Atari Mania Review (HerrKomm)
The easiest way to sum up this game is that it's the atari version of warioware, where you play minigames based on classic atari games and/or combinations thereof.
Although by any means it's definitely not a bad game it however does have a few problems:
- It doesn't take very long to complete the entire game and unlock everything (however when you do you can always (re)visit the things you unlock, whether they be games or collectibles such as game covers and manuals)
- what you're supposed to do in some minigames isn't always very clear at first, leading to a guaranteed loss
- the controls in some of the minigames are very stiff and these minigames become very difficult merely for that very reason (although not a completely irrational decision by the devs, for it's based on remaining loyal to the original game, it's just that limiting controls doesn't fly very well with newer generations of players as is reflected by some of the reviews)
- then some things about the game are just very tedious; such as for example when you go against the mice to unlock game manuals, whenever you lose you have to go back to get the cheese only to again give it to the mouse so you can play him again.
There is no reason for why in some cases I have to keep walking back and forth a few rooms just to get the cheese and to play the mouse again because I keep losing. Especially considering the fact that the mouse only eats the cheese after you win. So as is the case with all the bosses in the game, I should just be able to step up to the mouse immediately and try again instead of having to walk back and forth over and over again.
Likewise having an in game map displaying the locations of all the things in the rooms I have already went through (except for the game covers as they are supposed to be hidden), would have just made it more convenient. Instead of having to have to go through all the rooms to see if a mouse is located there.
Furthermore I think it would have helped to give players a trial option for the minigames, which would have helped with the unintuitive nature of some of the minigames (since you could just try the minigame first before taking on an opponent), as against some opponents (particularly the mice) you have only 1 life, and so if you lose 1 minigame you have to try all over.
So there are a bunch of somewhat annoying/frustrating elements in the game that could have easily been avoided.
Other than that I think it would have been fun if they also added longer versions of each game that could have been unlocked. So for example you could have a crystals castles arcade where you could just play levels of crystal castles as an actual game, but based on the way it's presented in this game (so with the newer graphics and possibly levels in which they add elements from other games).
So I can somewhat sympathise with some of the bad reviews, in that I think their reviews contain genuine grievances, even though I don't think it's actually a bad game. A game having some problems doesn't make it a bad game, and hence why I gave a positive review, while leaving some comments about things I hope the developers take into consideration.
So overall; great addition to the atari library and great way to commemorate Atari's 50 year anniversary, it's just that some of the mechanics in the game could use some adjusting, while I also hope they add some more content in the way I described above.