Quest for Normalcy by CaptainDreamcast

Rhythm game for Web, Sega Dreamcast and Windows.
Help Super Mega Ultra Combo Man become a normal, upstanding citizen! Punch a lot of people to help him lose his power! ~~Power as in personal ability, not electricity and stuff. Gotcha there.~~
A touching tale about being yourself, unless you can't reach the end of the game. In that case, it's just kinda sad.
Play it in your browser or download it for the Sega Dreamcast on itch (or download it for Windows, but why would you).
Controls/Burning instructions/Running instructions are also found on itch.
Ratings
| Overall | 606th | 2.674⭐ | 45🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 573th | 2.581⭐ | 45🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 558th | 2.5⭐ | 44🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 612th | 2.628⭐ | 45🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 565th | 2.488⭐ | 45🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 479th | 2.122⭐ | 43🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 37th | 3.786⭐ | 44🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 491th | 2.564⭐ | 41🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 41🗳️ | 39🗨️ |
Anyway, the game itself has very nice graphics. I really like the hand-drawn art for its style. It would have been great if the background was hand-drawn as well. The blatant difference does not create a coherent world here.
The gameplay is actually a bit boring, but then this kind of game - hitting a specific button at a specific time - is not my favorite kind of game.
There were some issues with the font and is it right that in the intro there is no music but just one loud drum? Could be a bug as well.
Overall you did a very good job for a 48 hour competition! :-)
Intro made me gigle a little, good job!
My only gripe is that the music was a bit boring for a rhytm game. It fit the mood but I'm not even sure it had anything to do with the timings.
The music is better after ^^
And the effect haha, with the mouth, there are the best sound :p
Nice work on this, it make me laugh
Fun sound effects that you made with your mouth, also nice programmer art. The music was not very fitting.
Game could be improved by having some kind of rythm music, so that you time your punches to it.
Though there's no penalty for hitting wrong buttons or a losing-condition.
I didn't mind the graphics but the music got a little annoying.
The flavor text was kinda funny in some parts.
Give it a bit of polish and some repercussions. You'll have a fine game!
Oh boy. Here we go.
First: Pick one set of buttons or the other. Rhythm games DO NOT WORK with this many buttons, CERTAINLY not without some lead-in time. Thumper has this down; you are only ever using combinations of your movement keys (either WASD or arrows depending on personal preference) and the spacebar, ESPECIALLY in the early game.
Secondly: Include auditory feedback; make it punchy and satisfying, not..."powgh" and "heeh". I know this is supposed to be funny (and in any other game genre, those might work), but...they just don't work here. This ties hand-in-hand with music, too; that droning baseline in the background combined with the main SFX were enough to make me mute my browser and put on the music I'd been working on for my own entry.
Thirdly: Better checkpoints are critical; I snapped and quit the game after the ~5th time the hero got hugged in the businessman->basement-dweller phase because the phase was entirely too long and too unforgiving.
Finally: Don't do...whatever you're doing with the wobbly animation. That was an eyesore. Just...Don't.
With some serious redesign (maybe taking the idea and rebuilding from scratch, if need-be), this might work alright, but as it stands right now...it's the first entry I've given a 1/5 Overall on. I'm sorry.