An Untitled Story

Game Description

An Untitled Story is the long-awaited platform game by Game Maker developer YMM. It’s almost impossible not to compare this game to Knytt and Seiklus, since it shares a lot of visual, thematic, and gameplay ideas with those classic games.

Community Rating:

4.2

from 72 ratings

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Game Info

Tags:
exploration whimsical exploration-platformer cute Metroidvania

Date of Release:
Developer:
Genre:
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Mode:
Engine:
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August 2007
YMM
Platformer
Windows
Singleplayer
Game Maker
English
Freeware

Also try:	Cave Story, Knytt Stories
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Download

Windows:

zip 16 MB

Reviews

10 of 11 people found
this review helpful.

by Jabberwock

Briefly put, this is one of my favorite games of all time. Indie or commercial, it doesn’t matter. Very few other games have encapsulated the childlike joy of exploration so perfectly, and no others that I know of have been so HUGE about it. This is an enormous game. Unlockables and collectibles are everywhere. The levels are fantastic, whimsical and varied. The graphics, as you can see, are very stylish and fun… I guess some people dislike them, but I find them charming. Which is really the word to describe this game as a whole – charming.

The gameplay has some of the hardcore platforming element that makes YMM’s Jumper games (the first two anyway) unappealing for me, but it’s a smaller dose and it’s combined with a lot of other, gentler things. I like the subtlety and the simplicity of the storyline very greatly… I only wish for a somewhat more fulfilling ending sequence. Even though it is MIDI, I also like the music quite a lot, with the exception of a couple tracks – but there are so many in the game that overall it’s quite a good percentage.

I also really enjoy the hotseat multiplayer in spite of its sometimes screwy controls (both players are on the keyboard) – though that’s just icing on the cake.

All this to say, download it. I can’t imagine that you will be sorry.

5 Creative Exploration Defined

by Goodbye

To put it simply, An Untitled Story is my 4th favorite game of all time, and for plenty of good reason.

The game is one of the most creative exploration games I have ever played. Every screen holds either an interesting new environment, secrets, or a simply enjoyable view. The scribbly art style is one of its greatest achievements, as is makes the limits on area possibilities minimal and secret more well-hidden. The addition of Matt Thorson’s challenging level design makes you earn your right to satisfy your curiosity of what is on every screen, and the boss fights, although often times simple, are without a doubt enjoyable and plentiful(a bonus for me. I LOVE boss fights)

To top it all off, it has a plot line that comes in with perfect timing and is short and sweet (and impossible to give a title to). The characters only appear for a few minutes each yet are able to become lovable in that short time. The ending is at the upmost dramatic, with a last “level” that is not only challenging, but emotionally significant.

Graphics:5/5—unique and enjoyable

Sound:4.5/5—there are one or two distasteful tracks in there, but most of these crude tunes just add to the atmosphere

Control:5/5—solid and simple.

Gameplay:5/5—curiosity, the basis of this game, makes for incredible entertainment value.

Level Design:4.9/5—sometimes frustrating, but always doable. Retains the addictive “I won’t give up!” feeling that the Jumper series induces.

Overall:5/5—This game will take you down a rabbit hole into the biggest doodle known to mankind. Enough said.

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1 of 2 people found
this review helpful.

2 Charm doesn't save this one

by SargonTheOK

I wanted to like An Untitled Story so badly. After all, it’s a Metroidvania, which happens to be my favorite platforming sub-genre. I like exploring, I like finding secrets, etc. But so many things about this didn’t sit well with me that I simply can’t recommend it.

The good: I like the scribbly art style. It is very charming and colorful, and keeps the game grounded in the sense that your prime objective as a player is simply to soak it all in and explore the world with a certain child-like fascination. The world is HUGE and has tons of secrets, so finding things to explore shouldn’t be too difficult…

The Meh: Infrequent save points in certain areas (I’m looking at you, Underwater Zone beneath the Grotto…) can make the game frustrating. Unlike in (for example) VVVVVV, where dying doesn’t remove the fact that you got a Shiny Trinket, dying in AUS forces you to reacquire upgrades. Save points NEVER seem to be right next to boss rooms, which just adds more tedious repetition if you die to a boss.

The Bad: The audio is atrocious. After about a half hour of background MIDI tunes, I muted the music and turned on some podcasts, and never regretted it. The sound effects are slightly less grating than the music, but still far from pleasant.

Finally, for the worst offense of all: seemingly arbitrary limitations on exploration. For example: the red sparkle in front of the grotto is just out of reach. In order to proceed, you must find every jump and double jump height upgrades in the area. The problem of this stems from very transparent level design: the red sparkle is deliberately out of reach and is designed to be simply a “door” for which you must find “keys.”

Another example: upon arriving at a large blue rock boss (ugh… so many boulder bosses…) after a balloon jumping section, I realized I lacked the proper upgrades (but still managed to get to the boss), and thus had had no way to deal with him at all. I simply had to die. This boss seemed blatantly built to say “I know this game looks non-linear, but you are out of order, so I won’t let you pass.”

These remind me a lot of the “iron pencil statues” from Earthbound: ridiculous and inexplicable objects that impeded your path until the “pencil eraser” was found in the previous area. Earthbound (which is VERY satirical) pokes fun at this artificial limiting of available paths: An Untitled Story, on the other hand, falls victim to it.

4 Amazing

by caseyyano

This game introduces mechanic after mechanic and creates every possible puzzle with them. It is awesome. I played the game on hard, and that was a mistake. This game is seriously freaking hard. I think the easy difficulty is about normal.

Fantastic game, all platform games should look upon this game to achieve variety within their own games.

by ohmism

This game is fantastic, if you have the time.

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