Ratings and Reviews by OtisTDog

[Full disclosure: I know the author of this work personally, and I helped with beta testing for this game.]

I have to admit that I find the yin-yang of seriousness and silliness at the heart of Anastasia the Power Pony very endearing, and I've been a fan since the debut of the first installment, A Matter of Heist Urgency, in 2022. Sequels are dangerous territory for any series; with players seeking both familiarity and novelty at the same time, the challenge to the author's creativity rises exponentially with each installment.

In the case of Anastasia, with its implicit Land of Make Believe setting, that burden is lessened somewhat. Author FLACRabbit has cleverly reserved the right to change things up at will, following whichever flight of fancy seems the most fun at the time. As with the first episode, there is an offbeat blend of tropes, though this time the main style being presented is noir. The impact of this is limited, though -- there are still many tropes from other styles tossed in, as befits the playful tone that infuses the series.

Anyone who enjoyed the original will certainly have fun with this one, which continues its experimentation in creating compelling combat scenes. Here I must salute the author for making each fight in the series a novelty that feels very different to play. However -- as fun as the combat scenes are -- the aspect of this work that most commands my attention is the music.

FLACRabbit is a musican at heart, with a strong talent for composing. A Matter of Heist Urgency incorporates music successfully, using it to set the mood for each scene and as accent to the highlights of in-game action, and also as the backbone of a cinematic flashback sequence that was added to the post-competition version. In A Smörgåsbord of Pain, the development of craft with respect to music continues, and the author finds ways to use it that I've never seen before in interactive fiction.

There are two scenes in particular for which the musical accompaniment is worth calling out. The first is a one-versus-two fight sequence near the start of the game. (Spoiler - click to show)As the fight begins, so does a dynamic soundtrack that loops, but with variants that keep it from sounding repetitive. Surprisingly, as the fight progresses, the music changes in response to the game state, an effect that keeps the music fresh throughout and undergirds the player's mood. The second is the game's climax battle. (Spoiler - click to show)In the food fight sequence, each zone's cuisine gets a background track that's complementary to the culinary style, and there's a Muzak-style tune for the central aisle -- the first one that you hear when the fight begins -- that cracks me up. Since the most effective fighting style involves moving around a lot, this helps to keep the player grounded in the imaginary space while also amplifying the general chaos of the scene a la Looney Tunes. Both scenes are written in a fast-paced style that makes it difficult to remember that you can spend as long as you like between commands.

Outside of those scenes, music is still effectively used in the same manner as the first episode, both to set the mood for each part and to act as stings for certain beats. The quality of the music has jumped significantly, however -- while the first episode largely stuck to simple 8-bit style tunes (excepting the new scenes added for the post-comp version), the tracks composed for this episode are much more sophisticated. (Spoiler - click to show)(The introduction to the scene with the Old Camel, who is probably my favorite character, really stands out here.) The overall effect of these various approaches is to create the impression of a true soundtrack for the game, not just as companion sound but at a level of genuine integration comparable to that seen in cinema.

Not content for innovation to be limited to music alone, FLACRabbit also added an eyebrow-raising multimedia effect (Spoiler - click to show)(the animated news broadcast seen in Anastasia's apartment) that almost seems impossible. Although Erik Temple's Glimmr extension demos showed similar savvy at exploiting Glulx's graphical capabilities, the code driving this effect is an independent innovation.

Pioneering works that hit their targets get special attention in my worldview, as they tend to open up new vistas of exploration that inject new vitality into the art form. It's great to see the latent capabilities of the Glulx virtual machine pushed to their limits as this work does. My hat is off to FLACRabbit for what's been accomplished here. Keep up the amazing work!

This is more of a demo than an actual game. Literally none of the conflicts introduced in the story are resolved by the time it ends, and it ends on a cliffhanger note that strongly implies the action will continue in one or more future episodes.

The most interesting thing about it is the backpack for holding inventory, a cool graphical interface that forces the player to choose which items will be available in each part of the narrative. The backpack only holds so much (represented as a limited number of squares), and items take up squares in varying amounts and configurations. You've almost certainly seen this interface in other games before, but here the assortment of items is entertaining in itself. (Spoiler - click to show)(Should I ditch the bong to make room for the photograph of Burt Reynolds? Which is more likely to be useful in a medieval setting: a spade or a pack of cigarettes?) Although items can be rotated to allow denser packing, there is never enough room to take everything available.

