There is probably some joke or pun to be made about the 1001 spikes but I'm coming up empty. So I'll just say that it looks like the spike maker counted up the order wrong and ...

Ok I have nothing. Luckily Nicalis have something quite special in this platformer from the affectionately named "♥♥♥♥ing troll ♥♥♥ game" genre.

The gameplay is simple enough (with one oddity, which I will get to). You enter a level, you avoid traps and make some jumps while also shooting knives at the occasional enemy. You find the key and perhaps the hidden mask object and make your way to the exit. You then repeat this process through longer and more difficult stages until you run out of things to do. Along the way expect plenty of water, fire, snakes, scorpions, crushing blocks, spikes and even more spikey spikes. There isn't anything particularly original here if you have played similar games in the past (stretching a long way back) but what is here has been proven to work.

The controls are a little strange in that you have two jump buttons, one "high" and one "low". This saves you having to judge how hard to press a button (high enough to clear a spike, but low enough to avoid the fire above?) but it can get a bit fiddly at times. Personally I always found myself using the high jump unless a situation specifically seemed to call for it. In these cases, such as jumping on a block without triggering an arrow trap it was handy, but I'm still not sold on the concept. Still, everything works and you can aim your jumps properly and it doesn't feel floaty. If anything, jumping and shooting fails a bit more often than it should, when trying to line up a small object like an arrow (when you are standing shots line up perfectly). This isn't a big deal though, so in this regard the controls get a solid pass.

To complement the tight controls, the level design is all important in a game like this and 1001 Spikes doesn't let you down. The levels all seem lengthy but not "too long" and there is a good variety in the challenges. For example, one level will have you carefully negotiating spiked passages, waiting for just the right moment to advance forward. The next level will require you to make a series of fast paced jumps as everything falls down around you. Levels feel unique, despite reusing a lot of assets and the effort required to pass them should make them memorable long after.

That is, if you don't give up on it. The magic of "♥♥♥♥ing troll ♥♥♥ game" is in how much they troll you and how much of it you can take. Think you have finished the level? Well you forgot about that block, right at the end which will drop on your head without warning. This will kill you, forcing you to restart the level (no checkpoints here!) in an increasingly infuriating manner. So where does it sit on the troll meter? Above Super Meat Boy, some obstacles you just can't avoid. But it is also well below something like I want to Be The Boshy. Most traps give you a split second of warning, such as the tips of spikes showing before they impale you. Because of this, most deaths (but not all) feel like they are a result of you not paying close enough attention. The game does a good job of training you too. Chance are if you find a good place to rest while you evaluate the next section of a level? There are spikes on that block.

So you'll die, but you'll learn and progress always feels achievable (or you can skip levels, so it isn't a big drama). Note that you do technically have a life limit (x1000) but 1ups are easily farmable by redoing short stages and finding the bonus pick up. So 1001 Spikes is tough but just fair enough (think 1-5 deaths on an easy stage, 20-30 on a hard one), which will hopefully not put off too many people.

Having said that, one of the most difficult challenges the game offers is getting through the story parts without hitting "skip". They are long, stretching on forever and the text forwards far too slowly. I kind of enjoy the ironic tone to the writing, but little of importance is said and there doesn't seem to be any need for a story at all. Rest assured you can safely skip it and get back to the spikes.

To round out the package, the game offers other arcade style modes which can be played in 4 player local coop (sorry online fans). These include challenges such as climbing a high tower and competitive modes like holding an urn the longest, which remind me strongly of old NES or even C64 titles and other treats like an extra difficult tribute to a past game. Rest assured too that the coins you collect in those modes are not completely going to waste.

Now I'm not a big coop gamer (people who are will love playing through the main game with a friend), so these extras are not necessarily for me, but they do make an easy purchase decision even easier. Further the game provides a wide variety of unlockable characters, each with their own abilities (longer jumps, double jumps etc). This lets you tackles the levels again with different approaches and helps alleviate any concerns about the number of available levels (although there are enough anyway, without spoiling anything, probably a lot more than you think!).

In terms of presentation, 1001 is more functional than impressive, but everything does the job. The music is suitably excellent and the sound effects inoffensive. If anything the menu systems and cutscenes could use an extra coat of polish, but as mentioned before they are best skipped anyway, so perhaps skimping on them was the best approach after all.

I really like 1001 Spikes. I realise it will not be for everybody, given the brutal style. But it is just accessible enough that everybody should give it a go, just in case they get the right level of sadistic fun out of it.

Just keep an eye out for that 1001'th spike. That'll be the one that gets you or ... yeah still nothing.

Easily one of my favorite platformers, I cannot recommend this game enough! It's full of difficult moments but it never feels unfair. All of the unlockable characters have an immense amount of detail added to them, each one that references another game respects the source material completely and totally. This is the instant-classic of 2014.

A really hard platformer, and a homage/love letter to both old platformers and Spleunker. (As well as to the NIS platformer, Prinny, a Disgaea spin-off, due to the large amount of lives.) 1001 Spikes does a really good job at it's name, giving you a spike death for each of your 1001 lives! It has a ton of content, either local co-op or single player, and tons of stuff to unlock for fun, like extra characters.

Each level has a collectable Golden Skull to find, usually hidden, at each threshold they have some extra content for those who dare to get collect them which come in the form of extra modes or characters. When you play as one of the unlockable characters, your level progress is seperate from the main hero and each other unlockable character, and the skulls replaced with coins which you can use to unlock even more stuff with in the shop. Each almost every character plays entirely different, even the cosplay ones for the main hero have entirely different playstyles and plenty of little details to them. (The Belmont cameo cosplay removes your ranged option of a throwing knife, to a shorter distanced whip, in an exchange for damage power, stuff like that.)

