Mazer Mayhem... New Kenta Cho game

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the2bears
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Mazer Mayhem... New Kenta Cho game

Post by the2bears »

Mazer Mayhem just released. I've got some first impressions up here. It's somewhat like Noiz2sa in a way, but with a much different arena style and control scheme.

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Post by landshark »

There's an xbox360 link on that page ... anyone know how you would get that onto the system?
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Post by the2bears »

According to here for running it on the XBox 360 you'll need:

* Must have XNA Game Studio installed.
* Must have an active membership in the XNA Creators Club.

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Post by Necronom »

Installed the whole bunch, game works but the right side of the screen is covered in black stripes :cry:
Anybody know how to fix this?
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Post by StoofooEsq »

So Mazer Mayhem is sort of a manic tank shmup. Neat. These are some of the best graphics yet from Kenta Cho, too.

For anyone trying to figure out how to actually start the game, make sure you've installed the other stuff first (Visual C# 2005 Express Edition, Service Pack, XNA Game Studio, in that order). Then open the "Mm" file in the "Mm" folder after you've extracted the game itself, and when the Visual C# loads up, click the green arrow near the top of the window.
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Post by Necronom »

Vincent Draconis wrote:So Mazer Mayhem is sort of a manic tank shmup. Neat. These are some of the best graphics yet from Kenta Cho, too.

For anyone trying to figure out how to actually start the game, make sure you've installed the other stuff first (Visual C# 2005 Express Edition, Service Pack, XNA Game Studio, in that order). Then open the "Mm" file in the "Mm" folder after you've extracted the game itself, and when the Visual C# loads up, click the green arrow near the top of the window.
Did all of that and still...screen covered in black stripes. Also, is there a button for fullscreen? Usually every Kenta Cho game came with a well written readme. This one has nothing...
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Post by StoofooEsq »

No fullscreen mode for this game, that I know of. Alt+Enter doesn't work, either.
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Post by landshark »

I installed the required files, and Mazer Mayhem instantly crashes when I run it. :(
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Post by kengou »

As much as I love kenta cho, too much trouble to install all this crap just to run this game. Luckily I'm not a big fan of arena shmups.
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Post by moozooh »

landshark wrote:I installed the required files, and Mazer Mayhem instantly crashes when I run it. :(
Same. I wonder what's wrong.
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Post by shoe-sama »

ewww another aba game

man now I have to break this one too just so I can say I broke them all
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Extra installations for this one game... POINTLESS.

Post by Adigun A. Polack »

What is so blatantly damn WRONG with this new game Mazer Mayhem is that even when I installed the required software (which was *totally* rather unnecessary to begin with, I think!! :evil: ), this program just would not start for me. I mean, listen, from my own personal standpoint 100%, games need to be REAL simple to run from a lot of computers these days without forcing the user to download any extra stuff from the internet (like XNA, for one), you know!? :P !

To be real and most brutally honest, If this game would have been a lot simpler to run without the need for any extra installs, then I’d’ve been happy... but the requirement of XNA and all of that other crap for one game!?! Big foolish mistake, Kenta Cho. :( !!

So, KISS... Keep It Simple Stupid. That is what I’d most definitely say for distributing games like this, to which there is truly no excuse at all. I’d say try the .ZIP or .RAR formats and keep the game running as smoothly and as simply as possible without any extra installs period... even if it is a brand-new shiny shmup on the PC, too!! And that is just it. You do not need all of that extra stuff indeed. :D
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Post by worstplayer »

Forcing potential players to install like 200mb of completely useless MS bloatware is a bad idea, Mr. Cho.
No way i'm installing this BS, and i considered myself ABA fanboy.
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Post by Necronom »

Wow, calm down people :)
Cho is a pretty generous person I think and there's definitely nothing wrong with switching to XNA. Rumour on the street is that it's actually really nice to work with. My guess is he's still experimenting with it so things can only get better from now on.
This is PC-freeware stuff and not plug and play XBLA...some people tend to forget this from time to time.
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Post by Fighter17 »

You can always email him, he does speak English.
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Post by KNTain »

Does anybody have this working without the XNA development environment? Just the redistributable?

Worked fine for me, but I've messed with XNA development in the past. I might have to mess with it more, out of curiousity, if Cho is warming up to it.

The game itself seems like a cool idea (like every Kenta Cho game) that needs some actual level design going on instead of the hands-off approach (like every Kenta Cho game).
Last edited by KNTain on Mon Jan 21, 2008 1:22 am, edited 3 times in total.
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Post by landshark »

It wasn't 200 megs of download, it's about 44 megs or so with: .NET 2.0, the MS framework, and the game itself.

I myself don't like it either. However, the use of this framework does appear to be a stepping stone to getting games onto the XBOX360.

I would definitely welcome Kenta Cho's games on the XBOX360. So if this is his way of making that happen, then I'm all for it.

