2.5/5 ★ – benhmedia's review of 1001 Spikes.

After playing the game “1000 Amps”, it only made sense that “1001 Spikes” would be the next game on my backlog to try out 🤷🏻‍♂️ I’d consider myself above average at platforming games, enough where I was able to complete all 9 chapters of Celeste. It was not done with ease, but that game is encouraging enough and well designed in a way where you feel compelled to never give up. Much like Celeste, 1001 Spikes is a pixel art precision platformer that *knows* you’ll be dying a lot; it resets you back to the start of a room very quickly for another try. Up until a certain point, I was actually having a pretty good time with this game despite how tricky it is. But that “tricky” level of difficulty turned into “sadistic” by the middle of the main campaign. When I say this game is sadistic, I’m not just referring to the gameplay - the writing is also very mean-spirited and all the characters are quite unlikable. They’re not particularly complex either, so I wouldn’t even call them “flawed but interesting”. I can forgive bad writing in a game, though, if the gameplay is great. While there is definitely some fun to be had here for platforming fans, 1001 Spikes eventually gets to a point where it’s barraging the player with middle fingers. With the exception of certain rooms in Chapter 9, Celeste always feels “tough but fair”. This game just feels like it’s out to get you, to the point where attempting any progress feels way too repetitive. In fairness, the game does offer a *slightly* more balanced side mode where you have to climb 2 towers (10 levels) in order to save a villager’s daughter from a ritual sacrifice. I appreciate when games like these have side modes and extra features. The game also includes cut levels and unlockable characters, so it’s not like it’s light on content. If you like precision platforming, and pixel art indie games, you could certainly do worse than trying out 1001 Spikes. But I’ve started to realize that when a game is getting more frustrating than fun - especially when it gets to that point at the middle of its main campaign - I’d rather spend my time doing something else.