Average Ratings

Difficulty-/100
Overall7.47/10
Gameplay6.78/10
Visuals8.20/10

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Reviews

Created Date
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avatar
6 months ago
-/100
DIFFICULTY
9/10
OVERALL
8/10
VISUALS
9/10
GAMEPLAY
avatar
7 months ago
-/100
DIFFICULTY
6/10
OVERALL
-/10
VISUALS
-/10
GAMEPLAY
avatar
7 months ago
48/100
DIFFICULTY
8/10
OVERALL
9/10
VISUALS
4/10
GAMEPLAY

Throat Of The World is a platformer that redefined the limits for platformers when it came out, as it's one of the first of its kind to show such high worldbuilding, polish and interactivity throughout a very long runtime (somewhere around 3 hours on a first practice run). I'll start with the things I don't like about it: I feel TheJShadow uses pixel blocks as a crutch throughout the level, and the gameplay between bosses is pretty uninteresting. I understand the usage of pixel blocks might have been for optimisation, but it ends up looking cheap at points where the detail provided by the pixel blocks becomes a central focus point of the level, mostly in the first half of the level prior to the first boss. I think more custom pixel assets here and there would have done well in livening up the visuals and preventing this sort of overuse from occurring, especially in the ground designs. The gameplay between bosses tends to lack any meaningful gimmicks; there's environmental assets, but those are pretty straightforward, being mostly ice, water or lava. There's wind in a couple of parts, but that doesn't add much to the level aside from being thematically accurate and tends to make for more annoying gameplay. There's also multiple fetch quests scattered throughout the level which make up the entirety of the quest mechanic, containing little variation and only requiring the player to grab a hidden collectible or two. The only real exceptions are some custom bounce pads and rotating platforms, but I just don't feel like it's enough to prevent these gameplay sections from feeling very monotonous.

Thankfully, that's about where my complaints end, and everything else about the level is excellent. The boss gameplay is challenging and engaging, but fair and reasonably well-telegraphed, being quite reminiscent of Terraria in a lot of good ways. The boss designs are well made, and the final boss is very climactic. I love how tense the buildup feels, as everything gets quieter, darker and more menacing as you approach the boss. Each of the game's individual environments is well-built, with excellent colours, effects and level design; that is to say, almost nothing feels out of place in this regard. I particularly love the above-ground sections late into the level; the rendition of the northern lights and the snowy landscape look beautiful and make for a nice break from the dark, claustrophobic underground parts. All of this is brought into harmony by the consistently solid part-to-part transitions, as each of them makes sense thematically (for example, descending underground from a snowy mountain into a cavernous zone filled with lava). The player is thrown into the metaphorical Throat Of The World, and I truly love this level for that.

While I think this level stands with quite a bit of room for improvement, this is an incredible showing from TheJShadow and one of the best platformer levels ever created; hell, this could stand on its own as a pretty solid indie game. All around, a very technically impressive level with great depth, environmental design and worldbuilding, and one I would personally have given a legendary rating.

avatar
7 months ago
-/100
DIFFICULTY
4/10
OVERALL
5/10
VISUALS
3/10
GAMEPLAY
avatar
7 months ago
-/100
DIFFICULTY
9/10
OVERALL
9/10
VISUALS
-/10
GAMEPLAY
avatar
7 months ago
-/100
DIFFICULTY
9/10
OVERALL
9/10
VISUALS
9/10
GAMEPLAY
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