I didn’t realise Neopets was still going, but it still has a vibrant community, and now with Neopets Mega Mini Games Collection, we’ve got a window back to the past. This game contains 25 mini games from Neopets’ web browser days. Some hark back to 2002, some are a little later, and what’s clear is that they are not created equal. Web browser games are great for a quick burst of fun, but what this collection highlights is that many of them do not last the test of time.
The 25 mini games are mostly locked behind a story mode. You’ll unlock them as you clear different locations in Neotopia, in a story thinner than my patience for not making a curry on the weekend. You’ll need to clear a certain score to move forward, but as most mini games come in pairs or trios, if you do get stuck with one of them, at least you can take a break and try something else. A few of the mini games come with difficulty levels, such as the twin stick shooter, or a 2-player mode on some of the puzzler or battle-like games, but they are rarely improved with these additions.
Instead, you’ll be drawn into how flat, generic, and lacking in personality and skill curve most of the games are. Aiming is often a strange art. Whilst archery and lava jumping show an arc before removing it, other games like snowball fighting are almost unplayable due to laggy controls, flat design, and a lack of visual cues around what to do or prioritise. Other games resemble early mobile titles like Snake, endless runners, and Flappy Birds, but feel incredibly basic. The token brand new rhythm game is functional. Putting in Mahjong and Solitaire feels cheap and like filler material.
The best parts of Neopets: Mega Mini Game Collection are the puzzle games. The colour-matching pipe mania spin-off is pacey and involving, keeping players on their toes. The match-3 style mini game can provide fun with big combos. There’s a brick collapsing mini game that removes groups of the same coloured bricks to try and clear a multi-coloured wall, and that is quite interesting for a while, too. All the puzzle games have real gameplay mechanics and require some logic or some skill. There is a bubble popping match-3 game that requires both, as you’ll need logic to decide what to pop, and good aiming skills to make it happen. These games stand up to the test of time and are worth replaying. The problem is that these types of puzzles are available, often with more variations and extras, as standalone games. They don’t carry the full collection price point either. The only extra Neopets brings is that you can connect your Neopets account to send high score challenges to your Neopets friends.
I’m all for nostalgia, but rose-tinted glasses fall off very quickly when rough products aren’t polished or carefully tweaked to match modern-day standards. Those expectations only grow when the game is priced as a mid-tier modern game. This feels like a missed opportunity to polish previous issues and highlight what early web browser flash games could do. These weren’t the top tier when they came out, and they certainly aren’t now. There is talk of future DLC, seasonal events, and online leaderboards to come. I’d focus on fixing the base game first.
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