Malardy
Join the protagonist in Malardy, while using your wits to survive.
Link
Last modified 2012-02-21 07:47:40
NOTE: This review was written for version 1.0 and may be outdated.
Malardy is... something. It's a puzzle game, but the story and characters around it are... I dunno. Nothing seems to make any sense, and everything appears to be broken and buggy.....
But the entire game is really like that on purpose. There is a method to all the madness. And as insane as their logic could be, all of the puzzles do have solutions.
This game isn't perfect; you can get lost or stuck in all the senselessness, and there are a scant few fatal bugs. Still, it's a unique experience not to miss.
Malardy is... something. It's a puzzle game, but the story and characters around it are... I dunno. Nothing seems to make any sense, and everything appears to be broken and buggy.....
But the entire game is really like that on purpose. There is a method to all the madness. And as insane as their logic could be, all of the puzzles do have solutions.
This game isn't perfect; you can get lost or stuck in all the senselessness, and there are a scant few fatal bugs. Still, it's a unique experience not to miss.
Link
Last modified 2012-02-22 01:05:44
NOTE: This review was written for version 1.0 and may be outdated.
Malardy is quite a powerful experience. It really feels more like navigating a dream or nightmare than anything else I've played. The corrupted font adds to the experience that you're seeing the world through a filter. It isn't always clear what people are saying but you get a general idea which is all you really need.
The game has a decent length for the concept- it's long enough but not so long that it gets old. There are some puzzles but it is mostly adventuring and experiencing the surreal world.
The music is great - stirring, atmospheric and used appropriately. I still keep a number of the songs in my playlist for listening to casually.
There are a number of bugs, some of which can make the game unwinnable and that is especially unfortunate in something like this where it can be hard to tell if a particular unusual occurrence is a bug or part of the overall design.
"MAKE GHOST MAKE GHOST MAKE GHOST MAKE GHOST MAKE GHOS"
Malardy is quite a powerful experience. It really feels more like navigating a dream or nightmare than anything else I've played. The corrupted font adds to the experience that you're seeing the world through a filter. It isn't always clear what people are saying but you get a general idea which is all you really need.
The game has a decent length for the concept- it's long enough but not so long that it gets old. There are some puzzles but it is mostly adventuring and experiencing the surreal world.
The music is great - stirring, atmospheric and used appropriately. I still keep a number of the songs in my playlist for listening to casually.
There are a number of bugs, some of which can make the game unwinnable and that is especially unfortunate in something like this where it can be hard to tell if a particular unusual occurrence is a bug or part of the overall design.
"MAKE GHOST MAKE GHOST MAKE GHOST MAKE GHOST MAKE GHOS"
Link
Last modified 2023-11-18 02:03:19
malady - malarkey - les fleurs du mal
A classic hallucination by Noah and the leading MegaZeux "glitch" game.
Something has happened. You're in a space called Malardy that seems at turns residential and infrastructural. You make your way up stairways and along wires that emerge in people's homes, trying to find a way out.
You're not alone. Ambiguous characters with mangled names (dfbs, switch bud, anxious worry, noname, MAKE GHOST) reluctantly move you along. Some are hostile, some volatile. Some are friends from your past, speaking to you out of mathematical symbols. (All of them talk like Noah.)
The inhabitants of Malardy are unhappy with you. You did something wrong, and they got dragged here with you. There's a portal, or a beam, and...it's not very clear. But you're stuck here, and you don't want to be, and it's starting to wear on you.
Other games affect weirdness through the plot, but Noah goes down a level and plays with MegaZeux physics. Malardy is an organic trashscape where the ground offers unsure footing. Lights dim. Walls might be buttons. Colors mysteriously signify. You'll be inches from your screen trying to read mangled fonts and scrutinize puzzle pieces in rooms kept wisely small, close to the grain of the environment. Spastic patterns cover every surface; they warp and flex and sometimes stick to you, and I can't imagine how long they took to make.
What kind of game is Malardy? You could call it a puzzle game. These are simple and keep things interesting, but they're not the point. Instead, Malardy is unmatched for vibes, putting you in an uneasy mood from the jump. It's more an exercise in tone, a hallucinatory Honor Quest. If there's any criticism to offer it's that the game occasionally snaps you out of things with a familiar device, like a sokoban here, or a battle there, which lifts the fever dream. Old-school tropes abound, too, in the tossed-off-ness of the dialogue, the fourth-wall breaking, the instant kills and rumors of instant kills, and even a cameo or two; but hey, it's MegaZeux.
All of which adds up to a singular MZX world and a kind of cry from hell. What kind of emotional state was Noah in while making this? It's at the same time mischievous and plaintive, and like the residents of Malardy, ambiguous.
A classic hallucination by Noah and the leading MegaZeux "glitch" game.
Something has happened. You're in a space called Malardy that seems at turns residential and infrastructural. You make your way up stairways and along wires that emerge in people's homes, trying to find a way out.
You're not alone. Ambiguous characters with mangled names (dfbs, switch bud, anxious worry, noname, MAKE GHOST) reluctantly move you along. Some are hostile, some volatile. Some are friends from your past, speaking to you out of mathematical symbols. (All of them talk like Noah.)
The inhabitants of Malardy are unhappy with you. You did something wrong, and they got dragged here with you. There's a portal, or a beam, and...it's not very clear. But you're stuck here, and you don't want to be, and it's starting to wear on you.
Other games affect weirdness through the plot, but Noah goes down a level and plays with MegaZeux physics. Malardy is an organic trashscape where the ground offers unsure footing. Lights dim. Walls might be buttons. Colors mysteriously signify. You'll be inches from your screen trying to read mangled fonts and scrutinize puzzle pieces in rooms kept wisely small, close to the grain of the environment. Spastic patterns cover every surface; they warp and flex and sometimes stick to you, and I can't imagine how long they took to make.
What kind of game is Malardy? You could call it a puzzle game. These are simple and keep things interesting, but they're not the point. Instead, Malardy is unmatched for vibes, putting you in an uneasy mood from the jump. It's more an exercise in tone, a hallucinatory Honor Quest. If there's any criticism to offer it's that the game occasionally snaps you out of things with a familiar device, like a sokoban here, or a battle there, which lifts the fever dream. Old-school tropes abound, too, in the tossed-off-ness of the dialogue, the fourth-wall breaking, the instant kills and rumors of instant kills, and even a cameo or two; but hey, it's MegaZeux.
All of which adds up to a singular MZX world and a kind of cry from hell. What kind of emotional state was Noah in while making this? It's at the same time mischievous and plaintive, and like the residents of Malardy, ambiguous.