This is a review of Murtop, played and tested on Nintendo Switch. Murtop is available on Nintendo Switch, Steam, Linux and Mac OS/iOS for €/$ 4.99
Murtop is a homage to all-time arcade classics such as “Bomber Man”, “Bomb Jack”, “Pac-Man”, and many more from the legendary first part of the 1980s. Originally created by Spanish solo developer Xavi Goméz, Murtop was published through Itch.io. However, indie publisher Flynn’s Arcade picked it up, and through this port by RAWRLAB Games, it found its way to the Nintendo Switch. Let’s find out if this obscure Itch.io release can live up to its illustrious predecessors. If so, we could be in for a real treat!
1980’s then, 1980’s now
The first thing you will see once this games starts to load is a color character ROM/RAM set, reminiscent of games like Pole Position, NBA JAM, and many others that have this interesting way of self testing its ROM’s. This will get you right in the mood for some arcade action. After a few seconds, it boots up to the cute main screen for “Murtop”. Murti is the name of the heroine of the game, a female rabbit that takes out carrot-hungry, mole-like enemies like you would in a combination of “Bomber Man”, and “Dig-Dug” mechanics.
The game has a typical board layout you know from this era of action-puzzlers and leans heavily towards a Dig Dug-style playfield. The goal is to rid the screen of all enemies within a set time 60 second limit. Murti can blow up her enemies by planting bombs (in ways that better are left unmentioned :|). She can also lead her mole-emies into falling rocks, in typical Dig Dug fashion. If the counter hits 0, ALL of your lives are gone. No matter how many were left up to that point, it is just game over.
Insane initial difficulty
Be prepared for a lot of initial frustration when you get blown up by your own bombs or the timer hitting 0. There are a lot of fail states in this game. The level difficulty is build in a way that every five levels the difficulty spikes explosively. It is than when you’ll hit a pseudo boss battle. Instead of having a main boss, you are swarmed with every enemy in the game on a very short timer. At the same time the stage is swarmed with obstacles, too. If you do come out on top you are rewarded with a bonus stage where you can collect carrots for high score. You also fill up hearts, that are essential to completing the absolutely insane, 256 levels.
It also includes a so called “Kill Screen”. A arcade board limitation that was quite common in the 1980s. The player would reach a memory limitation or score counter memory limit which would basically crash the arcade board. Games like “Pac-Man”, “Dig Dug” and “Donkey Kong” had kill screens. Murtop pays fittingly homage to the undeniably 80s video game concept.
(Arcade) feature-heavy
For a game that supposed to be a straight up homage to the arcade games of the past it features plenty of options. Think of different color palettes, a pixel perfect mode (which sadly will look really small on a regular 4K or HDTV), and a CRT filter to give it a arcade cabinet look. Always a welcome feature is the TATE Mode. This will allow it the game to flip the screen one quarter to mimic the vertical arcade screen setup it source of inspiration also used. A great way to put your Flip Grip to good use, if you have one.
The beauty of limitations
The sound effects and soundtrack of Murtop are straightforward 80s fare and generally sound very nice. Since this is a strict take on the 80s-era arcade gaming, there is a sense of repetitiveness, especially if you play this game as many times as I have to get far. You hear the same theme song and level music play repeatedly. It would have been nice to have some diversity, like Bomb Jack had, for example. The ‘limitations’ are fictional, in the end, and there is no real reason the game music is limited to one theme.
Adversaries
This game features three main enemies, paying homage to “Pac-Man” and its four ghosts. The first is a hamster-mole type enemy with a shovel, which is the fastest of the three. It will chase you almost everywhere on the screen, but can be confused and dazed when the maze suddenly branches off. The second is a hedgehog-mole type with a construction hard hat and a hammer ball. It is pretty slow and has a predictable east-to-west walking cycle, so it’s usually easy to take out. The third is a walrus-mole type that appears on every 5th stage and, to the best of my knowledge, is undefeatable. The walrus gets angry easily and will send down a difficult-to-outsmart boulder. This willtake out other rocks and creates paths for the enemies to move more freely. More importantly, it can easily take you out, if you’re in its path.
You always have to plan your next move. Learn to deal with enemy patterns and behaviors, and, above all, develop resilience. This may lead to frustrations and rage quits, but once you learn to cope, it becomes extremely addictive.
Gratifying and addictive
The notion of 256 stages for €/$4.99 is unbeatable for a game that isn’t another re-release of “Pac-Man” or “Ms. Pac-Man”. It is a completely new experience. Although the game’s insane difficulty may turn off some people, allowing yourself to learn the mechanics and patterns will make Murtop highly gratifying and rewarding. The game allows for unlimited credits, so you can continue at the start of the current level you’re in. This is quite lenient and player-friendly. It will get really challenging to reach the “Kill Screen”, though. You can decide how you get there, whether by tossing in an unlimited number of virtual coins or training yourself to get there on one credit.
Murtop will be released on may the 18th 2023 for Nintendo Switch, PC (Steam), Linux and Mac OS.
One thing is for sure: Murtop got me hooked. I wanted to overcome its difficulty, and to a certain extent, I did. It is really addictive with the balance between difficult and frustration hits the right spot in the middle, keeping you enticed to go for that 'one more try'. It looks and feels authentic and If this game were available in arcades back in 1982, it would undoubtedly rake in a ton of coin money.
