Before Playing: Doing some research on the game it took a little work to find the doxed information on the team behind this project. I would have preferred it to be on the game website. However, just a couple of clicks got me to AMGI Studios where I quickly learned about the devs. Overall, I’d say this is a strength. The team seems to be serious people with a reputation to protect. That being said there is a deficit of clarity when it comes to the team behind $KARRAT, the governance token.
Some see heavy marketing through KOLs as a plus. I tend to have a different view of it. I see a project using a wide network of KOLs, especially one trying to develop a AAA-quality game, and I think I’d rather see those funds spent on more developers.
I watched game-play videos on YouTube and to my eyes there hasn’t been much evolution in My Pet Hooligan over the last eight months. That being said, I was mildly excited to try it out.
The game has many add-ons and packs for sale but none of these include NFTs which makes them no different than their web2 counterpart. In fact, the only NFTs I see associated with the game are the 8,888 Hooligan NFTs they minted in Q4 2021. That means it’s been nearly three years and they still only have one game-usable asset. There doesn’t seem to be any plans for additional NFT assets like weapons or armor. Additionally, over 10% of the supply is held by ten wallets. A total of 8888 NFTs are held in just 3,443 wallets which feels like a poor distribution. For a project that has nearly 30k people on Discord and over 100k X followers, I would have expected more demand.
This led me to investigate the comments on their X account to try and determine if their interactions are coming from bots or actual fans of the project. I will let the readers of this article come to their own opinions on that.
Game Play: Right away I found myself drawn in by the music and dancing rabbit in his tighty-whities and 80’s-style tube socks. Being able to quickly jump into the world is pretty nice. However, a lot is going on in the menu screen about seasonal passes and highly fungible purchases. This is disappointing. Unless seasonal passes come with NFTs I am still struggling to see what makes this a web3 game. In the web3 gaming world I would like to inhabit every dollar spent goes to assets that retain value or potentially appreciate. The gaming studio profits from the mint and royalties earned on sales in the secondary market. That isn’t present here.
Unlike many games that claim to be built using UE5 but aren’t, it’s obvious My Pet Hooligan is legit. Regardless of how you feel about the Pixar-esque design, the lighting from the streetlights and the sun peering over the building is the mark of UE5 tech. I am not enough of an expert on game design to say whether or not they are maxing out the polygons the engine is capable of, but the graphics are one of this game’s pluses. I would venture to guess that all the artwork comes from in-house design which is another plus. However, there is a lot of repetition in the game. This lowers it to a very aesthetically pleasing AA quality.
I ran around for a couple of hours and only came across three other players. This may be because I am unwilling to pay for any of the passes to unlock other areas and more gameplay. So I can’t say for sure this game is a ghost town but that is my experience. That being said, I enjoyed being able to spray paint the other players, and when I shot them, my bullets turned into what appeared to be harmless confetti. Hilarious.
The assortment of weapons placed around the game is nice. I saw everything from a Gatling Gun to boxing gloves. I like the variety. I think the studio is making a huge mistake by not having those items as mintable, craftable, or earnable NFTs.
Overall I enjoyed the feel and flow of the game. The sounds were great. The controls and maneuverability of my character were perfect.
Conclusion: If this was only a web2 game I would probably give it a B- because it has potential, especially as a kid’s game. Grading My Pet Hooligan based on what I want from a web3 game, then I have to give it a C-. The game clearly has development and a serious team behind it which keeps it from failing. The only people I see talking about it on social media seem like they are paid KOLs. Their Discord lacks activity for how many accounts they have on the server. There is no clear direction on how they intend to build a self-sustaining game economy. There is no plan for node tech to decentralize the game. Mostly, the game feels more like an afterthought to AMGI Studios’ larger plans in web3. That being said, if you like cool-looking, well-animated artwork these Hooligan NFTs are pretty nice. They have the added bonus of something you can run around inside a game and shoot things with. But I wouldn’t expect them to ever be anything more than a unique avatar you can show off.
Ben Aronson is a self-proclaimed tech rebel and blockchain evangelist with a vendetta against the status quo. When he’s not ranting about central banks or corporate greed, he’s dissecting code, dreaming of a decentralized utopia, and plotting how crypto can set fire to every outdated institution standing in its way. Equal parts cynic and visionary, Ben writes with a passion for tech disruption and a healthy dose of “burn it all down” energy.