S&S Indie Review: Mystic Mayhem

Title: Mystic Mayhem
Format: Xbox 360
Release Date: September 1, 2012
Publisher: DarrionCSUSB
Developer: DarrionCSUSB
Price: $1
Rating: Violence 1/3, Sex 1/3, Mature Content 0/3

Mystic Mayhem is an interesting platform with the interesting ability to switch to first person perspective at any time. But is this enough to warrant gamers time?


Story/Controls:
Mystic Mayhem's story is fairly standard for a platformer meaning that a princess was kidnapped and it is the player's job to go rescue her. All the story does is provide a reason to go through the 30 levels provided. The controls are nothing special but never get in the way of playing through a level. The game allows players to switch to first person at any time to continue the game and while this is a neat idea, I never once found myself wishing I wasn't in the classic side view. The ability to switch to first person at any time also means that some weird graphical design quirks had to be chosen.

Graphics:
Mystic Mayhem has one of the strangest looks I have ever seen from a platformer. The game is in a 2.5D world which can be weird since most of the platforms extend into the background. It also features what appear to be placeholder art that was never swapped out. For instance platforms that cause a player to a certain direction are huge blue things with arrows pointing in the direction they go on or the fans that blow the player upward produce massive black arrows. Those two instances in particular are repeated again and again throughout the game and ruin any sense of immersion the game would otherwise provide.

Final Thoughts:
Mystic Mayhem is a fun platformer that is perfect for a long afternoon since the whole game can be beat in an hour or two. It does nothing to revolutionize the platforming genre but scratches that itch of wanting to play a platformer.

S&S Rating: 6/10

@natehubes