MoneySeize

By: Derek Yu

On: July 4th, 2009

MoneySeize is a slick new platformer by Matt “YMM” Thorson (Jumper 3, FLaiL, Untitled Story), his first to be released in Flash (available as a download, as well). If you like challenging platforming, you’ll dig it. Matt’s done a great job of lowering the frustration level and making the levels fun to replay over and over again – the levels are short and restarting is a cinch. Love the bird mechanic.

Happy Independence Day, America!

TIGdb: Entry for MoneySeize

Posted in Browser Games, Freeware, Platformers | Tags: YMM

Lorne Whiting

You on a roll, Deerock.
This games pretty awesome, but then it’s also driving me insane.

P.S. green birds go away if double jump :9 took me way too long to figure that out.
Har

what about the red birds?!?
Scotoma

Some of the birds fly only away if you hit an enemy.
http://www.youtube.com/malefact Malefact

Okay, are the yellow birds timer birds? I’m pretty sure they’re timer birds.

This game is really frustrating, *especially* because it’s so easy to replay levels. I have a severe case of “one more try”-itis.

Also, the first secret level is making my hair fall out.
SirNiko

I love the way how collecting the coins builds the tower that leads to new levels. It gives you a nice sense of progress aside from “Now I have more coins than before.”

I wish there was more visual variety to the levels. If there were unique backgrounds or the levels were styled so that some look like castles or caves (or wackier environs), I might feel more motivated to push ahead to see what the next level holds.

But yeah, the gameplay is HARD. I managed the first secret level, but the 30+ levels are brutal even if you’re not trying to get all the coins.

Makes me want to go play more Untitled Story.
BlademasterBobo

One of the few games (actually only other one was Braid) that actually makes me want to get every single coin. Lots of fun figuring out how to get them.
bloocheese565

secret levels? WHERE?!?!
bloocheese565

oh there hidden IN levels.
mots

secret level on the 1st level is on the right side.. there’s a notch, just go over the right side and fall there, you’ll go through a door..

but then good luck finished that level.. if you think the game is hard, this is impossible
failrate

Hey, Flash’s garbage collection, could you do me a favor and kick in right in the middle of a jump? You can? Thanks!
deadeye

Am I the only one who thought the title was Monkey Seizure at first?

Anyway, I think there should be a game called Monkey Seizure.
Pampcake

The day is done. I played this game. I collected 762 coins and have sprouted a few grey hairs. I’ve played up to level 38 and I’m ready to shoot myself. If this is a “lowered frustration level” then I think I need to stop playing.
SickOfN

Wall jumping and wall sliding were interesting game mechanics when they were first invented, but they’ve been overused and I’m sick of them. I’m especially annoyed by their complete lack of physics plausability. I supposed double-jumps fall into that category too, but i see them as a means of expressing the effort put into jumping through the crude medium of a keyboard.
Monkey

Heh heh.. Monkey seizure. That would be cool. But would it be the seizing of monkeys or some kind of weird ragdoll monkeys having ragdoll seizures..?
just sayin

you are playing a game about a man who goes into doors floating on platforms in midair that teleport him to an exit door in order for him to kill neon colored animals, jump across more floating platforms, and collect gold so he can build a tower to the sky.

i get that you don’t like walljumping and doublejumping but maybe criticizing the mechanic on their lack of plausibility is a bit silly given the types of things that go on in the games that often include them.
dacowboy

thats a point :D
but i think i can understand what sickofn is saying. i feel this plays too much like jumper…
Scotoma

Actually, I think it’s much easier than the Jumper games, aside from Jumper 3, which was probably the easiest game Matt has ever done

I think most people are just annoyed that they can’t beat the game, the rest is rationalization
Zaratus

All I gotta say, some of these levels puts “I Wanna Be The Guy” to shame. Oof, *brutal*.
Malasdair

A qualm: the skid mechanism makes it dozens of times more difficult, purposelessly, to properly control momentum at the edge of cliffs – you’re going left, hit right to slow down and avoid hitting spikes in the air, and oops – the skid takes over and you continue FLYIN’ to the left. For instance, trying to get the speed bird in level 8 – it took me ten minutes to get around the spikes thanks to this problem.

Not that I mind working for it, but the game makes me feel like it’s the game’s fault, and not a shortcoming of skill on my part.

