Review Information
Game Reviewed Mario Land: Minigame Mayhem, by Kritter
Review Author Syr
Created Sep 28 2014, 10:09 AM

General Commentary and Game Overview
Disclaimer: Review is of my personal opinion. Getting butthurt won't solve anything.

Overview: I'm going to be honest, this game wasn't that great to me. Sure it was well made, but as a gamer, I'd much rather be doing something else a bit more entertaining. But here's why.
 
Pros Well made, obviously he put time into it.
Familiar Mario and Luigi graphics, logically the best choice for this game. Maybe.
Does things right for the most part.
 
Cons Coin system
Out of place lag (like during Coin Catch)
Luck-based overload.
Annoying: Run out of coins, go all the way back to Toadsworth, rinse, repeat.
 
Impressions
Gameplay
5 / 10
This game did something right but did quite a bit of things wrong. I'm one of those guys that plays beyond the few minutes. Yes, way beyond. This game didn't provide any annoying glitches that prevented me from doing so. Logically it'd be a good game, right? Well, it is; however, it did a lot of things wrong. The biggest sin was the coin system. Honestly, I just wanted to play the minigames. But nope, this game denied it. From the gamer's point of view (mine and some friends in this case): I cared nothing for the amusement park. NOT SPEAKING FOR EVERYONE though. It was nice but obviously I'm here to game it up. Now, not everyone's "amazing speedo" at your games and may not get it the first time but hell, if you bought into a game that cost 10 coins and you only had like 16, well forget getting a second try to do better. You're crap out of luck. (Can't see how this is "family fun" or any fun when access to mini games relies on such a flawed coin system." Not the mention the prizes are pitifully low. And losing is quite unforgiving. It's like playing the battle minigames of Mario Party 2 over and over, for a price. Thank god this wasn't made into an android game. I could imagine how stabbing the In-Game purchases of coins would be.

That aside, 1 game I ran called coin catch did the unthinkable for its first round. It tossed about 80% of the coins far to the side, straight into the lava. The second time I ran it (because I barely had the funds to give it a second go after learning the game) the tossing was at a different rate and I managed to get 70% of the coins. In the middle of that, it lagged quite a bit (msi laptop runs huge games fine such as battlefield 4 and minecraft)- so I thought it was weird.
The next thing on the list was luck-based but really, it's simply best not to play these games until you have more than enough coins at your disposal.
Most of the mini games I played were made well. Like visually, quite epic such as Kamek's Duel. But visually appealing is not enough in the POV of an unforgiving gamer. Yes, I did let a few friends try this out and well, the coin barrier is just too annoying for retries.
-I'm not sure if this game did; but a nice twist to it would be like, aiming for a goal. For example, Mario collects enough of something or beat a select few minigames (which can be accessed after collecting coins) --he unlocks
the Bowser park or something which leads to like 5 must-beat mini games or who knows? (Just an example)
The purpose of this was to show off mini games but playing them all one-by one is not happening. Coin system flaw. I'd rather not deal with it.
 
Graphics
7 / 10
Mario and Luigi graphics. Yeah, we've seen them countless times but I can't imagine someone by himself (though its been done before) drawing everything from scratch and making a game like this without losing motivation.
 
Sound
9 / 10
The music is sounds from other games, quite familiar songs that enjoyed in the past and don't mind hearing again.
 
Replay
6 / 10
Theoretically, this game has an enormous amount of replay value; however, for my friends and I, trying to use this on a game night without infinite coins --yeah.. Not happening.
 
Final Words
7 / 10
This game promised a great structure but the poles of support were too thin thus it fell apart. An okay game, but way too overrated. 6.75/10

Comments
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Kritter
Sep 29 2014, 10:42 PM
Well you're the first to complain about the coin system in such a harsh way. I wouldn't call it a flaw, just something you personally don't like in a game.

This game was never intended to be a simple "go in, play minigames quickly, then quit" kind of thing. If that's what you were after then this was never going to be the game for you.

It's good feedback though, and getting coins in other ways is something I would like to add in the future. I do plan to add things like sidequests to get easy coins and stop the reliance on Toadsworth if you run out, but if you're not a fan of the more RPGish nature of the game then it probably won't matter much to you.

If you have any suggestions on what would improve the game for you, feel free to let me know on the Forum topic.
 
No Icon
Syr
Sep 30 2014, 4:50 PM
Quote (Kritter on Sep 29 2014, 10:42 PM)
Well you're the first to complain about the coin system in such a harsh way. I wouldn't call it a flaw, just something you personally don't like in a game.

This game was never intended to be a simple "go in, play minigames quickly, then quit" kind of thing. If that's what you were after then this was never going to be the game for you.

It's good feedback though, and getting coins in other ways is something I would like to add in the future. I do plan to add things like sidequests to get easy coins and stop the reliance on Toadsworth if you run out, but if you're not a fan of the more RPGish nature of the game then it probably won't matter much to you.

If you have any suggestions on what would improve the game for you, feel free to let me know on the Forum topic.

Didn't mean to brush off as harsh but more as stated what I felt. It is within my personal tastes (as the review stated) but the sidequest idea is very good.
The mainly problem for me was not having a second try or some kind of practice option (not that this is Mario Party) before playing the game. To me, I just felt like it was quite unforgiving especially if you mess up lol.
Other than that, this is a good game and its addition to the site is appreciated.
 
No Icon
Kritter
Sep 30 2014, 9:58 PM
Quote (Syr on Sep 30 2014, 4:50 PM)
Didn't mean to brush off as harsh but more as stated what I felt. It is within my personal tastes (as the review stated) but the sidequest idea is very good.
The mainly problem for me was not having a second try or some kind of practice option (not that this is Mario Party) before playing the game. To me, I just felt like it was quite unforgiving especially if you mess up lol.
Other than that, this is a good game and its addition to the site is appreciated.

Well I appreciate the review and as I say, any ideas you have to improve the experience would be greatly appreciated too.

I did actually toy with the idea of opening up a practice mode for each minigame when you have played that minigame at least once, but I was worried people would play that and kind of forget about the main game, which would be a bit of a shame.
 
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