Beat These Games! by gamesplusjames

All you want is the fancy, expensive new handheld, the 'GameLad Jr. PRO 2' (Just $499.99!) but you've got too many lame old 'GameLad Jr. PRO's in your drawer and you're running out of space!
Your Mom will only buy you one if you make more space by completing all the games in your drawer!
Complete games to get them out of your drawer, but watch out, if you fail a game you'll get angry and break your GameLad! You've got a really nice mom though so she'll replace your broken GameLad instantly with even more in your drawer! How nice!
Watch out you dont get too many though, Get over 30 GameLads and your drawer will explode!
Controls:
- WASD - Directions
- Space - Action Button
- Left Click - Interact
| Windows | https://gamesplusjames.itch.io/beat-these-games |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/beat-these-games |
Ratings
| Overall | 79th | 3.986⭐ | 38🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 28th | 4.122⭐ | 39🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 394th | 3.378⭐ | 39🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 542th | 3.554⭐ | 39🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 374th | 3.757⭐ | 39🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 183th | 3.635⭐ | 39🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 44th | 4⭐ | 37🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 179th | 3.662⭐ | 36🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 14🗳️ | 10🗨️ |
A very clever take on the theme, well done! (I laughed the first time I failed). You packed a lot of content here with a decently sized collection of micro games, although I got the impression that a couple of them were reskins of the same mechanic. Also, if you let the pile of games grow larger as I did it could end up feeling a bit repetitive.
Despite these minor issues, I really liked the game, it felt really solid. Congrats!!
Art is great, music is great, only bugs I found were jumping past the end of the acid levels and spawning trapped in the safe space levels. Great job!
Graphics is very cool. The minigames are very addictive. Amazing Job!
Edit: saw it in a stream, and now I know why it feels farmilar: it reminds me of dumb ways to die haha
First, the wrapping game design. I didn't like the system of penalties for failing games. It is frustrating. That may be the point, and it makes it more thematic, but it takes the fun away from the game. There comes a point (after 21 completed games) where the speed is so fast it is impossible to keep up.
I don't think it is a good design decision to make things harder when dying. Penalty for dying too much should be game over, not making the game impossible to actually complete.
Maybe if the game speed was based not on games complete, but games remaining? Meaning when you die and get GLs into your drawer, it gets slower again? That way, it would be always possible to complete even on the first run.
Minigames sometimes were impossible, particularly breakout, where the ball went directly into one of the lower corners. That's pretty frustrating when it is one of your last games.
Also, I didn't like the transition between instructions and minigames. I had no idea when the switch happens. Especially when the instructions last different amount of time for different minigames. This was frustrating particularly in the acid minigame. I would like for example if there were instructions with a countdown timer in form of a bar or a circle, and the initial minigame state would be visible in the background.
Awesome game overall !
Always love your stuff!