http://mexicanmotormafia.com
Why couldn't they have spelled "Tequila" right? God DAMMIT. They'd already have my $17 if they'd spelled one of the key trading commodities in the game right.
Here is a game where you fight with cars and guns. And then when you win against the other cars, you take their cash and their shit, and then sell the shit to make more money, to buy better cars and guns. With which you can kill even more cars, and then get their cash and their shit, to sell for even better cars and guns.
Seriously, what is not to like?
As far as I can tell from the (generous) demo, there are two types of missions you can accept throughout the entire game. MISSION 1: Go blow up this car. MISSION 2: Collect a bunch of "tequlia" (ARGH!). Since those are my two favorite things to do in real life, I haven't gotten as bored by those two missions as others might have.
WHAT I LIKE ABOUT THIS GAME SO FAR
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The style is fantastic. Set in Mexico, with a brilliant blend of dusty Texas blues-rock and deep-Mexican Flamenco music providing the score. Hand-drawn illustrations take the place of rendered CGI scenes or FMV to tell the (admittedly paper-thin tale: "Your cop brother was murdered by four bad guys. Go get them, while blowing everything else up on your way.") The maps, while relatively meaningless to the gameplay, are (I hate to say this) "lovingly rendered" and nice to look at. The cars drive fun. You shoot things with them. And they explode.
And then you take their shit and their cash and go buy better guns, wash, rinse repeat.
WHAT I DON'T LIKE ABOUT THIS GAME SO FAR
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1. The aforementioned misspelling of perhaps the most luscious liquor on the face of the Earth.
2. Yeah, well. I mean. It
is a tad repetitive. Fight cars, get better cars, fight more cars, etc, etc. Follow the meaningly storyline. Etc, etc. For some reason, though, the repetitiveness doesn't bother me (yet), somewhat because of the well-doneness and the stylistic considerations, but really, mainly because of...
WHAT I LOVE ABOUT THIS GAME SO FAR
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...the car fights themselves.
"Why do I like this?" I kept asking myself. You just drive around, shooting the other cars.
Ah, but wait. You can't shoot out the front or the back, cuz there are windows there. No, you have to shoot out the
sides. Yeah. So? So what? And, so why does this feel familiar?
You know what it is?
It's Age of Sail, sped up 1000 times. It's every fighting sailing ship game, just put into
mega fast forward. The object of these games are all the same: "Cross the T". Bring your broadsides to bear along the enemy craft's fore or stern.
In Age of Sail, this process takes several minutes, sometimes hours.
In Mexican Motor Mafia, you have to do it every second or so, or you're toast.
This process... this
dance -- which is what it really is, with two able competitors -- is really the magic of these games. Anyone can shoot out the front. Hell, Galaga was doing it 25 years ago. But just that one little switcharoo turns a mind-numbing clickfest into a really exhilirating, tactical challenge.
Just cuz you're doing it in a souped up Camaro with shotguns and uzis instead of elegant, lumbering ships with cannons doesn't make it any less compelling.
And there
is all that "tequlia" to be collected.