Join Xavier and TK as Xavier takes on Tanglewood for the first time. Since TK and the rest of TigerTails Gaming except Xavier got into the closed beta for Tanglewood, TK thought it only fair that he had a chance to experience the game and see what all the fuss was about. Playing on a genuine Sega Megadrive thanks to the ROM that comes free with the Steam version of the game.
This is the first of 8 chapters, and sees Xavier go through the opening levels of the game, as previously seen in the demo. While this is an edited video, the only thing cut down in this episode is repeated sections due to death.
Tanglewood – A new game for the Sega Megadrive/Genesis
Finally I can talk about this. How long have I sat on this and not been able to say anything? Far too long, that’s for sure. Why, you might ask? Well, it’s full disclosure time before we go any further:
Yes. I, Thomas King, did contribute to the KickStarter to help raise the funds to make this game. This means that a lovely new Megadrive cartridge will be added to my games collection.
Yes. TigerTails Gaming (everyone other than Xavier) was involved in the Closed Beta of the game, and have played it to completion before release. We also helped find some bugs which have been patched out. And yes, there is gameplay footage of us playing the beta versions, and no that will not be released. Nor will any ROM files, so don’t even bother asking.
With the formalities out of the way, let’s get on with the review… Well, not such much review as a stream of consciousness, with a review flavouring. Tanglewood is a brand new game for the Sega Megadrive (or Genesis, if you’re from the USA) with ports to PC, Mac, and Linux via Steam, and a Dreamcast version coming in due course (thank you KickStarter stretch goals). The game was released on August 14 2018 and is made by Big Evil Corp – certainly not affiliated in any way with Sega. The game was written in 68000 Assembly and was made using Sega’s original hardware tools. Quite an achievement. We have talked about the game a couple of times before, but now we can talk about the whole thing! Well, we can, but this is going to be mostly spoiler free. There are some parts of the game that are best experienced for yourself.
Nymn battles against the weather as well as the terrors of the night in Chapter 2: Storm Warning.
For those who have not read the previous writeups about the game, Tanglewood is a puzzle platformer in the same vein as Another World or Flashback, with design elements from games The Lion King and Sonic the Hedgehog sprinkled in to complete the package. You control Nymn, a fox-like youngling of the Djinn race. Lost and alone in the forest, it’s up to you (the player) to guide Nymn to safety. While by day the forest (and other environments you’ll traverse) seems relatively peaceful, at night time the ‘orrible things come out to play. With poor Nymn being their preferred plaything… or snack – Djinn are most certainly not top of the food chain.
While out dodging foes and solving puzzles, you’ll come across some friends who can help Nymn along the way. The most common are Fuzzls. Cute little balls of fluff who, in return for you helping them to their nest, can grant special abilities. They can give the gift of flight (well, glide), taming some of the night dwellers for a short time, powering machinery, and even slowing down time. They’re quite powerful little beggars really. Which makes escorting them home for the night really worthwhile. Indeed, a lot of the puzzles are based around pushing Fuzzls into their nests, and then mastering the skill gifted to you. Things start off nice and easy. You see a nest and shortly afterwards you see a Fuzzl. Insert rod A into slot B and boom, you get the skill of flight that allows you to make a jump and continue on. Later puzzles, however, can be quite fiendish – though never so complex that you feel lost.
Running across collapsing bridges in Chapter 3: Heritage.
The foes that Nymn will have to face are wide and varied. From the huge and fast beast known as a Djakk, to the small and harmless looking Scirus. Each creature will have a way of defeating or avoiding them, and not all of them are solely denizens of the night. However, there is one enemy that you get introduced to in the opening cutscene that is different from all the others. What is it? Why does it look like some kind of demonic form? Why does it stalk Nymn while he sleeps? Who knows?
The game itself if broken up into 8 chapters, each with multiple acts. As you progress through the acts the time of day shifts from the daytime to the nighttime – and the game gets progressively harder with each chapter. That said, the game never becomes frustrating. There are certainly sections of the game which require a degree of trial and error, and there are sections of the game that will require some skill in order to overcome the obstacles, but the game is never unfair with its challenge. Some of this challenge comes from the puzzles, some from the enemy encounters, and some from the level design. There are also some boss battle sprinkled in. Does the demonic force have something to do with that? With Nymn unable to attack directly, however, you’ll need to use your wits and cunning to take down your opponents.
Fireflies and Fuzzls in Chapter 5: Bygone Mines.
