1000 Amps

exploration puzzle platformer
Steam Deck: Playable, but pretty much requires an external mouse

*sigh* This game. I wanted to like this game. A metroidvania without guns and an interesting sound design. Heck, I wanted to LOVE it. It's a really interesting idea. Sure, the level design can be weak, being VERY fond of unrecoverable falls that make you go the LONG (really, really long) way around to try again. And the controls can be a bit wonky. But there was a steady feeling of progress and learning that didn't make it seem so bad most of the time.

And then I got to the final boss. And the final boss is the most aggressively unfun experiences I have ever had in gaming. Nowhere else in the game can you die, except the final boss. Ok. You can only take one hit. The boss has (at least) four phases, and you have to start over from the very beginning if you die. Been through worse. You have to touch all of certain nodes around the screen before you can hurt the boss. Sounds normal. The boss can hide out of bounds and still hit your characters. Not particularly fair, but fine. The boss can cancel out your nodes FASTER than you can touch all of the nodes. And your jump height and reach are tied to how many nodes you have touched. ...

...

OH COME ON NOW. There are bosses of skill. There are bosses of memorization. And then there are bosses of pure luck, that sometimes say, "You're going to lose now," and there is nothing you can do about it. In the third phase of the boss, you have to touch 12 notes. Roughly every second the boss, who is probably sitting out of bounds, sends 3 attacks at you. If you are close to one of the nodes, they will cancel out your having touched it. Your jump height is tied to how many nodes you have touched. So you can jump, have the bomb explode, reducing your jump height, fall into the explosion, and die. You have a teleport ability. You need to use the ability to get near some of the nodes, which are all at or in the walls. You try to use the ability to teleport to one of the nes while being attacked. But you jumped, so the screen shifted. Now you're either jumping into the wall, in which case nothing happens, and you die. Or you teleport short, which is within the explosion range, and you die.

I grinded the final boss until my hand cramped. One time I ended up in a continuous figure eight cycle, touching node 12 just as the boss cancelled out node 11. I finally beat phase 3. Phase 4 started, the boss shot a batch of explosives at me, I hit an invisible wall, I died. Less than 2 seconds, total.

I quit at 97% completion rather than beat the boss. THAT'S how fun the end of the game is.

Genuinely beautiful game

1000 Amps is a neat little, overlooked, puzzle-y metroidvania. Definitely worth a look for fans of the genre.