I just wish the game worked for me because I'd really like to play it (especially since I have a 360 controller on my PC).
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Post by shiftace »

shoe-sama wrote:man now I have to break this one too just so I can say I broke them all
What, to you, constitutes "breaking" a game? It seems to me (yeah, stranger on the internet) that you have broken at most two of them.

As for this game, I don't want to go install two new runtime environments just to play an arena shooter.
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Post by the2bears »

Necronom wrote:Wow, calm down people :)
Cho is a pretty generous person I think and there's definitely nothing wrong with switching to XNA. Rumour on the street is that it's actually really nice to work with. My guess is he's still experimenting with it so things can only get better from now on.
This is PC-freeware stuff and not plug and play XBLA...some people tend to forget this from time to time.
Indeed, I was wondering about some of the comments. We are owed nothing by Kenta Cho and he need not get our approval to release a free game on the platform of his choice.

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Post by shoe-sama »

shiftace wrote:
shoe-sama wrote:man now I have to break this one too just so I can say I broke them all
What, to you, constitutes "breaking" a game? It seems to me (yeah, stranger on the internet) that you have broken at most two of them.

As for this game, I don't want to go install two new runtime environments just to play an arena shooter.
Basically if there's some obscure mechanic or strategy or anything I can abuse for a huge scoring/survival/w.e advantage over a normal player.

Usually not related to skill level at all.

bombing in ddp would be an example of something i consider broken, even though the highest level of play involves no bombing for maximum bomb bonus + chaining
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Post by shiftace »

I see. I actually feel similarly about bombing in most games; better to actually dodge the nasty bits or die trying. Maybe it's just a matter of degree then. I know that nobody's broken parsec47 here in any meaningful way, unless they don't want to post or something. And I highly doubt that anyone's played rRootage, Gunroar, or Torus Trooper well enough to call it "broken." It might not always be fun, but doing counts for more than knowing how.
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Post by Davey »

I started dabbling in XNA myself. If distribution is this much of a PITA for end users, maybe I'll just forget the whole idea and go back to trying C++ and SDL. (Not that I'll ever have the follow-through to finish anything anyway)

This game didn't work for me out of the box, but I haven't messed around trying to get it to work yet. Does the version of XNA Studio matter? I just have 1.0; I didn't upgrade to 2.0 yet.
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Post by shoe-sama »

rrootage - bombs + shitload of slowdown that gives you plenty of time to use bomb, other modes have their own antibullet things
gunroar - hold up and pay attention to where them guns are pointed lol
torus trooper - charge shot kills bullets wow

Parsec47 is incredibly speedkill based, which isn't apparent at first. That doesn't make it broken, but it isn't obvious that killing even small enemy formations quickly makes a very huge difference.
It kind of feels luck based due to the extend limit however. If the game gives you an enemy that you can't adapt to then you're just screwed
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Post by shiftace »

rRootage - I never bombed in standard mode because it hurts your score as much as dying. I never cleared a rank 10 stage in any mode, so I figured it can't be too easy. So much slowdown, yes. Would you rather have none? About half the amount present? 41.9%?

Gunroar - And once you get rank up to eleventy-billion percent, what do you do? But crazy rank-boosting is easier and more rewarding than playing through everything normally, and IIRC that's the main reason I stopped trying.

Torus Trooper - That doesn't make it broken though. Do you think the charge shot makes the game trivially easy or boring or something? I don't like it that much, but I wouldn't call it broken, and especially not for simply having a charge shot.

Parsec47 - Well, it is a clone of Dangun Feveron, and a lot of people must either know that from the start or figure it out pretty fast. My biggest complaint with it now is that I know the enemy timings real well and they aren't random enough. Near-impossible fuck-you enemies are annoying, but I find that it takes like 3 waves in a row for it to really be unfair, just because the extend rate is so high. There's a little cheapness allowed on the game's part, and maybe on the player's too, but for me the two balance pretty well, and when I finally die it's usually my own fault, so I don't mind. Broken in theory, pretty good in practice.

So I think I agree with you, I just don't like to call that "broken." And bullet-clearing isn't intrinsically bad; it should just be used to make the impossible become difficult rather than the difficult become easy. I think that's relevant.
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Post by neist »

Installed pretty fine for me, though the controls are a bit odd. At least it has built in Xbox 360 controller support.

Not really a bad game, but not my cup of tea.
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Post by ArcticXC »

Laaame. Doesn't work with my PS2 controller for whatever reason.

Interesting enough concept though.
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Post by shoe-sama »

odamn its zero gunner 2

I hope he didn't fuck it up by making it another endless game lol
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Post by shoe-sama »

ok this game is messed up

in theory you should never be able to die since you can just sit behind obstacles and lob grenades all day

plus you can hyper pretty much any time to cancel bullets

that doesn't really help you score, but lol
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Post by shoe-sama »

lol i got 003789400 on my first hyper

I wonder if I can boost it to counter stop

11M on that run
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Post by Frederik »

Can anyone make a little YouTube video of this game? Being on a Mac the chances I will ever play this are pretty slim if you take XNA into account.

Thanks in advance!
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