Being a puzzle platformer means that aside from tackling the puzzles and outsmarting the creatures you encounter, you’ll have another task to complete. Collectibles hunting. In this game the collectibles take the form of fireflies. There are 8 of them scattered throughout each act they appear in (not all acts have them), giving 168 in total. Some are placed as a guide to aid you through the levels, especially in the earlier acts, and some of them require some thought and skill to collect. Collecting them all will give you a very special reward, which will not be spoiled here. Pressing Start will take you to a pause screen where you can see the number of fireflies collected so far, plus a level code so you can come back to the game at a later date without having to play the whole thing through in one sitting. If you get close to the end of an act without collecting all the fireflies, just hold A+B+C in the pause screen and press Start again to be taken back to the main menu to enter your level code and try again.
Graphically the game is wonderful to look at, especially in motion. The characters all move with grace and fluidity and the love really does shine through. This has been consistent from the first publicly released demo and is something I appreciate in a game. I can forgive many things, but shonky character animation is not one of them. The backgrounds are also rich and lush, for a Megadrive game, and the switches from day to dusk and then to night are a nice touch. Each stage takes place in a different environment, starting out in lush green forests, finding evidence of civilization, underground caves, and the desert. Not necessarily in that order. There are times when the backgrounds can seem a bit sparse, but this appears to be a deliberate design choice and they do well in setting the scene, hiding fireflies, and providing the setting for some of the puzzles the game presents. This is especially apparent during a level that takes place in a lighting storm, where the sparseness is actually part of the challenge itself.
Creative uses of lighting in Chapter 6: Deadwood.
Keeping consistent with games like Another World, Tanglewood has no lives system. Instead there are checkpoints at key points in each level which you restart from upon death. This makes the trial and error element of the game far more palatable. In this modern age, games that have lives are often frowned upon. The mechanic is a throwback from the arcade era, and can serve as a method to increase the longevity of a game if done correctly – but if done incorrectly it can be an irritating roadblock in the completion of the story. Tanglewood sidesteps this by allowing infinite deaths. This does make the game a fair bit easier but also considerably more fair. The environments are dangerous and death can come at any time, especially for a casual gamer. That said, even the least experienced of player should be able to get through the whole thing in around 5 or 6 hours with a little patience. If even I was able to beat this game anyone can.
Something else that’s worth mentioning is the music. Created by experimental digital artist Freezedream, the original score to this game ranges from light and calming to dark and atmospheric. The music isn’t a constant soundtrack like in Sonic, but rather it kicks in to deepen a scene before slinking off when its job is done. Starting with fun, gentle melodies in the downtime, it doesn’t shy away from ramping up to percussion heavy, adrenaline pumping action music when Nymn’s life is being directly threatened by the terrors of the night. The sound is driven by the Echo sound engine, created by Sik, and really allows Freezedream’s compositions to shine in a way that other engines may not have… Sonic Spinball’s sound engine, I’m looking at you here.
Nymn glides with a Fuzzl powerup in Chapter 1: Harlequin.
Of course, no game is perfect. There are some minor gripes that come with the game. Most notably the controls. For the most part Nymn responds to button inputs rather well, however the platforming isn’t as tight as other games in the genre. Some of the deaths I encountered were from being unable to jump when I wanted while being chased. While this never became frustrating and jumping a few frames earlier worked, I did feel like a couple of deaths weren’t my fault. At first I had this attributed to my aging Megadrive joypads, but since playing the Steam version on my keyboard and experiencing the same issues I can only conclude it’s how the game’s controls work. This is only a minor issue though, as the controls are far from sloppy (this ain’t no Busby, for sure) and dropped inputs only appear occasionally so are only ever a fleeting annoyance. Also some of the colours used to portray the sky during some acts can also be a little bold. While I personally had no issues with them, I can see how they may not be to everyone’s taste. It can make the fireflies a little trickier to spot, so a keen eye is required for doing a 100% run.
Overall, though, Tanglewood is a fantastic game. It’s coming out at a time when retro is current again, and the march of the mascot platformer is on the rise. However, while most of the games looking to cash in on our nostalgia are inspired from the retro eras, Tanglewood goes that extra step by actually being a modern retro game. The aesthetics and mechanics aren’t trying to emulate the feeling of a bygone time, they’re actually working within the confines of the hardware and Big Evil Corp are using that limitation to drive creativity in both design and execution. This isn’t a throwback to the past, it’s a continuation of the genre. Taking what the industry has learned over the past 20 years and applying it where required so we can see what games can be like on the aging 4th generation systems with the benefit of hindsight behind us. Tanglewood is a modern game, made for an old system, using ancient tools and methods – and if that’s not something worth celebrating, I don’t know what is.
