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DELRON
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The
Mechano-Menace
Reviews
Author: A. Bomire
Date: 2009
TADS
What does AIF stand for? Adult Interactive Fiction.
If you likely to
be offended by games with sexual content, you are advised not
to open these
files.
Reviewed by A. Ninny (Inside
Erin: The AIF Community Newsletter Volume 5 Number 7 – July 2009)
The Mechano-Menace! by A. Bomire
Overview: The other superhero-themed game. In this one you play Aegis, a
superhero from __. Along with the superheroine Marvela, you are hot on the tail
of MechanoMan, an evil genius who commands an
army of robotic hell hares to try to vanquish you.
Review: This is actually a pretty cool adventure game condensed into mini-comp
size, with a hot sex scene to boot. It has a combat system built in – you have
two attributes that you track as you battle the evil
MechanoMan in his secret hideaway lair: health and shield. If your health falls
to 0, you lose the game. Using shields too much drains you so your moves are
less effective. This all seems to work quite well, and
didn’t confuse or hold me up. As to the characters, I’m not familiar with the
comic books that they are drawn from, so I can’t say how well they conform to
their sources, but Bomire has graciously provided
background on them within a ‘help’ menu, and the characters don’t behave
contrary to these descriptions. From the description, it appears that Marvela
doesn’t actually have any superhuman powers; all her
abilities are gained from training. Since she doesn’t have powers, when it comes
to the sex scene, an opportunity for superhuman sex is mostly lost, and in the
end, ignored. Aegis does have super strength,
and Bomire does mention that he uses it to lift her, but I didn’t feel like she
had much of a reaction. Perhaps she should have emphasized how much she
appreciates being fucked by super-strong dudes and
that could have been a focus for making the sex scene more in character with the
rest of the game.
Concept: A-. A fun little comic book adventure that comes to life nicely.
Writing: A-. A. Bomire has a great ability to use his writing to create lively
settings and characters, and this game is no different.
Characters: B. The characters are written with a definite slant toward humor,
and it works well during the battle scene, but less so during the sex.
Hotness: B: The sex writing is immersive and detailed, but I felt it didn’t take
advantage of the characters well enough.
Technical: A-. This game was well put together, not as ambitious as his WWE
game, but it certainly works cleanly and the battle scene is intuitively simple.
Enjoyment: B+. Definitely a fun game, but I wished the sex scene had been a
little less ordinary.
Reviewed by ExLibris (Inside
Erin: The AIF Community Newsletter Volume 5 Number 7 – July 2009)
The only game in this year's minicomp to cast the PC in the role of a 'good
guy'! Given that I see the entertainment value of AIF primarily in terms of
escapism and wish fulfilment, and my wishes don't run to
finding my best friend having sex with my wife (to pick just one example), this
was a welcome relief.
The greatest strength of The Mechano-Menace! was the depth and inventiveness of
its technical implementation. The most obvious example is the PC’s shield power,
and the shield and health stats that
are tracked in the statusbar at the top of the screen. However, there were a lot
of other little touches that made the game a pleasure to play, from the
extensive help system to alternate means of solving problems to
the implementation of amusing responses for various actions a superhero might
try. Even better, the game ran perfectly smoothly with no bugs or problems
observable. I didn’t even notice any spelling mistakes.
The two-part combat with the robots was also very well implemented. I was a
little disappointed that the solution to the robot problem could be as simple as
just hitting things, although that is certainly in keeping
with the superhero genre. The villain is suitably mad, and when you add in robot
rabbit ninjas and Herr Hare, this scene was a lot of fun.
Unfortunately in comparison to Mechano, the character of Marvela seems a
little... bland. Marvela doesn't get a great deal of dialogue and what she does
get is largely reactive, especially in the first half of the game
so, she never builds up much of a 'presence'. The relationship between her and
the PC isn't given any real development either, so when the story shifts from
beating up the bad guy to Marvela's bedroom it feels
quite abrupt. This something that I also noticed in one of A.Bomire's games from
last year's minicomp (Working Late). What was really needed was another scene of
some kind to develop the relationship
between Aegis and Marvela, or at least something to suggest they were attracted
to each other.
The sex scene itself was very well written, probably the best of the minicomp.
However, as mentioned above, the lack of any real build-up robbed it of some of
the punch it could have had. Something else I
would have liked to have seen was something a little unique to make the scene
more memorable, especially given the fact that both of the participants were
superheroes. I'm sure there's a few interesting things Aegis
could do with his shield power...
Overall though, The Mechano-Menace! was one of my favourite games in this year’s
minicomp. A.Bomire is one of the best when it comes to both writing and
technical polish, and it’s a pity that it’s been so long
since he’s released a full length game (hint hint)
Reviewed by Gary Plume (Inside
Erin: The AIF Community Newsletter Volume 5 Number 7 – July 2009)
This was a funny and well coded and well written game. I liked the novelty of
the spicy latina superhero and her Spanish exclamations. The enemies were quite
funny. The Health/Shield meter was an interesting
technical achievement, but not really a management challenge during the fight.
It would have been fun to work in the scene where the supervillain talks too
much and gives away the lynchpin of his plan. I have no
idea where those damn last 10 points are. It's probably because I only used
brute force on Herr Hare without anything more clever. The sex was well written,
but picturing two musclebound goody two-shoes
together created a comic distance that shielded me from some of the hotness.
Reviews should be considered copyrighted by their respective authors.
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