When I was young, I used to enjoy games like Super Mario, Metroid, Mega Man, … all good platformers that can still be enjoyed to this very day. So, it pleases me when I see a developer take their chances to create a new platformer, with the retro art-style that recalls back to those old days. Well, that’s exactly what /pigeon/dev did to bring us Awesome Pea. A lonely pea that runs through countless levels, gathering coins and gems for some obscure reason. When I saw some of the game’s footage, I was slightly optimistic. Was it warranted? Or should I’ve taken a bit more precaution? Let us find out if this pea was good, or should’ve stayed where it was. Let’s play, awesome Pea!
What is good?
- Responsiveness: Let’s tackle one of the most important parts that a platformer needs, its controls. We all have known one of these. You know, when you press the jump button and half a second later it jumps? That’s how you know that you’re playing a sub-par one. It needs to be press the button and instantly jump. So I was delighted that I could scratch that one of the
list . There’s nothing that feels worse than when you try to dodge an incoming projectile, and you jump into it because that god damned signal goes through 20 minutes after you’d pressed the A button… - Soundtrack: You know me by now guys, soundtracks are quite important. And let it be known, this pea ‘s got some beets
.. I mean beats. Each level gets its own customized song, and each one rocks! Nothing bad to say about it. - Retro-Logic: If there’s one thing that can be said? Then it’s the fact that the devs of Pigeon did their homework on “How to create a good Platformer”. The overall look and feel of the game recall to those good
ol ‘ days, when we were trying to save that princess that never was in the castle we were in… Except there is no prize at the end of this road, there’s just another level. That feeling is quite hard to pull off as the magic of a good platformer is somewhat like catching the fabled unicorn… Hard to do. And admittedly, they did a fairly decent job at recreating that feeling! - Weirdly Addictive: Ugh, how do I explain this… So, you know when you are in a bad relationship, and you know that its bad for you? But
still you keep going back to it because you need it? Yeah, this is somewhat like the same thing. You know your rage boils up after the countless of deaths, you know it makes you feel sick to your stomach. But the smoothness of how it plays, paired with a kicking soundtrack keeps pulling you back. Yeah, that’s how it feels… And weirdly I was OKAY with it.
Mixed Feelings.
- Copy Pasta: There seems to have been a lack of creativity during the level design. As there are a few level designs which are being used over and over again throughout the entire game, just with some changes here and there, and some bits and bobs added. That felt like such a shame, as most of them are quite short to run through… I’d rather have seen fewer levels and in its place some extra variety in the level designs and enemies.
- Square Orbs?: But Alexis, what square orbs? Your screenshot clearly shows round orbs. Yes, while that is true, the hitbox is as square as a R
ubix cube. Countless times have I jumped perfectly over one of these bubbles of death, and scratched my Pea ass on what seemed to have been an invisible corner. Resulting in a Death. Which in turn caused me to rage-quit on multiple occasions. Be rounddamnit ! Stupid things…
What is bad?
- I’m green da ba dee..: My one and only major gripe with Awesome Pea is its one and only color, Green, and how its used literally everywhere. When the background is static, its actually easy to lose your Pea in that sea of drab green! You’ll have a hard time finding him the moment that the darker color of green matches yours exactly. But what was more sickening was when the background was animated. There’s a level where you are on a moving train and boy my stomach did not agree, at all! I don’t suffer from motion sickness but this was too much. Even the water sports the same color and had the same effect on my tummy as the train. Somehow I don’t think that this was tested by other people
except for the developers themselves. A shade of blue, or basically anything else, to break that monotone field of green would’ve been a nice addition!
Awesome Pea 65/100
Wait, why is this scoring only 65 Alexis? You were quite positive about the game? And yes, I was. But the fact that most of the levels are basically carbon copies of each other with just a few tweaks here and there added on top with the boring and monotonous green color that looks like a nice steaming bowl of baby food, I couldn’t rate it higher. And even though there are quite some levels in this, you’ll pretty much be replaying the same levels over and over. But that doesn’t take away that it is an actual nice game to play but in modesty. I wouldn’t want you to be up-chucking your dinner over a headbanging pea. For the rest, this is still a cute retro-platformer for all to enjoy, just a bit more color!
