Juliäntli – Review
Sometimes there are games released which sell at a price around €1,00 / $1,00. Some of these games are a big failure and some are actually amazing. But the developers at stardust.ch came up with something that makes you go ‘’What The Duck’’ in their new game Juliäntli. Featuring ducks, a groovy sound and tripping visuals you will have to make it in the highscores. Now let’s take some breadcrumbs, climb behind the pc and find out if the ducks of stardust.ch are worth their money!
Story
Juliäntli doesn’t have a story. Of course with a game for this price you wouldn’t expect that it has one, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that it is missing. Taking this in consideration when asking the question if a story benefits the game, the answer is no. The developers clearly went for a fast clicker game, with one short round (more about this later).
Graphics
When you first launch the game you get the warning that the game contains flashing lights and fast paced motions which can cause a seizure, this is a welcome trigger warning. As soon as you accept and advance to the menu of the game, the neon coloured duck, title and menu options start flashing and begin to change colours to the beat.
When you press the start button the graphics don’t really change at all, it is in a simple basic style with a background that keeps flashing in all different neon colours, ducks that change colour and a big timer. Yes you probably have guessed it already, the time also chances colour.
So the graphics aren’t the best one, and feel it feels like you are watching directly in a neon coloured strobe light. But for the price and the idea behind the game the developers hit the right snare.
Sound
The game has one track which is the menu track and the in-game track. It is a techno sound supported by a heavy beat which is constantly repeating. The track that is playing fits the game perfectly and goes swimming with the constantly changing colours, which also happens on the beat.
Maybe it would have been better if there was a different track playing in the main menu because after hearing the current sound a couple of times you can get really annoyed by it. But on the other hand we can’t expect that much from a game in this price category. So in the end, it’s not that bad.
Gameplay
Juliäntli is a rhythm based clicker game, where the goal is to score as many points as possible by clicking on the different ducks. The idea behind the game is to click on as many ducks as possible and to do this on the beat to get combo points. At the start of the game you get 30 seconds but you can extend this by clicking on the right duck for this particular advantage.
So the ducks got mentioned a lot already. Let’s get a bit more in the differences between them and what happens when you click on them. There are four different kind of coloured ducks to click on in the game; a blue, red, green and an orange one. All come with their own special bonus. When you click on the blue duck it will attract other ducks from around it so you can click on even more ducks to score even more points. The red duck starts shooting a laser and starts to spin, and takes down ducks around it if the laser hits them. The green one adds a bit of time so you can play a bit longer and the orange duck is a special combo duck which gives the biggest amount of time and the best number of points, but you will have to click them in the right order to activate the combo.
After each game you play you will get to see the global leaderboard and where you landed with your highscore. This is giving a competitive feeling to the player. It makes you want to score more points during the next game in order to climb the ladder.
After looking at the gameplay, the game is worth its money, even though it isn’t the best game out there. But it is fun to play for a while. It also could be really enjoyable on an evening when you have some friends over and had some drinks and want find out who’s the best duck clicker.
Conclusion
For the price of only €0,79/$0,99 you will get a nice and well-made game. The graphics aren’t the best but they are good for the price and of course the same goes for the sound. After playing for a while the game can get really repetitive and will probably stop being enjoyable but as long as you don’t get a seizure from it, it is a good investment for your steam library.
Juliäntli - Review,
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