It’s fuckin’ AWESOME, though.
Zaratus

ARGH! Level 40 is insane. Superhuman reflexes and timing required, I swear. I’ve made it to the block just to the right of the other block with a second below it, with a coin on top. Then when trying to skid jump in the one second alloted before the block breaks, I ran into the spikes. That was on attempt number 315 or so. 335 attempts on that level, and I give up. I’ve only made it that far once, and to the block right before it about 4 times in that many tries. Sheesh.
Z

I totally agree with Malasdair – basically it’s hard to execute what you’re planning to do sometimes, and IMO that’s a sign of controls that could be improved.
SickOfN

I’m all for absurd, bizarre, surreal, off-the-wall games – I’m just tired of having to jump off the wall. It’s entirely personal opinion, of course.
I’m just looking for a platform game with more flexibility, like the Deus Ex of 2d. If I want to play wall-jumping, ok. If double-jumping is more my style, ok. Something like that. A number of ways to play a game, rather than forcing wall-jumping on somebody who’s fundamentally crap at it.
SickOfN

On that note, @just sayin, it’s not all that surreal..

“you are playing a game about a man who goes into doors floating on platforms in midair..”

Actually, i believe the platforms are outcroppings of mountains fading into the distance, if i’m reading the background correctly.

“..that teleport him to an exit door..”

It could be said that there is a lot of travel in between these doors but it just isn’t show, for the sake of brevity, like in movies.

“..in order for him to kill neon colored animals..”

Well, hunting is one of man’s favourite pastimes. As to the colours of the animals, ..it all depends on the light. ;)

“..and collect gold so he can build a tower to the sky.”

Not so strange. All towering buildings are built ‘into the sky’ and indeed the tower stands on the ‘ground’.

Pretty normal, really. ;)
FishyBoy

I hate those goddamn birds. I hate them so much.

Fun game, otherwise. Excellent physics, and I really liked the art.

There’s a fairly significant issue, that being that the level runs in the little “Press Jump to Begin” screen, and does not reset to it’s beginning state when you start playing in it. The screen moving is useful, yes, but on levels with timer birds waiting could either screw you up or benefit you unexpectedly. Basically, it lets the player subvert the level design a bit. For an example, look at Level 8. Depending on when you start, the process of getting the bird is radically different.

Have the level restart to it’s beginning condition when the player starts, so one can get an idea of the map without it being screwy because you waited too long to begin.
Malasdair

Fishyboy: I can’t remember which level it is, but on at least one of them you HAVE to use the start-level screen delay in order to get the speed bird. I think it’s deliberate. It does get frustrating on levels – like one of the spinning cannon ones – that can turn into trial-and-error timing levels. I was gonna gripe about it too but then I figured it was probably intentional, and I’m all for a good outside-the-box puzzle most of the time.
Malasdair

(oh – and it DOES reset to its original position when you die or press ‘r’ to restart.)
GrViper

That tower is a nice tape-measurer for player’s presistence. 586 coins so far.

Found that 2nd secret on lev10. Bloody hell…
ross

I’ve been playing this game for the past couple days on and off. It’s so much fun.

My only gripe is that sometimes you can’t get all the coins on a level until you’ve hit a switch on a later level. I spent a lot of wasted time trying to get some coins.
Nemo07

I spent a good 15 minutes trying to describe how Matt’s games made me feel and now I’m torn between “I don’t recommend these games at all. The difficulty is only for the mentally insane and/or masochists” and “These games have high production values, but the difficulty will put off the majority of people.” I called him an “evil bastard that’s a poor excuse for a human who feeds on the tears of infants and the blood of puppies” at one point.

I suppose I just can’t understand how someone would derive joy from something so unintentionally frustrating. Please don’t mention IWBTG, because that game is intentionally frustrating, which can be fun just because it can be hilarious.
Nemo07

I forgot to mention that I have actually beaten Jumper 2 on the easiest difficulty, but by the end I wasn’t enjoying myself all that much and completed it mostly because I felt an obligation to finish what I had started.
strong

knowing his games, i think the difficulty is intentional for him, too.
Pete

I got 930 coins in this and i liked all the jumper games, but he makes them so slippery and horizontally thin that its harder to land on the platforms and everyone gets mad. He really should make them wider and bigger, maybe slower, but what do i know.

At the end of this game it got way harder than any of his other ones. I beat all the jumpers, but this one was just too hard at the end. I appreciate a challenge, but level 40 was just uncalled for. The secret levels are allowed to be really hard, but i still wanted to get to see all of the levels and i cant do that now because level 40 was just way too hard.
Pete

I mean you have to skid jump on the space of a pixel like 6 times in a row. wtf. I can do it once or twice but not that many times.
z

There’s more than 40 levels? I think there’s only 40 + 10 secret – because 1010 coins = 40 * 25 + 10 * 1
z

Nevermind, the stage count is right in the forum post.