MariAri

[Say Anything]

MariAri (PC - Freeware)​

I think a good way to start this review would be with the phrase, "some of the best things in life are free." There's plenty of great things in this world that don't come attached with a pricetag: love, friendship, a free breakfast at Denny's. [http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/food/2009-02-03-dennys_N.htm] More related to gaming, however, are freeware games. Those who've checked out my reviews may know that I'm somewhat of a fanatic, simply because there are independent publishers out there who release their works of art for nothing at all.

MariAri is one of these freeware games and is available free for download on the internet. The game was created by a fan of the popular Touhou collection and directly uses the characters from the series. The concept of the game was taken from Super Famicom game Mario & Wario. Essentially, you must guide one character (Marisa) to a "goal line" (Alice), avoiding obstacles along the way. http://i126.photobucket.com/albums/p105/Icy_X-Cel/Reviews/Mariari.jpg

The game is in Japanese, making it unable for me to tell you the exact storyline. After a long time spent on searching, I couldn't find it on the web either. So, here's my freestyle interpretation of the game: Marisa had just finished up collecting the seventh and final dragonball, when the sky became cloudy. Worried of storms, Marisa ran home, hoping to get inside the safety of her house. However, on the way back, she tripped, and fell all the way to Mexico! Marisa now needed to figure out how to get enough money to get home. She decided, "What better way to earn money than to blind myself with a large hat and kill anime girls?" Marisa, a murderous demon? Maybe I'm on to something here.

Okay, you caught me. I have no clue what MariAri is about, but I do know that it's fun, and that's all that truly matters. Like in my story, Marisa appears to be blinded by an oversized hat. She's put in extremely dangerous locations with traps and baddies everywhere and must be guided to her friend, Alice, before completing the stage. It would be easy if you direcly controlled Marisa, but instead you play as Shanghai, a fairy who has the ability to make Marisa turn around. You're probably thinking the same thing as me: YES! You and me, we both understand that with such great power comes great responsibility, so when playing, we need to make sure not to make a bad turn, or it might spell the end for Marisa.

Turning around is actually a lot more action-packed then it may seem, though. Honestly. As you navigate Marisa through a level, she's going to walk over quite a few "special blocks": essentially, blocks that make this game so much harder. For example, Marisa can walk over special blue "ice blocks", but as soon as she removes her feet from them, they melt away, making it impossible for Marisa to turn back. Marisa can also walk over various "ON/OFF" switches, opening up new routes to help her out.http://i126.photobucket.com/albums/p105/Icy_X-Cel/Reviews/Mariari1.jpg

Marisa requires some more assistance for some blocks, however, and that's where you and Shanghai come in. With Shanghai, you can activate or deactivate blocks for Marisa. Many blocks have a 3 second timer on them, so keeping Marisa on these blocks and moving can get tricky, especially when you have to dodge other monsters.

Scattered throughout each stage are stars. These stars are usually put in tricky places that make you go out of your way to snatch them. While they're not required to complete a level, a certain number are needed to unlock the boss of each world. This gives you some freedom if you are really stuck with one stage; you can just skip it and get the stars in the others. Additionally, grabbing every star offers more difficulty to those of us who understand the puzzles and want a bit more of a challenge.

Before going to the next world, you need to beat the boss of the previous one. The gameplay mechanics don't really change in these boss fights, but things become much trickier. Boss stages are generally much bigger and more complicated than your normal stage. Bosses usually have one special ability original to their stage and are unseen in any other part of the game. For example, the boss of World 1 can create blocks of ice and send them flying towards you. Small features like this really make the game that much more fun, and the boss fights offer some of the most enjoyable features in the game.

Hopefully you like the audio in MariAri, because you're stuck listening to it. A bit disappointing, because while the game has a "Configuration" tab on the main page, it's blocked off with a giant "X" and inaccessible. This makes it impossible to listen to other music or watch videos on your computer while playing. Luckily, the music doesn't really seem "bad". It's very lively with some cool beats and I suppose somewhat "anime", if it could be considered a genre of music. It's not for everyone, but it's by no means torture for those who don't normally listen to it. Plus, the audio goes nice with the 2D visuals, both with that Japanese feel. Again, it may be a bit cutesy and anime for some, but they're still pleasant and in no way an eyesore, especially for an indie project.

