gameplay. There are different modes like double jump mode, jetpack mode, wheelie mode, spaceship mode, and such (with the levels adjusting to take into account usage of those powers), so that significantly alleviates the simplicity problem. The different modes are also mandatory in story mode, so that helps throw in quite a lot of variety in the main mode of gameplay.