It might seem a bit pricey at $15.00 USD, maybe even still at the $10.00 USD discount price, but it's worth it. With all that content, along with the option to try a hand at speedrunning the game with the timer aid, or getting a better time on a certain level, there is a lot to love and your dollar goes a long way.

The bad side: There are a few bugs, some people are having a little trouble launching the game or getting music to play after death in a level and having to restart, but hopefully they will fix it soon. There are slight workarounds for each bug at the moment, and they aren't making the game cripplingly unplayable.

Overall, if you like the idea of the game, and you are up for a tough challenge, it's worth picking up. One of my favorite platformers, for sure!

Everybody knows that 1001 Spikes is a masterpiece of mechanics and the pinnacle of level design as an art form, but, for as much as I have relished every agonizing, brilliant moment, my favorite thing about it is the respite stages at the end of each area. You simply move through the level, free from danger, and ironically these are the moments in which I truly feel like I am on an adventure.

It's not that I use this time to reflect on the challenges that I've surmounted. It's not that transition in which I am saying goodbye to one area with its distinctive tileset before moving on to another. The romance of these stages is simpler than that: It's just a pleasure to move through an exotic space! By suddenly stripping away all semblance of difficulty, 1001 Spikes startles you into noticing that one of the basic strengths of videogames is the experience of place.

When all of the scorpions and dart-shooting busts and crushing effigies and flamethrowers fall away, there's just you and a decaying ruin, adorned by idols carved from bricks of gold and lit by columns of blue flame, housed within the red dirt of the jungle and deep purple caverns, overgrown with vines that sway as you brush by, curtained by waterfalls and the slowly flooding drip of leaking ceilings, and eroded by lakes of fire barely contained with thick stone dams. Corridors narrow to a crawlspace and balloon outward into large pedestal chambers. They wind from side to side, rising and falling, or provide a shambling staircase out of darkness.

The fundamental lines of these spatial compositions are as beautiful as the pixel art with which they are drawn, and these little journeys are yet further characterized by situational events. Rope bridges collapse behind you, imposing doors are opened with the depression of multiple switches or the assembly of several ritual keys, and gates crumble away with the terrain, dropping you into the abyss. These surprises somehow manage to evoke a sense of mystery even though there are no puzzles to solve and a sense of adventure even though your path is a straight line. I could play an entire game comprised of these completely safe yet intriguing and enchanting stages.

Ukampa lies behind me in ruins, its golden skulls all safely ensconced within my loot sack, but I am not finished with 1001 Spikes. Not by a long sight. More adventures await. Regardless, I am more than ready to say that I don't just enjoy this game; I love it.

1001 Spikes is a hardcore platformer in every sense of the word. It will stop at nothing to impale you on spikes, crush you with a boulder, burn you alive, and then impale you on even more spikes. Some may even call this a rage game by how hard it gets, but stepping up to the challenge and completing each level is really satisfying.

Here's a quick look video that goes over the postives and negatives of this game. But for those of you who just wanna read about it, continue below. (Info about other modes below since this only covers story, which is the meat of the game)

http://youtu.be/3kUrYLU_9qw

Let me begin my review with what this game is about. You're an adventurer exploring trap-infested dungeons, and the whole reason you're there is because you want to get the treasure to prove to your late father that you're a real man. Yeah, a guy with daddy issues. The reason this is called 1001 spikes is because you get that many lives to complete the game with, but you can get more by collecting artifacts and golden skulls. It's pretty straightforward, but the fun comes with the challenging maps.

In every level, you need to collect a key, then go to the exit. But it's not as simple as that. Hidden spikes will pop up without warning, dart traps will suddenly fire when you go near, and platforms with fall without warning as soon as you step on them. Because of this, you will die many times and have to start over from the beginning. Yet each time you will become a little wiser and learn the patterns until you eventually reach the end. Very much a trial and error system, but a good one that keep things challenging, but not enough to feel too cheap and make me want to quit.

Another good thing is the ability to drag your friends in for some local co-op or minigames. Things can get very hectic and fun as you try to complete levels together or kill each other. Every character plays a bit different too, such as playing Knight Arthur from Ghouls 'n Ghosts and having his armor get knocked off after a hit for a second life. There's even an interesting tower-climbing mode with boss battles if you collect golden skulls to unlock it, so don't forget to grab them as you play the story mode. The last mode you get is basically the same as the story, but the levels are hard right off the bat and you only get 100 lives.

However, this game isn't without some faults.
-There isn't any online multiplayer, nor is there any bots. So if you're all by your lonesome, half of the game's selling point doesn't apply to you. Sure you can play the levels by yourself, but it's kinda boring and the levels lose most of their dynamics since they cater to multiple people.
-Some people may take issue with the pixel graphics and over-saturation of them in today's market. And while I personally don't mind the graphic style, lots of people avoid games simply for this reason alone.
-Even though I do like the difficulty, sometimes I found myself frustrated with some of the trial and error gameplay. Can't tell you how many times I was so close to the end only to be sent back to the beginning from a hidden spike trap.
-Honestly, I think this should be a $10 game. I was halfway through the campaign after only one and a half hours, so with it being so short on its single-player mode, it may turn a few people away. Though admittedly, the later levels are gonna take you much longer to complete since they start getting insane.

To wrap this up, this game is for those who like a challenge. It even caters to those who are perfectionists and want every collectible and the best times. So if you have buds to play with, this is a good buy. But if you only want it for the single player, get it if you've been itching for a game that really pushes you to beat it. And if you're still on the fence, wait for a discount and this will definitely be worth it.