Dream Hopper: Amongst Clouds and Monsters

Developer: Askiisoft

Publisher: Nitrome (Made for the Nitrome GameJam)

Format: PC (Browser/Adobe Flash)

Dream Hopper is a game by Askiisoft where the setting is where you, the player, are in a lucid dreamer's dream. He basically leaves you to the whim of his sub-conscience, with you to explore the world of his dreams. His dreams are full of lots of things, lemme tell you. There are enemies, obstacles, and even power-ups for you to find. It's a sort of metroidvania, so you'll be doing a lot of exploring, with all the discovery and backtracking that comes with it.

The game game is mechanically simple enough for you to get used to it easily. The platforming is good, but can take a bit of getting used to, especially with the whole sense of impact you have from landing jumps. You eventually find the mystical [X] ChargeGun of legend. It's your only weapon, and has it's ups and downs you'll have to acclimate to. For example, it has lots of different charges, which can be good for taking to enemies at a faster rate, but you're not allowed to move when charging the gun or shooting rapid-fire. You even get this sort of slow-down time once you begin to charge it up to an extent. All of this isn't bad, quite good in fact, as it set up the pacing for almost the entire game.

The level design is based around three main things: The basic platforming, the [X] ChargeGun, and the special abilities you obtain as you progress. There are two: Wall Jumping, and Air Jumping. Air Jumping is your double jumps, and Wall Jumping is your wall jumps. You obtain both of these by killing special enemies throughout the level. Here's the main catch: You only have a limited amount of either, so you're gonna have to kill these special enemies throughout the entire game. Sometimes you need to go through a stretch of level without wasting too many of them, so conserving them is wise. Another thing is that you cannot have both at the same time, so the level design changes along with whatever ability you're supposed to posses.

Aesthetically, this game is gorgeous. It's color pallet consists of a lot of light colors, like grays, oranges, some gold, and a lot of blues. It's pixelated art style works well with it's attractive and smooth sprite work. It may not have that varied of a color scheme, or even environments in general, but they are all crisp, clean, and beautiful. The music isn't much different, being just as fitting and appealing as the art. It's very dreamy, having a decently slow-pace to it that actually fits with the exploration of a dream world very well.

Overall, Dream Hopper is a fun game to just pick up and play. It's got a very dreamy setting that it does quite well. It's gameplay is good and fairly provides a decent challenge. It's aesthetics are amazing and fitting, like every other Askiisoft game. It's a tad bit on the short side, but for a Game Jam game that you can play for free, what more could you ask for?

Play Dream Hopper HERE