Tanglewood (2018 video game)

Tanglewood is a puzzle platformer developed and published by Big Evil Corporation for the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive. The game was crowdfunded through Kickstarter and was released on 14 August 2018, with emulated versions available for Windows, Mac, and Linux on Steam and a dual-game cartridge for the Evercade along with Xeno Crisis.[1][2][3] Dreamcast and Nintendo Switch ports are also planned. The Dreamcast port is on hiatus.[4]

Tanglewood
The box art used for physical copies of Tanglewood
Developer(s)Big Evil Corporation
Publisher(s)Big Evil Corporation
Designer(s)Matt Phillips
Programmer(s)Matt Phillips
Artist(s)Armen Mardirossian,
Matthew Weekes,
Simon Butler,
Drew Lake,
Krzysztof Matys,
Javier Degirolmo (font design)
Composer(s)Nathan 'freezedream' Stanley
Platform(s)Mega Drive, Windows, macOS, Linux, Dreamcast, Evercade, Nintendo Switch
Release
  • WW: August 14th, 2018
Genre(s)Platformer, Puzzle
Mode(s)Single-player
This article is about the 2018 Genesis/MD game. For the 1987 computer game, see Tanglewood (1987 video game).

The Nintendo Switch port is called "Tanglewood: Definitive Edition" and will be a Director's Cut of the original Genesis release. The port will feature scrapped levels, more secrets, more bosses, widescreen, an ambient audio track, additional lore, and parallax scrolling.[5][6][7]

The game was released on physical carts that can be played on Mega Drive systems.[8]

Gameplay
Gameplay screenshot; Nymn is running across a bridge powered by a contraption

Tanglewood puts the player in control of a fox-like creature called Nymn, and later in the game a different fox-like creature called Echo, in a world where an ancient, advanced and extinct species used to live. Nymn has been separated from his pack. He can't get back to his family's underground home for safety, so he has to complete puzzles and avoid enemies to survive the night. Nymn is able to run, jump with C (default controls), push things with A and B to use a temporary power granted by Fuzzls.[9]

Chapters

Each Chapter, except Chapter 8, has a number acts. Chapter 1 has 4 acts, Chapters 2-6 has 3 acts, and Chapter 7 has 2 acts. Chapter 8 is just the final boss. Each chapter is like one day. At the beginning of each chapter, it becomes day time. By the end of most chapters, it's night time. Nymn either goes to sleep, travels in an elevator or runs off screen.

Interactive Objects[9]

As part of most puzzles, there are creatures called Fuzzls. They are mysterious fuzzy balls. Nobody knows much about Fuzzls, like where they came from. If Nymn pushes them back to their nest, they will let him use a temporary power by pressing/holding B. Yellow fuzzls grant Nymn the power to glide in the air, green ones let him slow down time, and blue ones let him tame Djakks. If Nymn's power runs out, he can go back to the Fuzzl's location to get the power back. Later in the game, there are red fuzzls that are used to charge machines and near the end of the game there is bigger white fuzzl that lets Nymn kill or damage any enemy on the screen, which is only used for the final boss. After using the white fuzzl he'll have to wait a few seconds before using it again.

Other things Nymn can push to get through levels are boulders, crates and logs. Boulders and crates can only be pushed but logs can be rolled on.

There are objects that launch Nymn into the air, flues and mushrooms. Flues are holes that will launch him into the air if jumped into. Mushrooms will give him a boost up into the air, and launch him higher up if he jumps on top of them.

There are contraptions from long ago that, a now extinct species, used to trap Djakks and keep them as hunting pets. Some of these contraptions still exist and can be used to Nymn's advantage. Most of the contraptions have buttons that need to be held down for Nymn to advance. To hold down the buttons he has to push something onto the button to make sure it doesn't close. These contraptions are powered by red Fuzzls.

Checkpoint Totems will glow Nymn's color when Nymn passes them. Just like checkpoints in most platformers, dying sends Nymn back to the last checkpoint he activated.[9]

Fireflies

In each act, except in Chapter 8, there are 8 fireflies scattered around. Some are easy to find in the main path but others are well hidden and require exploration to find. If Nymn collects all of the fireflies in each act until Chapter 8, where there are no fireflies, an alternate ending will be unlocked. There are a total of 168 fireflies in the game. In the pause menu, there are two counters for the number of fireflies Nymn has collected in the current act and the whole game.[9]

