[quote][b][url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asset_flip]Warning: Asset Flip![/url][/b]
Mambo Wave is a Digital Homicide style asset flip, or what Valve calls a "Fake Game". The "developer" paid for/pirated a few Unity asset store assets, dumped them all in a blender, and submitted it to Valve as if they're real game developers.[/quote]
Two notable criteria for what makes an asset flip instead of legitimate use of stock assets are whether those assets comprise the majority of the game, and whether the "developer" properly credited the people who created most of the assets in the game. This game fails both of those tests. The "developers" here didn't credit any of the artists and real, actual game developers who created the assets here, so this is plagiarism, as well as cash grab shovelware.
In this case, the asset flipper took a Unity endless runner game template and a bunch of "borrowed" sprites and tilesets to make a minimum viable product... just good enough to get through Steam Direct so the developer can start making roubles from garbage game bundles. It has no value or merit as a real game.
Game Breaker Studios/My Way Games have shown a repeat pattern of unethically dumping other people's work onto Steam as a cheap, nasty cash grab, through this account or through closely linked/alt accounts. Here's some examples so you can see for yourself:
[list]
[*] "[url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/628580]Miniballist[/url]" = [url=https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/templates/packs/endless-turns-63501]Endless Turns[/url] developed by SGLib Games
[*] "[url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/1058980]Dinosaur Bone Digging[/url]" = [url=https://www.sellanycode.com/item/515/dinosaur-bone-digging-games]Dinosaur Bone Digging Games[/url] developed by Ardian Kaltara
[*] "[url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/809340]Extreme School Driving Simulator[/url]" = [url=https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/tools/physics/realistic-car-controller-16296]Realistic Car Controller[/url] developed by BoneCracker Games
[*] "[url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/1054930]Mine the Gold[/url]" = [url=https://unityassets4free.com/goldmine/]Gold Miner Century[/url] developed by SplayGame Official
[*] "[url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/864010]Space Force[/url]" = [url=https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/templates/x-racer-35344]X-Racer[/url] developed by Deer Cat
[*] "[url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/628570]Trivia Night[/url]" = [url=https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/templates/systems/trivia-quiz-game-template-45521]Trivia Quiz Game Template[/url] developed by Puppeteer
[*] "[url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/1058930]Top Burger[/url]" = [url=https://unityfreaks.com/asset/4815]Top Burger Chef[/url] developed by KetchAp
[*] "[url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/645360]CubeXL[/url]" = [url=https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/templates/packs/switch-the-gravity-63196]Switch The Gravity[/url] developed by App Advisory
[*] "[url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/1034160]Extreme Racing On Highway[/url]" = [url=https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/templates/packs/highway-racer-50866]Highway Racer[/url] developed by BoneCracker Games
[*] "[url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/1020600]Extreme Truck Simulator[/url]" = [url=https://www.sellmyapp.com/downloads/crazy-cargo-truck-driver-2022/]Crazy Cargo Truck Driver[/url] developed by Dive Sole
[*] "[url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/1050810]The Hunt in the Forest[/url]" = [url=https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/templates/systems/advanced-sniper-starter-kit-7593]Advanced Sniper Starter Kit[/url] developed by Hardworker Studio
[*] "[url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/1058500]Muscle Car Robot[/url]" = [url=https://gamening.com/muscle-car-robot/]Muscle Car Robot[/url] developed by GameNing
[/list]
Taking this shovelware seriously as if it was a genuine attempt to make a game, it doesn't meet basic minimum requirements that most PC gamers expect as standard.
Mambo Wave didn't appeal much to the people who own a copy of the game, either. It has achievements, and they show us a very clear picture that the game didn't really capture any interest from gamers. The most commonly and easily attained achievement is "Welcome to the Mambo Wave", launching the asset flip, trivial to get, but less than 40 percent of players bothered to get that far before uninstalling the game. Hardly a success story, even the people who own this game weren't interested in it.
The poor quality of this game is also reflected by how many people spent time with it. At the time of this review, SteamDB shows the all-time peak player number was only 14 players. This is a remarkably low number, and now, the only player activity occurs once or twice a month, presumably someone loading it up to see what it is then quickly uninstalling it. Considering there's over 120 million gamers on Steam and well over 130,000 games for gamers to choose from, the overwhelming lack of interest in this low quality game is to be expected.
[quote][b][url=https://www.ftc.gov/legal-library/browse/federal-register-notices/16-cfr-part-465-trade-regulation-rule-use-consumer-reviews-testimonials-final-rule]Warning: Review Manipulation![/url][/b]
This game features a number of fake positive reviews from accounts known to be in the business of review manipulation/paid reviews. They're all written in either Russian, broken English or ChatGPT AI slop, appear at almost exactly the same time, very shortly after the game launched on Steam, all have a direct Steam purchase of the game, and the accounts are used consistently to write fake reviews for asset flips and other cash grabs/scams. The "Positive" review score on this game should be disregarded due to this blatant, unethical review manipulation. This is done to deceive and scam gamers into paying for a bad product.
Due to the 2024 FTC ruling (16 CFR Part 465), these fake reviews are a violation of US Federal Law.[/quote]
This kind of asset flipping isn't harmless. It makes it harder for gamers to find genuinely made games from ethical developers. It makes it harder for genuine indie developers, who put hard work into trying to make real games, to find an audience for their products. It gives indie developers a bad name.
So, should you buy this asset flip? Is this better than any of the 130,000+ genuinely made games on Steam? Of course not!
Mambo Wave has the laughable price of $30 USD, for which you could easily get any number of older AAA games. Given the defects and quality issues with the game, coupled with the unrealistic price, and the questionable ethical nature of the developer and/or their associates (as outlined above), this is impossible to recommend. It's possible this price is either for the purpose of money laundering, or simply to prevent genuine reviews from reducing the fake "positive" review score from the fake reviews the developer paid for. Either way, this is unacceptable manipulation of the Steam store for profit. It's harmful to gamers and to genuine indie devs, because it gives indie devs a bad name.
