MewTwo Strikes Back. Ahh, that brings back some memorys... I've played through the Alpha, and I must say, I thouroughly enjoyed it! Straight to the point at the start, you would'nt notice
that it is a hack, as it hasn't used any of the scripts from Fire Red, and that is something I really look for in a hack. Its easy enough to find your way around and work out what you are
supposed to be doing, even for someone who has never watched the movie. Good solid maps, nice scripts, sprites, and a good use of tiles just to top it off. Something else I like is that it throws you straight
in at the deep end with battles, but also makes them fairly easy to complete, unlike others I have played before. I have a strong feeling this Hack will do well for itself, and I'm sure fans of the movie will enjoy it.
Alright, that was the positive side of the hack ^^. Now, on the flipside, there is one script in particular that sticks out to me: the HM script, where you recieve Surf. It seems completely out of the blue, it may
have been in the movie, and I just mised it, if so, my apologies, but it still seems rather random. There are the obvious tile and movement permission errors you get with almost every Alpha,
but they didn't really affect my gameplay much at all, and I'm sure they will all be fixed for further Alpha/Betas.
Alright, time for the overall rating: Like I said, it could be great, with a little bit of effort. Once they get past the few issues that are inevitable with a movie based hack, I think it will go very far indeed ^^
I will certainly be keeping my eye on this hack to see how it turns out, and I reccomend it to all MSB/Non MSB fans alike. Overall it is an 8/10, an excellent hack needing only a few things.
Review 2:
Alright, well "Pokemon Mewtwo Strikes back!" is a hack rendition of the movie, "Mewtwo Strikes Back", it's not like I haven't seen this before, it's been attempted by many different hackers and the outcome is usually low quality, hopefully this will be different.
The first thing I notice is the title screen, nothing is edited except for the text and the flames in the background, pretty low effort, though this is an alpha, I still think that if your going to have a new title screen for a demo of your game, do it right or don't do it at all.
The intro was cleverly done, I love the way they manipulated Mewtwo's dream sequence, but still, they did not edit the background, it really ruins the whole feel of the cutscene.
The mapping….
This is a serious disappointment.
The mapping is square and unimaginative, I also spot some errors, hopefully the other maps are better.
The scripts however are great; the dialogue is almost perfect for the anime characters, the little details give the game a real movie feel. I do however see some minor text errors, along with some color errors.
Uh oh, they broke a cardinal rule of hacking, don't make the character speak!
It makes the game feel so much more… controlled, the player feels bound to the restraints of the storyline, but I digress.
The levels of the Pokemon given to you, along with the battles seem pretty well thought out, the game is challenging, but still engages you to the point that you want to play more.
But some of these events are terrible, like the Dragonite, I doubt he was standing there waiting, you could have just made an event touch that makes the Dragonite fly to you and give you a message, another example is when the old man runs up to you and randomly gives you the HM, I really don't think I need to explain the problem with this script.
I'm going to stop putting in all these details and cut to the chase, the game has great playability, the battles from the movie make it feel so fun and energetic, the tiles are simply beautiful and the dialogue is very entertaining, pointblank period.
Oh but no, I am not letting them off that easy, on to the negatives.
The mapping is just plain bad, I really can't say anything else about it; it looks like it was done in a few minutes with no effort or reference to the movie whatsoever.
Some of the crucial events were just lazily done, which emphasizes the lack of detail in some parts of this game, it just seems so rushed. This hack would deserve a higher rating if it had been taken a bit more slowly and once all bugs are released and we can get to the brunt of the movie I expect this rating of a 6 to rise ;)