I decided to play through it with my other half in co-op and set my expectations low. Well, I was blown away. For such a simple idea they really manage to pull you into this fantasy world. The audio score is perfect, and wouldn’t of seemed out of place in one of the LotR’s films. Visually, it is also a treat, with a great use of shadows and lighting to add depth and majesty to the world.

The story is fairly by-the-numbers. Mystical land, darkness overshadows it, unlikely troupe of accidental heroes are thrown together to save the day.. you’ve seen it before. The Trine (a mystical artifact) is also a bit of clever deus ex machina that binds the 3 main characters together at the start of the game so that they have to work together to free themselves from it. The characters that make up the main playable cast are a Thief – has a grapple and a bow, a Knight – has a shield and can lift/throw objects and a Wizard – can summon shapes and move some objects with magic.

The dialogue throughout is passable and the narration between levels is competent but the main aspect that will pull you in is the gameplay. The gameplay is where it really gets you. It reminded me of what Little Big Planet could of been if they had given you some of the world builder abilities in the story mode of the game itself.

If played in coop you can have up to 3 players playing simultaneously. Or if played on your own you can control all of the characters by switching between them. Each character has unique abilities that you will need to utilize frequently throughout the levels, and, on more than a few occasions, you may be forced to improvise a different strategy if one of the abilities of the characters is inaccessible due to them being dead (until the next checkpoint) or having run out of magic. Along with this, each character obtains new variations on their abilities as they progress in the game which leads to the gameplay never becoming stale or repetitive.

It took me about 3 evenings to complete the game with my other half. We both immensely enjoyed it from start to finish. The puzzles and obstacles had us laughing at the various solutions we’d each come up with. Some which would fail, others which would work even though we thought they shouldn’t. There were also numerous points throughout that had us gritting our teeth, but we’d eventually pass them with some perseverance.

Anyway, my final verdict is that this is a game that I highly recommend. It’s beautifully designed, and has really solid gameplay, what more do you want.

Homepage is here: mechlivinglegends.net

Download link (working at time of posting): MM:LL Beta download

For my previous posts in this series, see this link:

15 Addictive Online Games

I actually have accumulated WAY more than 15 good flash games, but I’ll pick the cream of the crop for this post.

Robokill: Man I blew so much time on this game. I actually played it with a 360 controller using xpadder to map the controls to the keys used in the game. There are loads of weapons and levels in the free version, but if you want to play more you’ll have to pay for level 5 onwards. The screenshot doesn’t do it justice, this really is a great browser game.

Frantic 2: In my original 15 games post, I recommended the original Frantic flash game. They’ve now released its sequel. It’s pretty much been improved in nearly every way.

Ice Breaker: Really, really good game. I’ve seen this type of game before, but never produced with such a high quality. I have a soft spot for good pixel art, which this game has. It also has excellent music. The gameplay requires you to make cuts in the ice to free the trapped Vikings and get them back to their ship. Easy at first, but you will scratch your head in some of the later levels.

Okami Flash Game: Just keep getting the items to progress. The more items you get in a row the greater the multiplier. Simple enough graphics but effective.

Don’t Look Back: Very simple and old-school looking game but damn is it good. This one pretty much distracted the entire office where I work for about half an hour until we’d all completed it. It isn’t that difficult, but some of the puzzles will have you scratching your head in confusion.

Retroshoot: Very addictive game. It’s a throw back to the old arcade side/up scrolling shmups. On a few gos, I managed to get to lvl 11 before having to use a continue.

Koi2: Words can’t describe this game. I’ve played it quite a few times and I still can’t work out “why?”. I think the aim of the game is to shoot your hand at the woman on the other side of the table and poke her in the eye… just play it and see for yourself.

Domo-kun’s Angry Smashfest!: Domo-kun and the powerpuff girls. KEELLL THEM!!! I love the artwork in this. If this game had been released on the Genesis when I was a kid I would of bought (and probably paid £60 for it also, man how things have changed)

Amberial: Get a bouncing ball to the finish line. A lot more difficult than it sounds.

