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using Manic Miner and Jet Set Willy game engines
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Message: 5385
Author: Daniel
Date: 02/01/2006
Subject: "Manic Scribbler" Daniel's review
I played "Manic Scribbler" on the last day of 2005 and I am
extremely impressed by it. While I am still half-way through it, I
can already say: Congratulations, Darth Melkor, it's a great game
IMO! It should become a classic of vicious design :-), since its
difficulty level is paralleled (or surpassed, in some cases) only by
Andrew Broad's games :-) .
I spent practically the whole last day of the year playing "MS",
into the wee hours in the New Year. I wanted to relax after hard
work before the release of Sendy's and mine "Mind Control", and I
thought I'd have a go at a new MM game (I had planned to playtest
Sendy's "Manic Person", but then I thought it was a more serious and
responsible task, and decided on "MS"). And instead of relaxing, I
had to struggle and curse, and then get euphoric after successfully
passing each room, and then get frustrated again five minutes into
playing the next room :-) .
The game is very clever in terms of cellular construction, IMO (to
quote an expression used by Andrew several weeks ago). It requires
the player to think very carefully in what order to try to collect
the items, and if you make a mistake, you cannot correct it, you
have to start playing the room from scratch. It also requires some
very tight, probably pixel-perfect jumping, and a very good
knowledge of the quirky features, which it exploits both mercilessly
and beautifully :-) . The game evidently uses POKE 36032,0, which
makes Earth-cells behave just like they do in Jet Set Willy (Andrew
described it in Message 4620).
The game does not introduce any new graphics, as far as I can tell,
and does not change the movement of the guardians from the original
MM. It does introduce a novelty as far as music is concerned, though.
A very superficial review of the rooms I have played so far would be:
- 00 "Massacre! Massacre! MASSACRE!!!!" a very nice opening.
Although not very difficult, it already gives you a flavour of what
lies ahead.
- 01 ".I feel so A.D.D." it took me a very long time to figure out
how to get the central item. It's probably quite obvious if you know
the quirky features, but I kept looking at it from a wrong direction!
- 02 "Ambergris Screen" I got stuck in this room because I made a
mistake in the order of going for the items and didn't realise it;
it took me a long time to finally see where the problem was.
- 03 "Food fight" similarly to the original "MM", this room seemed
easier than the preceding ones. It has some delightful quirky
features though!
- 04 "Cellular diarrhoea" I didn't get diarrhoea, but I was close
to it :-) . Extremely well-designed challenge, IMO.
- 05 "I predict a riot" what a prediction! I thought the room was
relatively easy, until I tried to collect the leftmost item. What a
pain and frustration! I thought it was actually impossible and
wanted to give up, but since Darth Melkor said he had passed
every room after designing it, I thought: No, there must be a way.
And there was...
- 06 "Scatological screen" this room seemed a little easier, but
had its puzzles as well.
- 07 "Isaiah 36:12" without a Bible at hand to consult, I am not
sure what the name wants to say, but I have a vague suspicion it may
be a reference to "Pulp Fiction" rather than the Bible :-) . A very
cleverly-designed room, in which I first learned how to negotiate
various parts of the route, until I got the whole route right. And I
managed to topple the Kong Beast too! :-)
- 08 "Mopping up my stools & vomit" yeah, nearly... This was a
very similar story to "I predict a riot" in the sense that it
looked /relatively/ easy, and then I got stuck hopelessly. I
practically gave up, and only when I came back an hour later and had
a fresh look, I discovered where I had made the mistake.
As a tip to those who will follow in my footsteps and torture
themselves with "MS", I can say: it IS possible to pass below the
lower horizontal guardian (the slow-moving one), but it is useless.
I wasted three quarters of an hour to learn this painful lesson :-
) .
- 09 "1 Samuel 28:7" even without a Bible to consult, I knew this
was a reference to the witch of Endor (and a bow to the
original "MM"), because I remembered Darth Melkor's very
professional-sounding recent explanation of the meaning of "Endorian
Forest" :-) . Again, a very cleverly-designed room, requiring good
thinking and some tight jumps.
That's as far I have got up till now. I look forward to playing the
second half of the game, even though I know it will be many, many
hours before I get to the end.
As a piece of general advice to those of you who will play "MS", I
would say:
- analyse each room very carefully before you start playing it, to
figure out what route to take;
- decide how to collect each particularly problematic item by
eliminating all the impossible approaches;
- if you get stuck and think there's no way to go ahead, look back
at your route in the room and analyse it carefully; it is likely
that the problem is not where you are now, but /before/;
- if you think it's impossible to complete a room (at least of the
first ten ones, I couldn't guarantee for the rest), take some rest
from it, and then go back and look at it with fresh eyes, and have
faith;
- if you get too frustrated with "MS", go and play "MM: Neighbours
Allana Truman" or "Ma jolie" :-) .
Actually, my personal sensation is that "MS" is somewhat easier
than "MM: N AT" (hard version), more difficult than "MM: The
Hobbit" (hard version) and /much/ more difficult than "MM: The
Buddha of Suburbia". I cannot compare it to "Ma jolie", since I have
only got to the third room so far BTW, thanks for the tip Andrew,
I have read it and I'll try to apply it soon.
Comparison with "MM: N AT" is a little difficult, because I played
that game, starting from the third room, I think, just following
Andrew's notes, which certainly made it easier than if I had had to
figure out things myself.
So, congratulations once again, Darth Melkor, and I hope you will
design more vicious games!
Daniel
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