Review: I Made Dis Too

[The Wobbler]

Reposted from HamsterSpeak #20: http://superwalrusland.com/ohr/issue20/imd2/imd2.html

Gilbert's original I Made Dis remains one of my favorite OHR games of all time. I had no idea he was working on a sequel all these years later, so when it suddenly hit I was pretty damn pleased.

I'm going to write two reviews, one being a couple of sentences that sum up how I feel about the new installment, and one more extensive look at the details of the game. Don't read the second part until you've played the game; I'm going to discuss plot/jokes in that section and you really don't want this game spoiled. You need to go into this game raw to really appreciate it.

SPOILER FREE REVIEW

This game is well paced, funny, and looks great. Gilbert's art, both hand drawn and pixel, has improved substantially since the first game, and the characters and backdrops look great. The visual style is fairly simple, and the characters are (mostly) small, but it works well for the game's aesthetics, and the presentation is more like a video game than the first I Made Dis. Unfortunately, it's also a shorter game, and while I enjoyed it from start to finish, I wasn't as satisfied as I was at the end of the first game. I'm a big fan of Gilbert's style, and it just left me wanting more. Here's hoping we see a third installment.




HERE COME THE SPOILERS




As I said, you really should go into this game raw. If you're reading this and haven't played it yet, you're a sucker. Stop reading and go play it, it will only take a couple minutes.


Done yet? Very good. That was great, wasn't it?



As the game opens, we join Dirty Harry, one of the last men on Earth, in his quest to mutilate the undead. Along the way, he meets a beefy friend.



Together, our heroes seek out the great and magnificent Elvis, who has grayed a little since his last appearance. He-Man and Dirty Harry die horribly, leaving Elvis to kill the rest of the zombies and the whole god damn planet Earth. After that, he chills and plays some video games.



There are a lot of things about this game that really make me love it. The art is, as already mentioned, great. A random assortment of macho smashing its way through zombies is great. The music is appropriate. At least, these things are true for the first half of the game. The second half, a game within the game that Elvis plays, is the opposite of I Made Dis in every way. It's a terrible experience, but that's what makes the whole package so entertaining. I MADE DIS ADVENTURE! is ugly, slow, and pointless. The generic knight you guide through an uninspired castle moves as slowly as an OHR hero possibly can, and faces the daunting task of pushing blocks slowly out of his path before fighting a boss where it takes several minutes for our hero's turn to even come.

The whole time, I was thinking, "This is crazy, how long can this go on?" It tortures the player. It spits in your eye and stabs you in the gut as you slowly, slowly drift towards death. The game does eventually end, and it ends before the torture can actually stop being funny and become obnoxious. It will probably leave some players dumbfounded, but I really think the game within the game is possibly the funniest joke in the series.

This could only be done in an independent, free ware game. Being able to occasionally torture the player is the right, maybe even the duty, of an independent game maker. When a game you paid $50 for wastes your time and laughs at you (Super Paper Mario), you get pissed off because you just paid someone $50 to crap in your face. When an independent game does it, it gives you a closeness with the game's author unlike nearly anything else. The author is actively laughing at you, but in a playful way, rather than in an "I just stole your money with my slimy game" way. In Walthrus, I tortured the player by forcing them to fight the same terrible, pointless battle with Woo three or four times in a row, just to be a jerk. If I'd forced the player to fight her 40 times, the joke would stop being funny, and I'd just be an slimehole. Pacing is extremely important, whether you're trying to entertain the player or torture them, and I Made Dis Too does both perfectly.

What I'm basically saying with this review is, Gilbert, I like it when you punch me in the neck. Keep it up. Just don't charge me for it.