[audio=http://sotw.info/music/week0095/Touhou%20Kaikidan%20~Mystic%20Square~%20(Game%20Rip)%20-%20Peaceful%20Romancer.mp3]
Tunes like this are common in MariAri, taken from the Touhou series itself.​

MariAri is a very enjoyable free game with extremely low system requirements. If a statement like that isn't enough to get you downloading it, I don't know what is. Fans of puzzle games: rejoice. You can start downloading now. [http://www.mediafire.com/?9qbinnuz12l]

Spoiler: Other Reviews!

Super Mario World [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.111158]
Pokemon: First Generation [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.103696]
Knytt Stories [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.89233]
Shining Soul II [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.91839]
Star Ocean: Second Evolution [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.88743]
Star Ocean: First Departure [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.83421]
Star Ocean: The Second Story [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.82069]
10 Freeware Game Mini-Reviews [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.81763]

 

[scotth266]

This sounds REALLY fun, and I dig the music. I'll be checking it out for sure.

EDIT: Itself has only one S. Just noticed that: it's the line for the music player.

Also, that song is catchy.

 

[Say Anything]

This sounds REALLY fun, and I dig the music. I'll be checking it out for sure.

EDIT: Itself has only one S. Just noticed that: it's the line for the music player.

Also, that song is catchy.

Whoops, fixed. Thanks for reading.

 

[scotth266]

Whoops, fixed. Thanks for reading.

No problem. It's a mystery to me why people haven't commented on this... especially since it was very well-written. Am I the only one that felt like giving the author some praise?

It might be that the title sounds strange to people, so they skip on reading this. Perhaps you might want to change it to something like: "MariAri: Free Puzzling At Its Finest" or something like that so more people take notice.

 

[Say Anything]

Whoops, fixed. Thanks for reading.

No problem. It's a mystery to me why people haven't commented on this... especially since it was very well-written. Am I the only one that felt like giving the author some praise?

It might be that the title sounds strange to people, so they skip on reading this. Perhaps you might want to change it to something like: "MariAri: Free Puzzling At Its Finest" or something like that so more people take notice.

I usually try to avoid it with all of my reviews, but with a game this underground I guess I have no choice. I suppose I'll just change it for now and then after it gets some comments I'll change it back.

I think I have a pretty interesting title now?

Also, if this is a double post and I said basically the same thing, I apologize. I commented on a couple of topics on The Escapist, but none of them showed up, so I cleared my cache and I still couldn't see them. I hope I'm good.

 

[Say Anything]

Whoops, fixed. Thanks for reading.

No problem. It's a mystery to me why people haven't commented on this... especially since it was very well-written. Am I the only one that felt like giving the author some praise?

It might be that the title sounds strange to people, so they skip on reading this. Perhaps you might want to change it to something like: "MariAri: Free Puzzling At Its Finest" or something like that so more people take notice.

I suppose I'll just change it for now and then after it gets some comments I'll change it back.

Or just let it get ignored and sent to the second page...

 

[scotth266]

Hmmm. It seems like the Review section is just sorta devoid of life today. Maybe it's due to E3 swallowing everyone's attention... ah well.

I liked this review: it was funny, well-written, and had a awesome music clip. So why did nobody look at it?

Maybe I should write that for my next piece here in the User Section: a rant about how people need to comment more.

 

[NewClassic_v1legacy]

Your review itself has a lot of life, some stronger personality than your previous writings, but otherwise lacks a more solid touch. In finding personality, you lost some of the solid technical points you had previously.

The progression from gameplay discussion to gameplay review is really thin, and comes off as more informative than editorial. After the review was done, it really took me until the byline to feel like I had a good sense of your opinion, with all the previous wordage going into explaining the game. (Which, as I read it, is somewhat choppy.)

You found personality, which is good, but you lost the review in writing about the game itself. Take a bit more time to fully flesh it out, as well as include the review content, and you'll have a very solid review on your hands. As of right now, there seems to be more "About MariAri" and "SayAnthing reviews MariAri."

 

[Say Anything]

In finding personality, you lost some of the solid technical points you had previously.

Yeah, that's exactly what I said when I messaged you on the IRC. So much trouble for me finding a middle ground, it's crazy! haha.

Oh well, I'll be doing a lot more reviewing in the next week and hopefully I'll start understanding it more. No better way to learn than to do it hands-on. Thanks, Nuke.

 

[Screens]

This looks fun. And nice review, except it was more informational than opinion based. But I really liked it.

 

[pixelbob]

i lurv this game i beat it like the first day i got it

 

[Pywackett-Barchetta]

This is what a review should be, I think: Concise, informative, and entertaining on its own.
One little problem, though... As a Touhou addict, I feel I should point out that Shanghai is guiding Alice to Marisa, not vice versa. To be fair, Alice is wearing Marisa's hat...