Mino's Adventure

There is little information about this South Korean platformer, and there are no reviews or videos at all - and this, unfortunately, is quite understandable, since its creators frankly overdid it with the complexity of the gameplay. The plot fits in one sentence: a boy, playing on a console, found himself in the surreal world of video games and now must get out of it. The action itself is preceded by a very long non-interactive dialogue with the sentient mushroom (fortunately, it is allowed to skip it by pressing "Escape").

The perspective of the view is a side view. The hero can jump ("Ctrl") and crouch ("bottom" cursor arrow); "Alt" is responsible for self-defense against enemies, of which there are many. There are several "lives" and a certain amount of health within each of them, but neither the first nor the second is displayed on the screen; Actually, there are no usual indicators on it at all. By default, the boy can throw wrenches; If they suddenly run out (and we again do not know this in advance, since we do not see their reserve), then formally he will be able to defend himself with his fists - but in fact it is unlikely that it will be possible to defeat someone in this way. Obtaining alternative methods of attack is extremely unintuitive: for example, in order to find "launchable" balls that roll on the surface (and at the same time obey some laws of physics, so it is pointless to use them on small ledges), you need to get to the first "terminal". At the same time, no switching between weapons seems to be provided: in different situations, one type or another is arbitrarily used.

The platform element is present, but the main difficulty is not it at all, but the battles: the concentration of enemies is quite high, and sometimes they show true miracles of intelligence. For example, almost at the very beginning, we meet intelligent big-eyed onions on legs: these monstrously aggressive "comrades" not only actively pursue the hero, but also know how to jump perfectly, as well as strive to impose a close fight on him, in which he has no chance against them; The use of wrenches in this case is useless: if the onion comes up to you, then the boy, for some unknown reason, will still throw this object, and not at it, but "into the distance"!! Plus, there are evil workers armed with the same throwing wrenches and able to "pull" their helmets on themselves for a while, almost completely ending up inside their hats (which makes them invulnerable), thick cauldron-shaped robots, creepy chickens, and so on, as well as many basically indestructible enemies and dangers: spiders hanging from above, predatory plants, sharp spikes, and the like. From the point of view of mechanics, the main problem is a very small amount of space for maneuvers: we always seem to be "squeezed" between various structural elements, so you won't be able to jump "to your heart's content", and the passage turns out to be very slow, viscous and exhausting.

Considerable attention, however surprising it may seem in such an entourage, is paid to puzzles related to the search for either a way further (the architecture of the stages is confusing), or even some object, the capture and use of which will allow you to move forward (for example, at the beginning it is a CD). There are also various bonuses, from bottles and donuts to nails, when picked up, the English-language inscriptions "Power Up" or "Weapon Up" appear on the screen (and the second does not mean automaticweapon improvement!), but due to the absence of any indicators on the screen, it is impossible to calculate what exactly they give us. Finally, in the intervals between levels, there are short "stages" in the shoot 'em up genre, where the boy controls an airplane flying from left to right and shooting enemies - there the margin of "safety" in the form of the usual scale is already shown.

It is noteworthy that the graphics of Mino-ui Moheom are almost completely "Western": the touch of "anime" is minimal, and the drawing of backgrounds (differing depending on the episode) and creature models are executed at a fairly high level. The difficulty, if you "delve into it", also does not seem completely prohibitive over time - but it is still insanely inconvenient to play. Apparently, the authors tried to create a hybrid of platforming and puzzle, and formally they succeeded - but they clearly "oversmarted" with the complexity of the action. Therefore, exclusively for "hardcore fathers".