It feels like it has been a while since we've had a quirky little game on the 1001 list, and you can't get much quirkier than motion controls on the Nintendo W-hat's that? This game uses a single button and no Wiimote waggling? It's not quirky then, is it?
MaBoShi: The Three Shape Arcade is a puzzler with a difference, though, as you attempt to perfect three arcade minigames based on different shapes. That's it, really. A million points seem like a good goal for you?
Fun Times
MaBoShi looks bare bones when you first fire it up, asking you to pick from its three games to dive right in or to scroll through some instruction screens, which I do for obvious reasons. I don't have a clue what this game is about or how to play it, so I better learn.
Frustrations
After reading two screens about a ball, something about sticks and snakes appears, and I am truly lost. At no point do I see that the tiny icon on the top right of the panel is switching to refer to which game is being explained - I assume these are all somehow related, which they aren't. I'm already irked, so I back out and just select the Circle mode, where it gives me a tutorial and a practice session anyway.
So what's the real challenge? A bit of physics. I don't know which way gravity is pointing, but when your ball loses momentum or collides into a dangling stick, physics happens, and that can be a good or a bad thing.
There appear to be power-ups and stuff too, but I honestly couldn't tell you the details about what was going on in this game. So long as things disappeared, replaced by numbers, we're all good.
I got bored of that one really quick, so it's onto the next shape, which is a stick, obviously. I've not seen much of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but I believe I'm right in saying this stick acts similarly to Thor's hammer, in that once it gets spinning around the 'core' you need to protect, a press and hold of the A button hurls it in the direction the momentum takes it.
The longer you press, the more it moves, and the more it moves, the more you need to be sure of where it's moving, as one enemy getting too close to the core will be another instant game over.
You can swing your stick into blocks for some extra points, but letting it spin away and swat enemies into each other is just as chaotic. But it's not terribly interesting, and I'm not liking how it all works at all.
Up last is the square game mode, which is basically a game of Snake, except that your tail is on fire and (eventually) sets whatever you touch on fire too. Burn down all of the blocks and reach the goal to win.
If any blocks, either the ones you're meant to burn or those that comprise your body, fall too far down the screen, the game is over. Instant game overs are common in MaBoShi, then, but the controls are finally different for this mode. You use the D-pad instead of the A button, obviously. How would you control a snake with just an A button?
You'll note that I never even got out of the practice mode for this one. I couldn't figure it out. Didn't know what the strategy to burning everything while staying far enough away from the floor was. And where's the fun in a game you can't figure out?
Final Word
You might have noticed that from time to time, the computer started playing games in the other windows. I'm lead to believe that, once you set a score, you can play against yourself in a different mode, in an attempt to out-do your performance but on a completely different task. They supposedly influence other games too, though how that works is anyone's guess.
That certainly sounds unusual, doesn't it? Pushing your high score in a completely different game. But it's not enough of an unusual hook to get me to dive back into MaBoShi any time soon, because nothing about the individual games was appealing. The ball was a little physics game, the stick was an annoying physics game, and the square was a nightmare that I'm yet to understand.
It truly is a puzzling game, but not a puzzling inclusion to a 1001 list. It is trying to do something different, after all, and quite different at that. Shame I can't see myself finding out what exactly it is, though. Just not pushing any of my buttons, this one.
Fun Facts
Mindware President Micky G. Albert would prefer a "Finished last" than a "Did not finish", and on the one hand, I agree. Except when it comes to MaBoShi, where I'm quite happy to not finish, thanks.
MaBoShi: The Three Shape Arcade, developed by Mindware Corp, first released in 2008.
Version played: Nintendo Wii, 2008, via emulation.