Enemies

There are several enemies in Tanglewood. As the day progresses, it becomes more dangerous, especially at night-time. A Scirus will run away from Nymn but will threaten and attack him if he corners them to a wall. Hoggs will chase and try to impale Nymn with its horn. If he tricks them into running into a wall, their horn will get stuck to it temporarily. Fish-like creatures will swim towards Nymn if he is to the left or to the right of them. They cannot swim vertically. There is also a midpoint boss in Chapter 4 called a Djermisch. Based on the name of the track used during the boss, The Last Djermisch, this Djermisch seems to be the last of his kind. The most common enemy in the game though, is the Djakk. Djakks are giant beasts that were used as hunting pets thousands of years ago. Their masters are gone now so they hunt for themselves. Djakks chase Nymn when he encounters them in an attempt to eat Nymn. They can only run towards him. The only way Nymn can kill Djakks is to push a boulder onto their head or to make them run into spikes. If a Djakk gets close enough, they'll try to bite Nymn. If Nymn is still running full speed, they can outrun the bite. Nymn can tame Djakks and ride them temporarily when using the powers granted by the blue fuzzls. After taming a Djakk, Nymn can make it do a long jump across large gaps. Nymn can't get through these gaps with a normal jump so this is required to progress. There are also Elders, which are nearly 1000 year old Djakks. When their masters passed away, they were left in their cages. If Nymn releases them from their cages, they will run faster than normal Djakks since they've been in their cages for centuries without food. However, Elders only appear in Chapter 3.[9]

The main villain in the game is sort of a demon that doesn't have a name. The developer himself, Matt Phillips, never named it and just likes to call it demon.

Password System

This game uses a password system to save games. A password shows up when the game is paused. On the Genesis/MD version, The player has to manually put in the password and the game puts Nymn at the beginning of the act he was on. On the Steam version, the game automatically saves the password and puts Nymn in the last checkpoint he passed.

Level Select

After the credits roll, the player will be sent back to the title screen but there will be a level select option. This allows them to start at whatever chapter they want. There is also a way to access this level select without beating the game. When the game is boot up, when the on the screen with the Djakk and the Fuzzl on the screen, hold Start and hold left. Holding Start allows the player to control the Fuzzl and roll it. If they roll the Fuzzl towards the Djakk, the Djakk will eat it. This activates cheat mode, which is indicated by the select cursor being a red Fuzzl instead of a normal one. Then go to the Sound Test and select the following sound effects in order: 19, 65, 9, 17. Then go back to the title screen and the level select should be unlocked.[10]

Plot
Screenshot of the first cutscene. It shows the demon smiling at Nymn while he's sleeping.

Tanglewood opens with a cutscene of a red fox-like creature called Nymn, sleeping in a nest in a forest tree. A mysterious orb floats into the scene, transforms into a demon, smiles evilly at Nymn, then changes back to an orb and floats away. Nymn wakes up but sees nothing untoward, so goes back to sleep.

For the first few levels, Nymn makes his way through the forest, surviving its many hazards.

At the end of Chapter 3, Nymn finds another fox-like creature, named Echo, hiding from a Djakk. After killing the Djakk, Nymn approaches Echo, who jumps toward Nymn and howls with relief. Echo begins following Nymn.

At the end of Chapter 5, the orb returns. It floats in front of Nymn and Echo. Echo is scared and curls up into a ball. The orb transforms into the demon and kills Nymn. The player now controls Echo, who must continue alone.

The ending depends on whether the player collects every firefly in the game. If they don't, then the game ends with Echo defeating the demon orb and arriving at the nest Nymn was sleeping in at the start of the game. Echo goes to sleep alone.[11] If the player does collect every firefly, then Nymn returns to save Echo from certain death, halfway through the fight with the demon. Once the demon is defeated, both Echo and Nymn return to Nymn's nest and go to sleep.[12]

Development

Matt Phillips programmed the entire game in 68000 assembly language using original Sega development tools and processes from the 1990s. It took around 6 years to finish this game.[8][13][14][15][16][17]

Music

Tanglewood's music was composed by Nathan Stanley, who goes by the name "freezedream" online. He also made most of the sound effects. freezedream has made Genesis/MD music before and even released an album on cartridge called Today back in 2010. The first track in the album, Winter in July, sounds similar compared to the song "Deadwood" used in Tanglewood at the beginning of Chapter 6.[18] A short version of the song "Rain" from the freezedream album Sonic Traces was used at the end of Chapter 1.[19]

There is a Tanglewood OST cartridge that includes every track in the game and a new track called TANGLEWOOD (Reprise). It also plays the full version of Rain instead of the short version used in the game.[20]

There are a total of 26 Some tracks from the official soundtrack. Some of the tracks are actually just jingles.[20]

The game uses the Echo Sound Driver, which is a Genesis/MD sound engine. The soundtrack was most likely created in DefleMask because freezedream uploaded a preview video of the Tanglewood (Reprise) track and it showed that it was made in DefleMask and Matt Phillips created a conversion tool to convert [https://www.deflemask.com/ DefleMask DMF files to be usable with the Echo Sound Driver.[21][22]

