Neopets - Mega Mini Games Collection - The Neopian Arcade Odyssey

As a long time Neopets fan, I take no pleasure in saying that this collection is not very good... Make no mistake: It's functional! It works! But it's not very polished, and could have been so much more. Especially for the price. TLDR at the very bottom, although I do recommend you read the whole thing. [h3]BACKSTORY:[/h3] For those who weren't around in it's heyday, the majority of Neopets games were arcade style score chasers, often inspired by other pre-existing game concepts (Some more heavily than others), with the appeal being able to receive in-game currency for use on the site depending on your score. They were by no means perfect, but for the time they were rather high quality! Cheat codes, easter eggs, hidden modes, a good Neopets game had oodles of content despite the simple premise. With the death of flash, and with some of these games being over 20 years old, the idea of having a tuned up collection of these old games in a more permanent form is quite appealing! However... As the marketing suggests, this is a compilation of 26 old Neopets web games, 100% remade from flash, into unity. There's also one brand new game added to the collection, bringing the total up to 27. While this sounds like an okay number on paper, as of writing there are roughly 250 games on the site. Roughly 10% of all available games. In the interest of fairness, many games included in this count are from the sites early days, and are either extremely simplistic, or otherwise unsuitable for such a collection. Additionally, there are plenty of other (usually gambling focused) games that would lose their charm / purpose if these on-site mechanics were removed. Even after these deductions however, there are still easily 100~150 valid games that could have made the cut that are unfortunately absent. To make matters worse, you don't have access to every game right away. As an added incentive, there is a short Story Mode of sorts attempting to link all of them together. Only once beaten, does the arcade / free-play mode open up. The story mode, unfortunately, is... pretty bad. Dialogue is awkwardly written, character and place names are often misspelled or just flat out wrong, and there are even reports of some game breaking glitches preventing one of the final games from being beaten, locking out the player from progressing. While there are reports that this is only in certain versions / platforms, and not everyone has encountered it, this is still a major bug. (There are also rumors that a large portion of the story mode was cut due to development times / cost, but this is still hearsay as of writing) Thankfully, this can be circumvented with a cheat code, entered on the main menu (→←→←↑↑↓↓) [h3]GAMEPLAY:[/h3] As for the games themselves, they work reasonably well. As previously stated, they aren't ports, but instead complete remakes. Mechanically, they seem sound, and do indeed scratch that nostalgic itch (although many of them have a certain "Jank" to them that I expected to be fixed in a compilation like this). Additionally, if you still play Neopets, you can link your account so you still receive the usual rewards for playing. There are also supposedly going to be other site connectivity features, but they aren't live as of writing. However, with rebuilding them from the ground up, comes some loss of detail. In all of the games I tried, it seems that corners have been cut in places. Aforementioned extras such as cheat codes and easter eggs seem absent, some modes have been removed, and one game in particular (Meerca Chase), is almost 100% different from its original counterpart. For a product so heavily focusing on nostalgia, these changes are baffling. [h3]PRESENTATION:[/h3] While the original games were never graphical masterpieces, every game in the collection has been, for want of better words, "simplified" or "sanded down". Each game feels much more homogeneous, and many unique stylings / bits of detail have been removed in what i can only assume is an attempt to make everything fit together better. Personally, I feel this backfires in many places, robing each game of its identity somewhat, as well as obscuring important features / mechanics. This may be personal preference however, so your mileage may vary. That said, one game in particular (Pyramids), benefits greatly from this graphical overhaul. Having high quality versions of the cards is quite appreciated. Music is another area where the ball is dropped. Many games are missing their original soundtrack, playing in complete silence. Others have their music, but only for the menus. Others again have their respective music, but don't loop properly, creating these awkward gaps of silence before the music starts up again. Some sound effects are also altered, but this is less common, and less impactful personally. Finally, the overall menu system is quite lacking. Each game's unique theme is absent, being replaced with a simple yellow box. Some menus don't have indicators of how to close them, leaving the player just pushing the usual buttons hoping for the best. Finally, all of the instructions and theming text has been re-written, and it's almost a universal downgrade. [h3]THE BIG TWIST & CLOSING THOUGHTS:[/h3] All of the above is already not super flattering, but there's one last detail I have been neglecting to mention. The collection advertises itself as if these games no longer exist. As if Neopets shut down long ago, or flash took these classics with it when it died. Well, that's not exactly true. The truth is, Neopets is still around. And all of these games are still there. Fully functional. Even better, almost every Neopets web game, still available or not, has been long preserved in various preservation projects such as Flashpoint. Sometimes even patched for better compatibility. Now, of course, this could change in the future. Neopets could finally bite the dust after 25+ years. Those preservation projects could one day shut down for whatever convoluted reason. And then, yes. this collection would be the last holdout for some of these games. But until then you have better options. I would love to see some future updates to this collection. Fix the audio & gameplay bugs, gradually add new games over time, maybe add some development logs / behind the scenes stuff, and this could honestly be a really good time capsule of the early 2000's internet! Unfortunately, I don't think that's very likely... I can only recommend you get this on the cheap, and if you're a fan of Neopets to begin with. [h3]TLDR:[/h3] + Games function well for the most part + Site connectivity + An official archive is always a good thing - Not many games in the collection for the price - Games are lacking content in places - Missing / inconsistent audio - Art style is very generic, and games overall feel less "Unique" - Rushed story mode, with potentially game breaking bugs - Story mode is mandatory without cheat code (on the main menu, enter →←→←↑↑↓↓) Can only recommend for hardcore Neo fans. Still want that Darkest Faerie port though!