Giraffe Attack: Short but hilarious game. A basic upscrolling shmup. Music and graphics are excellent.

Canabalt: Great game, and what’s even better about is that the level is randomly generated so no 2 games of it will be the same. Just keep running to the right, the more you survive without hitting anything the faster you’ll go.

Cat Cat Watermelon: Simple (to begin with) physics based game. Just stack the cats and watermelons (as well as some other objects). The music is also retro-awesome.

SAS Zombie Assault 2: Similar to Left4KDead, it’s a top down shooter. Hold the house and fend off the incoming Zombie horde.

The Unfair Platformer: This game wants you to lose. It’s really a trial of attrition, how much failure can you handle before you quit, lol

Queens: I love the simple Pixel Art in this. Like the previous game this ones aim is to make you lose. You’ll pass it by correctly remembering the areas and timing your jumps.

Update 1 – 09/06/09: A game that plays itself

You know, some games try to be so hard you feel like throwing your controller out the nearest window, some games hold your hand. Metal Gear Solid puts you in the passenger seat as you watch Solid Snake play through the game in the cutscenes. I know, I know, MGS4 is an easy target for poking fun at the length of the cutscenes, but so far this really takes the biscuit. The levels are tiny.

I actually dread reaching the flashing red dot on the radar as I have to prepare myself for another 30 to 40 minute long cutscene, broken up by brief chats with the character Otacon. I’ve only completed the first chapter so far, but even so, the amount of cutscenes and their length is insane. I fear this is actually made worse by the fact that the gameplay is surprisingly excellent. You want to be playing as Snake all the time, rather than watching him sneak into buildings or move around out of your control.

It’s only the first chapter, so I’ll reserve judgement until I’ve finished it. However, the game is such that I have to plan to play it early in the evening. I started it last night around 10pm and ended up still watching cutscenes around 1am. By the time I actually got back into the game I had to save it, quit and then go to bed.

Update 2 – 10/06/09: Please, just stop it. Stop!

Played the game for another few hours yesterday, and got to play through 1 level of the chapter. At the start, middle and end of it I had to sit through some drawn out cutscene. For what? The information is delivered so slowly I tend to lose the point of the cutscene at all. The cutscenes could be condensed into 2 minute nuggets, yet they are drawn out into 30 minute epics with endless verbosity. I actually pause the game now before a point that I feel is going to trigger another cutscene, so that I can grab a drink before it starts. I also have to save and quit the game when I start a part where I can actually play. If I was to quit before a cutscene I doubt I would have the gusto to get into it again.

But, gameplay wise, it’s good. I tried sneaking on my first run through the level, to work on my CQC, and got pretty far without being discovered however I got killed before reaching the next save point, so I said “screw it” and decided to go Rambo on the level. I was able to get to the same point I was at previously in less than an 8th the time. I hope this changes as there is nothing really forcing me to sneak. I have an abundance of weapons at my disposal, all of which are geared towards making noise. I hope in later levels I’m forced to only use stealth, because the game doesn’t play nearly half as well as a dedicated over the shoulder shooter.

Update 3 – 25/06/09: Over the hump

Well after a brief hiatus with MGS4 (played through [prototype] and have been consistantly training in SF4) I decided to get back into it. Where I left off last time was just after the cutscene where Raiden is reintroduced, all dolled up in his bio-mechanical getup. From here the story progressed as before, with short bursts of actual gameplay followed by long cutscenes. The mother of which so far was when I finally met up with a character named “Big Mama”, who decided to revise the entire MGS story for me.

