Review Information
Game Reviewed Somari 2, by Ryan Silberman
Review Author Modern
Created Apr 16 2017, 12:58 AM

General Commentary and Game Overview
Well this review certainly took a while.

Allow me to preface a bit before I start: I had planned to review this game nearly a year and a half ago. Having been a constant lurker of the site, hoping for the chance to play good fan games other people made, I discovered that you could actually sign up with an account and review other people's games, which to me seemed amazing. I decided right then and there that I was going to start by reviewing Somari 2, which at the time was one of my favorite fangames available, as well as the only one I had ever finished. I wanted to make sure it was a good review, though, so before creating an account I decided to do as much research on the game as possible. As you can probably guess I slowly lost interest, did other things, yahda yahda yahda. The point is, I've regained interest in the community and have decided to finished what I started. Let's just get into the game before this goes from a Somari 2 review to a "Modern's Life Choices" review.

So um, Somari! Based on an estranged NES demake of Sonic 1 featuring Mario as the protagonist, this spiritual successor/sequel aims to capture the experience its predecessor brought. Did it succeed, or did it crash and burn? Lets find out!
 
Pros Visually the game looks very unique, which gives it a certain type of charm that I haven't experienced anyware else. Everything audio-wise is spot on, and there were moments where I really got into the flow of the game and was honestly having fun...
 
Cons At the same time, the controls are really akward, hit detection is buggy, and slopes don't work in any way like you'd expect them to.
 
Impressions
Gameplay
4 / 10
Ay Carumba, these controls are finnicky! You use the left and right arrow keys to move, spacebar to jump, down+space for a spindash, and shift to skip levels, for some reason.

Now, I mentioned that slopes don't work as expected. Let me explain: If the corner of a slope is not a perfect right angle, Somari will continue to follow the path of a wall, even if it means he's running upside down. Normally when you hit the corner of a slope in a sonic game, you will be launched into the air. But because of the wonky collision detection, anything that's not a perfect 90 degree angle will make Somari curve up the hill and continue running on the ground. It's really hard to explain, but if you play the game you'll see what I mean.

Turning is also a problem. It's not the horrific instant turning prevalent in most bad mario fangames, but Somari stops on a dime immediately when turning, losing all momentum, before continuing to run in the other direction. It never impeded gameplay, but it was a really jarring issue that stood out to me.
 
Graphics
8 / 10
Everything looks like it's made in MS paint, which I'm pretty sure it was, but somehow it all fits the aesthetic. Aside from some clouds that look more highly detailed than everything else, the graphics get no complaints from me.
 
Sound
10 / 10
Amazing. Music is a mix of Shovel Knight and Mutant Mudds, and it is extremely satisfying to pick up a coin. A+ work.
 
Replay
3 / 10
Somari has 6 levels and a Boss, so the game is rather short, so there's not much incentive to replay the game.
 
Final Words
7 / 10
The game has a lot of charm and uniqueness while also suffering from quite a few problems holding it back. Still, with some fine-tuning, this could be turned into a really good game.

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