Ministry of Broadcast

You don't have much in the way of direct control of your guy, instead utilizing a sort of context-sensitive series of controls that end up just being janky. You don't jump when you push the button; you jump when your character damn well feels like it. Which means you'll probably be falling a lot.

I'm not sure that even qualifies it as a platformer, but it's not much of a puzzle game either, even as far as box-pushing goes.

So you end up with an action experience that'd be too frustrating for a casual gamer but a puzzle experience that'd be too easy for somebody who would want puzzles in their game in the first place. Add to that that the efforts at humor are almost entirely faceplants (both literal and figurative) and I gotta say, I don't know who this game is for. Not me, at any rate.

Humorous, dark, and fun platformer with light puzzle elements. Controls are a little clunky by design but mastering them feels good.

Ministry is a fun little dystopian run. Part platformer, part riddler, all heavy authoritarian mood. Pick it up for a couple bucks and have a few hours of fun.

Its like the Truman show, absurd concept with fun puzzles. Simple games at first yet the more you dig the more you find out they're not. The control is not entirely free so you need some positioning though.

At first, I really was not enjoying this game, but as I got more used to the controls and played through a second time to get all the achievements, it definitely grew on me. The game is really charming and the art design certainly is not hard to look at. It probably helps if you play with a controller instead of a keyboard like I did, and the slower pace of certain actions can be frustrating at times, but I still find myself glad to have stuck with it for so long. Even though I did not encounter much new content on my second playthrough beyond some additional endings, something about it just felt more rewarding to overcome as I gave myself time to git gud. I can definitely recommend this game. A very entertaining Orwellian 2D sidescroller

Cool concept and visually great. But the gameplay is incredibly boring and the dialogue/story is bland and uninteresting.
Game is very heavily inspired by games like Another World, and Oddworld. But I would instantly recommend either of those games over this.

I only made it to "day 3" out of what I guess is 5 (according to level select) before calling it quits, but I was honestly getting bored of the game about 15 minutes in and only played it longer to give it a chance to change my mind.........it didn't.

There are much better puzzle platformer games out there. I wouldn't recommend this if it was free.

"Ministry of Broadcast" was recommended to me as a title that I would enjoy based on the plot and mechanics. At a high level, it does seem to offer a novel idea and has a neat Orwellian vibe about a dystopic world fitting somewhere between the authoritarian Warsaw Pact and "The Hunger Games". While clever and a bit silly at moments, this 'high art' concept fails on implementation and goes on far longer than the joke actually permits.

The main complaint here is not the story, but the unforgiving and torturous mechanics of the gameplay. As a platformer, it is almost unendurable and the character will die consecutively on the many platforming elements, even if the player knows exactly what they are trying to accomplish and how to do it. "MoB" has the same design problem as "Mirror's Edge" or the many terrible NES platformers from the 80's where successful gameplay requires continuous failures due to platforming elements that could never have been predicted before they appear. The neverending traps, hazards, and pitfalls are slow death to the player's enthusiasm which quickly ebbs away to nothing by the end of the first day - and there are four more days to go in this title.

The story starts out interesting but it lingers on-and-on without significant development as the title drifts through it's own inertia with the continuing chapters becoming boring like a joke that has become stale after repetition. There might be some recovery possible in later days if there was a new plot device or a platforming mechanic or other catharsis, but it's all the same like the devs ran out of budget for writing and just kept copy-pasting assets to stretch out the length. The late game doesn't become more intellectually challenging, but instead throws more stupid split-second platforms at the protagonist and there is no health or fatigue system - every miss whether small or large is instant total death and back to the last checkpoint.

Let me add an important note about the content as well. "Ministry of Broadcast" is an attempt to make a work of dark humor, with it's exaggerated totalitarianism and comic purges of dissidents. The ginger-haired protagonist of the story will often have to resort to the barbarous methods of his captors to advance in the games, and the writers try to extract plenty of satire from their mildy morbid contestant. However, that message only works for as long as the humor lasts, which for "MoB" only stretches through the first hour. By the time that the shoeless cipher reaches the mid-to-late game, the joke has begun to wear thin and now the act of building a bridge from human remains or cremating the living to clear a room has an impossibly macabre quality. It's possible that another audience might receive the game differently than I did, but after you stop grinning at the story then you begin a new and emotionally exhausting journey through casual manslaughter - and I think the devs still believe that you're smiling along with them.

