by Loulimi | July 30, 2023 | 3432 characters
I’m very impressed at the quality of the visuals, especially the sky in the final game. Putting music in the map was also a very nice touch, especially since I’m a big fan of the WIII OST. Lastly, the map is original, and I think this "mini-game" genre should be more present in Sven Co-op maps and I was very eager to play this map.
That said, for all its perks, the map failed to deliver the most important criteria, which is its gameplay. The experience I had playing it was a lot of frustration and very little fun.
This was for one main reason: in most of the mini-games, I had to die before understanding how each worked, and then wait for the mini-game to end before the map switched to the next. In the first mini-game, the text tells me not to stay on the same block for too long, but while it is saying that I cannot move. I only learn that I can now move when the block under me disappears and I fall to my death. In the mini-game where I’m supposed to avoid Andre, I only learn that I cannot jump on the table (because of an invisible wall) when "Andre" is behind me and kills me. The time Taog’s eye takes to turn red is about 2 seconds the first few times, then instantly and without any warning it becomes less than 0.5 seconds and, you guessed it, I died! Or in the chubby race, I was keeping to steady race to avoid over exerting my chubby, but without any warning the mini-game stopped because of some uncommunicated time limit. In Disco Heat, it took me some damage (though not all my health this time) as I did not understand right away there were invisible walls aound me.
There is also no indication about how you’re supposed to lead your chubby forward (which is pressing "Use"), but figuring this out did not involve dying, which is quite a step-up!
In one case the text disappeared too early for me (the coloured blocks mini-game), leaving me not enough time to understand what it said. In other cases, the text is cryptic, and you only understand it when it’s too late ("Don’t lose the path now").
So for most mini-game, I had to try and die in order to know how to play it next time. There’ll be no next time though as even after understanding the rules (either by dying or not), I still found most of the mini-games boring and without any fun, except for the Donut Diving and a few others to a lesser extent.
I’m disappointed because I usually appreciate the mini-games in WIII maps. Mini-games in WIII are different though. Usually, the whole map is centered around a particular mechanic, or they play a smaller role and serve as side quests (that can be taken in any order, at the time of the player’s choosing) that provide bonus to help the player in the map’s main quest. They are also generally more forgiving. I cannot suggest this map gets remade to look like the WIII maps I just described, but I what I suggest are to give the player a way to know what they’re supposed to do and not do. Get rid of the invisible walls everywhere, and maybe show a small demo or make the explanation more clear.
Pros:
- Great visuals
- Great music
- Original concept
Cons:
- Die, watch, rinse and repeat
- Most of the mini-games are not fun, even when understanding how they work
