MFGG - Mario Fan Games Galaxy

Review Information

Game Reviewed	Mario Heads Off, by wormboy123
Review Author	VinnyVideo
Created	Jan 28 2011, 9:44 PM

General Commentary and Game Overview

In this tumultuous era of double-digit unemployment and other economic uncertainty, everyone needs a chance to vent their frustrations. And if you're like most members of the human race, you want to vent a little by taking control of a cartoon turtle and using a golf club to whack off the head of a pseudo-Italian plumber's head. And guess what? In Mario Heads Off, you get to do exactly that!

Pros	+ Unique, somewhat addictive gameplay + Kind of humorous
Cons	- Luck plays too big a part in determining your score - Little control over the actual swinging motion - No music - Unoriginal graphics

Impressions

Gameplay 5 / 10	In Mario Heads Off, you control Bowser, and you're trying to hit Mario's head (!) as far as possible using a golf club. At the start of each round, you choose your power and trajectory, and then swing the club at Mario, detaching his head and sending it ricocheting across the playing field. Different objects will have different effects on Mario; some objects, like Toads and Yoshi, merely send the head bouncing around, while bombs will send the head flying forward with great velocity. Hitting a spike ends the round. Overall, it's an amusing concept that's not without limitations. The room layouts are cycled through randomly, so getting a high score is essentially a matter of hitting Mario as far as possible and hoping a favorable layout will feature a lot of bombs that allow you to gain a lot of distance quickly. It's frustrating when a Toad flings Mario's head back to the beginning - which happens a lot. I also wish there was a truly automatic swing or a way you could have more control over the swing itself; the length of time you hold the swing key has no effect on the distance Mario travels.
Graphics 4 / 10	The graphics in this game were mostly taken from the Hello Engine 3, and the author of the game tries to portray this as an asset, even though this basic look is frightfully overused. Some of the tiles don't look very good with the sprites, but the reasonably-effective use of GM special effects brings up the score a little bit.
Sound 3 / 10	Usually I give an automatic 1/10 in the sound department for games that have no music, but for some reason I found the use of sound effects to be comical enough for me to up the score a bit.
Replay 4 / 10	I'll be honest with you: I played this game for about 40 minutes. That's a pretty long time by fangame standards. And another testament to this game being semi-decent? I didn't delete it once I'd reviewed it. This isn't a fabulous game, but it's unique enough to be worth another play in the future.

Final Words

Now here's a game that will satisfy your inner Robespierre. It's more fun than you might expect, despite its many flaws.

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