Megaman Sprite Game
Game of the year material. Played through the whole thing. High marks for keeping my interest.
A joke game made outside of a contest from someone who isn't a regular here. This raised the big question of why was this made. Using that sixth sense again thinking about how this has a webcomic vibe, did a quick search and found this:
http://megamanspritecomic.tumblr.com/ There's even a Christmas mini sequel.
Game was originally released in 2012. Reviewing it in the 2014 contest. Just so everyone knows.
summary
Play as megaman and friends, searching for the magic basketballs. The conflict starts with megaman beating up a deliveryman ghost, sending him on a nonsensical adventure. There's an in-universe logic to things, which is nice, but it's all bonkers. A few twists happen that would spoil things.
playthrough
Playing through the first part, before you get the pass saying it's okay to walk off the path, it was mediocre. Playable, sure, but I was about ready to call it quits. After that it starts to pick up. So much so, and in such an unbelievable fashion for the type of game this is, that before the final level I was wondering how it would finish--if there would be a satisifying payoff to it all.
I had my doubts, that it would end abruptly or on a fake-out, but it actually goes somewhere. It works, can't say it was super satisfying, but that's the game in a nutshell. Never before have I seen such effort put into something that's supposed to seem stupid and lazy for laughs. Things like...
neat things
Graphics are smart. Instead of block wallpaper trees, does the better way of layering a single well drawn tree sprite. Little touches in detail like on the burned down houses. Sound is used very effectively, moreso than anything I've played in the ohr. There's a tribal segment and the little tribesmen constantly die with a small explosion and sound fx, really well executed. Especially liked when you save Roll by pushing one into a fire. Fluid cutscenes, very well scripted. One part where you land on someone and it smears blood in a way where there was thought in how it was scripted, where it doesn't look cheap. Like there was real magic being performed, in the tricks used to make it look like a real video game.
Enjoyed the final dungeon, felt like a satire on the typical last stage in a rpg, where it's overly complex looking and scripted, but is still an exercise in walking down a one-way path, with lots of slides. Was a playpen to boot.
bad things / battles
Didn't enjoy the bad ending setup. You have to stay on the path and not walk on grass, else you get a game over in a later area. Some of the maps dragged, namely the underwater level. The battles I have to disagree with Giz on. They were there to service the setup that this was a rpg, but were mostly pointless in a 'game' sense. The design was to make sure they lasted long enough so you can see stupid things like a duck quack and run away, or an eskimo ask why he chose to vacation in the lava level or whatever was said. One enemy's attack is to explode and die. Tree air-freshener hanging on a tree.
Got the feeling a lot of the true humor relies on knowing the setups from the comic. But hey, knows its audience, check. Also, there were a lot of fun uses of enemy transformations, especially the final battle where the enemy changes appearance for each special attack. Was great. If anything, treating the battles more seriously would have ruined the tone.
spicy meatball statements
Could go on, but want to wrap this up. I really think this shows how it can be a bad thing to get caught up in the ohr community and lose sight of bigger pictures. This wasn't made for a contest, wasn't made for any of us ohr developers, past of present. The author clearly has spent time developing their visual art skills, pulls a lot of design from non-ohr games, (though with obvious wandering hamster influences, have to learn the engine from somewhere.) It's clear they enjoyed their concept, wanted people to play their game, made it with that in mind, all while keeping their own creative integrity.
megadunks bro!! even changed the game.exe icon.