Writings of Mass Deduction

Stegersaurus Games has some of the best in the indie games catalogue. Don’t believe me? Go download “Battle Beat”, one of the first games I ever reviewed (1042 consecutive days of game recommendations ago… what the hell am I doing with my life?!), it’s astonishingly good. “Tank Strike”, “Lots of Guns”, and “Mega Monster Mania” are also good. But none of these games are what Stegersaurus is best known for.

No, they’re known for games that sound like they should be crappy, but are often actually quite decent, like Death Closet, “This is Hard”, “Jetpack Rapture” (which is likely their most controversial title since it pokes fun at religious groups), “Baby Maker Extreme 2” (one of the best-selling XBLIGs of all time and just as crazy as it sounds), and “Blow Me Up” (the last one which doesn’t sound like such a crazy title, until you see the box art that depicts a blow up sex doll).

“Mount Your Friends” continues the tradition of crazy titles that are better than they have any business being, especially with box art that’s reminiscent of something out of the “Cho Iniki” series. In this game you’re trying to climb a pile of beings (often people, but sometimes goats). Each of your limbs is associated with a specific face button, and your limbs flail around you try to hit a button for a limb just as it connects with the pile of bodies, and use that as a new lever point to fling yourself higher from. It’s definitely a lot different than your typical forced climber… unrecognisable, actually, so full marks for doing something very different.

Speaking of things that are very different, did I mention that it has jiggle physics? But instead of it being for breasts, it’s for penises. I’m not sure if I should be pleased or horrified at attempts to exploit men as fully as we’ve exploited women. Is that an improvement to society’s level of tolerance, or a race to the bottom? It’s something I’ve been debating since the first billboard I ever saw with an emaciated male model wearing Calvin Klein underwear.

Oh, I guess I should get back to the review. The solo gameplay has you trying to get the stack higher before the time runs out; succeed, and start at the bottom with a new climber that has the same time limit but has to go one person higher than the last one. It has multiplayer too, up to four offline, and up to two online, where you compete at the same thing. Well worth $1, and one of Stegersaurus’ best… but not his best, as that’s still “Battle Beat”, a game that still enthralls me 1042 days later.

Here’s what the developer (Stegersaurus Games) has to say about the game:

“Experience the extreme simulated sporting sensation that’s sweeping our digital nation! Mount Your Friends is a fiercely competitive sporting event for you to play with your friends in the contextual security of your own couch, assuming that your couch is not composed of sexual innuendo. If it is, I would suggest buying a new couch or at least getting the current one cleaned professionally.”