Game: Happy New Year The Game
Developer & Publisher: Vroovy, Hungama Entertainment
Price: Free
Platforms: iOS, Android, Facebook
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After testing peoples’ patience with a poor performance in the movie, Farah Khan and her crew is back to disappoint you further. The sole purpose of existence of Happy New Year The Game can be boiled down to one thing and that is marketing. The basic problem is that the game lacks a proper vision as the main motive of the game is to act as an advertising stunt rather giving people a source of entertainment and joy.
Plot
Being an adaptation of a movie, borrowing elements from the movie was a pre-conceived notion, but the way it has been executed is not proper. Besides this the seamless way in which the game and movie relates is appreciable. Whether you played the game or the watched the movie, at the end of the day you will be able to correlate both the experiences which is kind of rare in games adapted from Bollywood movies. The story is about six highly trained thieves with different top notch abilities complementing each other to achieve the ultimate goal of the greatest diamond heist of the world. The story makes up a great plot for a video game, however the developer failed to utilize the opportunity properly giving a lacklustre performance in the story department. Another weak point of the game is lack of a well constructed environment that fails to immerse the player in the game.
Gameplay and Controls
Nowadays, where developers are constantly innovating the efficiency of controls on the mobile devices to make the interaction more natural and engaging, Happy New Year The Game totally does the opposite. Rather than innovating with the controls the developer simply opts for the virtual gamepad option. Actually the real problem is not the controls, but the unresponsiveness. During hectic sections of the game, the action button and jump button did not register my input and most of the time it resulted in death or failing of the level.
The gameplay is simple, fun and accessible to people of all ages, but what it lacks is a real sense of progression. Whether you are at first level or halfway through the game, the gameplay remains identical. The developer has tried to address the issue by adding several tasks such as trying to crack the code of the locker, or shooting enemies through a first person perspective and a few others. The irony is that even though they are mini games, their contribution in the game is more than the main elements. Lack of a proper and intelligent AI is also somewhat disappointing. Even though the enemy was better equipped, they always waited for the India Wale to come and hit them. Throughout the game you have the ability to switch between characters to use their specific abilities to make the task easy but here also the developer has not able to strike the right balance between different characters.
Micro-Transactions
Proper implementation of micro-transactions in a free-to-play game has been a miss for most of the developers and Happy New Year The Game is no different. Each level has been structured in a way that besides accomplishing a main objective you need to complete three side objectives to move on to the next level. This system adds a sense of accomplishment to each level and makes the player spend (or waste) a bit more quality time in the game. The problem is that when we reach the higher levels, completing side objectives is simply not possible. For instance, a level had the objective to collect 100 diamonds but only 60 existed, which clearly shows that the developer wants to unfairly force monetary progression in the game. At first I thought it was a glitch, however after enquiring my friends and reading the reviews on Play store, I realized the issue existed for all. All we can do is hope the developer fixes the issue with future updates.
Happy New Year The Game is a case of failed oppurtunity as the game lacks a proper vision. It might fare better than other Bollywood adapted games. When compared to other quality titles, it is a very dull and boring experience. Avoiding the game is probably recommended unless you’re a masochist.
