Distorted Travesty 3: I Don't Know About the Distorted Part

Channel:

slowbeef

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39,300

Published on August 15, 2017 11:30:02 AM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xC8UplJRKKY

Game:

Super Mario Bros. (1985)

Duration: 3:51:42

2,614 views

25

I'll start here. In good conscience, I cannot recommend Distorted Travesty 3 to my friends. It's long, and the bad outnumbers the good... ... ... but.

I played 6-7 hours of it, because there is good that shines through. As silly as that sounds, you can see it. Some of the boss fights are cool twists on things you thought you knew. Some of the platforming challenges are clever and make good use of mechanics.

Whoever made DT3 did not skimp out, but they didn't know when to quit or let a bad idea go. I don't want this to be insulting because no insult is meant; this is honest criticism. It feels like someone with talent and drive - two things that are in short supply for the general populace - but no experience (or the restraint that comes with experience) made this.

There's good here, but you have to dig through a lot of bad. The characters never earn your care. Jerry and Claire seem like they could be a good match (character-wise), but I never really spend any time with them that's not forced on me in overlong dialogue sections. Especially in the start where I want to see what the game is all about, it's box after box after box of text.

There will be a section I like with clever platforming or a tricky pattern to negotiate, bookended with a Water Temple that takes me hours to solve; but I don't feel satisfied, just relieved that I don't have to do it again because it asked too much but didn't make use of the mechanics quite right.

There is so much care and thought put in to the details, but the overall experience needed cutting shears. This was made by a person that Hideki Kamiya would look at and say, "I could make them into something great."

I ultimately don't like Distorted Travesty 3 but... I feel like it had a lot of potential and some of it actually was pretty good (I liked the boss encounters I got to.) There's talent here, I just hope the creator makes a tighter package next time. I'll certainly keep my eye out for their next work.