Game: Mutant Storm Reloaded
Developer: PomPom
Format: Xbox Live Arcade
Release Date: 11/22/2005
Fuzzy Voltage Grade: A
I bought my Xbox 360 in late November of ’07 so I discovered Mutant Storm Reloaded quite a while after its original launch with the 360 in '05. It has since become my XBLA fetish and with the 360 doing so well over the holidays I thought there might be a number of new Xbox owners unfamiliar with MSR.
Gameplay:
MSR hones 25 year old game play to razor sharp perfection. The "kill everything on screen before it touches or shoots you" style previously found in games like Robotron, Geometry Wars, and Smash TV has been distilled to a pure elegance, a sublime fluidity, a haunting beauty if you will that has both a plastic and organic aesthetic.
MSR approaches impossible difficulty but manages, like any great game, to always seem within reach and achieves an addiction level that’s highly sought yet rarely found. I’ve only been able to reach the 50th level so far (there are 89 in all). The interesting thing is that it’s not that the levels necessarily get harder the higher up you go (though there are some very obstructive and interesting challenges that arise) but the whole game requires a kind of relaxed, intense focus in order to progress without being hit.
Graphics:
MSR's graphics are both ultra retro in inspiration and hyper modern in execution; super clean, precise, biological and mechanical; are we caught in some kind of 1970's microscopic, dystopian gene warfare zone? Each time I sit down to play I feel like I'm entering into a nightmarish Lucite dream world with enemies ranging from itty bitty cell structures to strange tailed nano-creatures. This game is a graphical masterpiece, yes masterpiece. I said it and I stand by it. This is Hi-Def grace and beauty for the new millennium.
Sound and Music:
The music is impeccably “Escape from New York” era John Carpenter. Frankly it’s one of my favorite soundtracks ever for a game. While game music usually tries to manipulate the user into feeling tension and urgency, the music here creates a soft sense of approaching menace that lets the game play itself be the force that stirs the anxiety soup. The music never draws attention to itself but like any truly great soundtrack it is an essential component to the atmosphere and piques the user’s imagination as to what kind of world the game environment resides in.
The sound design is anti-over-the-top; tastefully muted explosions that excellently capture the moment without ever clobbering you over the head. The sound-scape of MSR is one of the components that allows for its extremely addictive gameplay. You’re ears never get fatigued as a result of playing and you’re never annoyed by what you hear.
Tips:
A) Sometimes plowing through a throng of enemies with guns blazing is the only way to get out of a seemingly impossible situation.
B) Don’t forget to use your smart bombs! Probably my #1 reason for dying is forgetting to use the darn smart bomb.
C) Skirt along the perimeter staying against the wall while firing towards the center can often keep you in good shape.
Why I like it more than Geometry Wars:
The truth is that they both provide something different from each other. There’s more than enough room on any shooters fan’s hard drive for both but if I could only choose one…
Geometry Wars is a great game but its style is pure overkill, which is what makes it what it is.
There’s a subtler aspect to MSR while still providing all the twitch and tumble that make a great shooter
MSR hones 25 year old game play to razor sharp perfection. The "kill everything on screen before it touches or shoots you" style previously found in games like Robotron, Geometry Wars, and Smash TV has been distilled to a pure elegance, a sublime fluidity, a haunting beauty if you will that has both a plastic and organic aesthetic.
MSR approaches impossible difficulty but manages, like any great game, to always seem within reach and achieves an addiction level that’s highly sought yet rarely found. I’ve only been able to reach the 50th level so far (there are 89 in all). The interesting thing is that it’s not that the levels necessarily get harder the higher up you go (though there are some very obstructive and interesting challenges that arise) but the whole game requires a kind of relaxed, intense focus in order to progress without being hit.
Graphics:
MSR's graphics are both ultra retro in inspiration and hyper modern in execution; super clean, precise, biological and mechanical; are we caught in some kind of 1970's microscopic, dystopian gene warfare zone? Each time I sit down to play I feel like I'm entering into a nightmarish Lucite dream world with enemies ranging from itty bitty cell structures to strange tailed nano-creatures. This game is a graphical masterpiece, yes masterpiece. I said it and I stand by it. This is Hi-Def grace and beauty for the new millennium.
Sound and Music:
The music is impeccably “Escape from New York” era John Carpenter. Frankly it’s one of my favorite soundtracks ever for a game. While game music usually tries to manipulate the user into feeling tension and urgency, the music here creates a soft sense of approaching menace that lets the game play itself be the force that stirs the anxiety soup. The music never draws attention to itself but like any truly great soundtrack it is an essential component to the atmosphere and piques the user’s imagination as to what kind of world the game environment resides in.
The sound design is anti-over-the-top; tastefully muted explosions that excellently capture the moment without ever clobbering you over the head. The sound-scape of MSR is one of the components that allows for its extremely addictive gameplay. You’re ears never get fatigued as a result of playing and you’re never annoyed by what you hear.
Tips:
A) Sometimes plowing through a throng of enemies with guns blazing is the only way to get out of a seemingly impossible situation.
B) Don’t forget to use your smart bombs! Probably my #1 reason for dying is forgetting to use the darn smart bomb.
C) Skirt along the perimeter staying against the wall while firing towards the center can often keep you in good shape.
Why I like it more than Geometry Wars:
The truth is that they both provide something different from each other. There’s more than enough room on any shooters fan’s hard drive for both but if I could only choose one…
Geometry Wars is a great game but its style is pure overkill, which is what makes it what it is.
There’s a subtler aspect to MSR while still providing all the twitch and tumble that make a great shooter
No comments:
Post a Comment