Barnsy! wrote:On the 5th World and boy has this game clicked with me now.
An absolute joy, I love it!
That's where it clicked for me too for some reason! As aforementioned it helps that the world theme and tune are so good. And after the game clicked in general I've been back to the earlier worlds and suddenly like them/'get' them now I'm sold on the game in general. Like seeing them through more affectionate eyes or summat.
But yes game is great (if still a little buggy at times)
You mentioned game is about speed and time trial sensibility. I think at it's best it's more about combo and continuous flow? Certainly it was first trying to play it as a Tony Hawk's-sequel, with long uninterrupted chains of movement, that made the game suddenly click for me and revealed its unique pleasures of movement.
I would also say that trying to do a couple of levels in only a few, long combos (even aiming for the point tally at the end with combo action as opposed to side quest stuff) really forces you to engage with the momentum and movement in a way that calibrates your whole approach to the thing!
Now I love it too. I've finished the game proper and am now just cleaning up the levels. Sometimes it's nice to just have a casual mooch and tick off the character quests/honeycomb things. On other runs I go into zone mode, restarting on repeat to try and perfect long combo runs. Both are fun!
Also I've screenshotted a few of the character dialogues because they're actually charming and funny, and blissfully just appear without needing to press A to chat or whatever and break the flow.
It's a bit sad I feel like we're some of the relatively few in the world to be playing this again! (see: A Highland Song) But again it's a game that I'm glad I bought and invested the time to get to know on its best terms as I think it's a banger