My Little Pony: A Maretime Bay Adventure

CoffeeHorse

*sip*
Staff member
Council of Elders
Citizen
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This deserves its own thread. It may be short and basic but it is an actual console game and isn't a disaster.

Trailer:

Preview:

Cutscenes:

Walkthrough:


The most notable contribution of this game is likely to be the surprisingly good character models, coming soon to a SFM video near you.
 

ZakuConvoy

Well-known member
Citizen
I guess I'll repost my play-by-play of when I watched a walk through of a game from the general thread.

The Rainbow Brighthouse! ...It's already glitching out. Cheap, foreign-made toys...

Shimmerwing! ...They act like we're supposed to know who that is. I know it's just a moving guide to tell you where you're supposed to go, but they could have given us a little more backstory.

Sprout LIVES! I guess his punishment is being a NPC in a video game.

Izzy creating graffitti! Is there a Izzy clone around, is the Brighthouse glitching making her evil, or is someone dressing up as her?

Primrose! She's kind of cute. And she has a little crush on Hitch. Also...what is with this generation and ponies in boxes?

"Smoothie Operator"...ugh.

Oh, those are the mirrors from Pipp's salon, Mane Melody. I guess they ARE "Magic Mirrors", not some sort of tech.

Who knew Hitch was a X-Man?

Huh, another instance of Zipp liking detective stuff. I guess it's not just the comics.

And now a evil Zipp. When she wasn't around. So...clone or imposter, then, not possession. Also note: Zipp WILL flee a crime scene.

"I look GOOD" "It wasn't easy" Sick burn, Sunny!

Zoom! ...Should we know her? Was she one of Zipp's flight school cadets and I forgot her? *Looks at Tell Your Tale: Zipp's Flight School again* Huh, it looks like she WAS in that class. I don't think she was named there, though.

Ah, man, we got rollerblades! If there's anything I've learned from Pokemon XY, it's that people LOVE rollerblades in video games. (I actually liked the rollerblades in XY, myself). Also, they give you these RIGHT BEFORE a mission requiring precise walking?! I guess if you want to train players NOT to use them...

Sprout riles up the town against Unicorns and Pegasi. Okay...in the Movie, Sprout DID rile up the town, but it came across like HE was just as afraid as anyone. Here, it seems like he's being purposely manipulative and...he just wasn't clever or mean-spirited enough for that in the Movie.

AHHH! BUNNY WITH ANIME HAIR! I never thought this fear would be relevant twice! The abomination's name is Marcel.

...Oh, great, it can fly now.

Continuity gaff: WINGS was NOT Zipp's mom's idea. It was her friend's idea. You could MAYBE say it was Pipp's idea, but her mom wasn't even in that episode.

Pipp's the suspect this time. But her wings fell off...did Sprout seriously paint himself different colors just to frame everyone?

WOW, they literally tell you that you can't really lose this final race with Zipp.

"Saddle up then!" WOAH Zipp, let's keep this PG!

Magic glitching=Zipp falling from the skies...I'm surprised they showed that in this game! And, OUCH! I think I hurt my neck from this tonal whiplash! ...I'm gonna sue...

*Zipp falls to potential death* "OH NO!!""Oh, yes!"...Sprout's really EVIL in this game, huh?

Zipp splashed down in the water, so she's fine.

Earth Ponies are REALLY easy to manipulate, huh? Also, it's...a little twisted that they care more about the neat magic than the other ponies but...one step at a time, I guess.

*Sunny jumps over the CanterLogic Gate with a self-made ramp* EXTREME SPORTS!!!

Wow, Hitch, you actually made this situation worse...thanks...

Zipp and Pipp literally do nothing...still better than Hitch, so thanks!

And Izzy with the block! MVP! That's for using arts and crafts for evil!

"We're not going to hurt you" You SHOULD!

Wait, so ANYTIME ANYONE has a problem the magic is gone for EVERYONE?! That's...so weird. I guess they better get along...OR ELSE!

Dance ending! Cliche, but, eh.

So, the moral of the story is: If anyone disagrees about ANYTHING the whole world FALLS APART!

As for new thoughts?

I'd like to see Primrose again, she was cute. Spoiled the comic below for cuteness overload.

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DLC would be nice. Not sure it's likely, but it'd be nice. It'd at least be nice to be able to go INSIDE the Lighthouse, for example.

Anyone got any Shimmerwing headcanons? Shimmerwing deserves more love...probably, I guess.

It's still weird that if EVERYTHING is canon, the crystals failed 3 times over the course of a week or so.

