Review: Catch the Scootaloos

Play it Here!

This one's for all you Scootaloo fans out there. The object of the game is simple: catch the Scootaloos falling from the sky, and use the bits earned from your played rounds to buy upgrades for your bucket or the Scootaloos, or even unlock a new game mode. Credit to this game goes to Sparklepeep, who made this game for the r/mylittlepony community on Reddit. It was also featured on Equestria Daily, but I felt this game was in need of a proper review. Read it after the break!

You start out the game with 35 bits. That's enough to get you a few cheap upgrades, if you want them. When you click the play button, you get right into the action, with Scootaloos falling from the sky. With your trusty bucket following your cursor's every move, you start catching the Scootaloos and racking up a score, to the tune of  I'll Fly Higher by AcousticBrony and MandoPony.

Now the simple gameplay can get old pretty fast, with Scootaloos falling in ever increasing abundance. What's more, one round lasts six minutes, which is a very long time for a game like this. Thankfully, you can cut the round short whenever you want by hitting X, which will get you the points you earned through however long you played. The music to this game has lyrics and distinct sections, so hopefully you won't get too bored with doing the same thing over and over again for several minutes. 

Why can't I hold all these Scootaloos?

Spoilers ahead!

The only thing that will keep you playing is the upgrades. The first set of upgrades is known as Scootadiversity. When you start the game, every Scootaloo in the sky is an instance of the same image. By the time you've fully upgraded Scootadiversity (Level 7), you will have 7 different types of Scootaloo to catch. This upgrade doubles in cost every Level, so it costs 5 bits to get from Levels 1 to 2, and 160 bits to get from Levels 6 to 7.

The next set is called Receptigirth. These upgrades are more costly, but max out at Level 3. It makes the buckets larger each level, making it easier to catch the Scootaloos raining from the sky. The Level 3 upgrade is a very large KFC bucket, a jab at the whole Scootaloo/chicken thing. It costs 100 bits to purchase Level 2, and 150 to purchase Level 3.

Lastly, you can purchase a secret game mode for 100 bits. This turns out to be Endless Mode, which is exactly what it sounds like - endless amounts of Scootaloos for you to catch. Don't worry, you can still hit X to exit and claim your points. It also has a different song: Adam Jensen, a version of Barbara Streisand with "Adam Jensen" as the only lyric in place of "Barbara Streisand."

End of Spoilers

All in all, this game gets old fast, and the gameplay is very simple, but the purchasable upgrades add content to this minigame. Although Sparklepeep has stated that the game is finished, I definitely see vast room for improvements. With more upgrades that actually change the gameplay, this could be a legitimately fun game.

As much as I want to give this a Crusader Grade (that's what it was earlier), the gameplay of Catch the Scootaloos just isn't varied enough for a 6/10. So a Trixie Grade it is.

Review: Super Lesbian Horse RPG

Super Lesbian Horse RPG

 One day Bobby Schroeder decided that he liked shipping cartoon horses enough to warrant creating a silly game about it: Super Lesbian Horse RPG was the result of his labour. Overall awareness of the game spread quickly after its announcement by virtue of its somewhat odd title, along with a rather amusing /mlp/ thread which claimed SLHRPG was something else entirely, and now here we are with the somewhat final product (given that there will probably be several bugfix releases in the near future). Expectations for the project have been fairly high overall, but does it live up to them? For that, dear reader, you will have to read the rest of the review.

Horse Time below the break.

 Super Lesbian Horse RPG starts off quite well, presenting itself as a comedic, dialogue-heavy RPG. Problem is, after a couple minutes of playing it becomes clear that Bobby's idea of "comedy" basically involves reusing the same couple lesbian jokes over again, rephrased and with different characters. The game would honestly be much funnier if Bobby didn't try so hard to cram in as much stuff as possible, most of which ends up being mediocre enough to make the player consider fast-forwarding all the dialogue. I wouldn't advise doing so, however, as there are a few gems here and there which deserve to be seen and make the game somewhat more worthwhile (coincidentally, most of these were carryovers from the 5-minute demo which I praised back in May).

