Yama Yama Review
Guest Contribution
I enjoy personality in a game just as much as the next guy, but when doing my research for Yama Yama, I was surprised by how blunt the game’s art style is. Distorted faces, animal human hybrids and even characters without limbs made up the lineup for who to play as, bringing as much grotesqueness as intrigue. Of course, a game can’t just rely on shock value, so is Yama Yama deep enough?
Gameplay:
When making a party game, developers typically have two options. Have one really satisfying game mode and variants of that, or have a collection of random mini-games. Yama Yama does the latter, which is more applicable to risk (and it shows). After 15 minutes of testing, a decent amount fall into wholly repetitive territory, and whats even more disappointing is that there are no second or third place options. At least it takes out sore winners, right?
Story & Design:
Yama Yama is absent of plot, but in the design territory it makes more awkward decisions. The biggest instance is probably how the game is 2D, which directly clashes with some of the choices for mini-games. While there isn’t clipping or huge glitches, it just doesn’t feel natural, and if you have anybody playing who isn’t a casual gamer, they’ll probably notice. At least the levels look nice on the surface.
Visuals & Audio/Presentation:
Saying Yama Yama is creative in the visual department is an understatement. If the game was more fleshed out in other places, it could make this its main selling point and surprise people with other facets. Of course, this isn’t case, and other aspects of presentation end up being pretty straightforward. The menus can be a bit obtuse here and there, but its more or less to fit the game’s style.
Conclusion:
Yama Yama definitely has potential with its art style, but it fails to make moves outside of this. The gameplay is uneven, which is even more important when considering its a party game, and the poor design choices are hard to overlook. Lumenox Games definitely have a talent for something, they just might want to lower their scope a bit.
Yama Yama gets a 4/10 (Bad)
We’d like to thank Lumenox Games for giving us a code!
Yama Yama Review was originally published in Cube on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
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