Maximum Yak Maniac

Intro

"Maximum Yak Maniac" is a 2-player game developed by Overkill using the Verge3 engine as part of a 24 hour contest with an unnamed roommate. A roommate whose game probably wasn't as weird as a game about yaks that eat buildings and sustain themselves through the sheer power of roid rage.

Gameplay

For one thing, I really don't like the 2-player nature of this game since you'll need to find someone willing to play this game as well as share a keyboard with you. And being someone that prefers people staying out of my bedroom. I can't imagine I'll ever get any use out of the 2-player mode. Unfortunately this game doesn't have a way to switch over to a single player mode beyond starting a 2-player game and using one of your fingers to keep the other yak your not planning on using on the move.

And you'll definitely want to move the other yak since the default scrolling speed in this game is super slow. Which is rather useful once the other yak keels over from not having enough steroids to fuel their rampage. After all, this gives you plenty of time to eat buildings and snag any steroids that fall on the left side of the screen.

Though, I suppose the slow speed also means players could strategically stall the other player by hugging the left side of the screen. A tactic that would be especially useful if they had built up a bit of a time advantage. This is because you can eat more than enough steroids in this game to keep your yak going on forever once your by yourself.



Though how long you'll be able to stay focused on this task before it becomes monotonous is anyone's guess. I managed to last about twenty minutes or so before I decided to call it quits. And since the game doesn't save high scores. You'll need to take a screenshot and save it if you want to brag about this one.

Conclusion

While the concept of "Maximum Yak Maniac" is enough to draw people in. It's hard to deny that this game is so bare bones that it won't be able to sustain someone's interest for very long. After all, you can only spend so long chomping away on a handful of different buildings, colorful balloons, and needles full of steroids before the concept starts to overstay it's welcome.

On the other hand, it's hard to deny that this game is a fun distraction for a little bit, but I think it would be better if it came with a 1-player mode since that's probably how most people are going to experience this one.