admin
Level: Legendary Smitemaster
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File: Cheap Trick contest compilation.hold (290.4 KB)
Downloaded 1593 times.
License: Other
From: Unspecified

This hold compiles (almost) all entries of the July 2007 CaravelNet forum contest, Cheap Trick.

The ratings for this hold are difficult to pin down, because of the varying nature of the entries.

I encourage players to at least try each entry, because despite the nature of the contest there are some good puzzle rooms in here. The ratings are based on the trick, and several good entries were rated low because they weren't so tricky, despite having great puzzles.
And tricks themselves are frequently fun, as The Fool's Errand proved.

CuriousShyRabbit
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 3170
Registered: 10-14-2006
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Feel like you haven't slipped on enough banana peels lately? Here's your fix!

This hold can be reviewed from many points of view. First, as a compiler, Jatopian has done a very nice job compiling all the Cheap Trick contest entries together in this one hold. He doesn't require the player to complete any of the entries in order to "conquer" the hold. He also includes some appropriate quotes from Erik's contest announcement, and some lovely hold art.

Looking at the entries, well, um, they're supposed to be cheap tricks. A well executed cheap trick makes me say "Dang! I fell for that? I'm an idiot!" and then I want to punch the original architect. There are some of those in here, including many of the top rated entries. There are also some that are just too obvious to trick the Rabbit. Other entries are just good puzzles, and I fail to see what's cheap about them. And of course, there are a bunch of entries that are just stupid and annoying. (I'd recommend restoring out of the stupid and annoying ones, instead of wasting your time.) Jatopian has faithfully compiled them all.

Because this is a compilation of cheap tricks, the entries in this hold have problems that normally don't get past HA. People used backtracking problems as cheap tricks. If you fall for the trick in a multiroom entry, you might have to restore and play the whole level over. People used unreachable rooms as cheap tricks. There are some levels that you will never get 100% explored on. People used impossible rooms as cheap tricks. Even with all of these problems, it is still possible to complete every entry. That is, it is possible to somehow reach the end-of-level stairs for each entry.

Finally, for any masochistic completionists out there, I'll say that in my bext savegame for this hold, I visited 404 of the 406 rooms. Of the two I did not visit, one is unreachable, and the other just can't be accessed in the same savegame. I conquered 396 of the 404 rooms I visited. Of the 8 rooms I didn't conquer, one can be conquered in a different savegame. I understand that Jatopian will be marking the unreachable and unconquerable rooms as non-highscorable.

jbluestein
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 1670
Registered: 12-23-2005
IP: Logged

I have a hard time rating this hold.

Let's get the easy part out of the way first:

It's not difficult. The hardest room in the hold is still fairly easy, and it's not even required. There are a few taxing rooms, but nothing too bad. The tough part would be solving all of these rooms without the hints, as some of the solutions are seriously unguessable.

So use the hints -- they're in the hold, they're fair game.

How fun is the hold? Well...considering the contest, I'd say that it's about as much fun as you can reasonably expect it to be. There are some good puzzles in here, but also quite a few that are (intentionally, I must point out) stupid or annoying.

If you just play the Banana Peel entries, I'd say that the hold is worth about a 7, 7.5. Playing through everything else diminishes the experience for me. But...it's all voluntary and you can conquer the hold without playing anything you don't want to, so I'm rating generously.

All in all: 7 fun, 3 brains.

Josh

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"Rings and knots of joy and grief, all interlaced and locking." --William Buck

Syntax
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 1218
Registered: 05-12-2005
IP: Logged

I was upset that the hold file was actually downloadable. Missed a trick there

trick
Level: Legendary Smitemaster
Rank Points: 2580
Registered: 04-12-2003
IP: Logged

Hello.

Jatopian
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 1842
Registered: 07-31-2005
IP: Logged

Syntax wrote:
I was upset that the hold file was actually downloadable. Missed a trick there

I totally wanted to do that, but Schik wouldn't be bribed.

trick wrote:
Hello.

Tightwad.

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