Platforming as da je 1998... ali uz podsjetnik zawhat je gaming ipak evoluirao
Regina & Mac comes with the subtitle - "Platforming like it is 1998", inviting us to re-experience old school 3D platforming in the style of Super Mario 64, Banjo Kazzoia or even Crash Bandicoot. These games are some of the prototypes of modern platformers and laid the groundwork for what we take for granted today. The question is, does Regina & Mac succeed in this plan, or is it just a retro mock-up with less magic and more pain?
Mac and Regina on the run
We take control of Mac the dinosaur, whose limbs float around his body in the style of Rayman. He is accompanied by a chatty, sarcastic companion, Regina – a parrot with more commentary than function. Together they try to escape from some strange research laboratory, and the only way is to collect enough floppy disks. I wonder if today's generation even knows what a floppy disk is, or is it just a familiar "save" icon?
The game takes us through a series of worlds that we access through portals – each world contains discs that need to be collected, with the occasional sarcastic remark from Regina along the way. The atmosphere is knowingly frivolous and sometimes brings a smile to your face, but that's not always enough to mask the underlying problems in design and execution.
Main game menu with portal for profile 1 and 2
Precision with frustration
Sword there is klasične platformerske sposobnosti: trčanje, slajdanje, ground-poundanje... i polako otključava new ones pokrete how napredujete through svjetove. Na papiru to zvuči as solidna postepena gradacija gameplay, but in praksi problemi they start already kod osnovnih kontrola.
At some levels, the colors are complementary and go well together
They are rigid, slow, sometimes imprecise, and at the same time require surgical precision. It's very easy to miss a jump while climbing a polygonal tree or platform and end up down, forced to start over. When you finally reach the floppy disk, the feeling of success is there, but more out of spite than because of a good game. Some of the platforming sections are solidly done, but much of it frustrates more than it should. The controls often feel like they are working against you.
Unlocking new worlds comes down to Picross-style puzzles, a nice addition that breaks up the monotony between maps. They are not too difficult and are a welcome change of pace.
Picross puzzles are a nice break between levels
Visually and sonically – retro, but not attractive
Znam da je low poly estetika here bila namjera, i jasno je da se ciljalo na šarm Nintendo 64 ere, but budimo iskreni, igra izgleda... ružno. Sword i Regina premaleni su na ekranu i lako se utope u ogromnom, neispoliranom svijetu punom poligonalnih, neoblih objekata.
By comparison, in Super Mario 64 the game always puts the focus on Mario, who occupies a good portion of the center of the screen and is almost always clearly visible. Mac and Regina easily blend into the background of solid colors.
Poor Mac is drowning and disappearing in this mass of green and brown
Animations are very scarce. The Mac literally looks like it's gliding on the surface when we start it, rather than actually running. And the sounds? Each of Mac's jumps has an irritatingly loud "plop" that is very unpleasant to the ears, so after a while I continued to play the game without sound. The soundtrack is hit & miss, in some levels it sounds quite solid, but mostly it is uninspiring, generic and short, with a rapidly repeating loop.
Maybe too retro though
Regina & Mac tries to be a cute homage to the old 3D platformers, trying to recreate their magic, addiction and sense of discovery. It works here and there, in the moments when the controls settle down and you manage to forget that you've fallen off the same platform eight times. But most of the time it doesn't work.
Stiff controls, dull design, lackluster animations, and annoying sound make the game more frustrating than fun. Nostalgia is a powerful tool, but it is not enough by itself. At the end of the day, Regina & Mac feels more like a reminder of how the classics were ahead of their time.
A copy of the game was provided by the development studio Diplodocus Games for review purposes
