L.G.C. |Reviews| — Mekazoo

Your intrepid heroes look at pretty colours, bounce around, and sip on N,N-Dimethyltryptamine smoothies. Mekazoo faces the CHAIRQUISITION!

Game: Mekazoo
Webzone:
http://store.steampowered.com/app/390330/
Devel: The Good Mood Creators
Engine: Unity
Price: $19.99
Wazzat:
Mekazoo is a 2D platformer set in a vibrant 3D world with fast-flowing gameplay and a cast of kinetically-diverse mechanized animals.

Mandatory Disclosure: they sent us keys


CHAIRQUISITION:
CHAIR– Nooope

CHAIRCHAIR– Not sure if want

CHAIRCHAIRCHAIR– Check it out

CHAIRCHAIRCHAIRCHAIR– Shutupandtakemymonies


Makes with the working

V-CHAIRCHAIRCHAIR

  • No UHD support.
  • Why do I have to quit the game three times?
  • VSYNC is always on during the game.

J-CHAIRCHAIRCHAIRCHAIR

  • Unity game with no scream of nope? Bonus soda

P-CHAIRCHAIRCHAIRCHAIR


Total-CHAIRCHAIRCHAIR


Shiny / Sounds

V-CHAIRCHAIRCHAIRCHAIR

  • This game is FKN gorgeous.
  • The detail in the levels alone gets this all the Chairs.
  • However, all that awesomeness can cause you to sometimes lose track of you character.
  • All the characters (in the loading screen) look like the’ve slammed a N,N-Dimethyltryptamine smoothie
  • Soundtrack really has a Sonic 2 vibe.

J-CHAIRCHAIRCHAIR

  • The soundtrack really stands out. I dig it
  • The art style looks well done, although it does look like a unity game with those unity shaders
  • Overall though, it fits the game

P-CHAIRCHAIRCHAIR

  • I can’t give it 4 chairs here because at one point, it did genuinely cause me to get a wee bit motion sick.
  • The camera flails around a little too much to give those panoramic shots of the action but when you’re stuck in a ditch and actively trying to wall jump with the kangaroo “skin” and the camera keeps flailing left and right… That’s more than a little barf inducing.
  • Other than that, it looks very good and the aforementioned panoramic shots do add to the experience.
  • The soundtrack fits. I know that may sound like a cop out answer but between saying that and saying it’s nothing to write home about but at least didn’t get muted… potato potahto.

Total-CHAIRCHAIRCHAIR


Control

V-CHAIRCHAIR

  • Can’t rebind the controls.

J-CHAIRCHAIR

  • GODDAMMIT A AND B NEED TO DO DIFFERENT THINGS!
  • Movement is also super floaty.
  • I can’t really figure out how exactly to time the Kangaroo’s jumps or the armadillo’s acceleration, and they don’t really tell you how to do it either

P-CHAIRCHAIR

  • There’s a noticeable delay when you hit the “action” button but the game doesn’t really punish you too hard for it.
  • All the levels are pretty short and there’s usually more than one way to get to places, so I’m not about to be too harsh on it… yet.
  • Not letting me rebind controls and only giving me an option to “invert” some mappings on the controller is what a developer does when they feel they know better than the player, how said player enjoys playing games.
  • But more on that later.

Total-CHAIRCHAIR


FUN

V-CHAIRCHAIR

  • I don’t know if things change later on but the first two boss fights were exactly the same thing.
  • If you’re going to do a Sonic like platformer it better damn well handle like one.
  • I made it to the kangaroo.
  • Other Venn quietly said now they’re just fuck*ing with us.
  • Seriously, I barely understand how armadillo MC rolley Face works and you throw this shite at me?

J-CHAIRCHAIR

  • Lucky me, I fucked up my button mashy finger this week, meaning I can’t play this game without irritating it
  • Still, from what I did play, I enjoyed. It sort of reminds me of a rayman/sonic mashup.
    • In fact, I’d probably nominate it for best sonic game of the year
  • I like the multiple routes that you can take to finish the level
  • You can also pick your favourite dude, and just play the other one only when you have to
    • Sorta kinda. The dynamic changes when you get more dudes
  • I can’t give the game 3 chairs though, because I feel that’s charity on account of my thumb. If I could get further, maybe I’ll find it gets repetitive
  • So throw an x-mas asteroid up there.
  • Well, now that I don’t bleed every time I play it, I can say this for certain: The controls really do ruin this game
  • Platformers make or break on their controls, and this one needs some work
  • Responsiveness and mapping are fixable though, so maybe these folks can come through in a patch. But until then, they get what they get

P-CHAIR

  • Sonic and Megaman had a baby and they left it in the care of Aunt Metroid.
  • And if you’ve been watching the Chairquisition for awhile, you know exactly how I feel about platformers in this day and age.
  • The only thing that saves Mekazoo from a completely thorough beating with the mediocrity stick is that it doesn’t feature a hipster pixel aesthetic.
  • I will even excuse the fact that all the different skins (except the kangaroo) can’t jump.
  • The second one you get is a frog, but it doesn’t really jump outside of that little hop it does when moving around. But I will let that slide too.
  • Like many games before it, Mekazoo sacrifices functionality over aesthetics.
  • And while it does look and sound above the average piece of Unity dross which currently clog up the Steam store, the controls, that one piece of essential videogame componentry, are floaty as fuck.
  • I don’t think I need to explain why controls are one the most essential bits of a videogame and having bad controls, or unresponsive controls, is a sure fire way to get people like me to stop playing your game pretty damn fast.
  • If the one mean of a fleshy human being interacting with the digital world you have created is fucked, most people won’t be able to enjoy that world the way you’d like them to.
  • And imposing a certain control scheme upon those players is adding insult to injury.
  • So no, I didn’t have fun with Mekazoo.

Total-CHAIR


Final –CHAIRCHAIR

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