Recent reviews by Noob Jr

I write this after a mere 50 minutes because that is all I need to recommend it.

After nearly bouncing off due to how obtuse and physics-janky it is, managing to clear a set of levels was an incredibly unique experience that is already worth the price of admission.

I enjoyed Rabi-Ribi and consider Tevi a solid improvement, albeit it's still lacking in a few areas. I would nonetheless recommend it as a meaty metroidvania with a huge amount of areas and collectibles.


Graphics are extremely solid. I had no issues with visual clarity during combat, which can break a bullet hell. Despite the huge amount of areas and visual variety, no areas feel "too flat" like some did in Rabi-Ribi. The only thing that felt inconsistent were the non-chibi enemies in the final area.

Exploration features some clever platforming and a couple of puzzles that were way better than I was expecting.

Bosses were a mechanical highlight and I always appreciate difficulty options that alter patterns instead of simply fudging numbers. Few games put as much effort into difficulty options and balancing as this.

The area music has some real bangers.


In contrast to the area music, I found the boss music forgettable. That made me far less compelled to grind them despite enjoying their mechanics. I think bullet hell bosses work best when coupled with outstanding character music as seen in Touhou and Undertale.

The exploration falls into a couple metroidvania trappings. Several times I returned to areas after getting what felt like a meaningful ability only to realize I still needed a later ability to do anything, which is partly due to the map markers being woefully inadequate. For some bizarre reason they are the same as uncollected item markers, making them blend together. The arrow markers are not nearly enough to remind yourself of what ability you might need.

Another questionable choice is opened shortcuts closing once you leave an area, which combined with the amount of one-way passages, results in a frequent feeling of the map lying to you while you re-explore for collectibles.

The story, despite being more interesting than Rabi-Ribi's in terms of world/lore/characters, still suffers in the long run. Because the game wants to introduce so many characters for bossfights, we end up with a lot of loose threads that don't come together for the end. The main plot itself ends up being surprisingly generic despite the effort put into the world and lore.

This game sets a standard for nonlinear and environmental storytelling so high it ought to be genre-defining.

Gameplay-wise, it lands in the extremely exclusive category of knowledge-based metroidvanias along with Toki Tori 2 and The Witness, while also featuring deceptively clever multi-purpose mechanics.

A very nice RPG that also happens to have lesbian animals.

The overall writing, characters, sense of humor and playfulness with the dungeons kept me engaged to the end and left me wanting a sequel.

One of the most engaging shop running games I've played, but also marred by an economy imbalance in the mid-late game. Still absolutely worth it if the concept seems compelling.


The story and characters were charming and ticked all the boxes to get me invested. Combining a visual novel with deckbuilding by tying it to card unlocks is clever, but at the same time I was far more interested in seeing each character develop than the extrinsic rewards I got from it.


The shop running aspect was unexpectedly tense right off the bat. Funds are low while you are still learning the mechanics, resulting in the game being uncomfortably tight but also incredibly engaging. Having to finish certain potions for a contest and fulfilling orders added extra constraints that kept me planning ahead.

However, around week 2, with more money coming in and a better grasp of the mechanics, I was able to make potions vastly superior to the contest requirements. During week 3 I started blowing past the economy curve and by week 4 I was swimming in ingredients, with upgraded cauldrons that let me brew even more overpriced potions. Fulfilling orders was no longer needed, careful brewing was no longer needed, haggling was no longer needed.

By starting out tight and then giving the player too much too soon, the game instilled a sense of efficiency that backfired. It became too easy in a way that removed the need to engage with most of the mechanics that made it initially engaging.


This was the most engaging aspect of the gameplay for me. Aspects of the brewing system are introduced gradually through the early game and it pushes the player to brew under certain restrictions, largely to fulfill orders, which results in a math-tastic experimentation playground where the player is essentially creating puzzles to solve.

This aspect does weaken in the mid to late game, where you simply get ingredients that have the same ratios and attributes but with higher multipliers, resulting in recipes being quite samey; as well as the economy imbalance reducing the need to brew well.

I don't have much to comment on the deckbuilding itself since I don't know much about this gameplay genre. It's a rather simple card game with a unique theme.

I will say the contest battles are a fun spectacle that sadly suffer from being completely skippable if you brew good enough potions beforehand. I can't help but wish the game had some sort of adaptive difficulty option to ensure I always had to haggle during contests.

Buying from the shop gets pretty tedious without the option to automatically restock items to a certain amount. A common glitch causes buttons to become unclickable and necessitates extra fiddling. Xid keeps magically dropping and picking up her guitar instead of playing the animation once and entering a different loop.


