Really? I'm not going to say that the game is bad, but I found it pretty average. Graphics and sound are run of the mill for freeware standards. The gameplay itself is mostly generic timing puzzles of the sort that can be found in any platform game. Most of the mechanics felt underused; the primary flipping technique mattered surprisingly little, with most hazards hitting both sides, the dock's water pulse was barely used at all, and the final stage's effect was entirely cosmetic. Difficulty is a mess; mostly quite easy with a few rather frustrating sections. Gets easier overall as it goes, too. Also, very short
I mean, there's worse ways to spend ten minutes, but there's plenty of better ways, too
Do keep in mind that this is the creator's first project ever: of course it's not going to have very advanced mechanics, especially when it not made for profit. Pretty much all indie greats started with very simple projects: look at the Edmund Mc Millen's spider game, for instance. There are exceptions of course (Phil Fish) but they tend to burn out quite quickly (again, Phil Fish).
As for graphics & sound, I'm not really an expert at this stuff and tend to have rather low requirements for the technical side of it: for me, the art style matters more than number of polygons or whatever. All in all, I just liked what was on offer here and found the graphical interplay relatively unusual. Of course, I haven't checked out that many projects, so if you can prove me wrong, please do so. I would really like to hear which short projects are better in your opinion.
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A stunning example of when less is more.
I don’t think I can recommend Binary Boy enough in this review. It is a very short game that isn’t afraid to be so and dispenses with all Padding in its five levels: you won’t find a single stretch that is copy-pasted, and every level feels very different from one another. It is simply one of the most beautiful games ever created, one that doesn’t just imitate the style of older games but actually goes beyond it, with clean, crisp graphics, good animation and nuanced selection of colours. The soundtrack is equally good, with all of the OST fitting the atmosphere extremely well.
Gameplay-wise, it doesn’t let down either. The gameplay mechanic is quite original in and of itself (I doubt there are many games in which the primary way of interacting with the world is through walking upside down) and it is always put to good use, with a selection of fresh challenges each level. Another point in the game’s favour is that it isn’t trying to be hard for the sake of it: I have no problem with hard games (i.e. ‘’Ninja Senki’’), but here the difficulty would have detracted from the overall experience, and Jared Johnson recognised that. The protagonist dies in one hit from everything, sure, and the game has to be finished in one sitting, but there are checkpoints after every obstacle and a beautiful “falling-leaf” death-rebirth animation to make it as frustration-free as possible.
Of course, no game (or any literary work, for that matter) is perfect, and Binary Boy does have its shortcomings. The first proper boss battle is too easy and a bit too much of Tactical Suicide Boss, while the Kraken boss battle is surprisingly hard on the first playthrough and can come as a shock if you got too used to the relaxed gameplay earlier. The very last section of the game with the lightning cloud also seems to be based more on luck then on skills, as lightning can appear almost anywhere with scant time to dodge. However, none of this even comes close to outweighing the beauty and accomplishment of the game as a whole.
Finally, the game is absolutely free, and doesn’t try to wring money out of you in any way, shape or form, so if you have a Windows computer, there is no excuse for not playing it. I wish all the best to the developer Jared Johnson in any future projects.