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zoomingupthathill) wrote2023-09-16 04:36 pm
MULTIVERSAL MUSEUM
In terms of attractions, Max's exhibit is ridiculously sparse. It is, in fact, simply one arcade game cabinet in an otherwise empty room, carpeted with loud patterns. The game cabinet reads MADMAX'S WILD RIDE, and hey, it looks like it's free to play!
When you start it up, you're greeted by pixel art of a happy kid—it's MAX! This starts Level 1.
The gameplay is similar to Atari classic Pitfall, with our (simpler modeled) young heroine skating around simple obstacles—traffic cones, open manholes, et cetera. Level 1's setting is a sunny beach-adjacent area. It's timed, but the first level is a breeze at 15 minutes. You'll be done before it's even halfway through! At various points, a red-haired man appears on the course, arms wide open. If you skate to him, he gives you a speed bonus! The level ends when you reach a red-haired woman at a finish line, her arms also wide open.
In a Pac-Man style cutscene, the simple model of young MAX stands with the man and woman, labeled appropriately MAX, DAD, and MOM. The labels disappear and the man walks off the screen. A man with a mustache enters, labeled NEIL. Following him is a boy, BILLY. MOM turns her attention to NEIL.
Level 2 starts up with another pixel art MAX, just a little older and much less happy. More like...alert. The time limit is 12 minutes. The obstacles are largely the same, but occasionally BILLY or NEIL will pop up. Unlike with DAD, running into them is bad. Both slow you down, giving you a time penalty. The finish line is once again the end, but this time, MOM is facing away.
The mid-level cutscene this time has a pixel car driving for about five seconds. Then, a rural town comes up, labeled HAWKINS. The models for MAX and BILLY are a little bigger, a little older. NEIL and SUSAN walk offscreen, leaving the two together. A group of kids enter, labeled THE PARTY. One of them, a black boy, is singled out and labeled LUCAS. He catches MAX's attention, but BILLY gets between them. There is a sudden static-y BARK sound effect, and a pack of creatures enter.
Level 3's pixel art Max looks older still, and this time angry. The time limit is 8 minutes. The backdrop has changed to the more rural setting, and the obstacles... Well, there's still traffic cones and manholes, but now, once you get far enough in the level, those unsettling dog-like creatures start popping up. BILLY is almost a constant menace, and if you run into NEIL it is now an instant game over. Right before the finish line, where this time LUCAS waits, there is a final unavoidable BILLY obstacle, but if you grab a one-time SYRINGE POWER UP, you'll be able to pass him with no penalty!
The between level cutscene starts with a bright sun. MAX is skating until she runs into a new person, labeled ELEVEN. The two rush off screen together, toward a flashy mall setting. The camera pans to the left and there is BILLY at his car. A strange wriggling thing, like a tentacle, attacks him.
Level 4's pixel art MAX doesn't seem too much older. She looks happy, playful. The time limit this time is 10 minutes. The backdrop has changed to a mall setting, and now the obstacles are other mallgoers and fountains. You can collect clothes and ice cream for additional score and speed power ups. It's the most cheerful since the first level. The farther you get, however... Vines and tentacles start to grow through the setting, and the obstacles start being deformed, fleshy monsters...and BILLY, who is sporting a veiny and sick-looking makeover. Running into this version of BILLY is an instant game over. The level finishes when you reach the finish line, where there is normal BILLY, who is standing in front of an injured ELEVEN. The best pixel approximation of a spider monster looms over them. When you're not quite at the finish line, the monster runs a tentacle straight through BILLY, and he collapses.
ELEVEN and another member of THE PARTY who has not been labeled drive away in a car. NEIL and MOM are shown arguing, while MAX watches from a distance. The background music, which until now has been indistinct chiptune, changes as MAX picks up a Walkman. The arguing continues until NEIL walks away. The setting, which is of a simple house, changes to a rundown trailer. MOM sleeps on a couch. MAX walks across the blank screen, passing by the remaining members of THE PARTY. LUCAS tries to get her attention, but she continues walking until no one else is on screen. Until...vines start to grow again.
Level 5's pixel art MAX is not older, but she looks more tired and sad. The time limit this time is nearly 5 minutes. Exactly, it is 4 minutes and 58 seconds. You aren't skating anymore, just running, and the rural town setting grows more dark and disturbed, like the mall did but at a faster rate. The obstacles this time are vines, larger boys in basketball uniforms with guns, ghostly visions of BILLY that pop up almost exactly in front of you, and a new monster who mostly appears from the left side of the screen as an abnormally large, reaching hand. Touching it is game over. Throughout the level, a grandfather clock chimes, and unlike other sound effects, it sounds real. After the first, a low ticking starts under the background music. With each successive one, the ticking grows louder, and the hand reaches further. After the second chime, the setting resembles less the rural town and more a red wasteland. Falling rocks are added to the obstacles you must avoid. At the fourth chime, no matter how good you're doing, the hand instantly catches up, and a very NOT pixelated version of the monster reaches towards the screen, until its large hand overtakes it entirely.
No amount of changing how you play will beat Level 5. The leaderboard only has scores for VECNA, which you also cannot beat, no matter how much you score.
In the gift shop, you can find skateboard repair kits, jars full of arcade tokens, and a variety of strange-looking action figures? (Funko Pops. They're Funko Pops.)
