THE TRIBULATION ENTANGLEMENT

Summary

"Tribulation Entanglement" is a fun 2D platformer with a very distinct and memorable art style

Story and Setting

From what I understand, the events of the game take place on an alien world that experienced an extinction event. You play as a humanoid creature (I guess the last survivor of the original inhabitants of that planet) that wakes up in a cave of some sort and needs to fight the strange creatures that now populate the world. Nothing is revealed in-game about who exactly the protagonist is or why he's in the situation he's in or what's going on.

Controls and movements

• The player character in the game has basic movements: walking, jumping, and attacking.
• The player's primary attack is with a tentacle-like extension from his arm that is used as a whip (sideways and upwards). If the player character is carrying a power-up, he can also launch projectiles to attack enemies from a distance.
• Controls are effective enough to navigate the different areas of the game and traverse the many traps and platforming challenges that will appear along the way.
• Getting hit by an enemy or an enemy projectile knocks the player back rather violently and can prove lethal around pitfalls and spikes.

Level Design

• The levels in the game are pretty much straightforward and linear. You start at the beginning of one area and fight your way past enemies, jump over death traps, until you reach the exit.
• Certain areas appear to be dead-ends but the player can proceed if he uncover hidden passages by breaking certain blocks in the environment.
• There are save points but I felt the game could have used some more of them.
• Levels are not labeled or named; you progress from one area to the next and fight bosses along the way. This, in my opinion, creates the illusion of an "open world," which I thought was an interesting way of creating a game experience.

Enemy and Boss Design

• The enemies in the game comprise of bizarre creatures, with animal and humanoid features.
• Enemy behaviours are fairly simple. Some follow you while others patrol back and forth on a set path. A few enemies shoot fireballs at you. Standard platformer fare.
• Bosses have predictable attack patterns that are easy to remember. They can be quite easily defeated if you time your moves correctly.

Power ups and weapons

• There are four types of special powers that you can acquire. The first one is a large fireball that moves horizontally. The second is a diagonally-moving fireball which is useful for taking down airborne enemies. The third is a boomerang-like disk that flies through foes, damaging them as long as it touches them. The fourth is multiple projectiles that shoot out from the player in multiple directions. Each power up causes varying degrees of damage to enemies.
• Power-ups can be used as long as you're carrying enough "SP" (Special Power?) indicated by a meter on the HUD. Different power-ups use different amounts of SP, so they can only be used a few times and should thus be used judiciously.
• There is no item inventory and you can only carry one special power at a time. Like in the Contra games, if you collect a new special power, it will automatically replace the one you were previously carrying, so you'll need to be careful with what you pick up.

Visuals

• If there's one thing I'll remember about this game, it would be the visuals, which is the game's strongest point. It has a distinct lo-fi, hand-drawn, black and white aesthetic that creates an immersive and atmospheric experience.
• The unique set pieces, textured tilesets, and multi-layered backgrounds effectively convey the idea of the hostile alien world that the game takes place in.
• The large enemy sprites go along great with the environmental art.

Music and Sound

• The soundtrack for the game comprises of dark, slow, rhythmic synth music. It perfectly complements the visuals without becoming overwhelming.
• SFX is passable and are remniscent of the sounds of classic NES games.

Notes

• There's no way to replay completed levels. I feel the game would have benefited from a level select menu that would allow players to replay completed levels.
• The "new game" option on the main menu is the first selection, posing the risk of accidentally choosing it and erasing all saved data without warning, thus forcing the user to start from the very beginning again.

Final Thoughts

Overall, "Tribulation Entanglement" a pretty enjoyable game despite it's simplicity and short length (I beat the game in an hour and a half). It's worth collecting solely for it's creative and unique art style. I'm glad I have it in my collection and I would recommend it to fans of 2D platformers. I look forward to a sequel.

(Posted: 07/08/25)

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See this game's Steam Page.

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