♦ Livestream of the MegaZeux world "250 of Zeux (WR): Story Zone" by NoahSoft and friends (2025) [https://www.digitalmzx.com/show.php?id=2894] ♦
♦ Stream Contents ♦
• (4:01) "250 of Zeux (WR): Story Zone" by NoahSoft and friends (2025) [https://www.digitalmzx.com/show.php?id=2894
(Background music used at the author's request: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5mH71TJOW8)
A new MegaZeux release? Here?
Checking out NoahSoft's bizarre artpiece "250 of Zeux", a game committed to reaching MegaZeux's board limit of... 250. It's been a long time in the making of course. The gargantuan task is helped by a number of contributing ZZTers and MZXers that created guest boards for players to uncover on their strange journey.
The game itself is rich with references to ZZT and MZX history, beginning with an ASCII-core remix of the iconic Merbotia title screen theme. You awaken as an amnesiac (what else is new) and begin exploring a very strange, crudely constructed world. At first glance, it's going to be nothing but winking at players and hoping they get the references, with little thought to board design or gameplay.
Yet slowly a hint of structure emerges, small vignettes which involve making cocktails from household cleaners, high quality-samples of "Family Guy", and some genuine puzzles, which eventually lead to upgrades from the shittiest Metroidvania of all time. Powers include "jump", "sword", and "double jump", letting players get past roadblocks they previously couldn't, while purposely using awkward interfaces to make sure that the game feels strongly like a kid in 1995 found this "MegaZeux" on AOL and refused to let user experience get in the way of finishing their masterpiece.
It sounds like a shitpost, and it would be hard to claim otherwise, but the more you play, the more care you realize has put it into it. There are some real laughs to be had, enough to keep your interest in finding new scenes. Huge swaths of the game are optional, letting players go on a journey at their own pace until they bump into an ending. Your progress is tracked with characters in the labrynth [sic] comparing how many boards they've visited to your own progress.
Once you get a ways in, most obstacles can be worked around, and things that sound like hard requirements can be ignored outright. Noah wants your exploration to not end with feeling stuck and quitting, making the game more relaxing than you'd expect from the chaotic presentation.
This is one of those games I was worried would be too intense, too sprawling, and too reliant on just saying "Booshkies" and calling it comedy, only to find myself really engaged with exploring it and seeing what the player could get up to. The board connections can be a bit frustrating, making it easy to miss things because you bumped a hidden wall or exited a screen from the wrong point, but overall it was a lot of fun to play, clearly made with grander ambitions than hitting the big two-five-oh that result in an experience like ZZT/MZX comedy showcase games of the 90s.
Good job Noahsoft. I will never play M'lardy.
♦ Play this world directly in your browser ♦
• https://museumofzzt.com/file/play/megazeux/
♦ Originally streamed on March 7th, 2025 ♦