I really wanted to love this game. But it is absolute dogwater. Of course, the writing is atrocious (one of the three main characters has their name misspelled! incredible work!!), It looks unpolished. Text appears outside of dialog boxes and is oddly aligned otherwise. Animations are half assed. It's a great pity. but we're here for the games! how are the games? absolute dogwater. My expectations were low but wow this is worse than wii shovelware. I've been playing neopets since 2000 and have trophies for all of these games on site, so I find myself qualified to review them briefly. They're not worth $30. Jumpin Gem Heist: Dog I am great at this game. On Neopets I can gold trophy any day of the month. Anyway. Here? The hitboxes are dreadful, the speed of the character is too slow, everything feels awful to play. Spinacles: Not as bad, but geez what is that cursor movement speed?? Feels so bad to play Kass Bash: It's fine, I guess? Usuki Frenzy: Just like the original, if the original had really bad controls (more than usual) Extreme Herder: Balthazar spawns on the rocks at the top left, and routinely gets stuck on the rocks at the top left. This was never a good game, now it's worse. Snowmuncher: Too simple to mess up too bad. But if you get hit by a monster it just stops with zero animation which is great. Ice Cream Machine: The music... doesn't loop. The music doesn't loop. It fades out and then back in. What Snowball Fight: The updated art is cute, but less effective than the old art - you don't get ANY art of the character being hit, they just get deleted out of existence. I'm once again surprised by JUST how bad the controls are. And the hitboxes. The polarchuck appears in FRONT of everything. Man. Why. Moon Rock Rampage: There's no invincibility frames when you spawn in. So if you died at the spawn location prepare to lose all your lives immediately. Nova Defender: Fairly unresponsive controls. Spellseeker: good luck unselecting pieces without undoing all your progress lol. Also, if you get a green block at the end of the turn but also win the round, look forward to seeing "danger" at the bottom forever. Meerca Chase: the hit game, meerca chase, if it was boring and sucked. whoever thought that earsplitting noise on pickup was a good idea is a psychopath. it caused my cat to bite me. Meepit Juice Break: feeding one meepit resets the timers on all the meepits. and sometimes a meepit's counter will simply halt at 50 seconds for no reason. Dubloon Disaster: lol you only need 50 points for story mode. the graphics are soo much worse than the original. as with most games, aint no good controls but I guess that's loyal to the original in a way. Suteks Tomb: Getting a big combo produces both an awful noise (my cat bit me again) but also very confusing visuals. thanks. Pyramids: wow its pyramids Faerie Bubbles: Impossible if you are colour blind. they changed all the bubble symbols to be the same. I had to get somebody else to play it for me :c Destruct O Match: huge lag between being allowed to click. sometimes blocks load in the wrong place or not at all (hey just like on site) Hasee Bounce: more bad hitboxes Gadgadsgame: pieces rotate in the opposite direction to how they do on site. this kills me. Jubble Bubble: and then I refunded the game