List of tracks from the official soundtrack[20]
  1. Tanglewood (Title Screen)
  2. Demon
  3. Wake Up (Jingle)
  4. Dawn (Jingle)
  5. Harlequin Forest (Chapter 1)
  6. Dusk (Jingle)
  7. Calm
  8. Night (Jingle)
  9. Djakk
  10. Lost
  11. Sleep (Jingle)
  12. Storm Warning (Chapter 2)
  13. Rain
  14. Heritage (Chapter 3)
  15. Union
  16. Tethered (Chapter 4)
  17. The Last Djermisch
  18. Bygone (Chapter 5)
  19. Scrap!
  20. So Long
  21. Deadwood (Chapter 6)
  22. Paramonia?
  23. Oasis (Chapter 7)
  24. Turntail (Chapter 8)
  25. Credits
  26. Tanglewood Reprise (Not in game)

Reception

Tanglewood received generally great reviews.

People liked the level design, puzzles and most of the animation but some people panned stuff like the lack of background music.

Awards

Tanglewood won the Development World Championship Fan Favourite Award 2018, the Revival Retro Best Indie Game of Show Award 2018, the Revival Retro Best Indie Game of Show Award 2018, and the Retrotalents 2018 at Euskal Encounter award. Tanglewood was also a finalist for the Develop Conference Indie Showcase 2018 award.

References
  1. "TANGLEWOOD: An original game for the SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive". Kickstarter. Retrieved 29 March 2019.
  2. "TANGLEWOOD® on Steam". store.steampowered.com. Retrieved 29 March 2019.
  3. "Amazon.com: Blaze Evercade Evercade Xeno Crisis/Tanglewood Dual Game Cartridge - Electronic Games: Video Games". www.amazon.com. Retrieved 2 June 2021.
  4. Graham (29 May 2019). "Tanglewood's Dreamcast port on "hiatus"". Mega Visions - SEGA, Nintendo, Xbox, PlayStation, Retro news, reviews, features, podcasts. Retrieved 1 June 2021.
  5. "TANGLEWOOD: Definitive Edition is coming soon to Nintendo Switch". TANGLEWOOD® - a new game for SEGA Mega Drive. Retrieved 29 May 2021.
  6. "Tanglewood: Definitive Edition Tweet". www.facebook.com. 17 September 2019. Retrieved 1 June 2021.
  7. DF Developers: Brand New Mega Drive/Genesis Games With Bitmap Bureau and Big Evil Corp [Sponsored], retrieved 1 June 2021
  8. "A new Sega Mega Drive game is coming out this month". Eurogamer.net.
  9. "Tanglewood Manual" (PDF).
  10. Phillips, Matt (16 May 2021), BigEvilCorporation/TANGLEWOOD, retrieved 2 June 2021
  11. Tanglewood. SEGA Genesis. Walkthrough, retrieved 3 June 2021
  12. Retro Megabit: Tanglewood Longplay Chapters 1-8 All Fireflies, retrieved 3 June 2021
  13. "An Interview with Matt Phillips: Creator of Tanglewood, A Brand New Sega Genesis Physical Release – GamingRebellion". www.gamingrebellion.com.
  14. "Sega-16 – Interview: Matt Phillips (Tanglewood Game Developer)". www.sega-16.com.
  15. "Interview: Matt Phillips, Tanglewood Developer | Retro Gamer".
  16. Gach, Ethan. "Making A New Game For The Original Sega Genesis Isn't Easy". Kotaku.
  17. "This Guy Is Making an All-New Sega Genesis Game the 90s Way". Motherboard. 14 November 2016.
  18. "Today, by freezedream". freezedream. Retrieved 3 June 2021.
  19. "Sonic Traces, by freezedream". freezedream. Retrieved 3 June 2021.
  20. "Tanglewood OST, by freezedream". freezedream. Retrieved 3 June 2021.
  21. Tanglewood Reprise Preview, retrieved 3 June 2021
  22. Phillips, Matt (16 December 2018), DefleMask Format To Echo Sound Format, retrieved 3 June 2021
  23. "Tanglewood for PC Reviews". Metacritic.
  24. Thorpe, Nick (September 2018). "Retrorated: Tanglewood". Retro Gamer (186): 98–99. ISSN 1742-3155.
  25. Bishop, Sam (19 August 2018). "It's a Mega Drive in 2018, and that pretty much means what you think it does".
  26. Aki-at (6 September 2018). "Tanglewood Review – A Retro Revival".
  27. "Tanglewood on Steam".
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