I have picked up the tendency to do a little thoughts on the achievement sets posts, but I came across this subreddit, and as I become more and more enamoured with both the project in general and the community, I figured I'd do Reddit posts too. Will anyone read them? Probably no! But I like deep diving on my thoughts, and better to scream into the void than just, never say anything I suppose. 

# Madagascar

**PS2 | Platformer**  
*Toys for Bob - 2005*

# Quick thoughts on the Game

Made near the end of the movie lisenced 3rd party studio craze, depsite assuming like many others that this would be a cheap and quick cashgrab, it ironically still holds up decently well against the deluge of titles that came out around the time. The four main playable characters each fill their niche well, offering decent variations on gameplay, while not being overly gimmicky like a lot of 3D platformers tend to try. It's still got it's staples, forced stealth sections, short shooting sections, a bunch of minigames, but it usually either services the platforming, or isn't **too** intrusive. Probably because it's not particularly difficult, but it's an enjoyable experience throughout. Nothing amazing, but nothing grand either. Though, you can certainly see the DNA of a team capable of making great platformers in there (Remember this is the same studio that went on to make Crash 4: It's about Time! so uh, yeah that worked out).

If you're in the market for a breezy platformer, it's worth an afternoon! If you're looking for a fun achievement set, well...

# The Set

While this is my first reddit post, before this, I've only mainly done sets that interpret in game objectives into achievements with your common "no hit bosses" and some minor bonus challenges. While they were servicable, and had some good nuggets, they weren't exactly anything amazing, but it was a good time!

This is the first set that genuinely felt like a proper challenge, and fun to actively complete. Every single level has at bare minimum one challenge, if not multiple, demanding a level of mastery that hasn't really been present in prior sets. They make you think on how to actually go about completing them, or push you to actually make you play at your best. To me, this is why I have come to love the RetroAchievements project, because what was, honestly, a pretty simple and easy platformer gets to demand me to be better and challenge myself, giving the game new life.

The best part is while there' your standard challenge achievements of no hit or speed, there's creative ones that utilize the game's design really well, an example being the "Coming of Age" level challenging you to complete a minimum hover challenge, or complete one of the two character swap levels "Back to the Beach" completely avoiding the use of one of said characters. Challenges that make you have to actually think and experiment with what the game gives you, it's fun!

But there's a reason for the warning above, that being that by that while the achivements that occur within the levels themselves are fun and engaging, for those looking for another mastery, the minigame achievements exist. Most are fine, high scores, with a few bonus arcade games in the first few levels having achievements that require a degree of strategy that can be frustrating, but doable.  There's also the dedicated "Level Minigames" Minigolf and shuffleboard, both again, a bit difficult, but nothing enraging.

**Then there's "Lemur Rave"**. Simple rythym minigame, five songs, a perfect chain achievement and a minimal misses on hard achievement. Most of these are doable. The first two songs are easy even on hard, third doesn't pose that much challenge, fourth is not a cakewalk, but managable. Hell, was even able to full chain it! But the last song, is genuinely awful.

386 inputs across 2 minutes, with multiple chains where you'll have to multi-hit into switching to a different symbol immediately after. And still, five misses only. To rythym game players, I'm sure this sounds paltry, but to someone who came here for a platformer, I think this **single** achievement highlights a point of design for sets I'm sure I'll experience and dislike each time. This is not easy. This is hard, and fair enough to make an achievement for it. But when an achievement, the hardest achievement in your set is for a side mode in an entirely different genre, I see it as a failing. When 1/3rd of your playtime is consumed on that, well...

Still, **besides** that, it's genuinely a phenominal set! Which honestly makes it more frustrating, but alas.

# Awards

**Best Achievement** \- *Last Will and Testament: Truancy*  
^(Collect all beacon parts in 'Back to the Beach' without playing as Melman.)

**Worst Achievement** \- *Music for Swingin' Lemurs*  
^(Complete 'Peppermint' in Lemur Rave without getting five misses. \[1-Player, Hard\].)

**Most Challenging Achievement** \- *Music for Swingin' Lemurs*  
^(Complete 'Peppermint' in Lemur Rave without getting five misses. \[1-Player, Hard\].)

**Game Score** \- *6/10*  
*^(Good, it's fun, enjoyable throughout, and ultimately, while not for a while, certainly wouldn't mind coming back sometime!)*

**Set Score** \- *7/10*  
*^(Mostly Good. Has hickups, but beyond those minor issues, it's a good set. Without the issues would like be bumped up a point, but alas.)*

  
Anyway, enough prattling! Sorry if this is long, just like rambling, and not got anyone to really ramble to about this!



Mastery #7 - Madagascar (PS2) [Also hello, new to RetroAchievements!]