 Even if the game's main draw also happens to be its greatest weak point, that doesn't necessarily mean everything else in it sucks as well. Bobby's experience as the operator of several Tumblr ask blogs, the most notable of which being Fluttershy Replies, has paid off incredibly well for the most part, resulting in some of the nicest pixel art I've ever seen in a My Little Pony fangame. The environments are fantastic, character portraits are pretty good and the battle backgrounds manage to be quite impressive, albeit not quite as much as Earthbound's animated extravaganzas. Enemies tend to be fairly creative for the most part, especially once the player reaches some of the more spoilery areas. It was also nice to see to see that Bobby took a cue from Earthbound and gave them some joke actions just for the fun of it (along with a completely useless enemy to boot, which resulted in a fair amount of snickering from my part).

Shh, the elves will hear you.

 Take away the custom assets, however, and what you have is a standard RPG Maker project. I hate to be rude to folks who like the engine, but after playing several games made with it I must say that after a while I start to feel some deja-vu, as if these are all reskins of one game. Then again this complaint doesn't only apply to SLHRPG; it's more of a general problem for RPG Maker and is kind of to be expected when one decides to play them. Some might find this annoying, others won't, still figured that I might as well mention it just in case.

 Ah, but is the game fun? At times, as more emphasis is put on advancing the plot than grinding, but after a while it tends to get rather...dull. Shame too, as the story takes an interesting turn partway through Rainbow Dash's basement but ends up falling apart soon after, accompanied by what is perhaps the saddest final bossfight I have seen. Heck, several encounters with groups of regular enemies posed an even greater challenge to my party than a reality-warping [REDACTED], although perhaps that was due to my following the convention of conserving items and MP for bossfights. Either way it was still kind of an overall letdown in general, punctuated by a few extremely promising moments that were, alas, misused. Bobby also tried throwing in some relationship melodrama as well, so let's just say that it didn't work out all that well and leave it at that.

He likes thinking about pants, unsurprisingly.

 Musically, Super Lesbian Horse RPG is miles ahead of most of its competition, with an almost entirely original soundtrack made up mostly of chiptunes by our fandom's Tumblr community (with one semi-notable exception). There's not really anything to complain about here unless you're overly picky about video game soundtracks, in which case you can simply mute it via the options menu or something. Previous releases did have some missing audio files which caused the game to crash, but to the best of my knowledge the issues have been resolved in 1.0.3. Yay?


 ...Now that we're actually able to play the game, I get the impression that it's somewhat of a mixed bag. Sure, it looks and sounds great, but as a game it tends to get old after a while. Most of the humour is rather stale as well, which is really unfortunate as it originally showed so much promise (although that could have been because the creator threw all his best into the original demo and ran out of inspiration afterwards). Some people are still going to love this, as can be easily seen on Tumblr, and there's nothing wrong with that but in my opinion this is a prime example of style over substance. It may be worth a playthrough just to see the enemy designs and environments, but don't expect to get much for replay value out of Super Lesbian Horse RPG unless you miss the bonus boss or something.

  I should also mention that I have stripped away the title of "strangest pony RPG", as Fnagame still deserves it for its hilariously counter-intuitive gimmick. Sorry, and enjoy your Christmas (although come to think of it this is a little late for that).

Super Lesbian Horse RPG is Released

Super Lesbian Horse RPG

 Yes, it's finally here (and quite late as well, missing its original release date by a whopping 6 months). Quite likely the pony fandom's strangest RPG as of yet, Super Lesbian Horse RPG was created in the spare time of a fairly generic Tumblr user, the type who gets legitimately angry when folks assume his "SFW" game contains pornography based off of the title. Some of the fairly recent additions have been somewhat controversial, sure, but is the rest of the game alright?

...You'll have to find out in the morning, since it's past midnight over here and I'm going to bed.

My Little Mahjong

Play it here!

Hubworld has released My Little Mahjong, a ponified version of Mahjong Solitaire. The game itself is pretty simple, and aside from a few technical bugs, quite well done. There are a few different puzzle layouts to try, and you can solve them all to an instrumental version of the Find a Pet song. There's also a shuffle button in case you get stuck.