I have been a Neopets player for 20+ years, and was excited to see this collection coming to Steam. I have finished playing through the story mode and have to say I am disappointed. Most of my disappointment in this collection is unfortunately due to the games themselves. I was flipping back and forth between the Neopets flash games and the collection as I played through story mode. Many of the games were changed, and in my opinion it was not for the better. Here are a few of my thoughts as I was going through the games: Ultimate Bullseye - The game, gameplay and scoring are all completely unrelated to the browser version, and there is almost no challenge to this iteration. I consider UB and UB2 some of my favorite games on the Neopets website, so the version in this collection is a big letdown in my opinion. Faerie Bubbles - I felt the challenge was stripped from this game, in particular if you get to a point where there is only one color left on the board, all the queued up bubbles in the cannon change to the color on the board, so you are guaranteed the win. In the browser version you do still have to run through whatever colors were in queue before you cleared down to one color, and if you're not careful it's very easy to make a bad shot and have the whole board fill back up and put you in danger of losing, and that's the fun of the game. With that challenge element missing, the collection version does not feel worth revisiting. Gadgadsgame - First, as a mouse and keyboard player, the controls at the beginning say that you use the mouse to move and speed up the fruit but that isn't how it ran, it was WASD once I got in game (and there is no option for modifying keymapping in this entire collection). Also, you can't even flip around the rows of fruit as they descend! That's such an important mechanic of this game, I would almost consider the collection version unplayable. Destruct-o-Match - The "hitbox" is finicky, had to move around a lot to find the spot where I could break bricks. I also saw a lot of graphical issues in this game, there would be empty spots in the wall where bricks should be, and some bricks would remain floating in the air if you broke down any bricks below it. Also, in the browser game you do get a little end-of-level summary that gives you the option to either proceed or quit the game, and in the collection version you just instantly get pushed into the next level with no notice, so it sort of feels like being stuck in zen mode. Hasee Bounce - Another game with a very picky "hitbox", I would sometimes pass clear over doughnutfruits and not collect them. The timing of the jumps seemed to be off compared to the browser game, I had a lot more trouble in the collection version than in the flash game when playing back to back. I made notes similar to the above for almost all of the games, but I felt these were the most frustrating examples. It has to be considered that most of the people buying this collection are already very familiar with the games in it. I understand that these games are quite old, I've seen it written many times that the website is held together with "spaghetti code". It might be a little unrealistic to expect a perfect 1:1 port, but this game was announced nearly six months ago, and I think a little more QC and attention from developers on what makes people love these games could have resulted in a more enjoyable experience. As it stands though, this collection is not worth 20+ dollars as long as the much more functional and fun versions of all of these games are availble online for free.

Do you want to PAY MONEY to play some cracked half baked games you could be playing FOR FREE, RIGHT NOW on Neopets.com? With recognizable but uncanny valley versions of your least favorite Neopian characters? Do you HATE the latest low effort comics style with asset and story teams who didn't coordinate so you can tell that's not what so-and-so would have said? Do you want to relive the nostalgia (frustration) of playing games on dial up with weaker RAM than a modern burner phone? Do you want bare bones "instruction," no options to change key binds, and games where it's easy to click past the score submission? No? Well, too bad, pay $20-something for a couple extra thousand NP for linking your Neopass and signing away your privacy. What kind of janky ass coding do you have to have that the music only plays every other game?? I have had multiple games freeze and become unplayable. This gives college freshman project vibes. Really disappointing for a full release from a well-known brand. Shame on them for charging this much for a beta at best release.

