HELLSPRINT

perfect little speedgame love grinding for records

TL;DR this game is simple, but it's fine tuned and executed with great care. if you like any combination of shooters, platformers, and racing games, this is worth your time. if you have any passing interest in speedrunning, this is a great introductory game for that concept. if you already love it, this is for you. the essence of this game is a precision platformer with bite-size levels. they're built for you to have fun getting to the end, but the real meat of the game is delivered by the timer, and subsequently the drive to shave as much time as possible off of it in subsequent runs. in order to do that, you find yourself learning how best to manipulate your own momentum, and do things better than your past self or optionally your friends, or the player who did it JUST a little faster than you. there's always a way to improve, (almost) always someone faster. so either way, you end up experimenting and playing out of your mind, improving and learning crazy ways to abuse the limits of your movement physics and trivialize what once was unthinkable, and it's completely addicting. every session goes on for a while because of this. (by the way, the ghost replays can be turned off if you want to figure everything out the old-fashioned way!) this is kind of a rabbit hole, too. at the moment of writing this, i have only gone through this whole song and dance to a level of satisfaction with the first three levels of the game! and there's a lot. just that took me 16 hours, almost half of which was attempting to take back first place on stages i already thought i had conquered. another part of this is because within every level, is a hidden collectible with its own timer and leaderboard, and if you want it, you're usually going to have to do a snazzy trick. these are real challenges even if you don't intend to get a nice time, and that makes it all the more satisfying when you DO get a clean run. the levels start getting insane fast, so the possibilities go on and on. this game is bound to give me hundreds of hours if i let it. that's a pretty good value for $6.66. can't say that about a lot of other games coming out lately lol the game itself is fast, too. the menus don't waste your time. loading times are nearly non-existent. resetting the level is one button, with just enough time to prepare and position yourself before the next attempt. absolute minimum frustration, minimum time wasting. you are enabled to hyperfocus and try again until you perfect it. time flies away, and 99%+ of it is spent actually playing. this would be a great way to find out you enjoy speedrunning, as it inherently protects you from the consequences inherent to more longform speedruns. it's like candy! just a quick bite of speedrun candy! a treat! a yummy, way too satisfying for its size, neuron-stimulating candy. even the music is a great fit. it's fast, but not overpowering. the kind of stuff that lets you focus and doesn't get old while you grind a single level for hours. the graphics are nostalgic and comfy, and simple enough to read completely honestly, which i appreciate for precision and lack of distraction. it all really comes together nicely. this game knows what it is, it knows what you want out of it, and it injects it directly to your bloodstream while gently, lovingly kissing your forehead. you'll get what i mean, someday. if you like chill EDM, acid, techno you could "study" to or whatever, this game is also worth it for that alone. digitalmole cooked up some fire ear candy for this. you will feel the beat. crank up the heat. the burning desire, the speed bringing fire! ...take me higher! pretty cool game, give it a try if you wanna go fast by sheer willpower.

I'm not very experienced in speedrunning/parkour games, but it was fun to get through the stages.