We will see if this game gets a legacy retroactively by the end of Make Your Mark's first season. I...still have a feeling this game's going to be surprisingly relevant in ONE case.
 
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CoffeeHorse

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I doubt this game is canon in any meaningful sense. It feels like the tie-in early reader picture books every movie aimed towards kids gets. They're not their own stories. All they do is retell a slice of the film's events in extremely abbreviated and watered down form. This is an early reader version of Sprout inciting a mob and an early reader version of the crystals failing, compiled into a videogame.

This is a very basic game for kids. Basic gameplay, basic writing probably based on a basic understanding of the characters and lore, with laughably bad lip syncing sometimes.

But I don't know how to knock it.

The gameplay is a 3D platforming collect-a-thon starring a quadruped and a flying bug companion. I cannot be objective about this.

The writing has its moments. "Sprout, is that you?" "No." Nailed it.

I mentioned the lip syncing but in some cutscenes it suddenly becomes entirely fine. The character models are outstanding. Their heads have enough moving pieces to emote and lip sync properly when scripted to do so. They just didn't have the time to make every bit of dialog look good.

This game was made in an extreme hurry and it shows. There is nothing so fundamentally wrong with it that a little more development time couldn't have helped. In the unlikely event that they want to do DLC they probably could do so without breaking anything. This game is obviously not a pile of spaghetti code barely holding together. The bones here are solid. They turned a good chunk of Maretime Bay into a playable environment and populated it with minigames that interrupt your travels every twenty feet or so. If they figured out a good workflow for that, imagine a Zipp game set in Zephyr Heights. That would be a fun environment to explore.
 

Shadewing

Well-known member
Citizen
There is a kernel of a good game in here. Its a fuctional, decent game that is a bit too easy, even for kids imo. Like, Kirby is largely considered Nintendo's kid franchise, games tend to be very easy, but with extra challenges thrown in for advanced players. But Kirby you still have some challenge; while AMBA feels like its impossible to loose. I don't want or think the game should be hard; but if I compare it to other platformers that have been aimed at kids over the years (Kirby, Mario, Spyro, Sly, Banjo, etc) it's lack any... substance.

As a foundation, this is fine. If this studio is alloed to make more games, or even DLC, and build on what's here, and not just recycle it; we could have some actually fun pony games by the end of this generation.
 

CoffeeHorse

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Staff member
Council of Elders
Citizen
Kirby and Spyro lose by dying. Either Hasbro were squeamish about that or the studio assumed they would be.

It's odd because in the movie they clearly lost the boss battle with Sprout (and automatically got the good ending anyway... somehow.). Hasbro clearly can be talked into allowing us to see Sunny defeated and surrounded by rubble. Maybe the studio could figure out some nonlethal loss conditions if they had more time to think about it, but they had less than a year to make this game and probably spent most of their time battling Blender.
 

ZakuConvoy

Well-known member
Citizen
I think the biggest problem is designing a entertaining game that isn't really allowed to have enemies. Enemies are such a BIG part of most games that it's hard to even design a game without any. Unless you basically turn it into Stardew Valley or Animal Crossing or Harvest Moon (which would have been a good idea).

Actually, I think fleshing out Shimmerwing's story could make for a good enough new story. Where did this butterfly come from? Are there more of them? You could basically go around the new world map collecting these butterflies to return them to their home. "Return to Flutter Valley" or something. It's light, but I think it'd work as a new story.



Some things they could add in a sequel or DLC, (I'm mostly trying to work within this minigame-heavy format they've chosen):

Being able to play as the other 5 ponies in the main game, not just the minigames. I guess you'd have to make new models for all of them so they could all use the rollerskates, though.

Maybe some concept art to unlock along with all the costumes.

More song options in the dancing rhythm minigame. You could also turn it into a slam-poetry contest in the unicorn village.

Just adding Alphabittle's club could give you access to a bunch of new minigames you could add. We could even actually solve that Rubick's Cube!

A home-decorating function in the Lighthouse, like in Animal Crossing.

A garden you can plant a bunch of flowers in for the looks, or fruits and vegetables you could sell for gems. Or maybe make the Uni-Cycling around town more customizable, with different options to choose from?

Zelda-like puzzles? Or maybe some "ruins" that have puzzles that you have to solve in order to get collectibles.

Zelda or Golden Sun-style world traversal, where you have to use magic to create ice bridges to get across a river. Or fly across a chasm. Or create a plant-bridge?

Maybe a minigame where you have to sell or deliver smoothies to different ponies.

A minigame in the salon fixing up ponies manes?

