I guess this review needs to start by pointing out that Mega Mash Mons is not any kind of asset flip, it's a sincere and genuine attempt to make a game. It doesn't come across as a cash grab. Given how many shady developers abuse Steam Direct, it does need to be acknowledged when a developer is sincere about their effort. Unfortunately, as this review will show, genuine intentions and basic ethics alone aren't enough to produce a successful game or a compelling, state of the art PC gaming experience.
Indeed, I think the general failure of Mega Mash Mons demonstrates that game development is a difficult, collaborative effort that requires talented, experienced teams of developers working consistently on a clear design and architecture for years. It's not like writing a novel. It's more like trying to build an airplane. Passengers aren't going to be lining up to board the airplane that was built by a hobbyist in his backyard on the weekend. They get on the plane that was designed by aeronautics engineers and built by hundreds of people working in factories.
The concept here is fine, the quality of implementation isn't, and that's the key point of failure, why this game didn't appeal to anyone (see the player count below, yes, player count, not players count). Indeed, the idea of a "monster" brawler where you fight and progress and upgrade is a solid one, and the developer laid out a plan for an incredibly ambitious set of features. Ambition is the word... it's evident from the incredibly poor quality that the developer bit off more than they could chew and didn't hire any other staff to pick up the slack.
As a result, this is a train wreck... it barely, if at all works. The game assets are incredibly bad... they're supposed to be monsters? They look like robots slapped together by a 5 year old who just discovered Blender. When you look around, you can pitch the camera under the floor... it's just... this is basically pre-alpha software at best.
But the problem is, this is pre-alpha software with a price tag... and when developers put their hand out for our money for incomplete garbage, that becomes a problem. Developers need to put gamers first, and they need to offer value for money if they want respect. Or money.
On the upside, the game does feature customisable controls and resolution, so at least some of the basic, minimum requirements have been met. Unfortunately there's a number of other technical defects and shortcomings which contribute to the game being difficult to recommend to gamers.
The game assets are fairly mediocre/low quality, in some places they appear mismatched... Ultimately the quality of these assets, and thus the overall visual quality is lower than average, and low quality always makes for a less than optimal gaming experience. Remember, we're looking for the best of the best of 140,000+ games on Steam.
The game features lazy low-polygon "retro" assets, making this look like a barely functional 3D game from the 1990s. It's unclear why the developers weren't able to arrange high quality, high polygon count contemporary assets for the game, and also irrelevant... what matters is that this looks bad as a result of their decisions, a compromise PC gamers shouldn't have to put up with.
These technical defects push this game below acceptable standards for any modern PC game.
The poor quality of this game is reflected by how many people spent time with it. At the time of this review, SteamDB shows the game all-time peak player count was only ONE player. That's right, only one person ever played this at a time. When I played this for the purposes of reviewing it, I equalled the peak player count for the game. OUCH.
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 130 million gamers on Steam and well over 140,000 games for gamers to choose from, the overwhelming lack of interest in this low quality game is to be expected.
Next is pricing and value. Is this game worth buying from among the 140,000+ games on Steam?
Mega Mash Mons has the almost comically optimistic (if it wasn't so sad) price of around $7 USD, it's not worth it given the defects and shortcomings with the product, especially considering the sheer number of completely free, much higher quality games on Steam.
For comparison, the $7 asking price for this game could get you games like "Subnautica", "Mass Effect Andromeda" or "Lethal Company". Quality, professionally made games like those are frequently on sale cheaper than this.
The quality problems and defects with this game makes the asking price totally unrealistic. It's impossible to recommend this to gamers here on Steam.
[quote][b][url=https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/marketing/profile]Profile Features Limited![/url][/b]
Valve have marked this game as "Profile Features Limited" at the time of this review. This is usually caused by poor sales figures and low community acceptance for the game (to date). Until this status changes, this game will not give you +1 to your Game Collector badge count, appear in profile achievements or any other Steam meta-accomplishments, nor can it be displayed in some profile showcases. If these factors are important to you, it may be worth holding off before buying this game.[/quote]
