This is the most intense game I've ever played, and it's not even close.

The way difficulty scales from level to level is quite something. I love how you're allowed to choose how difficult you want to make the game for yourself by going for extra style points or just trying to struggle your way to the end of a level. I also love how quickly you can go from trying to chain slams and perfect turns together to the 'oh ♥♥♥♥' survival mode (and back again!). Great game and it holds up even now. This experience is a pure adrenaline white-knuckle ride from start to finish, and after the initial few easy levels I found myself unable to play for more than a single level at a time. The ending part is also quite something else.

If I had something to complain about, it was that levels 7. 8 and 9 (not the bit at the end, that part is fine imo) had a few sections that were literally impossible to react to; generally corner walls that don't come into vision until it was too late or when the track crests a hill and there's a button you need to hit just over the top, although the latter isn't as bad since it doesn't do damage to you. Like I said before, the game's difficulty scaling is pretty much perfect and leaves you feeling challenged all the way through (man, going back to level 1 really throws you for a loop), so it feels especially jarring when you do run into one of these 'unfair' segments. Apart from that, I feel as though the controls on the multi-rail sections to be a bit sluggish (on keyboard) and it led to me skipping many of those sections as it was very difficult for me to navigate through those on reaction. Sure, both of these issues can be solved by a little bit of repetition, but I feel that Thumper is at its best when you DON'T know what is coming up and juuuuuust barely hanging on for dear life. Regardless, this is still a hard recommend from me. You may think level 1 is a bit easy, but rest assured it won't remain that way.

This is the most intense game I've ever played, and it's not even close. The way difficulty scales from level to level is quite something. I love how you're allowed to choose how difficult you want to make the game for yourself by going for extra style points or just trying to struggle your way to the end of a level. I also love how quickly you can go from trying to chain slams and perfect turns together to the 'oh shit' survival mode (and back again!). Great game and it holds up even now. This experience is a pure adrenaline white-knuckle ride from start to finish, and after the initial few easy levels I found myself unable to play for more than a single level at a time. The ending part is also quite something else. If I had something to complain about, it was that levels 7. 8 and 9 (not the bit at the end, that part is fine imo) had a few sections that were literally impossible to react to; generally corner walls that don't come into vision until it was too late or when the track crests a hill and there's a button you need to hit just over the top, although the latter isn't as bad since it doesn't do damage to you. Like I said before, the game's difficulty scaling is pretty much perfect and leaves you feeling challenged all the way through (man, going back to level 1 really throws you for a loop), so it feels especially jarring when you do run into one of these 'unfair' segments. Apart from that, I feel as though the controls on the multi-rail sections to be a bit sluggish (on keyboard) and it led to me skipping many of those sections as it was very difficult for me to navigate through those on reaction. Sure, both of these issues can be solved by a little bit of repetition, but I feel that Thumper is at its best when you DON'T know what is coming up and juuuuuust barely hanging on for dear life. Regardless, this is still a hard recommend from me. You may think level 1 is a bit easy, but rest assured it won't remain that way.