Project X: Love Potion Disaster

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Project X: Love Potion Disaster
Something perverted is being prepared indeed!
Genre(s): Beat 'em up Platform(s): Microsoft Windows Mac OS X Release Date: November 20, 2009 Developer(s): Studio Enclave (Japan) Zeta Team Publisher(s): Namco/Studio Enclave (Japan) Zeta Team (Europe) MetroVG (all other countries)

Project X: Love Potion Disaster (aka Action in Moscow in Japan) is an adult side scrolling beat 'em up game featuring characters from Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog and fan characters made by Zeta Team, the leaders of said team are NeoEclipse and Zeta R-02.

Why It's a Disaster

1. The gameplay is uninspired and repetitive; one could easily get bored after just thirty minutes.
2. Speaking of which, the game feels nothing like a Sonic game. It feels more like a slow arcade beat-em-up and the rings serve just as a weak reminder that you’re playing a Sonic game.
3. The plot is very poor and feels rushed, despite the game suffering from...
4. Development hell: the game has been in developement for a whopping total of eleven years. The plot hasn't been improved, the gameplay hasn't been altered, and the game received only one update in 2017 that boosted its state from alpha to beta.
   • Enclave's builds are probably scam: as the Zeta Team senior patron, Miles Kjeller said, the original game builds made by Studio Enclave are illegal remake versions of Zeta Team's builds. But it's quite not right, as the first build of Action in Moscow video game has made in early 1999.
   • This is due to really bad project management. The team members working on this game rarely spoke to each other.
   • This caused one of the team members, one that actually did most of the work, to leave the project.
5. The game is infamous for stealing a lot of things:
   • The sprites are used without the author's permission.
   • In Zeta Team version, music is ripped from other games (the forest theme is "an empty tome" from Castlevania: Judgement). MetroVG/Studio Enclave version have original music, but it's sounds too severe for someone and is too hard to listen.
   • The characters have no real voice acting. Their lines consist of exclamations and other voice clips from various Sonic games, like two Sonic Adventure games and Sonic Heroes, which is beyond lazy. Unlike this, early versions of the game (especially ones made by Studio Enclave) and Action in Moscow later builds has characters' their own voices.
6. The creators, Zeta Team, are sexualizing characters without knowing nearly all of them are canonically underaged (or even worse, being very aware and not giving a hoot about it). While Zu is twenty years old, she has the mental capability of a child, which makes her sexualization extremely problematic.
   • The only acceptable character is Rouge, who was already sexualized since her creation, is canonically 18 and has normal mental functionality, but this doesn’t mean the character roster can be somewhat saved.
7. Horrid sound quality in Zeta Team's builds. The guitar riff in the Lost World and the 1-up fanfare are especially awful.
8. The secret areas are very easy to find.
9. The enemy A.I. is flawed. Almost every enemy can be killed by spamming jump-attacks (in the sea level you can kill every enemies from a long distance) and the game is also merciful with continues.
   • The game adds cheap moves as an attempt to make the game challenging, such as ghosts that are very hard to kill, bosses with uncounterable attacks, and one area in the jungle level that disables your special moves.
10. The game uses free open-source video game engine OpenBOR like any Sonic fan videogame. Unlike that, Action in Moscow uses its own game engine name's EMetro32.
11. The characters are poorly balanced and range from powerful (Zeta) to laughably weak (Cream).
12. The leader of the team working on this game cannot take criticism. Moreover, he/she bans anyone who talks about the Enclave's build is better or it was the ground for Zeta Team's builds.

Redeeming Qualities

1. The game over screens are decently animated.
2. The controls are responsive and you also have a good variety of attacks.
3. Argento's Sophie makes a cameo, which is pretty neat.
4. Each loading screen features a different artwork.
5. The Chaos Emeralds grant you +10% for health and stamina.
6. The ghost lady wanting to marry Sonic after he turns in his werehog form is a fairly good idea.

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