My Little Karaoke: Additional Content Disc #3

My Little Karaoke

 For the third time in a row, the My Little Karaoke team has released a new batch of songs for aspiring horsefamous singers to destroy their vocal cords to. If you've seen this project before, you'll know what to expect; if you haven't, it shouldn't be hard to guess. Like always, the new pack can be downloaded from the project's official site, and the listing of new tracks will be copied below the break.

New songs
From the community:
4EverfreeBrony - Chant of Mirth
4EverfreeBrony - Giggles and Gumdrops
AcousticBrony & Mysteriousbronie - It's OK
AcoustiMandoBrony - A Long Way from Equestria
BlackGryph0n, Baasik, Michelle Creber - Zero Gravity
BroniKoni - Keep On Running
Cherax Destructor - The Rescue
dBPony - Oh Sweetie Belle
Dekko DePony - Ponies on My Mind
Derpy - Nyan
donglekumquat - Hoofdachest
Donn DeVore - Luna
Donn DeVore - She Can Fly
EileMonty - I Am A Parasprite
Exiark - Equestria
Griffinilla, SoGreatAndPowerful - 40 Winks
Griffinilla, Toastwaffle - Love Letters
&I ft. Chichi - Into the Green
Jackle App - I Love Everything
Kenny9807 - Apples to the Core (Rock Version)
Kenny Allen - Everybody's dressed like ponies at the Holiday Inn
Lectro Dub - Fallen
Level None - Fly
Mandopony - Horse Famous
MandoPony & Silva Hound - Wild Fire
Matthew Mosier - My Cadence
Metajoker feat. Fluttershyay - Universe
Mush - The Changeling (Remix)
PonyFireStone - Flight
PrinceWhateverer ft. Dreamchan & Scrambles - Destabilize
Replacer, Megabyte Brony - Finding My Way (Back Home)
SlyphStorm - Soldiers of the Night
Warbalist, EileMonty - Already One Year
WoodenToaster - Tough Luck
Woodlore - Let The Magic Feel Your Soul
YourEnigma - I'll Come Running

From the show (and extras):
Awesome as I Want to Be
Better Than Ever
Let's Have a Battle
Perfect Day for Fun
Rainbow Rocks
Shake Your Tail
Shine Like Rainbows
Tricks Up My Sleeve
Under Our Spell
Welcome to the Show
My Little Pony Friends
Network Musical Ensemble - Giddy Up
Wander Over Yonder - The Box

My Little Karaoke: Additional Content Disc

My Little Karaoke

 For those of you who are into karaoke and ponies, My Little Karaoke must be practically a godsend, and you'll be pleased to hear that they've released an additional content disc with a bunch of new songs for you to sing along to. It includes "the Equestria Girls soundtrack, silly things such as PFUDOR, and the first S4 song (Hearts Strong As Horses)", along with some performance improvements and general bugfixes. There may or may not be some other things, but I wouldn't know since I haven't really looked into it that much.

Will I play this myself? Probably not, since I'd rather keep my terrible singing to my goofy Skype calls, but if you enjoy being humiliated by a computer program criticizing your voice, this is for you. One can download it at http://www.mylittlekaraoke.com/index.php?pages/Game-download

 Your average Canadian day in a nutshell.

Game: Legacy of the Pony

 

Legacy of the Pony

  This game has been out for a couple of months now, but it's never too late to post about projects, I think! Legacy of the Pony, created by DeftFunk and Noonanna, is a non-linear Metroidvania-style platformer starring Spike as he ventures through a sprawling cave system to rescue Rarity from the Diamond Dogs. To complete their journey, players will need to locate the Elements of Harmony hidden deep in every corner of the game world.. A variety of powerups and collectibles are littered throughout the game to help Spike on his quest, and a map system helps keep players from getting lost. The game has an 8-bit aesthetic reminiscent of Game Boy games, which provides a bit of charm.

 The game can be downloaded from Dropbox (with a Spanish version available for some of the international readers out there), and it has its own subreddit for discussion on the game. I've barely scratched the surface of the game so far; this post may see updates in the near future with further impressions as I progress.

