The new patch works great! Love the sleeping Dewey on the side.
Finally beat the Meat Zone and unlocked Calorie, so I’m now prepared to give thoughts on the new characters. I don’t see their pronouns listed anywhere, so I’m going to use they/them for everyone until further notice.
Choux (the pink puff pastry thingy):
Choux is the unrivaled GOAT of this game. Their gimmick is that their belly bump is replaced with a puffing attack that hits in all directions in exchange for being slower. This has a huge amount of benefits and basically no drawbacks.
Firstly, they’re completely invincible while puffed up, which allows them to “parry” normally unblockable projectiles such as eggplant bombs, cannonballs, and laser beams with proper reaction speed and timing. The only projectile they can’t phase through is milkfalls, since those are too large and travel too slowly, so their I-frames expire before the projectile passes by.
The 360 degree radius of their attack also makes it much easier to kill ceiling-bound enemies such as the udder crawlers, which normally have to be killed by breaking the block above them. Their item collection hitbox also expands when this attack is used, allowing you to collect nearby food or heart pickups through diagonal corners, or slightly extend your vertical range to reach a piece of food that’s one block above your jump height. It comes in handy surprisingly often. The puff attack also completely stops Choux’s momentum, making it possible to use it as a parachute when landing on spikes.
My only nitpick (and it is a very, very minor one) is that Choux does not seem to have alternate sprites for inflating themselves at different weight stages. Maybe this is just my horny brain talking, but it would be fun to have Choux’s inflated size get larger in proportion to their standard size. Honestly, though, it’s understandable not to include this, since Choux’s hitbox is a little bit janky sometimes when puffing up near indestructible walls or bouncy blocks.
Chunk (cookie dog that definitely isn’t a Doughmutt):
Chunk has a “base weight” of 150, meaning that they cannot fall below 150 pounds under any circumstances (all other characters have a base weight of 50). This means that they are never in a state in which they are unable to break blocks, and it is easier to buy upgrades from the shop due to the spending forgiveness system (if a purchase would cause you to fall below your base weight, you can still buy the item, but you only go down to your base weight, allowing you to pay less for items in certain conditions).
Overall, this is a neat sidegrade that changes up your playstyle without a distinct positive or negative benefit. If you appreciate being underweight enough to roam freely at the top of the level and look for a good entry point, Chunk is not your character. If you’re sick and tired of not being able to break the floor and having to walk sideways until you find a naturally generated hole, Chunk is for you.
Calorie (metal raptor creature):
Calorie is my favorite character from a visual design standpoint. Their unique body shape and the fact that they don’t seem to be made of food like everything else in the game makes them stand out, and their raptor-like stance makes their fat accumulate in a more unique way. They have a jetpack that consumes weight to use, but can otherwise be used indefinitely. It’s a bit like an upgraded version of Helium Tum.
Unfortunately, as much as I love their design and concept, they are my least favorite character to play. They suffer a lot from having to use the jump button to activate their jetpack, since it conflicts quite badly with bouncing on enemies or blocks. What tends to happen is that I will hit the up key just a few frames too early when I’m about to land on an enemy, and Calorie will instead activate their jetpack, stopping their downwards momentum entirely and ruining the bounce (This issue is also present with Helium Tum, but it’s not nearly as bad since it still descends you downwards, and you can also just wait for it to run out).
I think they (and Helium Tum) would benefit strongly from having their jetpack be a separate button rather than being bound to the jump key, as the conflict with the bouncing mechanic makes them difficult to use effectively and often wastes hard-earned fat. I would suggest moving Escape Rope to another button and having both Calorie and Helium Tum activate with the E key.
Still have not made it to the Anubis fight yet, unfortunately. Please stand by while I either git gud or get a really lucky run.
