One Man’s Trash is Another Man’s Mashina
From the two-man team at Tahla & Jack Co, Mashina is finally on Steam after being supported by 700+ backers on Kickstarter. Published by Judatone Studios, Mashina is an imperfectly perfect claymation which exudes the passion of its creators. Fans of claymation may be familiar with Tahla & Jack Co’s previous release, Judero, a complete contrast in style to this review’s topic. From Celtic warrior to tiny mechanoid, let’s see if Mashina will be another victory for the team.
In Mashina, we play as our titular character in a digging adventure. Mashina is a mining robot who explores the Underground to collect minerals and decorations. Found resources work as currency to upgrade equipment and complete tasks that ultimately build the community in the Overground. Mashina is the pillar of this robot society, with all others happy to be in her orbit. This game is straightforward and clear in its objectives, making it a great play for casual gamers.
Mashina exists in a world abundant in trash, looking very much like a living scrapyard. Tahla & Jack Co embodied the nature of Mashina by building the game with spare parts and project leftovers, in addition to the obvious clay components. These leftovers include TMNT figurine parts, showing the importance of resourcefulness in art. The overall style is strong, with designs seeming like deliberate choices rather than a collection of scrap, attesting to the Team’s creative vision. Mashina has such a cohesive design, it is easy to get immersed in the game. At a high-level, I would describe the style as a cross between Wall-E and the Tiny Chef, but that is a drastically oversimplified comparison.
The world consists of two distinct environments – the Overground and Underground, names befitting of the mining experience. In the Overground we explore a 3D environment and interact with our core cast of characters – this environment is more dedicated to story progression. Contrastingly, in the Underground we dig through 3D generated meshes to unveil secondary characters and resources across the two-dimensional map. Resource collection is straight forward, with an organisable inventory and upgradable tools to improve efficiency. Upgrades can be found or bought with resources to boost digging capabilities. Sticking with the happy and fun nature of Mashina, these upgrades include rockets and disco balls for extravagant digging boosts. As you progress the game character speed becomes a hinderance, but skill points can be used to improve speed amongst other characteristics.
Dialogue between characters is simple yet entertaining, and provides much context to their personalities. All characters have clear-spoken voice acting, making the game more accessible whilst contributing to their character development. Underground characters come with optional objectives, which are not instrumental to game progress but add to the exploration. New characters are presented through replayable introductory videos. This adds a quirky element to the game presentation and gives us the opportunity to observe the finer details of character designs.
Characters in Mashina typically have short two syllable names, sticking to the theme of simplicity. Names play strongly into the style of the game, with many characters named after their core role or responsibility. More on-the-nose names included Tuto, our tutorial guide, or Tungsten, our blacksmith. I am easily amused by simple puns, so correlating the names of characters to their possible functions was wonderful.
Sound design is also interesting in Mashina. Retro synth dominates the music, with a somewhat discordant sound making it almost robotic or alien. Users can unlock radio stations where they can explore a range of genres composed by the designers. I enjoyed most of the stations, however, some music I found to be too shrill for my ears. The generic background music of the Overground is simple yet pleasant, reminding me of BMO in Adventure Time.
I tested both keyboard and controller play. Movement in the Underground is more accurate and easier using the keyboard and mouse, but still easy with a controller. After experimenting, I completed the rest of the game on controller. The only downside to this is that interacting with the keyboard when playing on controller caused the game to freeze. Occasionally the game would crash after freezing, which is inconvenient as someone who likes to switch between windows. This is avoidable but worth noting. Similarly, I found that the game tends to freeze when exiting the application altogether.
Mashina does not have a traditional saving mechanism, instead utilising auto-save. This came in extremely handy when having to force restart the game after freezes. It also emphasises that this game is made to enjoy, not to worry about saving and place markers. I can say with certainty that I enjoyed Mashina with minimal complaints or issues. My only suggestion caters to my petty perfectionism – let me pick up placed decorations! I learned that the disco ball booster doubles as a decoration, but sadly could not rescue it from my base.
Tahla & Jack Co dominate the cast and credits, demonstrating just how much time and skill they put into the game. Keen-eyed readers might even spot COO David Batista, but to my dismay this is not the WWE wrestler (sorry David). The art design in Mashina was a delight to experience. From the characters and set to the user interface and textures, most elements are obviously handmade. Claymation is inherently time-consuming, so the patience and dedication put into this game is incredible. I would highly recommend players go into this game blind, watching the available ‘making of’ documentary afterwards to truly appreciate the effort put into the game design.
A PC review code for Mashina was provided by Judatone Studios and this review is featured on OpenCritic.
