FLUCTUOID

FLUCTUOID is one of literally thousands of retro 2D platformers infesting Steam and lowering the average quality of all video games everywhere... and I'm not kidding. Searching for "platformers" on the Steam store page yields over 17,000 results! Is this one of the best of those? Absolutely not. This platformer is another case of Itchio failing the one and only job it has... to contain and isolate amateur shovelware on Steam. The game comes across more as a concept or tech demo, given the placeholder graphics. What's it about? You play as a creature that can shrink and grow to navigate a maze. The game's story is about exploring a mysterious maze in different themed worlds, solving puzzles. The gameplay involves shrinking and growing to overcome obstacles and traverse various environments, but given how bad this looks, it's no wonder it was widely rejected or ignored by gamers on Steam. Platforming is an old, mostly dead genre, and this lacklustre experience, while it doesn't have an upfront cost, isn't saving the genre... it's no surprise this failed to capture any attention from gamers in the era of immersive 3D gaming. This looks a lot like it was designed for console…

Interesting idea that's fun to play. I think you should make levels a little clearer though (like I initially didn't know if there were 2 or 4 levels) and coins should have some kind of value (even if you can only buy a useless skin or something). Would recommend overall 👍

This game is awesome! Manipulate your size to navigate obstacles, reach collectibles, and adapt to the varied game mechanics being introduced throughout. Its a simple platformer with a lot of heart!

I found this platformer quite challenging, mainly stemming from what I think to be some kind of stutter that occurs during levels. It seems that from level to level, the FPS I had fluctuates (pun intended), sometimes around 60 and other times 90 or 120. Not sure if its an oversight, but it was quite annoying having to overcome the already harder levels in the later stages. This may have also contributed to my many missed jumps, but can't say for certain. Perhaps my issues were down to some kind of GPU driver problem, so I may be an outlier. The UI is basically non existent, leaving me to alt-F4 once I was done. The game can be completed within about 2 hours or less. Overall, the mechanics that are introduced are actually very well made for what is a 2D pixel presentation, lots of obstacles to overcome. Pretty sweet that a project like this is free!

‎

6/10 A puzzle-platformer where you switch between heavy and light states of a square. Good: - unique and interesting base mechanic which you can see in the GIFs of the game's store listing. You press Z key to toggle between the small light version of the block and the heavy big version. E.g. when you need to swim down, you need to be big. When you need to swim up, you need to be small. - free So-so: - music is quite bland and sleep-inducing. It's there but i can imagine many different styles of music that would work far better for this arcade/puzzle - presentation is rather boring as well. It's just gray and shades of violet. It does have a cool minimalistic style but would be much better if at least the color palette varied across levels. And the character itself could switch colors. The capsule image on the store is actually far more interesting than the game itself (graphically) - no sound effects at all - after level 6 or so you start facing jumping challenges. I recall those from Meat Boy or old NES games (e.g. the dreaded "Freezer" level in Addam's Family). Maybe someone likes such stuff but I don't really. I'd prefer a more puzzle-skewed game where it takes effort to come…