Mullet Mad Jack Review (musashi)
A brilliant game held back by a few issues.
To start, this is one of the most engaging audio/visual experiences I have EVER experienced. Truly, it is remarkable. The mastery of the 80's anime artstyle is so satisfying. From the UI to the animations to the menus and even the interactive in-game manual (!!) it is a huge treat.
The core game loop is also masterful. It really is a pure concentrated shot of dopamine and the game is very self-aware of it. So what's the problem? Well, have you ever played a game that gave an amazing first impression, but the more you played it and examined it, the more you began to see its flaws? Unfortunately that is this game to me, so I'll try to go beneath the surface and explain some of the issues I had with it.
-Identity crisis-
This game is listed as 90% arcade, 10% roguelite. I'd say yes that is true on first impression, but the more you play, the more you begin to see how the game never fully commits to being either. The core gameplay loop does feel like 90% arcade (the roguelite perks don't last indefinitely and are minor), but the problem comes more in the level design and progression. Ironically, in some ways the level design is LESS arcadey than many roguelites. Most roguelites have you play a collection of biomes and in each biome is a randomized set of procedurally generated arenas/rooms. This game does not really even do that, but instead, almost every single room in the game can occur at ANY part of the run, and will be repeated over and over at any point, like shuffling through a deck of cards. Every 10 floors, the game introduces a new hazard such as lava floors or lasers, and sometimes some unique room layouts, but the reality is you will be shuffling through the same rooms during the ENTIRE run, albeit with a few new hazards. So not only does it not have a level progression of arcade games (a stream of novel content from beginning to end but the same game every time you play), but does not even have as strong a sense of biome progression as in roguelites. This not only moves the game more away from the feel of an arcade game, but leads to an overall diminished sense of progression during the run. This issue unfortunately also is exacerbated by other issues.
-Pacing-
Despite this game being about a flow of constant forward progression, the actual pace of the game feels tedious. Each floor lasts about 15-60 seconds and there is an incredibly dense amount of player actions that occur in that brief time. After every floor, the game goes through the standard congratulations, the female character gives you some quips, and you choose your perk for the next floor. It kind of feels like doing high intensity lifts in the gym for 30 seconds but then pausing for 10 seconds after each set. For a game being about the "flow state", this creates a less than desirable flow from floor to floor. This is also made worse by the overall pacing of the campaign. After 10 floors, you fight a boss then move onto the next chapter, where the game does a "tutorial floor" to introduce the new hazard/enemy type. At first this setup seems fine, but because each of the 10 floors plays out exactly the same (due to randomly shuffling rooms that occur repeatedly at every part of the run), those 10 floors end up feeling more like a slog and much longer than they actually are, especially due to the constant breaks in between each floor. By the end of campaign, it really starts to feel like you have been running the same 20 second core game loop over and over for several hours, albeit with a few new hazards. It feels like the game could've benefited more from a genuine arcade progression by trimming the campaign down in length and also having more of a true level progression system where most if not all the rooms are locked to specific chapters. I don't think the campaign warrants being 3-4 hours and 100 total floors considering the lack of true level progression, and unfortunately does not make the game an effective arcade game (which typically is cleared within 25-45 ish minutes). There is also I think a pacing issue with the "side missions" that occur. Around 3 or 4 times during the campaign, the game breaks into a kind of playable cutscene or a new gameplay type segment, such as a sniper section or car section. Some of these sections don't have gameplay and consist of walking through an empty house. While beautiful and memorable, they will inevitably slow the game down for future runs and further move the game away from a pure arcade game. Inversely, the unique gameplay segments (like the sniper section) do not stay long enough in order to effectively break up the monotony of the core game loop. I think the campaign could've been shortened, transitions sped up, and these additional gameplay type bits could've been lengthened and expanded on to better break up the monotony.
-Difficulty systems/balance-
My major issue is that the game in my opinion does not open up in higher settings as the dev claims, but instead the opposite. With most great games, in higher difficulties the strategy and gameplay systems blossom into its full beauty, but in this game, it confines the player more. For example, in higher settings you literally HAVE to headshot enemies or kick them into environmental hazards to refill your constantly draining time/life meter, because normal kills won't fill it up. This is a problem, because this new genre of "booter shooters" is about getting into that flow state, albeit through a very "one-track" way of thinking. Flow state gaming is very satisfying of course, but when it is such a one-track-think dopamine rush, it can quickly devolve into fatigue and monotony. In other flow state games, you may notice that the most satisfying flow states occur at both a physical and mental level, where you are able to establish that exhilarating synergy between complex strategic decision making and physically executing the strategy with clinical precision. The flow state in this game in higher difficulties confines the game more into just a blistering pace of rapid, near perfect accuracy of headshots while dashing through tight corridors and rooms that often line you up for the shot as soon as you open the door. There's nothing inherently wrong with that, but it would have been nice for the higher difficulty settings to open the game up more into both a physical AND mental flow state. The game just doesn't really have much of any sense of strategic decision making, it is more about being able to recognize what enemy type and room you are dealing with as instantaneously as possible and then muscle memory takes care of the rest.
I could go on more, but I think I have started to scratch at some of the ways I think the game will not hold up as well as I'd desire for long term commitment. I definitely believe the game will be very successful, because I think a lot of what is here is nothing short of genius. This game I think does deserve and will achieve its high status as a beloved title. Its swagger, aesthetic, instant gratification, and core game loop are undeniable. For me, it just happened to be one of those games that doesn't quite hold up as well on further examination. To summarize, the three major issues for me lie in it neither fully committing to being a great arcade game nor roguelite, its numerous pacing issues, and difficulty systems that confine an already one-track mind game into a corridor racer head shooter game. I will likely still try and clear harder difficulties, but I think the brilliance of the dopamine kick did start to desensitize too quickly, turning some of that fun factor into a tedious dopamine "ritual". And the game does break the 4th wall by explicitly depicting video games as functioning as a kind of masturbatory dopamine kick to "consoom" and fill our boredom of our meaningless lives. I just do not agree that the best games devolve into such.