Man Overboard! (1994)

Preliminary: I like the music, I surprisingly like the gamepaly (I like that you have action/platforming to accompany the otherwise Lemmings gameplay), and although it felt a bit overwhelming at first, after restarting the game and re-reading the intro screen a few times I got through the first 2 levels.

Lol ok on level I believe it was 6, I got the Feel of Abe's Odysee rescuing the Mudokons, so this is likely gonna earn at least a 3 star. If only the Look were more profound. But still, for 93 (turns out this was released for DOS a year before it was in the database, which had the SNES release), it's not bad looking, and it's decidedly better looking than Lemmings and other similar games. I think what I also like is, i haven't had to turn to a guide yet. Tho I'm sure eventually I will or will give up, it still deserves recognition as a nice surprise.

Welp I played it two more days. The music continued to be great, but I burned out in the gameplay. Still, an excellent Lemmings-esque game.

Look: 7.5/10

Sound: 8/10

Play: 7.5/10 Neat combination of action platforming with Lemmings

Feel: 7.5/10

Attachment: 7/10

Overall: 7.5/10

Beat all 100 stages. This was an interesting Lemmings like game where instead of giving orders to the mindless guys you have to save, you play as a rescuer who has to action platform his way around. Each stage took only a few minutes to complete but the game was designed to make it impossible to complete many stages without already knowing what to do. Many stages required you to take very precise actions within the first several seconds, or fail. Stage 99 was the worst because you start off about to be crushed with only a second or 2 to decide which way to jump; one way is correct the other will cost hp, which might as well be game over because I never gained any hp after losing the 2 I started with. I guess you were expected to refill hp by using the passwords every time a new one is given. It took a fair bit of save state scumming at the beginning of these levels to know what to do. I liked it much better when the people started off trapped so I had plenty of time to figure out the puzzle. I did not like using conveyors to time passing people under crushers, but thankfully that was only in the early stages. I got stuck in the cold stages around stage 25 because I did not realize how complicated block stacking could be; had to check a YouTube video walkthrough. The rest of the game was simple enough. There should have been the ability to scroll the screen while paused to get a handle on the layout and what needs to be done, rather than being thrown to the sharks so often. A few stages had time limits from flooding, but I felt this mechanic was a little underused given that the whole ship was supposed to be sinking. I found it hilarious that all the passengers were in the late stages with the crew being saved first, and that there were no women at all. A bit of diversity in the character graphics would have made the game a bit more immersive. The character graphics were pretty bad overall and I especially did not like the screen before starting each stage. I did like the ship map showing all the stages; something about it gave me Super Metroid nostalgia.

7.0/10