Review: Stroll

Stroll

I know what you're thinking: "A Pinkie Pie Platformer? I've played hundreds of those. Give it a rest, already." Well, hold your horses, so to speak. Just recently, Silly Mare Games released Stroll, which strives for an artsy, open-world feel rather than following in the hoofsteps of the rest of the genre. Does it find a successful niche, or is it just a bunch of walking around? You know where to click.

In the first few minutes of playing the game, I was struck by two things. First off, the game sounds like something you might play to fall asleep: rather than the customary bouncy electro remixes of pony songs, you're greeted by soft hoofsteps, mellow nature sounds, and the whistling wind. Walking around is a relaxing experience. However, I was initially a little put off by suddenly being dropped into the sandbox - I'm the kind of gamer who purposefully walks through a dungeon picking out the tunnels least likely to be the correct path, so I can make sure I haven't missed anything before continuing. Massive open worlds are intimidating.

After walking along for a few minutes, I began to get bored. I'd already found one of the ponies hidden in the game world, and I wasn't sure what to do next. The scenery was quickly becoming repetitive, and I had already been confronted by a couple of dead ends. If you're a fan of rapid-fire action games, this is probably not your cup of tea. 

Lyra doesn't sleep the way one might expect her to.

Then, after scrambling my way up a mountainside and between several precarious floating platforms, I was rewarded with another hidden pony. At this point, the game's central mechanic became clear: find your way into the game's most secluded spots, and you'll be rewarded with ponies and other secrets. Now that I'd determined my challenge, I was hooked.

There are 11 ponies, and several more easter eggs, hidden around the surprisingly expansive map. Although there's nary a cutscene, the trek from Ponyville through the Everfree forest to the outskirts of Canterlot still feels like a journey. For those of you  who like more low-key adventuring, this game provides a meditative experience: I certainly didn't expect to spend as long with it as I did, although I'm not disclosing the amount of time.

Here's the bottom line: this game doesn't possess universal appeal, and some of you will quickly find you'd rather spend time on something else. However, it's unique among the fan games I've played, and I expect it to win itself many charmed fans. Final verdict: 7/10.

Pony Joust

Pony Joust

Ok, I know it's tricky to stay angry at Rainbow Dash after this morning's episode - but in the season premiere, she knocked best pony flying in a jousting match. That sort of behavior is inexcusable.

Thanks to NutcaseNightmare, creator of Pony Wings, now you can make her pay! Um... if that's alright by you. You could also get knocked repeatedly in the mud. Engage in the sport of pegasi champions in this quick, sleek pony jousting game. 

MLP:Online Shut Down

 If you have visited MLP:Online's website at all during November you would have noticed that the game was no longer available for download, with an announcement that the game was no longer under development. No details were given as to why this might have been the case, but today our suspicions were confirmed in that the project had been taken down by Hasbro for copyright reasons. All hope is not lost, however, as the developers have stated that they are going to begin work on a new MLP-related fangame, and will give details on how to help fairly soon.

Anyhow, in case you want to read the original announcement you can do so via this link or just go down and read beyond the break.

 Just over a month ago, we released our first episode of our game. After a year and a half since the outset of the project, we were happy to present our first Episode to you. Though our servers suffered, we were pleased with the response and the great feedback we received!
 Shortly after that–exactly 4 weeks prior to now–we received a complaint about copyright and trademark infringement. We initially dismissed this it was most likely submitted by some trolls, as they could be submitted anonymously by anyone through our CDN. However, we continued to look into it, and by the following Monday, found it to be very real.
 Hasbro is not to be blamed here. As per U.S. Trademark law, as soon as an infringement comes to light, they are obligated to defend the trademark, or they will lose it. They had no choice in the matter, regardless of what they thought of the project or how it benefited them.
 The matter was quite strict: there was little that we could do to work around it. We removed the download link and development was suspended. Discussions continued through the month, but it came down to one fact: MLP:Online had come to an end.

MLP:Online: April 2015-November 2012. RIP. 

