MANOS - The Hands of Fate Review

What is it?

Manos: The Hands of Fate is an iOS platformer based off the cult-classic 1966 film of the same name. The movie was made most famous by a Mystery Science Theater 3000 mocking and is commonly thrown around in late-night film school conversations as perhaps the worst film of all time. The title borrows nostalgically from the NES era in both gameplay design and style, playing much like an oldschool Castlevania game, with the familiar film characters (and the occasional MST3K nod) thrown in for good measure.

Did we like it?

Fans revel in the schlock that makes Manos an enjoyable movie-watching experience. But sadly, that same philosophy carried over to gameplay isn’t quite as entertaining. The retro feel, audio (including truly great sounds and songs, adapted from the soundtrack) and design are all spot-on and hilarious. But the fun starts to dwindle when the whole experience is marred by bugs, poor hit detection and tough controls.

Device notifications will frequently cause the rest of your gameplay session to chug through at half speed (until death), and you’ll frequently take damage from sure misses (the second boss in particular is a hideous culprit) But it’s the game’s controls that truly drag it down. The actual controls are excellent. Your character navigates brilliantly when you’re successfully hitting the buttons. But the virtual control mappings seem too small. You’ll likely make difficult planned jumps with impressive ease, but in moments of panic you’ll be left frustrated and missing your mark. Couple those issues with no continues and your annoyance might quickly become downright anger.

Should you buy it?

How many Manos: The Hands of Fate midnight showings have you seen? At $1.99 any cult classic aficionado is going to want to throw down against Torgo. Everyone but the diehards are probably going to let the NES-style difficulty, bugs and frustrating controls keep them from getting their money’s worth.


Source : feeds.ign.com