Developer: No Gravity Games
Publisher: Sidewalk Games
Platform: PC, PS5, Switch, Xbox Series X/S
Tested on: PC
Neopets – Mega Mini Games Collection – The Neopian Arcade Odyssey – Review
Back when Adobe Flash Player was discontinued, many known minigames that carried us through our childhood were no longer available. This included the famous games featured in Neopets. Luckily, all your favourite arcade games have been cleaned up and brought back, collected together in Neopets – Mega Mini Games Collection – The Neopian Arcade Odyssey!
Story
Neopia hosts the grand Starlight Festival with iconic King Roo as the main organizer. Many famous characters known from back in the day, like AAA, return to compete to be number one in the competition. The player is represented as Nyx, an Aisha who was featured in Neopets’ latest plot, and their faithful petpet Faelie Juni. Together, they clear minigames in each known region across Neopia as they face AAA and others for the highest scores!
The story works as a sort of introduction to all the available minigames, as well as some unnecessary world-building. Sadly, this also means that players will have to unlock each game one by one, rather than having them all available at once. Though it means it will take longer to clear The Neopian Arcade Odyssey, it feels more like a poor attempt to tie the minigames into the website’s lore, rather than being a recollection of nostalgia. Though we can’t speak for everyone, it is safe to assume that most players who acquire this game are still active on their old accounts and simply wish to earn points for their pets. Locking content behind a story mode means that you are obligated to play and score in games you might not enjoy or aren’t great at, potentially denying progress or access to other minigames.
Graphics
Featuring the well-known art style of the 2000s Neopets, The Neopian Arcade Odyssey is filled with vibrant colors and adorable 2D sprites. Those familiar with the original content will notice almost immediately that the old minigames have been polished and updated to look fresh and clean for today’s standards. Whilst still retaining the original appearance, the art has been refined, and colors have been adjusted to suit the format it presents in. What’s new, however, are the character sprites and the map of Neopia itself. Older characters now look more alive than ever with proper shading and new postures, adding more life to what would otherwise be plain and boring text to read.
Furthermore, the layout of the menus is big and bold. Everything can be found neatly and organized in big, well-designed brackets, and the fonts are easily readable. We felt that Arcade Odyssey stayed loyal to Neopets’ simplicity, which allows it to be accessible for young and old alike.
Sound
Music isn’t exactly the main feature here. The sounds of the old minigames are cleaned up and re-implemented in The Neopian Arcade Odyssey without breaking your headphones or sounding dated. Aside from that, there isn’t much else to say as music plays per minigame and is simply there to add to the atmosphere.
Gameplay
Neopets Mega Mini Games Collection, The Neopian Arcade Odyssey is what it claims to be: a collection of mini-games. Featuring a great variety of 26 mini-games, sorted per region in Neopia, this game allows players to try their luck at games that had been retired since the end of support for Adobe Flash Player. Furthermore, there is now also the ‘NeoPass’, which is an implemented feature to connect your actual Neopets account to the game and earn currency to spend on the website.
To start with the good, it’s safe to say that purely for the nostalgia, The Neopian Arcade Odyssey is simply to die for! Famous games such as Kass Basher and Meerca Chase have returned for all to enjoy. Several adjustments have been made, however. For example, in the original Kass Basher, you had to reach a certain score to unlock a new ‘stick’ to bash your Kass. This has now been changed according to the difficulty setting you choose when starting it up. Other minigames see similar changes, though we can assume this has been done to support the format in which it presents itself. Furthermore, because of the NeoPass function, players can take a break from taking care of their virtual pet and still earn coins through The Neopian Arcade Odyssey. By sending the scores of your minigames, they get converted into NeoPoints and sent straight to your account. This allows players to still maintain their accounts, even if they are taking a break from the website at the moment.
So, what could have been better in The Neopian Arcade Odyssey? For starters, leaving certain beloved areas in Neopia out, excluding their minigames. Players who are familiar with the original source will quickly find landmarks such as ‘The Haunted Woods’ and ‘Roo Kingdom’ or even ‘Altador’ are nowhere to be found. Quite a pity, as these places have plenty of opportunity to showcase unique games that have now been left out. Perhaps these can be added later as an update, or potentially DLC, though given the price of €24,99, we do hope it is a free content update. Lastly, some adjustments to the minigames feel like a ‘dumbed-down’ version of the original. Of course, newer players won’t notice this difference, but for those who yearn for the nostalgia, they will probably find themselves frowning upon the change in difficulty.
Conclusion
Players who used to enjoy Neopets, or still do, will find themselves with a pleasant new packaging of old games they used to play daily. Though the mini-games themselves have been adjusted, sometimes for the better or worse, they remain in the known art style and cartoonish world we were so familiar with back then. Though the price is rather steep, it allows players to earn some quick NeoPoints. Neopets – Mini Games Collection – The Neopian Arcade Odyssey is truly an enjoyable, refurbished piece of nostalgia for old and new players alike.
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