We'll openly admit to being a little late to the party on this, but we've just played Megapenguin Rehatched in Dreams and have to tell you about it.
As we reported a couple of weeks ago, Megapenuin Rehatched is a collaborative project within Media Molecule's creation game. The idea is brilliant: the studio has crafted the first few stages of Megapenuin's journey through the Dreamiverse in order to inspire the community to create brand new levels starring the beefy bird. The best of these will be added to the official adventure. The end result will be an improvised game devised mostly by Dreams players. It's an awesome concept, and exactly the sort of thing Dreams is good at.
Whether you're interested in creating something yourself or not, we would urge you to check out Media Molecule's opening levels for Megapenguin. As we mentioned, we've now played the introduction, and it's just wonderful.
The muscular penguin is flying through the cosmos with his fleet, when disaster strikes and he crash lands on an unknown world. The opening cutscene is full of the daft charm we've come to expect from the developer, and it continues as you start playing this 3D action platformer. Megapenguin has four delightful emotes, can make penguin noises on command, and it's quickly established that he loves shiny pebbles. It's hard not to fall in love with him immediately.
As you start exploring, you'll collect those pebbles (which is very satisfying, by the way) and start unlocking some abilities, such as a scanner with which to learn more about the surrounding area, a wrench that acts as a melee attack, and the best glide we've seen in a long time. These first few levels are pretty straightforward, but they're expertly crafted, and a real joy to go through. You'll explore hidden paths, find amusing scanner readings, and perform some simple platforming. We had a big dumb grin on our face the whole time. It all culminates in a cute hub area where the game splits off into three pathways. It's within these different sections that Media Molecule will eventually insert community-made stages.
This introduction to Megapenguin and the whole project is excellent, and even has us wanting to put something together. After seeing all there is to see in the opener, it's left us excited to discover how the adventure will evolve with community input. With such a good leading example, we expect players to go out and make some great stuff. If you have Dreams, check out Megapenuin Rehatched.
Have you played the start of this cracking project in Dreams yet? Tell us what you think of it in the comments section below.
[source indreams.me]
Comments 19
I wish Media Molecule would move on and make another game. Seems like a decade wasted on Dreams. Fun, creative, but never took off.
Waiting for its psplus release. I think it would be perfect for that. I've dabbled with the demo or was it beta. Im not sure. I had fun, but realized I didn't have the patience or time to create. I did enjoy playing others creations though.
Yeah I played this the other day and it's VERY cool. I can't wait until all of the community levels have been added and we get to play the completed campaign. Going to be something really special, I think.
GOTY 2020 Dreams.
I played this last week and really enjoyed my time with it. MM are obviously masters of their craft and dreams, which was well demonstrated in the fantastic 'Art's Dream' (one of my favourite games of last year). I sped through the first two levels but the third is where it really opens up and the fun starts (though it's sadly a tad short at this point in development - it seems like MM or the community will be adding more to it).
So if you're not quite vibing with levels one or two please persevere to three. The village is so visually interesting, gameplay and music has major Tearaway vibes (no higher praise) and it adds a much needed free camera. I was hoping my having played it late would mean some community levels would have been added but no such luck - probably a good thing as it shows MM are taking quality control for user submissions seriously.
As for those who want MM to move on from Dreams, I feel like I get where they're coming from but totally disagree. I think there's so much room for growth and little reminders like Megapenguin show it. It's a cliché, I know, but I really think this is just the beginning for dreams. It would be tragic if Sony/MM packed it in and moved on without even seeing what could transpire when multiplayer is added. I'm not too worried though, all signs point towards them having a solid plan - even if they're not always too transparent about it.
That said, Tearaway is one of my favourite games of all time and if they could have some of the team work on a sequel I would be over the moon. They developed that and Dreams simultaneously back in the early years of development, and now that most of the work is done on Dreams I think it might be possible, though one has to acknowledge they are a small team and Tearaway wasn't quite the sales blockbuster that might mandate a sequel from Sony.
I do think having games for the creators and games for the players would be good to quell the dissatisfaction some gamers have at the Dreams-heavy focus of the studio. They may yet pull it off with Dreams.
And yes Dreams was hands down GOTY 2020 for me as well.
Hmm… maybe you could pick back up the earlier PushSquare project and do a level with Megapenguin eating snacks on a train.
It's absolutely incredible to me that they haven't started giving Dreams away for free yet.
@get2sammyb Penguin, cool, I see what you did there.
I just Sony would have packed in "Dreams" with the PS5 so that more people could experience MMs greatest creation. Or, just put it on PS Plus and let more of the community play and use it.
Is MegaPenguin a mM Dreams creation? I keep seeing it in my Twitter feed and thought it was a free to play mobile game or cartoon. I'll go check it out ne t time I boot up Dreams.
@rjejr It is in Dreams, the first three levels were made by Media Molecule and laid loose gameplay and plot foundations, all future levels that are added over time will be developed by the community, submitted to MM who will review submissions and add them in.
You can use all the assets and gameplay templates to create your own levels without going into the 'nitty gritty' make-everything-from-scratch creation. I think it's a way of encouraging that kind of creating as a lot of users (myself included) find the creation tools quite intimidating, even after having done the tutorials.
@AK4tywill Thank you. Of course I didn't see it today, but I wasn't on much, trying to avoid Loki spoilers. I'll take a closer look next time it pops up.
@Bdbrady have you played it?
Dreams is the best artist game ever made. Making absolute bangers in Dreams recently.
@themcnoisy I have. Paid for early access when it released. I don't doubt that people are doing amazing things, but it's under utilized, under promoted, and under appreciated. They have been trying to get it going for years now and it's not working.
Media Molecule (MM) has been working on Dreams since 2012 (or earlier) and exclusively Dreams since Tearaway (2013, 2015 for unfolded). Six years of exclusively working on this, nine years total. Less than 1,000 people routinely play the game.
In the same timespan we have got:
-Insomniac: Ratchet and Clank (two of them, three if you count Into the Nexus), Spider-Man (two of them), Sunset Overdrive, Stormlands, Song of the Deep, etc; and
-Naughty Dog: Last of Us (two of them), Uncharted re-release, four, and lost legacy.
I realize that many other studios have only had a game or two come out — and they may be staffed better than MM. But it's time to free up MM to make other games. Not hating, just want them to have a chance to create another game.
@Bdbrady where are you getting these numbers from?
1000 people routinely playing the game? That seems an underestimation to me. I'm more interested to see where they take it as it's a god send for people artistically minded.
@themcnoisy It's hard to tell. I pulled from:
https://dreamstats.me/globalstats
Shows on 6/16 a player count of 1077. Quote from the reddit citing to dreamstats.me:
"You can track it on https://dreamstats.me/globalstats. The last 24 hours was min ~400 and max ~1200" — /u thyongamer
·
Another quote from a redditor, /uTee-A-tomas, "Saturday and Sunday are the most popular days, Sunday's high for play count is usually 1400-1600." That was seven months ago.
It seems like a consensus that 1,200 is an average peak player base, making the average lower. I also think it's safe to assume the player base is shrinking, not expanding.
@Svark I'm actually surprised that they haven't ported it to the PS5 yet. Still, keeps the PS4 alive and kicking!
@Svark It's not ready for that yet. Co-op is not here, PC version is not here. I think it's coming with a PS+ for sure, but when it's more content rich.
Just ordered my copy. are they are good lists that collate Dreams levels that you must play?
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