Mutant Mudds: Super Challenge -- Ghost Boss, Event Preview (Nindies@Home)
4Okay, so you've surely been in suspense for DAYS now about how this rather old-news game's newest sadistic edition will play out... or at least the demo, since we're greeted with THREE doors to press our luck with, right?
The third door is one leading to... "Ghost Boss"? Really? You're going with that?
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Whoa! This guy just rushes straight for you! That's pretty scary! (I do believe he might be noncorporeal enough not to need to worry IMMEDIATELY about damage, but I'm not willing to stick around in order to find out. Jump scare! (Also that face is the stuff of nightmares! ...I'm getting some PTSD flashbacks to several Wario Lands, all of the sudden.)
So, without any real explanation, we find... a ...uh... gun, I guess? And we're given a stern reminder on the game's interface that we've got a finite amount of ammo... so I guess we'll NOT shoot everything indiscriminately as we have been so far. Also, a bunch of familiar-seeming enemies, but they're spookier because now they're ghostly! (Also the music is already beginning to drive me mad.) Oh... don't touch the... no... they're all whizzing around so fast! Aaaahhhh!
...and there's the sinister truth behind our "death clock"... once you reach 10 deaths in this demo, you go back to the title screen. Well, progress didn't feel like it meant anything to begin with, so I guess nothing's lost, and we can hop all the way back to this stage again, so I guess it's just a minor inconvenience... but it IS jarring and takes me out of the game when I already wasn't having such a good time. Don't do that, guys! Why did you do that?!
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So, having more than one life to get things right, we're able to determine some stuff through trial and error and bodily harm inflicted upon poor Maxwell... and non-bodily... er... harm? ...inflicted upon ...er... "Ghost Boss"... and friends.
As it happens, the inexplicable gun pickup on the background area is the ONLY thing that can harm ghosts, and the task is to get from the background back to the foreground without using up all its shots. You only need ONE to make Ghost Boss eject his heart, and then even your standard weapon will suffice to damage him. Then he'll just sit around and cry, generating extra small ghost enemies until you leave for the background again to repeat the process, only this time with a different layout.
Each successive background layout is progressively more demanding and treacherous... but you CAN puzzle your way through by determining which enemies can be eliminated and which must be avoided to conserve ammunition, all the while unable to stop moving because "defeating" even all these familiar foes in "ghost" form will mean that they can only be staved off temporarily and will return, and we'll still be out whatever ammo we used to remove them... ... ...this whole situation is exceedingly stressful and high-maintenance! (And in the foreground, he'll always be there, pacing frantically and distractingly in front of us. *shudder*)
The rest of it is... just doing it, unfortunately. And lucky you! You get to be here for the whole process, one part deduction, several parts rote repetition, and even more parts stupid botched execution! Hooray!
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... ... ...this part in particular does NOT make me want to pay Mutant Mudd: Super Challenge. I'd more happily be systemically screwed over by the original Japanese Super Mario Bros. 2 (a.k.a. "The Lost Levels") stage designers from hell, because at least then at least I feel like they're occasionally throwing me a bone (if only to make it all the more crushing when they betray me again later) as opposed to trying desperately to make me jump through a sadistic obstacle course.
I don't even know how much of this material is strictly-speaking... er... "new"... in that this game COULD be a mere remix of content with insane obstacle and enemy placement being the norm. Even this Ghost Boss might not be new for all I know, and THIS is just the setup required to appease people who might've found the original to be "TOO EASY!" and it's indeed a very specific niche audience that I don't belong to, but it didn't necessarily take that much in terms of development cost for an independent studio like Renegade Kid to come up with.
I still don't like it. I sympathize, but I don't like it. Renegade Kid has hurt my feelings and I will never forgive them! ...until I play Xeodrifter or the original Mutant Mudds finally. Then maybe the "never" part will be repealed. (...but they still hurt my feelings.)
But yeah, this demo didn't win me over... and it might've even harmed my willingness to play the original... but that's neither here nor there.
This isn't a "good demo" even if it's the most content-rich demo of the bunch, because it doesn't really do much to make players want to play their game... even if that means they're really not targeting "players" in general and just want to show off what they've done to superfans of the original... it's not a good way to do things.