127. Simple 1500 Vol. 57: The Meiro (Mint, Playstation, 2001)

The Meiro (or "The Maze" in english) is another game in the budget line of Simple Series games. This title is a versus action game where you are navigating a maze in order to collect 3 keys and get to a color coded exit. The other character (ether a CPU or another player) is also trying to do the same, and you can select from 4 character types, each with different stats (stamina, speed, power). The mazes are randomly generated and are totally flat, so other than mixing up the background textures, they feel very samey.

In addition to being able to move around and punch, there is also a jump, which feels surprisingly OK for a budget PS1 game. You can also jump while attacking to do a sweet floaty jumpkick. Pressing triangle fires a bazooka looking gun that has a single straight, slow projectile that can be dodged by ducking. You can also run, which depletes a stamina bar, but this fills up when you aren't using it. L1 and R1 are mapped to a left and right dodge that felt cool conceptually but wasn't super useful. The dodge animation does look like dancing though, so that was fun as a taunt.

Scattered around the levels are items that can boost your health, stamina, or speed, or lay traps for the other player. There's even a banana peel item, which I love, but it's pretty hard to use the traps effectively. There is a ap at the top of the screen that shows the position of both characters as well any keys that have not been collected. You can press select to chart the map as you explore it, which can be useful for navigation but also allows your opponent to see the completed map portions, so I liked this hidden information aspect, but overall the game is very repetitive and limited.

2/5, some cool ideas, there is just not enough there to make each round feel different