Mutant Mudds: Super Challenge -- Stage 1-1, Event Preview (Nindies@Home)
2Well, we're here! The ninth and final Nindies@Home demo... er, "Event Preview"! Presenting, Mutant Mudds: Super Challenge... um... it's a game. Based on its predecessor/easytype self, Mutant Mudds. I think?
Let's be frank here (well, you be Frank, I'll be candid), I've never played the original Mutant Mudds beyond a demo a long ways back before I had any actual 3DS games, but I'm also pretty sure I own the real game's deluxe edition... possibly more than once somehow... but still, my original point stands.
I can't really explain it, because the game is clearly very well-crafted mechanically and it's a super crazy love letter to a bunch of retro gaming milestones, conventions, and quirks that are known quantities to be right up my alley (seriously, try to count them, they're not all obvious either!) ...but somehow I wind up with a... not-strictly-positive reaction as my takeaway...
I think it has a lot to do with the fact that you've got a versatile and capable player character with very definite and concretely-discernible movement limits and precisely-tuned controls. It's well-crafted game at its most basic levels. The PROBLEM is that they've built the game to the very limits of these specifications just as carefully. Also, Maxwell DOES move a little slowly and deliberately, so it all feels very tightly-wound for what can and should be a purely joyful experience. Oh, and then you've got hidden stuff... it's not hidden unfairly, but it's also not like it's not ALSO creating one extra layer of choresome duty for you. And, c'mon, you GOTTA collect everything if they're laid out in a clearly-keeping-track fashion like we see here! (Even if it causes more trouble than it's worth!)
And then, of course, THIS is the Super Challenge... er... edition(?) of the game? Or even an expansion of new levels maybe? ...so those limits will be even more strenuously tested! ...oh boy, what have I gotten myself into here?!
... ... ...
THIS is stage 1-1?! This is very daunting! At least the controls are super-tight and you're always in control! ...so that they can MAKE you exercise that full control, or else... ... ...crud!
I do rather like the multi-layered playfield idea, although it DOES lose a lot of its punch and full effect when NOT on the 3DS. It's one of the really cool things that the Virtual Boy could do... for the about five minutes tops you could stand a red-shifted dot matrix vibrationscape...
Anyway, the game FEELS good, even if it also feels like a lot of work... building on the strange misgivings I already had for the original edition of the game which has caused it not to be a huge priority in my grander scheme of things... but for what it is, it's very nice and very proficient in being... itself. Yes! Sure!
Anyway, the other kinda-interesting thing I noticed is that it's not a lives-based system, but it DOES have a death count to make you feel bad for failing without actually setting you back. Well, no, that's not entirely true, but we won't learn HOW it's affecting us even within this demo until later...
I have no idea what's up with that little doorway with the abbreviated sign as to its purpose... but I figure it's a bonus area and it's never made available in demos anyway... but I did have to at least try and see if anything I could do within the demo itself could help with that. Gotta try anything and everything!