MFGG - Mario Fan Games Galaxy

Review Information

Game Reviewed	Somari 2, by Ryan Silberman
Review Author	MrMcLime
Created	May 12 2016, 9:33 PM

General Commentary and Game Overview

Honestly, I didn't have very high expectations going into this one. It's a sequel to Somari for goodness sake. A pirate game for the NES.

Okay, so the idea is that Mario decided to try being Sonic. And that works about as well as you'd expect. It's not completely bad, it has physics, and the premise has potential. But it suffers so much in every other area that it just hasn't the capability to be enjoyable.

Pros	+It has physics. +The music is actually not to bad, all things considered. +Everything functions as intended.
Cons	-The physics don't feel right at all. -The music doesn't fit the theme very well. -It looks pretty bad. -The level design is fairly lacking. -The levels are too long.

Impressions

Gameplay 3 / 10	Alright, first things first. It works. It doesn't work well, but it works. Okay, so essentially, this game is a Sonic game, and one of the most important things about a Sonic game is how the player moves. And already, this game fails to capture that feel. It's wrong. It's just wrong. Generally in Sonic, rolling down slopes builds speed. And this game does that too. So far so good. But then you realize that you maintain that momentum on pretty much any surface. Even in instances where you should be flung backwards, you stick to the surface you're on like you're magnetized to it. Half-pipes don't work, either. In a Sonic game, you can roll back and forth on half-pipes to gain extra height, but trying that here will result in you LOSING height. Not that the level design really incorporates any of these features. It's all very free form, which isn't bad for this kind of game, but it goes too far, so the terrain is very inconsistent. In general, it doesn't seem to establish many rules, or if so, doesn't do a good job of teaching them. Sometimes, the terrain flings me off in a direction I don't want to go, and other times, it carries me past a route I wanted to take. It also doesn't help that they're long. Running full tilt for the goal in this game, it takes maybe 4-ish minutes minimum to finish. They just go on and on. This wouldn't be a problem if the level design was interesting, but there's nothing to see or do. Not that it matters, because you can press shift to skip entire levels. The enemies don't fare much better. They don't do much, and aren't particularly interesting. They're largely ignorable, and doing so isn't too difficult. All in all, there's not much good to say about the gameplay, but that's not all there is to talk about.
Graphics 2 / 10	The graphics are bad. Most of them have clearly been done up in seconds in MS Paint. It's all rushed and has no shading, everything is very basic, and nothing is distinctive. The designs are boring, the level themes are bland, and the animations for the sprites is kind of choppy.
Sound 6 / 10	The sounds aren't particularly interesting, but they're serviceable. The music is actually pretty good, it's catchy and has a nice rhythm. My only real complaint is that it doesn't seem to fit. If this game is supposed to feel like Sonic, why not use music that sounds like Sonic? Or why not some Mario-y tunes, since this games is (sort of) about Mario? Or heck, why not both, since the game is a mash up of Mario and Sonic? Either of those musical styles would be right at home in this game. So why does the music in the game sound like Mega Man? The instruments and tone of these tracks fits that style of game better. Here though, while not bad, it just feels out of place.
Replay 1 / 10	This game has no replayability, because it isn't fun to play the first time. There isn't anything to keep the player invested in one playthrough, let alone two or three. As far as I know, there aren't any powerful gems, or stars, or mystical artifacts, or other form of magic MacGuffin to collect, no time attack, nothing to keep anyone coming back again and again.

Final Words

This game doesn't feel like Sonic, doesn't look good, doesn't sound quite right, and doesn't offer anything to make someone want to play more.

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