MFGG - Mario Fan Games Galaxy

Review Information

Game Reviewed	P2013X (Jokegame), by Hypernova
Review Author	Cap'n Coconuts
Created	Nov 5 2015, 10:15 PM

General Commentary and Game Overview

P2013X is a minigame submitted to one of MFGG's Joke Game Contests. This particular contest was themed around working out, so this is a lot of what Luigi does in this game.

As the plot for this Hong Kong 97 parody goes, the People's Republic of China has a devious master plan to take over the world: replace the United States flag on the Moon with a Chinese flag! The only one who can stop him is the weak and skinny Luigi, who must surpass Goku's level of power to stand a chance.

Pros	+ Humorous plot that parodies Hong Kong 97 + Good 8-bit style graphics + Excellent chiptune music + Spoopy Mayro reference that is better than Spoopy Mayro
Cons	- Gameplay is a bit lacking - No replay value

Impressions

Gameplay 5 / 10	Each level in this game (except for the last one) has significantly different gampelay, so a review of the gameplay simply wouldn't do the game justice unless each level was reviewed individually. Fortunately, the game is quite short, making this approach very feasible. LEVEL 1: "Stop Being Slim" Unfortunately, the platforming required in this level is very precise. Little to no room for error is given as you try to avoid spikes and bottomless pits, which may be frustrating for some players. At the end, Luigi apparently decides his current workout isn't... well, working out well enough, so he slims himself up another way. I agree with him: this level does not work out well enough. 5/10. LEVEL 2: "Do a Light Slow Jog" In this level, Luigi trains his shortened legs by running as fast as he can. The player must input series of arrow key presses to go faster. Any further commentary about this level's content and I would spoil the joke. Alas, the gameplay here is also somewhat unforgiving. Although you have plenty of time to press the correct key even as you speed up, the game does not tolerate mistakes. One incorrect key and you're booted back to the beginning of the level. One might hope this level had checkpoints or at least a couple of extra chances; unfortunately, this is a false hope. The level is amusing, but a bit unforgiving. 7/10. LEVEL 3: "Pew Pew at Enemis" Running faster than light has granted Luigi the ability to shoot lasers from his eyes, so now he decides to train his superpower in a shoot-em-up level. The fire rate for lasers are pretty swell, but there are no firepower upgrades to be found. As SHMUPS go, this level is pretty primitive. The only way you can fail is colliding with an enemy, and there's no penalty for letting any of them escape you. It would be more accurate to call the enemies "destructible obstacles." The boss is the only enemy that remotely tries to get in your way, and even then it feels as if it runs on AI roulette. I mean, come on. Even Hong Kong 97 enemies could at least shoot in your general direction. If I can make a SHMUP minigame with a nonsensical plot that happens to have power-ups and enemies that actually threaten the player, why can't this game do the same thing? As a guy who loves his SHMUPs despite not being very good at them, I'm afraid I have to give this level 2/10. LEVEL 4: "A Workout Exercize Thaz 2 Spoopy!!!" This level is a parody of Spoopy Mayro, a "joke game" that was accepted to the mainsite and then removed when the staff realized they probably shouldn't have accepted a game just because a forum moderator submitted it. The level objectives are straightforward, and is apparently impossible to lose. The sad thing is that this parody is actually better than the original. The graphics and music are superior, which is saying something considering the theme for this level seems to be based off of the title theme for Crazybus. Also, the ghost that kills Luigi doesn't pretend to be even remotely spooky, which is nice because it never was. The level does what it does: reference Spoopy Mayro. There's not really a whole lot to work with when you have a level based on Spoopy Mayro. 10/10. LEVEL 5: "Remove China" This is the final level, and is a SHMUP level like the third one. The enemies here are less plentiful and take multiple hits to destroy, but otherwise they're much the same as level 3's enemies. In addition to this, you can only have one of your projectiles on the screen at a time. That's right--after dying and becoming more powerful than you could possibly imagine, Luigi is only capable of firing one projectile at a time when he once could spam laser beams from his eyes. Makes perfect sense. Math Bot serves as the final boss of the game. He doesn't seem to be able to attack you directly, nor is he vulnerable to conventional attack. Instead, one must shoot the button with the correct answer to his math problem. Shooting √(-1)/0 will cause unexpected things to happen to your game, which are quite amusing if you don't mind losing all your progress and starting the entire game all over again. The imaginary division by zero was a nice easter egg, but other than that I'm afraid this level has much to be desired. 2/10. OVERALL: This game relies very heavily on the "joke" part of "joke game", as the core gameplay in all of the levels is very simple (and often lacking). Humor is very subjective, so there will be people who enjoy this game very much and there will be people who aren't as easily amused. Nonetheless, the gameplay for levels 3 and 5 is just bad, and bad gameplay is not necessarily funny. Overall, I'd have to say that the gameplay for this game is very average.
Graphics 7 / 10	The graphics are seemingly based on Game Boy Color limitations. Despite these limitations, many (though not all) of the sprites and backgrounds are aesthetically pleasing for a joke game. However, the Chinese politician's portrait in the plot intermissions was terribly dithered, and I didn't find it particularly funny. The explosion graphic feels a bit out of place, even though its color depth has been reduced to match everything else. It just seems a lot more fluid than the limited animation every other sprite in the game has.
Sound 10 / 10	The music is downright superb for a joke game. The game features a number of chiptune tracks, most of which follow a quality range of "great" to "amazing." The only anomaly as far as conventional quality goes is the Crazybus-like theme for level 4, but then level 4 doesn't take itself very seriously and it's better than Spoopy Mayro's music anyway. Sound effects are borrowed from Mario & Luigi: Super Star Saga and The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening. All sound effects were used well and they don't happen to be overused. Rather than sounding like an old YouTube poop no one likes, the sound for P2013X is pleasant and enjoyable. I have nothing critical to say here.
Replay 1 / 10	No real effort was made towards making this game replayable. This is especially bad for joke games, as humor value wears off very quickly as you see the same joke again and again. Once you're finished with the game, there's no reason to pick it up again--unless you're interested in the imaginary division by zero easter egg.

Final Words

P2013X is not without its charms, though those looking to kill time may find other short games that are more enjoyable.

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