A second look at the puzzle platformer being created for the Sega MegaDrive. Tanglewood is a game by Matt Phillips (aka Big Evil Corporation) and stars cute as sin fox-like character named Nymn. He is a member of the Djunn race who has been separated from his family and now must make his way back to his home while avoiding and outsmarting the creatures that lurk in the night. Since the previous write up of this game, things have progressed greatly. The demo still takes place in the forest, but now the opening cutscene gives a little bit of the plot.
If you want to watch the video, scroll down and enjoy Hedgie playing the game with TK joining him in narration. If you like a spot of reading then let us compare how this demo compares to the first demo TigerTails Gaming played back in November 2016!
The first thing you notice is the new cut scene. Instead of the boulder rolling down the hill, we are now presented with the foreshadowing of something evil and it seems to have its attention on Nymn. Why? That’s not explained in the demo, but you get the feeling that this is not the last time you’ll get to see this entity in the full game. The game then starts in the morning with Nymn fast asleep and a quick nudge of the D-Pad wakes him up.
The level layout obviously has changed since the first demo, and the forest now feels a lot more alive. Trees are there for set dressing instead of just being purely functional (though it could be worth exploring them for collectables), and now there are more creature types running around. A squirrel like animal who is passive until cornered, and a warthog like enemy who will charge at Nymn to gorge him with its tusks. The Djakks are still around at night time, and they’re just as mean and fierce as before. They have smaller hitboxes this time, though the box around their behind seems a little large. The smaller hitbox, however, allows for much more intense scenes and while a chase sequence from the first demo remains it now feels a lot closer than it previously did. The character animations are just as smooth as before. It’s clear that character animation was where the time was spent in the first build, and this quality has been brought over to the new enemies.
The first demo had three acts within the forest, this demo has four. It also shows us a third Fuzzle type. We had yellow for glide and green for time slow. We now get a blue Fuzzle which has a very special power over the Djakks, it tames them. This lets you ride them over some pretty large pits. But this power doesn’t last forever and should it wear off you’ll find yourself on the run from an even more annoyed beast – and nobody wants that.
Some nice touches include speed of walking through water. It was super slow before, but things have been sped up so while water is still a threat during chase it is now a lot less flow-breaking during gameplay. The pause screen now allows you to soft-reset to the main menu (press A, B, C, and start while paused) and also displays the code for the Continue option found on the main menu. The option is disabled in the demo, but will be present and active in the full game. Something else that is greatly improved is the sound. The music, while sparse, really helps set the scene. Freezedream did a really great job with it. Gentle melodic tunes during the peaceful times, and tense drum heavy beats during Djakk encounters. Finally there are mushrooms dotted around the place. They act like the bumpers from the Sonic the Hedgehog games, and propell Nymn into the air. They are triggered by running into them, though you can jump on them as well.
This demo is long enough to get you fully immersed into the world of Tanglewood and leave you wanting more. The wait for physical carts is almost over. The game will be released on the Sega Megadrive first, with the PC/Mac/Linux builds coming shortly after release. One of the Kickstarter stretch goals was for a Dreamcast version, which wasn’t met but might still happen if there’s enough money and desire for it. You can pre-order the game on Big Evil Corp’s website (links under the video), as well as download the demo for your own emulator or flash cart. If the demo is anything to go by, the full game is going to be awesome to play through.
Just over 2 years since the last mystery game, and TigerTails Gaming is back to do another one. This time it’s one that everyone might enjoy, or get rage over… Who’s to know? This time Hedgie has taken some time off so newcomer Tubbs joins in the fun as he plays alongside Xavier. What evils has TK given them to endure? Will they beat this game, or will this game beat them? Only one way to find out… Grab the popcorn and settle down for the third in the mystery game series.
Music used in the credits:
Fig Leaf Rag, by Kevin MacLeod (Incompetech.com)
Finally, we come to the end of all the running and gunning. No more mooks, no more mutates, no more exploding Gambits. Just Sinister, lots and lots of Sinister. Much ammo will be spent as Xavier completes Deadpool.
What could be more fun in a action shooting game. Platforms! What would make them even better, lots of enemies with range and little to no cover. And I though the last bit was frustrating. Follow Xavier as he completes Deadpool.
What could be more fun in a action shooting game. Platforms! What would make them even better, lots of enemies with range and little to no cover. And I though the last bit was frustrating. Follow Xavier as he completes Deadpool.
Frustration, thy name is this level. And Gambit. Gonna be a long day of navigating the destroyed remains of were ever I am. Follow Xavier as he dies repeatedly though his play-through of Deadpool.
Some singing, some waterfalls, some Indiana Johns. Just your typical dayas you fun loving Merc with a Mouth. Follow Xavier as he completes Deadpool, with added explosions.
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