Finally, the game ending rewards the player with a conclusion that is both predictable and wholly unsatisfactory. The two canon endings are both miserable rewards for the player that gave so much of their patience and willpower to arrive here with both feeling like losing scenarios. There are some secret (better) endings as well, but they were a bit too secret for a player that wasn't looking and I feel like they would pass by more casual players who weren't that invested by the end, which would be most players. Of the secret endings, there is one that is barely tolerable but requires work that the average player wasn't aware of throughout the title. When I played "Silent Hill" years ago, I got the worst ending without realizing there was a choice and never picked up another title from that franchise for years - "MoB" felt like the same feeling again.

"Ministry of Broadcast" is overlong, underdeveloped, and both bloated through repetition while also emotionally-draining. The character is only mildly controllable, the objectives are asinine, and the story is only entertaining at a high-level but fails the more that it unfolds. I can only give the developers credit for the attempt at crafting a unique world and some of the early storytelling, but it is anti-fun as a playable game and not unique enough to stand out from other (better) attempts at world-building.

I played the game on easy mode and the story and play was enjoyable. Searching for the shoes and getting the three endings adds to the replay ability.

Beautiful visuals, lovely music, but once you get past episode 3 it becomes an infuriatingly hard and finicky platformer. The controls are sluggish and inprecise, and if you force players to perform pixel-accurate jumps and climbs under a strict time pressure...that's the point where I just uninstall the game. Shame. I guess I'll just watch a let's play/longplay video on youtube to catch the rest of the story...

Let me be very clear about what you're getting with this. Ministry of Broadcast is a cinematic puzzle-platformer in the vein of Out of This World, Prince of Persia, and Flashback (without the gun). Your only controls are to walk, run, jump up, and jump forward. You will get annoyed at the controls. You will get annoyed at the unskippable dialogue. You will get annoyed at the long stretched where your already slow movement is made even slower by water and ice patches. You will get annoyed at the level of precision required to complete an area and how far back the last checkpoint is when you fail.

This game wasn't a total failure, I actually enjoyed a lot of the puzzles and laughed at some of the humor, but in the end the whole package didn't quite work. The story was all over the place in terms of focus with references to 1984, Twin Peaks, and Monkey Island, but leading to no larger point or revelation. If you are a fan of the previously mentioned games and don't mind playing something that's a bit more meticulous and finicky, you will probably like this. But my reflexive response would be, I would advise against it.

This game is beautifully done, it has a lot of depth and worldbuilding and makes you think about your decisions.

Was fighting the controls a little at first, but that's almost tradition for this type of puzzle platformer. Switching to keyboard from controller helped a lot there.

Given the full and complete dumpster fire schedule of 2020 so far, it's no wonder that George Orwell's classic novel, 1984, has become one of the most popular reads of the year. It's a dystopian story about the omnipresent Big Brother, and how a man named Winston is fed up with the eyes and ears of an entity known as The Party being involved in all aspects of everyone's lives. Without giving too much away, the overall plot of the book focuses on highlighting the real dangers that totalitarianism presents to us as a society, and it warns of the terrifying amount of power and control that such a regime is able to gain and maintain. It's worth noting that much of the government in Orwell's novel is divided into several ministries; love, peace, plenty, and truth.

Enter Ministry of Broadcast, a game set in a dystopian future ruled by totalitarianism and... reality TV. Playing as a ginger man known as Orange, or Shoeless, you find yourself forcibly separated from your family when a wall is erected seemingly overnight. The only way to gain your freedom is to compete in, and ultimately win, a reality TV broadcast called "The Wall Show". Since the regime came to power, there has been an episode filmed every single day, every single year, with each new season starting as soon as the old contestant has either won or perished. Though there is more to the plot than meets the eye; there are a lot of spoiler-worthy psychological factors that play in near the end, along with a lot of narrative-driven political party opposition where many of the side-characters try to vote in a new leader to end the brutal, power-hungry administration run by the Blue Party.