 We apologize for the wait. The time that we were taking for our discussions and to announce this publicly was time-boxed. Salty will be posting a eulogy about the project.
 But all hope is not lost. While MLPOnline is officially dead and buried, the team is mostly sticking together. Some took their leave due to real-life considerations, but about 75% of the old team remains. We've officially changed our name to Starlight Studios, as per a team vote last week. We have selected a new project. It is pony related, but otherwise we're keeping most of the details secret. It is our goal to have it completed by Bronycon 2013, though this may be ambitious.
 You should expect to see something unveiled this summer.
 EDIT: If you would like to help out with our new project, keep an eye out. I will be posting information about how to within the next 8 hours.

 Kind of a bummer, eh? At least they're going to be working on another project, so at least there's that to look forward to.

Magic Duel Episode Minigame Compilation Post

Sweet mother of Celestia, that was quite an episode last weekend. In just a few days, it's spawned loads of fan content - including games, of course. Astounded? Don't thank me, thank sparklepeep, FearlessPie, and SylrePony! More after the break.

Thrack-It Trixie

Working on a rock farm? Sounds like a great central mechanic for a game. Relive Trixie Lulamoon's time in poverty, and earn a million bits to purchase the alicorn amulet and defeat that no-good Twilight Sparkle. Avoid the treacherous wheels! After a few levels of frantic teleporation, this game actually gets fairly hard - prepare to spend a little more time than you expect.

---

Animal Juggling

Fluttershy will mess you up if you drop her animal friends. Seriously, don't even think about it. However, this may prove difficult, as they just keep falling from the sky. Master the art of magical animal aerobatics in preparation for a high-pressure exhibition in front of several foreign diplomats! 

---

Rainbow's Tail

Rainbow Dash has a serious need to collect magical floating orbs, but her balance is off. Way off. Can you master the challenges of one-button flight? This game can be frustrating on your first few tries - miss one sphere, and you're pretty much doomed - but gets much more satisfying when you finally get the knack of keeping Rainbow Dash airborne. An even harder sequel centered around the flight-challenged Scootaloo in commemoration of next week's episode would be pretty cool.

Zap Apple Buckin'

Zap Apple Buckin'

(Android)

 When it comes to mobile games, Zap Apple Buckin' is as basic as you can get: apples appear on the screen, and you have to touch all of them before the time runs out. To be honest I barely even consider this to be pony related, so I'm not including this on the Arcade, but if you're really bored and have an Android phone then this might be okay for wasting several minutes of your time. There's also a Flash version, although I don't really see the point of it either.

...Meanwhile, I might have something more interesting to post today, if Wishdream manages to finish his trailer on time.

Choke on My Woona, YOU NASTY CHANGELINGS

Choke on My Woona
(Download)

 While taking a brief break from working on the 4th Nightfall beta, Night Breeze from Silly Mare Games decided to clone a favourite game of his, the name of which cannot be mentioned here for various reasons. Choke on My Woona was the result, a shooter involving Woona and changelings. Upon inevitably dying in the game Woona will respawn, and be assisted by the ghost of her previous self. This goes on for 10 levels although I haven't gotten nearly that far yet, given that it practically runs in slow-motion on Wine and I'm not as patient as I once was (having beaten an unstable version of SuperTux running at 5fps). If you aren't using Linux or OS X, however, the game looks pretty fun so I'd definitely give it a shot if I were you.

Meanwhile, I still haven't figured out how to get Windows 8.1 to play nicely with Linux.

 Come to think of it, for some reason those multicoloured changelings in this game remind me of Carnifex's creations. If these ever ended up making a cameo in a fangame...hoo boy. I'd probably puke rainbows.

Elemental Reaction

Elemental Reaction

 Puzzle games centred around chain reactions can be rather fun and Elemental Reaction is fun when you first start it, but after a while this one gets kinda dull. Then again, it could just be that this cold/headache is adversely affecting my enjoyment of this game, so maybe I'll have to give it a shot later when I'm not coughing up mucus every so often. Can't really think of much more to write about it, so...yeah.

Enjoy your day.

Ye Old Time Foal Slapping Simulator

Ye Old Time Foal Slapping Simulator

Ahhh, it's good to be back!

While I was off hunting Wompas in the hinterland, Sparklepeep over on DeviantArt released the next season 3 minigame. Nothing fancy: just whack Babs Seed to keep her in the air, and try to launch her as high as possible! For the first half of last Saturday's episode, I was ready to smack her myself.

