The Fast Journey Review | TheXboxHub

Having reviewed all three of Rafael Valim Fernandes’s video games on the Xbox, it seems like we’re watching somebody studying video games in real-time. Over the previous eighteen-months, he has put out The Rabbit Loopy Journey, Gabriel’s Worlds The Journey and now The Quick Journey, and every one takes just a few baby-steps onward from the final. None of them are good – not but – however you’ll be able to see all the things growing, from the artwork to the extent design to the narrative. It’s fascinating to see them enhance with every launch. If he retains going at this price then he’ll make his personal Ori and the Will of the Wisps quickly sufficient.

The Quick Journey, like his different video games, is a brief platforming sport that received’t take you greater than forty-five minutes to beat. This time you’re a frog, pulling on the Rambo headband as soon as the love of your life, Polly, is captured by dangerous guys. We received’t query the damsel-in-distress tropes – The Quick Journey has larger issues than that.

The platforming is your typical Mario-style fare. Rafa the Frog can bounce and double-jump as normal, bopping enemies on the top to kill them. However the leaping is ropy. The double-jump, for instance, is an erratic beast, triggering when it seems like. There could also be some guidelines under-the-hood that we’re not fairly greedy, however the double-jump is especially unlikely to play ball after we’re in a flashing state of immunity (after hitting an enemy, maybe). We couldn’t let you know why that’s: it’s a wee thriller. 

Collision-detection is all around the store too. Backside-bounce an enemy, and we’re again to that invisible rulebook. For those who’re leaping onto a flying enemy, you most likely don’t wish to do it from the ground. You’ll be able to’t get a decent-enough upward arc to truly hit them with out them hitting you. Which is clearly a bag of arse. However leaping from above has its personal issues, as there’s a really exact sweet-spot that you could hit and do harm. For those who’re off by a pixel or two, then you definitely’re shedding a coronary heart. 

Fortunately, the ranged fight is right here to avoid wasting the day. Lances are tucked into components of the surroundings, and so they heat the center. You solely get just a few with every pick-up, so you need to preserve them properly, however they’re absolute beasts. They not solely have a form of sonic growth round them, making them an extra-wide projectile, however they blast by enemies too. If there are 5 – 6 in a row, the lance will obliterate all of them. 

We’re not going to lie, they really feel nice, and make brief order of just about something that you just come up towards. It’s virtually a disgrace that you could’t use them on a regular basis, as they make The Quick Journey a lot goofier. However then the sport could be even simpler than it already is, and that may be an issue. 

As a result of, you see, The Quick Journey takes cues from its title and is extraordinarily quick to complete. It’s twelve ranges lengthy, and people ranges take not more than 4 minutes to finish. We died a good few instances, however the deaths fell into three classes: there have been deaths from the double-jump not triggering; there have been deaths from the achievement banner overlaying onto spikes (2000G!); and there have been deaths from us failing to note spikes, as a result of they’re gray towards gray backgrounds. At no level did we die due to enemies or an advanced collection of jumps. The Quick Journey doesn’t actually threaten you in that means.

There’s no higher emblem of The Quick Journey’s lack of problem than the bosses. There are three of them, on the finish of every sequence of 4 ranges, and so they have been little doubt painstakingly designed by Rafael Valim Fernandes. However we couldn’t have informed you what they do, no less than not based mostly on our first playthrough. As a result of we pumped lances into them and so they died throughout the first few seconds. We like that The Quick Journey is aware of it is a drawback, so makes the final boss proof against lances. You must bottom-bounce to kill it, however it seems to be straightforward as pie anyway.

We talked about that The Quick Journey was a step up from the opposite Rafael Valim Fernandes video games, and that’s right down to the lances, positive, but in addition the extent design. It’s nonetheless not a patch on any platformer with a decent-sized crew, however there are genuinely some degree layouts that get a bit imaginative and tricksy. That wasn’t current in The Rabbit Loopy Journey or Gabriel’s Worlds The Journey, and it’s the place we are able to see a future for these video games that’s a little bit rosier. So long as the collision-detection, double-jumps, bosses and lack of problem get addressed, in fact. 

Some ranges provide a number of routes, with tougher, extra exact platforms permitting you to bypass the slower routes down under. The twelve ranges have their fair proportion of obstacles, which means that you just’re not getting significantly tired of what confronts you. They’re nothing imaginative, however they preserve issues various: there are toucans which are a cross between enemy and bottom-bounce platforms, thwomps, flaming platforms and rotating balls and chains. The Quick Journey makes use of them in sequence, testing your finger dexterity, and so they’re a step up from another price range titles, together with the developer’s personal. 

However whereas The Quick Journey is certainly a decent-sized leap on from The Rabbit Loopy Journey and Gabriel’s Worlds The Journey, it nonetheless doesn’t meet our private high quality bar for what must be on the Xbox Retailer. The fundamental controls don’t operate as they need to, tying one hand behind our again as we play. The artwork is getting there, however it’s nonetheless a little bit too frayed spherical the sides. And there’s the sense that all the things’s rushed, as if the precise ‘quick journey’ was the one skilled by the dev. Twelve tiny ranges with skippable bosses isn’t a lot, even for £4.59.

At the least to us, The Quick Journey didn’t really feel like a whole sport. It felt like a stepping stone for a dev who will most likely go onto higher issues sooner or later. For now, you’ll be able to take into account this because the barest scrap of a sport, and transfer on (quick).