101 in 1: Explosive MegaMix is pretty straightforward to explain: it is a collection of DS-based minigames that utilize the stylus is a number of ways. Normally a minigame collection would seem like a game players could blow through quickly, but there are 101 games here, which goes a long way toward keeping things interesting.
I'll say right upfront that Explosive MegaMix is certainly very hit-or-miss, which is about the same with any minigame compilation out there. The gameplay is relatively easy to pick up, to be sure, and every minigame gives instructions as to how to play. Sometimes it can be a bit unclear as to how you have to go about accomplishing the tasks, but even when this happened I managed to figure it out after a round or two. By playing minigames, players will get points they can spend to unlock other minigames. Achieve a set score in any minigame and you'll get a bonus. While it's cool to have incentive to do well in the minigames, it's still kind of weird that pretty much all of them are locked from the get-go. It can be annoying spend points on games you end up disliking and/or being bad at. In a way it kind of would have been better to have had, say, 80 minigames unlocked from the get go and then the last 20 be unlockables. I actually felt discouraged from trying out all of the games because I had to spend points on them which I could sometimes have trouble earning in some games.
When I was having difficulty achieving certain scores, however, it often felt like it was because the controls or physical mechanics of the minigames posed a problem. It's hard to explain, but many minigames just felt a little difficult to control, be it hit detection between ingame objects or between the objects and my stylus. Now, this overall imbalanced level of polish aside, it is hard to dismiss the variety on show here. Throwing, dodging, catching, hitting, shooting...There are so many different things to do that it manages to keep itself interesting, at least for a while, and there are a number of games in the bunch that are fun enough to replay to set higher scores and get more points to buy other games.
It's a shame that the game's whole atmosphere feels a bit too generic for its own good. This isn't too surprising, really, as I'm sure different people had to handle the development of different games or else you could never get a project like this done on time. Some games have a bit more personality to them than others, but there isn't a consistent, overarching tone like there is in the Mario Parties or Raving Rabbids games. While it's understandable, it's still unfortunate. The music and sound effects are fine but can get repetitive, and the graphics are adequate but generally not eye catching. It's all very basic -- not ugly but not exciting, either.
It's very difficult to even attempt to try and explain the gameplay because there's so many different games. I won't even try because it'd be an inaccurate representation. Suffice it to say that 101 minigames is a lot, and many minigames are challenging and fun and others are frustrating or boring. The variety is certainly to be commended, however, and the DS's stylus is put to many uses and generally pulls off its tasks well.