So, how does the whole minigame-an-episode concept sit with you? Do current pony games in small doses hit the spot, or do they waste your time? Tell us in the comments.

Bonus: find the season opener minigame here.

Vine Slicer

Vine Slicer

 Oh, looks like futzi01 made another quickie game, this one being a clone of Fruit Ninja. You drag your mouse cursor around to chop up vines, all the while avoiding ponies and wishing Fighting is Magic wasn't cancelled so you could play it instead. Pretty basic, I know, but still fun for the most part.

As to why this isn't on the Arcade...let's just say that futzi01 has grown really fond of exporting his Flash games at rather high resolutions.


And on a somewhat fangame-related note, Donitz released some odd "Neuropony" experiment which happens to be worth taking a look at and can be found here.

Review: Megapony

MegaPony

 A strange trend noted by several people in the community is that whenever a pony fangame comes out and is at least partially based off of another game, it almost always ends up being more difficult than the original. Oddly enough, this usually seems to be entirely unintentional on the developer's part, and it is often debatable as to whether or not the increased difficulty is really a good thing. MegaPony is already an infamous example of this, sure, but is the game's quality negatively affected by this?

The answer, along with the rest of the review, can be found beneath the break.


 Your average gamer's first few hours with MegaPony will inevitably be filled with frustration and rage as they get used to the overly sensitive controls, the odd level designs and the titular protagonist's rather large hitbox. Most won't even manage to complete a single stage, but MegaPony is not for the faint of heart and for those that do press on, something magical happens. Levels that stumped them for hours on end will suddenly become a breeze as the player learns to master them, and with enough endurance one can overcome incredible odds. For a while it may seem somewhat repetitive, sure, but the exhilarating sensation one receives upon finally completing that one level and defeating that which earlier brought you to your knees makes it all worthwhile for those who persevere.

Contrary to popular belief, unicorns can climb ladders too.

 Despite its overall difficulty, MegaPony's gameplay is quite simple. The player runs around as a chubby robot and shoots stuff, all the while dodging bullets and jumping over bottomless pits. Upon completing a stage and beating its boss our hero is awarded a brand new weapon, which also happens to be the weakness for another boss. After defeating the brainwashed Mane Six, he unlocks the final stage along with itsboss, Discord. He can also access Zecora's shop to buy items and upgrades to improve his odds of victory, although purists might want to stay clear of the place (aside from a certain upgrade that adjusts the protagonist's hitbox to be closer to that of the blue bomber).

 Stages tend to have a surprising amount of variety, with little in terms of repetition when it comes to visuals and room layouts. Several of them also introduce new gameplay elements, such as the teleporters in MagicMare's lair and the fishing rod in GenerousMare's stage, the latter of which transforms the game into a weird autoscrolling shooter. Thankfully each level's gimmick is used in moderation, so for the most part they don't end up feeling overused or tiresome.

There's a distinct lack of flashback potions here.

 Aside from several areas (such as Applejack's stage), the game does quite well at staying within the NES' colour limits and still manages to look good in the process. Unfortunately the screen scaling options seem to be a bit off, as using them blurs the game's crisp pixel art, making it harder to fully appreciate the detail put into it. It also forced me to take screencaps with the default screen size and manually upscale them in Gimp, which kind of sucked. The music was pretty nice too: a fitting blend of Megaman themes and My Little Pony chiptune remixes, although to be honest the music gets old after being stuck on a stage for long periods of time.


 To be honest, I don't really have much to criticize MegaPony for. Sure, the main character vaguely resembles one of Clarence's hippopotamuses and there are still a few bugs/imperfections to be ironed out, but most of the possible changes would lower the game's difficulty and thus arguably reduce the game's main draw (aside from its containing ponies, of course). I wouldn't say this is anywhere near the best pony fangame yet, true, but those of you who are looking for a real challenge should ultimately find MegaPony to be quite rewarding.

 It remains to see how Megamare X will compare to this, although I doubt it'll even come close to this one's difficulty.