The implication of that process is that the choice of available items will significantly alter the gameplay of each part, perhaps even going so far as to make a poor enough choice result in a loss. However, as far as I can tell none of the choices to be made by the player -- neither the choice of inventory items nor the standard action choices presented -- matter much at all. The plot is essentially unchanged regardless of which options are selected; only details at the margins are modified.

The writing was amusing in many places, and some of the jokes got genuine laughs, but after two playthroughs I think I've seen just about all it has to offer. Recommended as a quick diversion for those who like anti-heroes and mild absurdism, with the advice that there's no point in thinking hard about which path to take since any two paths will be 95% the same.

The title of this review is a quote from the author-supplied blurb for Hobbiton Recall. It is, unfortunately, accurate.

It's not clear why the author chose to involve either The Hobbit or Total Recall in this game. Although elements from those two sources appear within, the motivation for choosing that pair specifically is in no way apparent. Neither particularly relates to the main plot of the game, which seems to revolve around toothpaste, nor do the elements selected from each interact in a meaningful or synergistic way. It seems like the pair of ostensible inspirations could just have easily been E. T. the Extra-Terrestrial and Minority Report, or Aquaman and Top Gun -- really any two intellectual properties with good name recognition and no obvious resonance, since the main purpose seems to be to provoke a curiosity about what the author has come up with to justify the juxtaposition.

Regrettably, most of what the author has come up with is AI-generated pixel art and jokes rooted in misogyny.

The original release included a game-breaking bug that prevented going beyond the first third or so of the game. If one finds oneself stuck (Spoiler - click to show)at a hospital with a bus ticket, that bug is the reason. This may have been corrected in a September 8 update. Since Gruescript is interpreted, its source is inspectable and can be modified, so it was possible to fix this bug and proceed before any official correction.

Since in general this game does function, I'd like to say something positive. However, I'm having trouble coming up with anything beyond the fact that the author seems to have put a large amount of work into it.

On the whole, this feels primarily like the product of the author's efforts to learn Gruescript. Clearly, quite a bit was learned. There's a noticeable progression of complexity in the coding as one moves steadily toward the end.

There are still lessons to learn regarding interaction design, e.g. being consistent in the patterns of action expected from players. I noticed, for example, that in some cases special actions are attached to the indirect object, in others the direct object. Also, in some cases the necessary item must be "held," i.e. selected, instead of just in inventory. Also, the implementation of the hedge maze was novel in my experience, but definitely unappreciated: (Spoiler - click to show)Per the code, just moving randomly is the key. There is no actual geography, one just gets shunted to the goal location about 10% of the time when moving in the single maze room.

In a couple of places it appears that the game can reach a "dead end" state in which it can no longer be finished, though I'm guessing that this is unintentional. If you are trying to reach the end of this lengthy game, I strongly suggest making use of the save game function on a regular basis.

I guess the fact that I tried my first Gruescript game and even learned a little bit about Gruescript code is also to this game's credit. Someone learning that platform might want to review the source code of this game for some example solutions to typical problems. As entertainment, however, I can't recommend it.

This game needs a lot more work before it's even worth trying, let alone entering in a competition.

The intfiction.org review by B.J. Best enumerates a number of significant issues that hamper the most basic of interactions. I ran into those and more.

Beyond the numerous technical problems, it's been a long time since I've seen a new game with such a player-unfriendly approach to design. Disassembly shows that there is a lot of intended interaction, but the game does very little to help the player discover it. The most likely outcome of an attempt to play in good faith is tremendous frustration followed by an unexpected ending, the text of which presumes events that have not yet occurred.

There are built-in hints which seem necessary to review if one wants to get complete information about the objects in the room. However, each revealed hint costs the players points. This is somewhat ameliorated by a buggy scoring system that allows infinite points -- or at least it would if there wasn't a hard turn limit. Even the hint system is effectively anti-player.

The plot, such as it is, is also a jumbled mess. (Spoiler - click to show)The protagonist must deliver a big presentation and needs sleep. His marriage is on the rocks because he's been prioritizing his work life and handled a miscarriage poorly. He is paranoid and probably an alcoholic. Oh, and someone threatened to kill him and blow up his house.

My recommendation to the author is to visit intfiction.org for help in learning the basics of Inform 7. My advice to everyone else is to avoid this game until an improved version becomes available.