The Top

Overall, enjoyable. Frustrating at times, but in the way that a precision platformer probably should be. The music was quite well done, and tonally fitting. The story—eh. As a wise man once said, "meta is easy". It wasn't bad, I'm certain it would resonate quite well with some. For me, I felt it was sincere, even if perhaps unoriginal in nature.

I gotta say, this is a pretty nice platformer. Pleasant music, fun platforming, and interesting secrets (I still haven't found all of em). Overall a solid first(ish) go into making games!

This game is really great. The platforming is fun with each area introducing new mechanics, and the game is balanced appropriately, getting harder as you progress. The secret areas are well-hidden but not too unreasonable to find, even on your own, and they present the hardest challenges in the game, as they should. The narrative is light but quite deep and it actually got me a little emotional at the end despite how it is mostly in the background. I understand how the graphics could turn some people off but I find them charming and if you are nostalgic for the Game Boy era you will certainly enjoy them. To top it all off (no pun intended), there is a nice, atmospheric soundtrack that's a pleasure to listen to. Highly recommend, especially if you want to support a small indie creator.

Really enjoyed this! :3 Not too long, but nevertheless fun and challenging. Would recommend this to anyone looking for a short but charming puzzle-platformer.

It looks like this might be the first (or one of the first) games officially made by the developers, in which case extra kudos for all those involved! Looking forward to any further games you may release.

If you enjoy precision platforming, this is certainly a game you should buy. 100% worth it.
The controls feel great, and the levels are tightly designed. The game has enough story to stay interesting, and the music is also banger. The game never tries to be something it's not and delivers a fine tuned experience. Amazing game from start to finish.

THE TOP is a fun little game,

its storry is pretty neat though small, teh secrets are fun to find, and almost every singel room is a real joy to play and learn how they work, whud recommend it to anyone who likes platformers

The game feels like it could've been one of the best games on Newgrounds back in the day, which I say as a compliment. The pacing, level design, and music are very well done and thought out. The game has approximately fifty unique rooms and you don't get the sense that anything is bloated content. Each room spends as much time as it needs to for teaching you mechanics organically or serves the story functionally.

Where the game really excels is once all the mechanics have been revealed and you're going through the hardest screens of the game. The music and level design during these sequences is legitimately fun and a decent challenge. I've gotten most of the golden strawberries in Celeste and 100% on Super Meatboy and the game never gets to some of the unfair heights of that. Every challenge is very doable, but still enough of an obstacle to feel a huge sense of relief getting through some rooms. Recommend playing with no checkpoints once you're comfortable with the game.

The controls of the game are pretty tight, but they still have a little jankiness to them and the avatar can sometimes be awkward to control as a blocky boy. I think the achievements are done well for indicating there is more to the game for players who are less inquisitive about environments. The games total play time is likely five to seven hours, which is a great investment for five dollars.

What I will say is it is worth getting used to the controls to experience the final sequences of the game.

The Top is one of the best games I've ever played. Yes, it takes a heavy inspiration from Celeste. Yes, it is pretty short. And yes, the graphics are not for everyone. However, as someone who has played and fully completed a bunch of precision platformers, I can say with quite an authority that this game is worth playing. For the constraints of a very small indie dev team, this manages to rival some of my favorites in terms of fun, and I'd highly recommend it to anyone that is a fan of the genre. That's my TL;DR, but there is a lot more to discuss.

Firstly, there is no problem with the game being about some guy climbing a mountain while also having a dash mechanic. Just because the basic concept is kinda like Celeste obviously doesn't matter, but I've still seen a few people say this like it's a bad thing. No. The mechanics, the story, the styilization, everything is different and any criticism that comes from that direction is very useless and the lowest hanging fruit. With that out of the way, a summary.

At first, the game is just a fun little platformer with a cool new mechanic I've not much seen in these types of games. The multitasking of switching the environment while also trying to climb that same environment is very unique, and at least with controller makes you feel like a badass. I think one of the main reasons this game works so well is that the controls have basically no flaws whatsoever, and so long as your controller doesn't die mid-jump (like me), you'll always be left knowing it was your fault for dying.

As you progress through the screens you'll notice not only the very well put together difficulty scaling, but also how great the level design is. There is not a failure among them. Each screen almost effortlessly expands upon the mechanics, progressing well from room to room and challenging the player with relentless ideas! One thing I dislike about other platformers is that the design either feels boring or it oscillates wildly in difficulty. This game dodges that completely with only a few rooms being easier than the last in the ENTIRE game.

Not only that, but with each area progressed, bits and pieces of the story will be revealed to you. Where things like Meatboy or VVVVVV struggle, The Top excels. I'll say it right now, this game almost made me break down in tears. It is the type of game that gives you back the same amount you put into it. If you take the time to find the secrets, you will come to care immensely about that group of twenty pixels. Great care is put into dialog to the point that you'll want to play the game over and over again, taking the hardest path just to see an extra sentence or two! Not to mention that each little snippet is vague, but when you have the full picture it all snaps together in the most satisfying way.

If you just want to just get the normal ending and never touch the game again, first of all I'd say you're insane. But after that, I'd tell you that it would probably take around an hour and a half, depending on how good at games you are. Considering that I'd say a full completion with no guides would take around seven to ten hours, I think you can see why you'd be selling yourself short. Let me go into even more detail.

There are secrets, and each secret leads you to an extra world of around ten screens, if my memory serves me. These screens are hard as shit, and yet still manage to be a natural progression of difficulty for the game. They test your ability, and if you pass you are rewarded with more story. If you pass them all, you are rewarded with the true ending. Finding these secrets is some of the most fun I've had in the game, having to get familiar with the game itself and likely requiring more than a half dozen replays, each time getting better and better as a warm-up lap for the secrets themselves. (Also, if you're into speedrunning, there's a built in timer!)

To wrap this up (because I've typed far more than I expected to), I'd recommend this game to anyone that likes platformers. That is the main focus of the game after all, and even if you aren't that into secret finding like me you'll still desperately want to find the answers out for yourself. That combined with a great story and memorable character *wink*, you get an experience that is more than worth its five dollar price tag.