I feel like there's something you could do with the phones. Maybe different minigames based on old arcade games, which would be phone games? Like Pac-Man, or Galaga. Or Flappy Bird. It would be a way to bring Adventure Ponies 1 and 2 back for a modern audience.

Scouting locations for Pipp to take selfies at? I don't know, I'm struggling to find something for Pipp to do with her social media stuff. Maybe...picking a food for her to take pictures of?

Maybe a minigame where you have to decide when to take pictures of Pipp and which pictures to post on her social media? Like she's trying to hold her pose and she eventually ends up pratfalling, and you can choose to either post a "good" photo of her in the pose she was doing or a "joke" photo of her falling flat on her face, with both getting likes, in the end. Hasbro probably wouldn't approve, but...oh well.

Trying to find ponies to buy Izzy's works of art around town? Izzy really hasn't really make any big, sell-able art projects, but...she COULD.

Or a Izzy's Art Gallery sidequest, where she needs inspiration to fill up a art gallery for a showing? Maybe that's how you unlock concept art. "Fluttershy wasn't a unicorn, Izzy" "I know, but she has unicorn ENERGY, don't you think?"

You could do some friendship-matchmaking. Like one pony wants someone to go with them to a art gallery, and you have to find another NPC who also likes art to go with them? It could be a way to bring together the different tribes, so they get to know each other. Like a earth pony not thinking that a pegasus would like to help her in her garden, or something.

Let Sunny play Cyrano to Primrose on a date with Hitch. Give me my Pony Dating Sim, Hasbro!
 
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Shadewing

Well-known member
Citizen
I feel like once we get some actual true villains and not just more or less misguided Earth Ponies, they could get away with doing combat. Right now, when we got Sprout and Posey as antagonists, combat doesn't really work cuase then you're just beating up innocent people cuaght up in fear of change.
 

CoffeeHorse

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Staff member
Council of Elders
Citizen
One thing they got exactly right here was having Sprout be defeated by slapstick. He has a special variant of "Acceptable Target Syndrome". He is an acceptable target for any amount of pain and humiliation as long as he brings it on himself. Beating him up could never be satisfying.

Maybe we could call it the Wile E. Coyote variant. His suffering is funny but Roadrunner is not allowed to touch him.
 

Agent X

Kreon Bastard
Citizen
I'm just glad there wasn't an Achievement for collecting ALL 1900 star bits. I could NOT get the highest ranking on either 'Herding' minigame.
 

Caldwin

Woobie Destroyer of Worlds
Citizen
My problem with it is that I finished and got the platinum trophy in just a couple days. As much fun as I had while playing it, I haven't really had an overwhelming desire to go back to it since. For me that puts it in "fun game but I question the value for the price" territory.
 

CoffeeHorse

*sip*
Staff member
Council of Elders
Citizen
It'll probably take kids longer than that, but yeah. This is a very short game.

The real value of this game is that they built Maretime Bay and all of these character models in a non proprietary engine. It's not much of a game right now but the GMod servers are going to be amazing.
 

CoffeeHorse

*sip*
Staff member
Council of Elders
Citizen
!!!

I don't even care if it's kinda lame like the first one. Zephyr Heights is a fantastic location for a game, and we're about to get it in a Blender ready format. This will provide some entertainment, in-game and otherwise.

And who knows. Maybe the developers stepped it up. They were given an unreasonably short amount of development time the first time around, and they still shipped something that at least wasn't broken. They are obviously quite capable.
 

ZakuConvoy

Well-known member
Citizen
And now, a trailer!

These ponies do be filled with helium.

And it looks like you'll be able to take selfies with Pipp. That alone justifies the game's existence.

But, yeah, otherwise, it looks pretty similar to the last game. Even all the mini-games look pretty similar, even though they might have added a few new ones. The floating ponies does make it feel like they had a little more time to develop a slightly more complex story, though. Making ponies float takes effort.
 

CoffeeHorse

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Staff member
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The background ponies quietly accepting their fate instead of panicking is so very G5. I doubt these developers are getting the most up to date notes from Hasbro, but they obviously get the source material.
 

Shadewing

Well-known member
Citizen
The background ponies quietly accepting their fate instead of panicking is so very G5. I doubt these developers are getting the most up to date notes from Hasbro, but they obviously get the source material.

tbf it also just means they don't have to program any new animations...
 

CoffeeHorse

*sip*
Staff member
Council of Elders
Citizen
Maybe, but it still captures exactly the vibe I would go for if programming new animations were no issue. The only thing I would do differently is have ponies paddling like dogs held over water. I wouldn't change any of the expressions.
 


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