I was looking forward to this for months. I grew up loving Neopets, and even in my early 20s I’d still go back to the site just to play the minigames. As it stands though, it’s not worth the asking price. Unless you’re a die hard Neopets fan who really wants it on Steam for the nostalgia, I wouldn’t recommend it right now. A lot of the minigames feel different from the originals, and some are so overhauled they barely feel like the same games anymore. There are also several bugs. Some minigames will glitch out and stop working properly, and you have to quit out of that minigame and restart it to fix it. It doesn’t crash the whole game, but it’s still frustrating especially if you have a good score or something. It isn't that big of a deal but for $20+, it shouldn't be happening. That said, it’s not all bad. The minigames that do work well without bugs are still just as fun and addicting as they used to be. The problem is there aren’t enough of them, and with the current issues, it doesn’t justify the price. If they add more of the original games (WITHOUT CHANGING THEM... PLEASE) and fix the bugs, it could definitely be worth it later. Wait for a sale or future updates.

While it kills me to say this as a die hard neopets fan, no I would not recommend this game. For all the hype that went out prior to release and for what it delivers given the price point, it just isn't worth it. The games they gave us aren't even fan faves, and the fan faves they did give us they "re-mastered" in a way that takes away the nostalgia of the original, for example Turmac Roll, they messed with the graphics and it just isn't the same. Entire lands are left out of the map of neopia like the Haunted Woods (which is literally a Carnival so why was it not included?!?!), Darigan Citadel, Kiko Lake, and Altador. Yet Kiko Lake and Haunted Woods show up on the main title screen? It just doesn't make sense. This game had so much potential and unfortunately didn't deliver. If they expand on the game with DLC's and bring in further games I would be willing to re-assess, as I said I am a huge fan of neopets as my account is over 18 years old at this point. But as of right now, maybe hold off purchasing unless it goes on a super sale, and even then go into it expecting a subpar game.

The free minigames you know and love, now for 25 dollars! With the added features of a low effort story and brand new bugs and glitches! Not truly terrible if you'd like the nostalgia, be sure to buy on sale

Man. It lowkey hurts to write this review. I am an absolute Neopets fan. Have been since my grandma introduced me to it when I was a kid, account is like 20 years old. I want to say right off the bat that this game could absolutely have some potential if they fix the issues with it. Now, I have only played for about 20 mins, not even outside Neopia Central yet. This should be the first red flag if I'm here to write about issues 20 mins into the game. Jumpin' Gem Heist has so many issues with phantom rocks. I get hit by a rock that is not visible on screen. You get hit 3 times, that's it game over. It isn't exactly fair if you cannot see said rocks to avoid said rocks. And I will have to agree with what other people have said, it is not worth the price. And I also own this game on the switch as well for the very little bit of physical items you get with it. Now I know PAX is going on right now, so issues being fixed might be a bit delayed, but the issues with the minigames surely should have been caught before being published. And yes, I know a lot of games have issues and bugs when it comes out. But this game versus the last console game they did in 2008 (Yea I'm talking about Puzzle Adventure), Puzzle Adventure is a lot more polished than this, and I know it's a game that couldn't get updates like this one can. I'm really hoping the issues get smoothed out, I really hope more goes into this and it's not just for money. Little me was so excited to see this game come out and see so many games I used to play be remade and more modernized. Like all the merch in general? overjoyed to see. But man this game has kinda been a major disappointment. At least lower the required amount in Gem Heist, cause 15k is impossible with all the bugs and issues, the best I can give is 3300

Arcade Mode should be available because some games are impossible to pass. Just really happy they enabled a cheat code but seriously if I didn't spot it in the forum I would not have known and it was very frustrating

I know there are so many negatives and while the choice in games would not be the first, I had fun! Having it connect to your actual neopets account and earn actual neopoints makes it worth while. Does it have issue? Yes absouletly its very buggy but then again so are the games on the website. Do you not understand they were all REBUILT?! The og games are made in flash, these were all redone in Unity. I hope they add more games or DLC or something.