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Wanted: Feedback For Mat Mania Challenge & Planet Smashers


nosweargamer

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I'm looking for feedback for the next episode of the Atari 7800 Game By Game Podcast (you can find it on iTunes, Stitcher, YouTube or use this feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/78gbg )

What are your memories and/or thoughts on Mat Mania Challenge & Planet Smashers on the 7800?

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Also, how would you rate them? I use a system of 4 choices (From Best to Worst):

Hall of Fame Game (Top 5 game on the system)

Solid Game

"Meh" Game

Trash Game (Bottom 5 game on the system)

These games will be covered on Episode 27

You can also e-mail text or audio to atari7800podcast@aol.com

If you get it in by Friday, it should make the show, but late submissions sometimes get squeezed in too, so send it even if it's late.

Just keep it family friendly :)

You can also send feedback on previously covered games or the system itself.

Edited by nosweargamer
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Mat Mania: Meh. This isn't the best game of this genre, and this type of game doesn't age well.

 

Planet Smashers: Solid. Yeah, it's another 2D space shooter, but it does have some substance. If you let enemies get by, they will weaken the Earth shield. There's color coded thingies that let you warp ahead if you figure out the code. I'd call it a top ten- almost top five, so not Hall of Fame status, but close.

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I am curious, do you make money off of this?

 

If by "this", you mean the thread, nope! :D

If by "this" you mean the podcast, its free to download and I don't get any revenue from the downloads nor do I have any paid advertisers.

If i get any money from it, it would be from the ads in the YouTube version, which isn't anything to write home about. I think my last episode has made a whopping 28 cents and that is actually pretty high for an episode.

I do have a Patreon account that is under my YouTube channel name that has some support that could cover minor expenses should they arise, but doesn't cover my total costs.

So in the end I do this podcast because I wanted to give the 7800 its due in the podcasting world. And from what I understand, it is very rare for a podcaster to make any significant money off of what they do, especially covering retro games.

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Planet Smashers - Meh. Seemed like a step backward from the types of games on the 7800 in 1989/1990. Sorta like a poor man's Galaga, except with boss creatures. I've beaten it a few times, but generally find it a poor vertical shooter. Plutos, had it been released, would have been a much better game of this type, IMO. Xevious, of course, is a classic, in my books!

 

Mat Mania - Not sure if I've kept to the rule of "five games", but Mat Mania is definitely trash. It's mildly amusing to go outside the ring and the graphics are decent but the game really is not fun at all, IMO.

 

 

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If by "this", you mean the thread, nope! :D

If by "this" you mean the podcast, its free to download and I don't get any revenue from the downloads nor do I have any paid advertisers.

If i get any money from it, it would be from the ads in the YouTube version, which isn't anything to write home about. I think my last episode has made a whopping 28 cents and that is actually pretty high for an episode.

I do have a Patreon account that is under my YouTube channel name that has some support that could cover minor expenses should they arise, but doesn't cover my total costs.

So in the end I do this podcast because I wanted to give the 7800 its due in the podcasting world. And from what I understand, it is very rare for a podcaster to make any significant money off of what they do, especially covering retro games.

 

Thanks, I was seriously just curious.

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Planet Smashers: Solid-minus. It's one of those titles that's good for a 7800 game but doesn't really stack up to other games in the genre coming out on rival consoles. Pros: colorful graphics, smooth animation, responsive controls, sort of a puzzle element with the warp keys, powerups, reasonably challenging, bosses. Cons: gets tedious, sprites look kind of generic, disappointingly limited powerups.

Mat Mania: Can't comment because I've never played it, but from what I've seen it looks like it might fall somewhere between "meh" and "trash."

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Mat Mania Challenge: "Trash". Complicated controls, no health meter to determine who's winning, and hasen't aged well. Graphically it's great but not in terms of playability.

 

Planet Smashers: "Meh" Terrible hit detection, enemies with moves that'll result in cheap hits/deaths, and a boss that is hard to beat. All in all it's fun destroying the targets in your path.

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Mat Mania Challenge = Trash. It's pink vs blue...Wait it's pink and blue! Since we didn't emphasize the blue usage enough, let's utilize both lighter and darker shades. Seriously…Trunks, boots, ropes, crowd attire...pink and blue galore? The game has a lousy color scheme promoting high under-utilization of palette colors. What happens when the wrestler throws a blow? He becomes a disproportional figure with a luchador head. Extra sloppy points for the addition of boots losing their outline detail. Pulling off moves is a crapshoot. Background "melody" is minimal. On the plus side, despite the same pink blue scheme for clothing colors, the crowd does contain some good facial expressions and variety. Sadly, it appears that variety was saved for the crowd faces only, as the wrestlers themselves are identical. A game that looks like it is from a generation ago, sounds like two generations before it, and plays like no wrestling game should.


Planet Smashers = Meh. Cool title screen and with that 1990 copyright date, one may think, maybe they're getting a game delivered with quality, like Alien Brigade and Midnight Mutants in details and execution...But, this one falls flat. Minimalistic shooter, that feels and delivers like an early system first-gen or a beta release game. No background melody and the player's ship firing (admittedly there is bias experience here) sounds like the split in two creature coming down kamikaze style in Demon Attack for the 2600. There's nothing here to really keep a player engaged or interested. Overall enemy and even the player's ship design is very bland and simplistic. It is not absolutely horrible; nonetheless, it can be overlooked with no great loss to a 7800 game collection.

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Mat Mania Challenge -- this is the worst of the 7800 wrestling games, I think. The graphics and colors are muddy and not that well defined, pulling off moves is very hard and there seems to be some hit detection problems, and doesn't have any long term replay value cause of all the issues. I do like some of the expressions of the wrestlers and the detail in the crowd, but this feels like a 2600 game. I have to check how many other games I've given trash status to, but this one goes into that group. For collectors only. Rating: Trash

 

Planet Smashers -- compared to other people on here, I had a lot of fun with this. True, the game does look and play simplistic in some areas, compared to NES games that were coming out at the same time. However, it's a solid well put together game with some interesting twists on the space shooter idea which was really old and dated by this point. Having to collect three crystals of the right colors to get to meet the boss is a cool feature, as is the fact that your planet has a 'shield' and you are trying to keep it from getting too low by destroying asteroids (hence the name). I also prefer games that have a shield on your ship, and the powers up now. Sound effects are one of the weakest points of the game to me, typical 2600 fair and I muted them, and the game is a bit slow. Still, though, I'm going to be going back to this game. Rating: Solid

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