MECHNITE Megnetic Hero

Intro

"MECHNITE" or "MECHNITE Megnetic Hero" is a puzzle game being developed by SweetCore using RPG Maker 2003. The current build features an elaborate opening, a basic tutorial that needs more work in my opinion, and the first sector of five with four playable stages within the first sector. As an overall package I'd say this game has a lot going for it, but I've been burned by more than few demo projects over the years. Probably the best example of this is "Ellie Starling's Very Long Walk" by everybear. Though, I suppose I should focus on covering the stuff that is available in demo and leave wondering if this project will ever be completed for another time.

Story
Summary

You play as Mechnite, a M1200 series robot, that manipulates objects using magnets to draw objects closer to himself. An ability that can be used in several ways to help you solve puzzles. Though if this little robot has what it takes to stop an evil mega corporation from taking over the world remains to be seen. And that's really all there is to the plot of this game. Sure Mechnite is apparently trying to track down his father who abandons him in favor of a random stranger before the first sector, but how that plot thread is going to develop isn't clear from the demo considering the game ends after completing the first sector and trying to move onto the next one.

Greatest Strength/Weakness

On the plus side the game does have some decent setup with the robots turning on their human masters and the mystery of what the guy who runs away with Mechnite's father is up to. On the other hand the English translation is a bit rough around the edges with spelling errors and misreads of the few parts that are spoken out loud. A few examples of this pop up in the opening text crawl explaining the game's backstory. One of the more noticeable being the narrator saying planets when the text on screen is planet. And there are other examples of these small issues. To be fair this is a game the initially popped up in the German community so it probably shouldn't come as a complete surprise that the English translation is a bit on the rough side. And while most of the rough edges can be worked through with minimal issues. There existence is still annoying in my opinion.



Gameplay

On the gameplay front the player gets an extremely brief tutorial on Mechnite's starting ability. We basically get told it's activated by pressing shift and that's it.



A factoid that is rather annoying in my opinion since it doesn't explain your magnets are so powerful they can effect objects outside the apparent range of the beam. Nor does it explain you can pull objects from the other side of a wall. Nor does this explain that when your character backs up while your magnets are on they won't change the direction they are facing. As a result the game feels like it leaves out a lot of important, need to know information. And while you can probably figure out most of this stuff with enough trial and error. I really wish the tutorial held your hand a bit more to help the player get a handle on what their magnets can do.

Outside of using your magnet you also get a skill chip that lets your throw a rocket punch that can stun enemies. While the game mentions this is activated by pressing the enter key. You can also activate it by pressing the z key as well. Though I'll admit the utility of this skill is rather limited since it's only other use is to shatter glass objects. A feature that only pops up in a few places in the demo, but I'm guessing it'll be of more importance when the game is completed.

The game also gives the player bits upon completing levels which can be spent on funny hats and stat upgrades. Though, I'll admit the ability to grant yourself more battery life is not as useful as I'd like since the additional power granted is rather tiny, but I suppose over the course of the game this will add up to quite a bit if your willing to spend the funds on it. And while it is possible to replay stages in this game. The value of this option is rather debatable. While it does mean you can go back and look for items you missed. It also doesn't grant you any additional bits. So you can't farm early levels for stat upgrades. And certain stages may not function on a revisit. A good example of this is the boss level in the first sector. When I went back to complete it a third time the metal ball needed to exit the starting part of this area vanishes. So it's impossible to smash the creates or turn off the instant death laser.

Graphics

On the graphical front the game is entirely custom. A factoid that is always a plus in my opinion since I've seen the RTP assets a lot over the years. On the other hand the graphical assets are a bit inconsistent with one another at times. A good example of this is Mechnite's missing cheeks when he's being worked on by Sushibi.



This version of Mechnite also has a different set of ocular sensors as well. So while custom assets are always a plus a lack of consistency for the artwork surrounding a specific character is rather off putting.

Sound

As far as I can tell SweetCore appears to be using tracks they either found online or purchased. Even so the background tracks in this game largely went beneath my notice beyond them not being part of the RTP for RPG Maker 2003. Even so it's nice to see a game get away from the standard background tracks that are used in this engine.

Conclusion

I think "MECHNITE" has a lot of potential and I hope a fully completed version of this game is released in the future. At the same time I don't want to get my hopes up to much since I've been burned way too many times in the past. So while I hope a completed version of this game is released. I'm not going to actively keep track of this game's progress since I don't want to get to attached to a project in development and get burned again. And seeing as how this project is currently under active development I'm not going to assign a score to this review.