Mini-Mech Mayhem – The Review

Tabletop games like chess and checkers have been around for ages. Games, where you have to anticipate the other player’s moves, all while making sure your pieces are hopefully kept out of harm’s way from being taken over by the others playing. A cat-and-mouse game of moves and strategy that you hope will secure the win. But does developer FuturLab bring the fun and strategy of tabletop games that make you want to stay, play, and have fun? Let’s find out with Mini-Mech Mayhem for the PlayStation VR.

When Mini-Mech Mayhem was first introduced, I was intrigued. Here are these robotic avatars playing with mini robots on a tabletop and just by the looks of it, there were smiles on these robots and it seemed like everyone was having a good time. But it’s not until you actually dive in that you realize that the fun being portrayed was just part of the presentation. I was having way more fun than what I originally saw and that’s a very good thing. But what is Mini-Mech Mayhem really about, and what do you do?

Before getting into everything, you need to decide how you want to play. Are you Team DualShock 4 or Team Move controllers? In this case, in this situation, I am going with Team Move controllers. So once you have joined your control scheme of a team, it’s time to get right in. In Mini-Mech Mayhem, you are playing a tabletop game and the object is to be able to collect the yellow coin, aka the victory square, but in order to really win, you will need to collect three of them. Now, as simple as that sounds, things do not always play in our assumption’s favor as other players are trying to do the same thing. Except there are no game pieces per se, no jumping to become king, or sinking of battleships. Nope, there will be none of that. In fact, the only thing you will be controlling is your mini-mech. But before you do that, you will want to not only customize your mini-mech but you as well.

So I decided that I and my mini-mech would at least somewhat match. I like how you get to customize yourself as well and it is done very nicely. So with you and your mini-mech’s mojo in full force, it’s time to enter the game. But wait, hold up. Don’t just dive in. I would strongly suggest that you go through the tutorial, as it will help you with the different strategies that you will encounter. I mean, you may get lucky and make all the right choices, but keep in mind that others before you have been playing and ranking up, so embrace the tutorial.

But to win at Mini-Mech Mayhem is going to take more than just walking and claiming Victory Square. It will take something with a little firepower to help you in this victory and lucky for you, your mini-mech has a weapon in hand. Not only are there weapons, but there are also intercepts to be used. So we have movement, weapons, intercepts, and oh yeah, so do the other people. But to add to it all, you also have to worry about hazards that may be on the table that you could get pushed in or push another one of the mechs into for a sweet victory.

So at the beginning of each round, you have to decide where you will place your mini-mech and then it is time to plan your actions, aka your strategy. You only have three, but the thing you have to remember is you cannot move or shoot in the same direction twice. If you pick move as your first action, you then have to decide how many squares you will be moving and in what direction, and the same for shooting. So for example, you can decide to move forward 2 squares on the first action, shoot diagonally with the second action, or move or shoot on the third action, just not in the same direction as you have previously chosen. But then you have to anticipate where the other players are going to be moving and shooting, all while paying attention to the hazards that are on the table.

Along with everything else, there are the intercepts I mentioned earlier. At the start of each round, you are given two intercepts, which can range from plus or minus moves, gun jams (allowing you to jam the other person’s gun, which did save me a few times), air support, and others that I will let you find out for yourself. But in order to use the intercepts, you have to have earned enough of the blue power crystals. So for example, air support may take five of the crystals, but if you only have three of them, you are able to swap each one once, but they are random, so you do not know what you may receive.

This is why you will probably want to go through the training as I mentioned because one miscalculation and it can be game over for your mini-mech and when they get shot on their last heart-filled life and they are in all these pieces, you can’t help but feel bad, but at the same time, it is some of the awesome fun I have while not winning. After you have gone through your training, you may want to partake in some of the single-player action to get a sense of how the action will be going down later with so AI counterparts. In the single-player, you can select the number of AI as well as the difficulty.

But as much fun as the single-player is, it’s multiplayer where Mini-Mech Mayhem really shines. It’s here is where you get to fully interact with the other real players, from your expressions to just talking and having a blast while playing. When I was recording the video for the review, it did not pick up the other voices (could have been a setting, or maybe it was designed that way), but I can assure you that there were full-blown conversations happening and we were all just having a blast playing and talking. I just can’t wait until they add more items that you can customize for yourself and your mini-mech with.

At times when it seems there is horror, action, and adventure, Mini-Mech Mayhem gives us the opportunity to just sit, have some friendly conversation, and get lost with time in the fun. And isn’t that what we could use a little more of in life, friendly conversation while having fun?

Mini-Mech Mayhem is out now. A review code was provided.

To learn more about FuturLab visit their site, like them on Facebook, follow them on Twitter and subscribe to their YouTube channel.

In case you missed the trailer, please enjoy. Until next time, I am going to go have some more fun.