You may or may not have caught my post about Max Mustard before. It was a bit buried in the midst of another post, but I've been having a ton of fun playing this VR platformer. It's definitely unique in the space in several ways, especially in the way it has a simultaneous gun-and-run play.
I really don't want to bash this game AT ALL because it's incredibly fun. Anyone who would make a platformer in VR has my immediate respect. All the levels are meticulously handcrafted with great care and consideration, and honestly, it's a brave design feat by itself.
I wanted to make a platformer for WIMO Games, and if I had been given just one more game jam game with the company I would have done one of two things:
- Finished the underwater game jam game we were working on the previous year
- Formed my own gosh darn group and made a level of a VR platformer
Every time I brought up making a platformer to our team, my design director shuddered and told me straight up NO every single time. Why? Because a platformer of any kind involves a lot of meticulous hand-crafted design with timing, spacing, charm, and interest. Basically, it's a big time sink that will be debated endlessly because of its difficulty or lack of difficulty . . . and also because it was seen as niche and not enough profitable return for your expensive efforts.
As a designer who loves crafting levels, I would have LOVED a chance to shine here.
So, for those reasons alone, I don't want to bash Max Mustard AT ALL, and as I said before, it's incredibly fun.
Sigh, but that said, there were a few things that made me pine for more adventures as Lucky the Fox or Astrobot. In this category of platformer where you follow behind a character, I'd put Astrobot as my number one VR platformer, followed by Lucky's Tale, in third place Max Mustard, and in fourth -- I'd put every single player-made platforming minigame you can find in Dreams VR (which is a lot of them). (Sorry there's no mention of Moss -- I still feel bad I haven't finished it yet.)
I wouldn't put any of those in the same category as No More Rainbows or Outta Hand (still need to play it), they're a different, more-athletic platforming genre for me, which I also love.
Ok, now that I've put that out there . . . You gotta play Max Mustard if you're into this stuff. It's happy, it's fun, and it's well done. Level difficulty isn't really an issue outside of 2 or 3 levels, and that makes it an easy breezy experience that's just pure happiness.
I beat the game last week and had an absolute blast beating the final boss.
Because of that, I decided last night to return to the game and make a run at 100 percenting it. DONE! Good times!
Oh that awesome 100 percent completion feeling!The only problem here is that it wasn't as challenging as I had hoped, and definitely nothing like when I was tearing my hair out playing Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze. VR games are naturally harder than most gaming experiences. It's proven that people just slow down when they're playing VR Games and struggle a bit more than in regular games, but that said -- I could have used just a touch more challenge here.
On the other hand, the real challenge came on the levels that weren't platforming. The hardest levels to beat were definitely those with timed shooting minigames. It would always take me 5-10 tries, and sometimes much more than that, to beat those levels.
Now that those small critiques are out of the way, what a great game! And really kudos to the developer for using so many innovative techniques to make each level play different from the last. The head nods to other games like Frogger and Galaga filled me with joy. The weird nose-less flying elephants you were saving were super cute. The verticality of the levels was fantastic. The music was fun. The art was fun. All of it was fun. My inner child loved every minute of it. More! Bravo!
. . . and I mean that . . . MORE! Please VR Platforming developers, don't stop. I would take a VR platformer over a shooter any day and we need more developers making games like these. Thank you for your efforts and for making games like this. They really are incredible works of art.
Happy Dueling!
2 comments:
I knew that It's great BUT... was coming from the first sentence :-)
I'd think that VR platformers would be the #1 kind of VR game that would be making people nauseous IRL.
My challenge with VR platformers would be -- is this better than a non-VR platformer, game-wise, or is this a game that could only be done with VR and is something you could show to people and say, this is why VR? Something like Super Mario Galaxy showed off the 3D capabilities of the N64 as a reason to move past its traditional 2D games.
Most of the PSVR2 games I've played could easily have just not been VR. I did like that drums playing one. I have glaucoma, which means I do not see things in my peripheral vision, so in my case, VR is a little TOO immersive and I have to be moving my head around a lot to see everything whereas on a normal monitor, I have it set so I can see the whole thing all the time.
Great points as always Tipa!
I would say that in Max Mustard, the level called "Dancing with Clouds" was one of my favorites. In it you take a break from the platforming and take a hot air balloon ride from one section of levels to the next . . . all while airplanes and creatures and things are flying around you. That's very "why VR" to me.
No more Rainbows is amazing and fully "why VR" to me. you can't do that in flat screen. It can only be realized in VR. To me that style of VR platformer is version 2.0 for the game space, and Max Mustard is a newer game in version 1.0 style. Regardless, I love it and the immersion.
On the other hand, it is NOT fun to play through a level backwards and it feels like going backwards in a level was never considered.
I guess Metaphorically in the same way, Max Mustard goes backwards with platforming innovation. No more rainbows (and really Gorilla Tag) revolutionized the genre for me.
Sucks you can't enjoy VR games to the fullest because of your peripheral vision. :(
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