The gameplay is made up strictly of difficult platforming and fairly complex puzzle solving that requires outside-the-box thinking. Prepare to die time and time again while attempting to traverse the multitudes of trap-laden locations over the course of five in-game days, or roughly 4-7 real-life hours. Simple run-and-jump platforming, harder sections with breakaway points, ice-covered ledges with deadly icicles, hungry piranha infested waters, giant sewer alligator chases, radiation hazards, murdering everyone you come into contact with, and much more is waiting for you throughout the campaign. There's also very little in the way of dialogue or narrative. If you do not hang around to read what the NPCs have to say before and after each day, and if you decide to skip most of the exploration opportunities in each area, you'll miss out on almost all of the plot.

While a challenge is very much appreciated, it's a shame to say that much of Ministry of Broadcast's difficulty comes from its inexcusably horrid controls. They're easy enough to get the hang of; WSAD to move, space or W to jump, shift to run, F to interact, and R to reset. Though what they are isn't the problem, it's the abysmal delay and overall clunky-feel that becomes severely off-putting, even after spending several hours attempting to master them; think Another World level of bad. Trying to avoid a rabid dog or trigger-happy soldier, or trying to make a precise jump becomes tedious when there's an entire second of delay between pressing a button and having the character finally react on-screen. This problem is the biggest obstacle you'll end up facing in an otherwise enjoyable title, and it's quite a doozy given that the entire game relies on unforgiving accuracy.

If you've played Uncanny Valley you'll already have a feel for the graphics here, and much of the way the levels are designed. The style is incredibly similar, though Ministry of Broadcast Studios, the developers, pulled off a lot more detail in their art and a lot more diversity in their maps. There's also a good amount of atmosphere present, and the world truly does feel dystopian and under totalitarian control; the snow effects also add a great touch, bringing a bit of a USSR vibe to the whole game. The soundtrack adds in just enough retro-futurism to make the setting feel both old and futuristic, which is one of the great wonders of what the Synthwave genre can accomplish.

Even though it does have a massive drawback within its functionality, Ministry of Broadcast is a unique and fairly hidden little gem of a game. Even if you've never read 1984 you'll still be able to appreciate what direction the developers were taking this release in. There is some humor in the game, and much of it does fall flat, but the dark overtone still reigns supreme. Many of the negative Steam reviews seem to dog this release due to things the reviewers themselves don't understand; such as how to reset the checkpoint without waiting for the death animation to end, or being able to skip long dialogue sequences that say "press F to skip this". Be warned, this game is hard and unforgiving. You will die, and you will retry the same areas several times over. The gameplay has a defined oldschool style to it in that manner, and though people in the negative reviews comparatively speak of Prince of Persia, they must've never played the original.

Rating: 3.5/5.0 - Average, can take it or leave it.

Huge deception. I recommend not buying it.

I never hated a button so much in my life. Besides the clunky controls, that dang R button being right beside the F key and no way to rebind it has made me restart sections multiple times.

I have been craving for a game like this since the times I've played Flashback and Out of this World. Not only Ministry of Broadcast is an excellent platformer with smooth controls, great pixel art and animations, it is also utterly hilarious. I've literally laughed my way through the whole hallucination level, it was incredibly delicious. My only wish is that the puzzles (and the game overall) could have been a bit more difficult. I've certainly had some amount of fail/retries, but overall no parts of the game were near as difficult as some of the sequences in Out of this World or Heart of Darkness. All in all, this is a very refreshing and well-produced game. Even the collectibles are great (protagonist is looking for suitable shoes throughout the whole adventure).