Game: Unicorn Training

Unicorn Training
Demo | Full ($0.99)

 Adventures in Equica: Unicorn Training is a top-down shooter/RPG hybrid game developed by Yotes Games for mobile phones and tablets, which takes inspiration from the FiM universe but apparently manages to be distinct enough to get away with being a paid game. The game centers around a young unicorn named Clover, apprentice to Totally Not Starswirl the Bearded, as she trains in the ways of magical combat. While we posted about the project in its earlier days, when it was known as Unicorn Quest, the game finally released over the weekend for Android devices. The full version, which costs 99 cents, contains nine dungeons to explore, though only the first is available in the demo.

 While the game shows promise, my play session with the demo was disappointing; poor touch screen controls combined with tedious, monotonous fights and a dungeon that went on for too long to create an unsatisfying experience. Various bugs in movement and the interface served only to further dampen the fun. In addition, the boss at the end of the demo's dungeon simply vanished when I attempted to reload a save file, leaving me no other option but to exit without seeing whatever proper ending may have been there. An extra coat of polish and some more effort on dungeon design would greatly benefit this game; right now, I can't recommend much more than trying the demo out for a play session or two.

Gravity Pony

Gravity Pony (Download)
(Arcade)

Happy U.S. Thanksgiving, everypony! Regardless of where you live, November's as good a time as any to eat good food and play pony video games. Because that's what this holiday is for... right?

Anyhow, Zilven Sparkle's whipped up a gravity-based pony minigame to keep you occupied. Help Twilight master gravity spells, and try to avoid falling to your doom for as long as possible. The game appears to use the same animation as the upcoming Super Smash Ponies, and looks great in practice. If you've got .exe download problems, the HTML5 version can be found here, although lag and graphical issues are to be expected.

Review: Adventure Ponies 2

Adventure Ponies 2

 Somehow this review ended up getting delayed for nearly three weeks, partially due to a nasty headache on the day it was supposed to be written that caused it to be pushed back further and further until now; so as I sat at my desk and waited for everyone else to wake up, it seemed prudent to finally get this out of the way so I can get on to reviewing other stuff (such as the final version of MegaPony). Fair enough?

Following standard procedure, the review can be found after the break.


 For the most part it's fair to assume that when a video game sequel comes out, it will contain at least some improvements over the original. In this case, however, you'd be wrong. Adventure Ponies 2 is basically a buggier re-skinning of the first game with secondary characters instead of the Mane 6, terrible new levels, and really boring bosses. I almost wish I didn't have to stretch this out to fill an entire review, but since that's what you folks expect of me, here it goes...

 Somewhere along the line, somebody in the Hub's game development team fell in love with the colour brown and married it, not knowing that he was entering a polygamous relationship with the vast majority of generic "real is brown" shooters. He then proceeded to proclaim his love for his new wife by creating a game about her, and slapped ponies onto it so everybody would see it. Gone are the colourful backgrounds of Adventure Ponies, so you'd better get used to wading through stage after stage of boring brown badness. The only "upside" to this is that the objects on the stages stand out against the bland backgrounds, but that doesn't really help things.

Spikes and balloons are not a good combination.

 Meanwhile, the game is glitchier than ever, to the point where many people have been either completely unable to start it up or ended up with a screen displaying assets (??). Occasionally I've managed to get ponies frozen on the spikes and unable to get off, resulting in their death aside from one notable incident where I somehow managed to clip through the floor after hitting a spike. There was also an incident where a teleporter refused to work, and one of our most frequent commenters has mentioned that perfecting a bonus room can result in the camera getting stuck. I haven't been able to test that one out to see if it has been fixed or not, but regardless you should still be prepared for almost anything while playing.


 So are there any improvements over the original? Well...yes, there is at least one that I can think of. The controls, while still rather weird, aren't nearly as aggravatingly slippery as they used to be, resulting in fewer cheap deaths overall. Thing is, the rest of the game is so dull that you probably won't even notice or care that much. Since there are much better fangames out there already, I'd advise that you leave this one alone and play MegaPony or something.

...I was going to write a large paragraph on how the decrease in quality from Adventure Ponies 1 to 2 paralleled that of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic over the same period of time, but I won't bother for now.