MFGG - Mario Fan Games Galaxy

Review Information

Game Reviewed	Mr. Pence: Origins, by MisteryGX
Review Author	Vitiman
Created	Feb 10 2024, 10:48 PM

General Commentary and Game Overview

MisteryGX - a person of many identities on MFGG (but I refuse to deadname anybody) - has always been one of my favorite contributors to this website in recent memory. Watching them grow over the years has been very fascinating to say the least! I say that completely sincerely, as their works are some of the finest that MFGG has ever seen. Striking a nearly-perfect balance of whimsical and strange and genuine polish and passion for what they do.

They're also one of the few Click users still standing around here, and that's a truly magical endeavor to behold.

But enough waxing about them and their history, what about the thing I'm writing about right now? Why the long preamble? Well, I suppose it occurred to me that I don't think I've ever reviewed any of the Mr. Pence or Mr. Pence-adjacent joke games so far. Roo has done an excellent job keeping up with them though, so go check out their reviews if you want some insight into the creativity (and very rarely, lackluster-tude) of the Mr. Pence franchise.

But this? This is far from lackluster. Indeed, friends: this is a very shiny specimen right here. Something to look at in awe, and with nary a spec in sight.

Pros	+ Completely gorgeous and unique presentation; the modern MisteryGX games are in a league of their own visually + Wonderful soundtrack choices + Butter-smooth engine, like... wow. Never have I played a joke game that felt this good to handle + God bless you for keeping this up for so long, on that note + Surprisingly apt and competent level design
Cons	- ...but it's not without its flaws. Leaps of faith are very commonplace, even if they usually were handled well - Soft-locks are indeed very possible with the chatting engine, which is why I didn't get as far as I could have - Fast reflexes are a requirement for boss fights, fair warning - It's honestly not as funny as it could be, knowing MisteryGX's past games

Impressions

Gameplay 8 / 10	Here's a dumb, stupid, self-admitted unfinished JOKE game... that feels like it's more put-together than some actual, genuine efforts from folks who aren't trying to make anyone laugh, least of all themselves. That's commitment to the bit. Or maybe it's just honest-to-God competence. Who really knows what the goal is! But either way, this thing plays so well. I can't stress that enough, the platform engine here never gave me much trouble. It was always something else that would stress me out, never the control. That's a very good sign in a platforming game, to say the least. I want to particularly highlight that they tried to stuff so many little extra moves here, you can do duck flips in the air and (as Mr. Pence himself) you can do a bounce attack that often is the only way to kill certain enemies. Speaking of that, there was an enemy in a later stage that surprised me in how he would not die even with an invincibility star. That isn't really the world's greatest game design, seeing as it doesn't appear at first glance to be totally invulnerable. Well, it wasn't that they would die that bugged me, it's that it somehow still hurt me even with the star power. That's the thing that really got my goat. Oh well... Other than that, I did only get so far before getting soft-locked right before the museum stage. Sucks too, I was actually getting into the game. But I did not feel like playing all of that over again just to get beyond that point. Especially if it could happen again! Wasn't about to let luck decide if I wasted my time or not. Only other thing that bugs me is the game force-full-screening upon being launched. Not a fan of that, and while there's probably a hot key to get it back into a windowed state, it'd just be better if launching into full screen was something you did after loading it up, but that's a nitpick really. Nothing insane to gripe about, admittedly.
Graphics 10 / 10	Phenomenal. It speaks for itself. It's cohesive yet silly, unique yet structured, it's almost entirely custom or edited by MisteryGX themselves... it's a work of art really. The amount of effort put into this and it wasn't even wound up finished, too! Well, I can relate to that. I think we all can. But MAN, this is... you just don't see other people doing this with fangames. I commend this for existing at all. It's really wonderful.
Sound 8 / 10	Very solid picks! Not much to complain about, but not much else to discuss. Okay, some of the enemy sound effects caught me off-guard and made me laugh. Really some of the funniest parts of an otherwise-middling humor component. So at least the SFX have some bite to them, sort of. I liked them, is what I'm saying. But yeah, the music is great, the sounds are pretty solid, what can you say? I enjoy it, man.

Final Words

Apart from a little soft-lock with the dialogue system, Mr. Pence Origins proves once and forever more that the unsung monarch of MFGG's Joke Game Kingdom has now become MisteryGX and their lavish back catalogue of strange and exciting Multmedia Fusion games. God Save The Clickteam.

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Comments

	Roo Mar 1 2024, 4:01 PM
Glad to be known as the resident "person who reviews MisteryGX games".
1 like from: Vitiman

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