Malkari

Moby ID: 4224

Description official description

Malkari is a 4X (explore, expand, exploit, exterminate) space strategy game in the tradition of Reach for the Stars and Master of Orion.

However, there is a new twist on the traditional concept here: your solar system has been devastated by a runaway star, ripping the old planets apart into a vast clutter of asteroids. Making things more difficult for long-range planning, the asteroids are all moving at their own particular speeds, so the planet next door may be on the other side of the system a hundred turns from now!

Now that your people have emerged from their long cryo-sleep, you must resume the old struggles against rival guilds...all the while trying just to survive in the strange new Malkari system.

Screenshots

Credits (Windows version)

49 People · View all

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 49% (based on 10 ratings)

Players

Average score: 2.8 out of 5 (based on 4 ratings with 1 reviews)

A nice try, Malkari is full of good ideas and poor implementation.

The Good
Interesting backstory and setting, tons of options, infinitely replayable.

The game had attractive packaging and came with a thick, oldskool-style manual reminiscent of the MicroProse glory days.

The Bad
The interface is extremely clunky, and the user invariably suffers from information overload; there is too much here you have to sort out, and I can't imagine anyone having much fun doing it.

The final product is extremely unpolished. The graphics are shareware quality; Ascendancy looked better five years earlier! The different guilds have zero personality: no portraits, no leaders, etc.

Politics and diplomacy are practically nonexistent in the single player game, and battles are fought without your direct involvement. Economics is all that is left, which means you are essentially stuck with an excessively dry and unprofessional-looking management sim set in outer space.

The Bottom Line
If the "moving asteroids" concept gets you really excited, you may be able to tolerate Malkari's many shortcomings. I predict that even you will return to Master of Orion very quickly.

Windows · by PCGamer77 (3158) · 2009

Trivia

Server shutdown

Malkari was one of the last games released by Interactive Magic before it got out of the game publishing business. As a result of I-Magic's reorganization, the massively multiplayer aspect of the game was nonexistent by March of 2000.

Analytics

MobyPro Early Access

Upgrade to MobyPro to view research rankings!

Identifiers +

  • MobyGames ID: 4224
  • [ Please login / register to view all identifiers ]

Contribute

Are you familiar with this game? Help document and preserve this entry in video game history! If your contribution is approved, you will earn points and be credited as a contributor.

Contributors to this Entry

Game added by PCGamer77.

Additional contributors: Patrick Bregger.

Game added June 4, 2001. Last modified February 22, 2023.