Mystery Science ZZTheater 3000
Interactive MiSTings? What a great concept! This game proves that ZZT is an ideal concept for creating a MiSTing. As this is an treated as an episode of the show, I will write my review in Amazing Collasal Episode Guide format.
The Game: "Godzilla vs. Planet X5" is a boss battle game that throws you against a half dozen of the Godzilla movies most famous villians. Obviously, you play as none other than, who else, Gamera
No, just kidding, it's Godzilla :)
the plot seems to involve our main characters, "PVT" and "SGT" throwing Godzilla from boss to boss via the "Godzilla Transport Devive" in some effort to stop an invasion by aliens. Or something. The author, Jpasc123, doesn't seem to do a very good job fleshing out the story. After the battles are through, we are treated to several ZZT versions of the author's favorite scenes from the Godzilla series. Only about a quarter of the games screens are interactive, the rest being simple cutscenes that have to relation to the game you just played (other than featuring Godzilla). It's a bit like playing one map from Gettysburg, then getting to watch one hour from Gone With The Wind. Horrible spelling, typos, and grammer abound, making the text seem almost Dr. Thinker like in quality. The boards are decently designed, and better writing and more interactivity would have definately helped this game.
Segment One: Thanks to a black hole, Mike & the 'bots find themselves transformed into ZZT characters. Crow notes that he is now an accented lowercase E. Pearl takes advantage of the situation by sending Mike "Godzilla vs. Planet X5" on the ships main navagational computer.
[henceforth, all segments take place in the theater]
Segment Two: Gypsy informs everyone that the ship is on a collision course. Since the game is running on the main computer, gypsy can't turn the ship or stop. Mike suggests using the "#walk idle" command, which the 'bots scoff at.
Segment Three: Mike's idea works better than expected. "When in Rome..." notes Gypsy.
Segment Four: Outside the theater, Mike can't stop smiling (probably because he is a smiley face). This angers Pearl, who promises to send something worse next time.
The unknown author of this MiSTing did a very good job converted the original game to the MST3K format, and several riffs will have you laughging out loud. The addition of "touch" jokes, for when the player tries to interact with Mike & the 'bots works especially well. Overall, I have to say that this game does an excellent job, but doesn't seem to nail it quite as well as either Aceland or Despair (which I'll try to review as well.) So, only four star since those two eventually surpased this hilarious game, but starting the ZZT MiSTing idea earns it another half star.