All aspects of the game worked in harmony for the first twenty or so hours. Learning all the mechanics was a lot of fun, however after I did, the economy balance made it so I no longer had to use them.

So long as there isn't some sort of rebalance patch, I would recommend maybe limiting yourself to 2 or 3 cauldrons (which also keeps days shorter) and paying more visits to characters starting in week 2 instead of brewing several batches per day.

A superb way to utilize the supporting characters. Great artwork, music, dialogue, humor and references that aren't overbearing.

Perhaps the biggest surprise is how entertaining the player stand-in protagonist is.

It might not do much for folks who don't care for Sonic characters, but the amount of fanart and memes that already spawned from this game says a lot about its quality.

Levelhead is the best level maker experience on the market.


Some describe it as a precision platformer, but it does not have to be. Even running around the most basic levels is enjoyable because the controls, character animations and sound design are spot on.

The main distinguishing gameplay feature is the grab/throw mechanic, which adds a ton of depth to the platforming and sets it apart from established franchises. The array of carry items can be used for platforming, puzzles, combat or even currency.

If you enjoy grinding levels, the extremely fast respawn times are a blessing. Combined with unlimited and reusable checkpoints, playing challenging levels is nowhere near as frustrating as one would expect.


While it does not have as many components as level makers from established franchises, the sheer amount of possibilities opened by channels and paths more than makes up for it. Levelhead has arguably the most powerful level editor of its genre and it's both easy and compelling to use.

• Channels allow for simple things like opening a door, moderately complex ones like brawler/puzzle rooms, advanced contraptions like custom bosses and bullet hells... or if you fancy it, software engineering projects like an 8-bit CPU.
  
• Paths are powerful not only for moving things, but also decorating levels and creating interesting custom hazards such as overlapping firebars/spikes.
  
• The inner workings of contraptions can be completely invisible from the player.
  
• Camera controls make it easy to build autoscrollers, room-based maps like Zelda dungeons, polished traditional levels with vertical/horizontal camera locks like you see in actual games, etc.
  
• Custom music can play regardless of where the player is or what they are doing, making music levels a lot more varied.
  
• On PC you get to build with KEYBOARD AND MOUSE!

The Marketing system is quite possibly Levelhead's greatest innovation and should become a standard for the genre. You can earn currency by playing other people's levels and spend it to market your own levels. This achieves so many things at once:

• It guarantees that your levels get played so long as you spend the time to market them.
  
• It encourages building good levels since it takes effort to earn currency.
  
• It promotes playing other people's levels which in turn gives you more ideas.

There is no limit to how many levels you can make. Your levels do not get deleted for showing off glitches or not being popular enough. In over 1000 hours with this game I have only seen one level containing a naughty word.


There is a perception that level makers are all about garbage, absurd kaizo and troll levels. Levelhead bucks that trend.

While such levels exist, there are also plenty of casual levels, traditional platforming levels, dungeons, puzzles, metroidvanias, collectathons, mini-games, raceways, brawlers, tower defense, shoot 'em ups, rhythm games, the list goes on.

By using Tag, Difficulty and Spice (a sort of quality indicator) filters in the Tower, you can find levels that match your preferences. If you like a creator's work, you can dive into their profile or follow them to play any new releases. There are many in the community who focus on building casual levels above all.


Levelhead's community lives primarily on the Discord server, which is linked inside the game. There are active builders who share levels, answer questions about the editor and provide feedback. There are active speedrunners who compete for records. There are occasional themed level building events.

As of writing this, there are also regular Twitch streamers who do viewer levels, which is great for anyone looking to see how their levels play out in real time.


Levelhead's single-player campaign is rather substantial and challenging, spanning over 90 levels (about 1/3 of which are optional) and offering collection/speedrun goals in a traditional platformer style.

Its primary purpose is getting players accustomed to the game mechanics such as items, enemies and powerups. The quality of levels varies but it is overall a decent 2D platformer that should take a few hours to beat. The "unlocks" are purely cosmetic to use as level icons or your own profile.

It is NOT a thorough showcase of the editor's features, as user-made levels go way beyond it.


levelhead gud u should get it

I didn't play this game... The game played me.

Terraria is the prime sandbox and open-ended progression game. It plays like a Metroidvania but with hardly any concrete progression gates. Access to content is almost always hindered by your gear and how good you are at using it. Exploring, mining, fighting, fishing, farming and building are all viable means of advancing. The result is a mixture of exploration/progression/combat unlike any other. Any open world games should take lessons from it.

With over 100 hours of superb content on a single playthrough, an enormous community and mod support, you won't find a better deal any sooner than you'll beat the entire game with a copper shortsword.