Who here is a fan of Mystery Science Theatre 3000, the classic show that mocked bad movies? Well do you remember the episode with the worst movie ever made, Manos: The Hands of Fate? The movie has no redeeming qualities to it besides the MSt3K episode where it was mocked, it is that terrible. However FreakZone Games, developer of Angry Video Game Nerd Adventures, took inspiration from the move, to make an NES style game inspired by the movie. Is it any good though?
Well, the game is bad. But not because of poor design, or bad gameplay, but because it is trying to mimic the movie it is based off of, and that makes it actually good. Sorry if that is confusing, but this is a rare type of game that is inspired by a movie and truly captures its feel but in a way that actually gives the bad movie a redeeming quality to it.
You play as Mike, who must journey through a lodge to get help and later rescue his family from “the Master”. The game plays as a platformer similar to Mega Man but with a quirky edge to it. There are multiple collectibles to get ( and they will affect the game in a way that I wont spoil here), and all in all, it feels like a game that could have been made for the NES. The music is creepy and off putting, but again that is to mimic the film the game is based on, and so rather than not liking the music, I can actually appreciate what the developer was going for.
If there are any issues, it is that the game is a little too short and the difficulty can be a little bit much for players on their first try. I wouldn’t say it is unacceptable but it is a little tough to deal with. Still if you can manage with the difficulty, you have a game that truly embraces and transforms its source material. Few games can really do this and so I must recommend this!
Disclaimer: I was given this code as part of a gamesmatter event by IndieGamerChick