However, since this cutscene, the gameplay to cutscene ratio has been slowly increasing. I’m really starting to get into it now. There are some nice throwbacks to MGS1 which will definitely evoke memories of how great that game was if you played it when it was released (although time hasn’t been kind to its veneer). Also, the need for stealth is slowly increasing which I like. I have automatic grenade launchers, shotguns and rpgs at my ready but if you use them it causes an infinite number of baddies to start spawning. While initially I hate the ever respawning baddies, I like that it is forcing me to use only stealth now to avoid this.

I’d say I’m about 70% through the game at this stage and it’s been getting steadily more and more enjoyable as it’s progressed. I only hope this pace keeps up and isn’t suddenly interrupted by another lengthy and bloated cutscene.

Update 4 – 29/06/09: Snaaaaake!!!!

Completed it finally over the weekend. Moving on from the Solid Snake centre it progresses quickly into old age, crawling along at a snails pace to the finish line. The ending is so drawn out that it sucks whatever enthusiasm I  had for the high points after your encounter with Big Mama and then Liquid completely out of the game. It reminds me of some recent anime I’ve watched, namely Ergo Proxy, which seems intent on exploring metaphysical questions of existence and purpose. Hideo Kojima, with MGS4, seems to be doing likewise. I wonder if it’s something being lost in the translation, but I couldn’t help but feel during the final scene (which I won’t spoil for you) that the characters where just spewing out nonsense for the sake of sounding deep and meaningful.

Overall, graphically it is impressive. The score and sound effects where superb and the actually game play was extremely solid, but this cannot excuse the 80% of the game that is made up of drawn out, verbose and irrelevant cut scenes. If you play it, do yourself a favour and skip to the parts where you actually get to play the game.

In browser flash games are the best though. Even though I have a PC that can run Crysis at eye bleeding detail and a hefty PS3 with it’s cell processor I still end up sinking equal if not more time into little addictive flash based games on the internet or my phone. XKCD said it best in this comic strip

Here are links to my previous 2 posts, if you haven’t read them yet then you’ll now have 45 games to try out:

15 addictive online games

15 more addictive online games

… and here’s 15 more: -

Pwong: Pong but with a few noticable twists that make it instantly addictive. The use of a remix of the song “popcorn” is also inspired.

Ping: In the same vein, this is another Pong clone with a twist. Double the paddles, double the fun (or difficulty that is)

Threesome: I found this game very addictive. You control 3 characters and guide them one by one to unlock the next stage. Be careful, you could sink a lot of time into this.

I love traffic: Control the traffic lights to keep traffic flowing but avoid causing any crashes. The difficulty ramps up fairly quickly.

Instant Action: Wow, what can be said of this site. Just try it out. My favourite game is “Fallen Empires: Legions”, a CTF style 3D game, with in-browser graphics comparable to Quake 3. Needs to be played to be believed. Yes that screenshot is an ACTUAL shot from what the game will look like running in your browser.

Fantastic Contraption: Really, really amazing game. It pretty much lets you take it where your imagination wants. Just type its name into youtube to see some of the contraptions people have come up with.

Line Rider: By the same people who made fantastic contraption. This is another game which lets your imagination run riot. Again, check out youtube videos. Some of the levels people have created are works of art.

Tower of Greed: Just keep moving upwards. A throw back to the 16bit era

Globe Throtter XL: How well do you know your Geography? Simple to get into and play.

Effing Hail: Fun game where you get to destory things by controlling how large the hail gets before it hits the ground

Sperm Rider: Don’t worry, the sperm has really nothing to with the gameplay. It’s pretty funny though.

Ragdoll Cannon: Interesting physics based game where you get to shoot stick men at stuff. Gets hard fast.

BallDroppings: Not really a game. More of an interactive audio and physics demonstration. Give it a go to see what I mean.

Super Stacker: Don’t worry it’s not as easy as the screenshot. Give it a go and see how far you can get.

Tower Blaster: Starts out easy enough. The aim is pretty simple. Sort the blocks of your tower so that they decrease in number from the bottom up. Not as easy as it sounds.