Intro

"Mechanical Funnies" was developed by awe_famsquad for the 15 Years of RMN event. An event that tasked players with creating a game over the course of five or fifteen hours with an emphasis of making references to the number five in terms of spells, rooms, and so on. As such this event resulted in a lot of really short games which makes writing a lengthy review rather difficult since there isn't that much content to analyze and discuss here. Though, I suppose I'll start the discussion by focusing on the narrative since that's usually my preferred starting point after the intro.

Story

You play as a group of adventures who've decided to hit up a small dungeon out in the middle of nowhere. A dungeon that is comprised of only four rooms and a corridor. After all, every good dungeon needs a corridor leading up to the boss fight in order to make the final boss seem much more grandiose and powerful. Albeit the final boss in this game really isn't that tough and largely spends his time chucking vinyl records at the party or channeling Jason David Frank by shouting "Hiyaa" while using karate.

Though in order to get to the boss room we will need to go through the others first. Albeit that isn't much of a challenge since most them simply require the player to walk through a door while solving a minor puzzle or interacting with a few objects to find collectibles. Probably the best room of the lot is the kitchen where we find the dungeon's final boss or at least the person that will take on that roll making a meal for himself. Unfortunately he doesn't get a chance to finish his meal and eat it. After all, even an evil, heartless monster deserves a last meal.



Though I suppose the main character really doesn't have the moral high ground considering he's gong out of his way to raid a small dungeon in order to steal stuff that is basically worthless. The kind of stuff the 4th Doctor would pull out of a random pocket in the middle of a crisis.

Gameplay

You largely just keep walking forward and kill anyone that gets in your way. Albeit there isn't that much that will oppose you since the game only includes five characters and three of them are in your party. So you'll get to gang up on the boss's only minion as well as the boss himself in battles that appear to rely on the standard combat system that comes with RPG Maker 2003. And those fights aren't that interesting since both of them go down rather easily. Though, I suppose that is to be expected since this entire game is meant to be a comedy starring a team of oddballs.

Outside of fighting there's a simple puzzle involving six switches that can be solved rather easily with a blind guess. At least I found it easy since there are a few standard patterns I like to try when confronted with multiple switches. And there's a short collection game where you search a room for the ingredients needed to make the meal the final boss was trying to make. A task that is entirely optional if you want to finish the game as quickly as possible.

Though the game does manage to tie gathering collectibles into the gameplay in an odd way. Basically as you collect the worthless collectibles it annoys one of the party members. If you find all five they'll unlock an ultimate skill that can heavily damage the game's final boss.

Graphics

Graphically the game has a unique feel with the game being in black and white using custom assets. Though I imagine the lack of color doesn't just annoy a certain in-game artist.



For my part I like it since it's a nice break from the usual art style found in RPG Maker 2003 games, but I'm aware that some people hate for things to be in only black and white. Well they can take some solace in the game including a bit of red in the game as well.



Sound

Sound wise the game does include a few sound effects that aren't found in the RTP. On the other hand the game's background music is all from the RTP as far as I'm aware. So audio wise this game is rather boring if you've gotten tired of games that rely on the RTP. And I doubt the unique sound effects will be enough to satisfy you since there are only two short battles in this game where you'll get to hear them.

Bugs

You can collect the energy drink, flour, and egg again after cooking the meal the boss was trying to make.



Conclusion

"Mechanical Funnies" is a short comedy game about a group of murder hobos collecting junk loot in a small dungeon. If this will appeal to the player or not is anyone's guess since comedy can be really subjective. I might find a blind mouse getting accidentally lodged in a dog's butt and farted back out hilarious. Others might find that situation so absurd they can only stare at in horror. As such I can only recommend taking a look at this game if you've got a little time to kill and are looking for something to potentially chuckle over.