Honestly I don't get some reviews saying that this is a 10/10 or a must have to play. It was a chore to complete, the controls are just god awful, the "story" is non-existing, the writing is just really bad. The 5+ hours to complete were just so not worth the playtime. 2-3 hours were added from constant lazy backtracking, clunky controls that make you fail even if you get gud in the game. The checkpoint system in the game should be punishable by law tbh, I honesty thought there was gonna be some more depth to it all. Like some type of bigger meaning but the endings are just not worth the time invested. I kinda want to know what happens when you find all the shoes, but after this playthrough in one sitting I don't ever want to play it again sadly. I think the replay value could have been there if there was some sort of twist for a newgame+ mode with maybe his wife or something but sadly nothing creative in that department. A chore to complete with very little satisfaction, the art at times is great, other times I felt like there could have been more to it. Animations are good but don't reflect well with the movement, sound is horrible at times, and not having separate music / sounds sliders is just wtf. Had to turn the volume down to 1 so it wasn't so loud. Had 2 bugs with cops not reacting to me so in the two instances I just passed em even if they were chasing me for all the before tries which was a welcome cheese to be honest. The theme had so much potential, there could have been a great game here. There were some really ok / great moments, that made me feel for a second that, ok now it's gonna start to be something more ... but sadly you can see it everywhere that this is a novice attempt at a game. Maybe other projects will be more interesting down the line for this team. But for now I can't recommend other people getting into it. The price is ok for this I can at least give em that.

Unless you love clunky controls that feel like doing brain surgery using a hydraulic press, or an extreme masochist don't waste your time. These controls need some serious reworking; if I had a nickel for every time I died due to Mr. Protagonist doing a turning around animation to see a police officer brutally cudgel his skull to a thick paste? I'd have a mountain of nickels. I could melt it down to slag, and build the Ministry of Broadcast myself with the metal from my clunky, untimely deaths.

Fun visuals, interesting story and theme, but that's about all that this 'puzzle'- platformer has going for it.

At first the movement style is fun and interesting, Prince of Persia style, but eventually as the game continues on, it becomes an utter hindrance to your enjoyment of the game. Eventually the puzzles and 'action' sequences leave very, very little room for error and you'll play the same exact section over and over, 20, 30 times until you do it just right. Much like early Assassin Creed games, you'll be throwing yourself off cliffs or jumping straight up into the air when you really meant to just grab the next ledge.

Honestly, the controls and character movement are NOT designed for fast paced movement, but that's all you'll be doing the last 2 hours of the game and it becomes a frustrating, eye-rolling mess.

As for puzzles, you'll see the same puzzles continually throughout the game. Things you did in the first thirty minutes you'll be doing at the 5 hour mark, with slight changes or flip-flop of which order to do them in. There really isn't much variety there.

The ending I got, which unless I missed some kind of alternate route, feels like the 'main' ending, and it was very unsatisfactory, minute long cutscene, and then credits roll, congrats on finishing the game, just a little bit of exposition, a little bit of 'oh, I see', and then it ends. You learn nothing new, and it doesn't wrap up the story in any kind of interesting way, just more of the same.

In the end, I probably wouldn't recommend the game. You'll be frustrated and annoyed as you play the same sections over and over, until you finally get yourself an 'error-free' run, and that just isn't much fun.

Fun puzzle-platformer that takes inspiration from games like Another World, Flashback and Prince of Persia - for those uninitiated, that means the controls in this game are intentionally clunky for nostalgic reasons (I already see the complaints in the reviews, even though it's supposed to be that way). However, I have to say that this game does not feel exactly like a cinematic platformer in terms of cutscenes and how the momentum was executed - the running jump is fixed and much easier to do than in any of those classics (for better or worse, depending on your preference). That said, not a bad game, just not what I expected. I think the humor is done very well, there are many creative and unexpected ways to die, if you into that.

This is one of those games where you will die a lot, which is actually something that cinematic platformer genre is known for (the beginner traps). You will often find yourself in a situation where the solution is not obvious right away, so you kinda have to test the waters, see which path does not lead to your demise. Perhaps the best aspect of this game is just the creativity and mechanical side to the puzzles, you have to think outside of the box to solve them. There are many cool elements to the game that will test your patience, such as not running on the ice or not jumping from the high elevation. Even though the game does not look as good as some of those 90s classics, the pixel art is still pretty good, clearly, a lot of effort was put into this experience.

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Feedback:

Walking, jumping and dying in this game is done in a manner of an old school Prince of Persia DOS game. I love it! Have about 80 minutes in game and already i have apparently ruined somebodies coffee. Love the Orwellian look, feel and the sound of the game with a pinch of gore and "scary". Game is well polished strong impression of finished product.

I love it!
The best atmosphere since Prince of Persia and Another World together mixed with lovely tetris-like (pixel art) design. Even in 2020.
Animations, music, sound, jokes, blood, crow and everything.