MONOWAVE - Switch Review

It’s getting a bit harder to find new releases for the original Switch… Is this what getting old feels like? I could cry! Or I could be happy, depending on how I feel about MONOWAVE being brand new and playable on the Switch by the end of this review. Studio BBB’s MONOWAVE reminds me of Super Princess Peach. A 2D platformer where the character uses their emotions to navigate and influence the world around them? It was a great concept then and still is now, so I was excited to give this new puzzle platformer a shot.

The Good

The game follows Mono, a newly born guardian spirit, in a search to return the balance of the four emotions to the land. In his base form Mono is white, but his main colouration changes depending on which emotion he is filled with at the moment. And not just him: most, if not all, other creatures in the game can be influenced by Mono’s emotions, and everyone that can gains a new colour palette and a design change.

It works really well and makes the game look really charming. Most of the character and creature designs feel like they’re made of outlines only, either against a black background or filled in with black, and everything looks like animated chalk drawings on a blackboard in the best way possible, especially with the emotion-coded colours popping against the dark background.

MONOWAVE also feels good to play: responsive movement, tight controls, a good option to observe the surrounding area, and something that I was pleasantly surprised by: a built-in fast forward button in case the regular walking speed just isn’t doing it for you. The button doesn’t skip any gameplay sections; it simply speeds everything up for those that are confident in their abilities to navigate faster.

But honestly, the big draw is the detail of the worldbuilding and the characters in the codex. The game itself has no real dialogue to speak of, leaving explanations of the story and creatures to a very thorough codex that’s available to the player.

Not only is each character registered on the codex upon being interacted with, but they all also have four different entries based on which emotion Mono has influenced them with. This gives every little critter a good deal of personality that covers the emotional spectrum, and makes it very fun to try and complete the codex.

TL;DR

• Charming art style with good use of colours
• Responsive, tight gameplay
• Detailed worldbuilding via fun codex completion

The Bad

Thinking about it, there isn’t much negative I can say, but there is at least one thing. And that may be the most devastating negative in a game, but I don’t say it out of anger.

MONOWAVE is just kind of boring.

Thinking about it, it’s almost a tragedy. MONOWAVE is clearly a game made with care, with lots of attention to detail and good concepts but it’s honestly just not interesting despite all of that. I just did not have fun.

The main problem is that everything is so basic that it’s almost bland after the first exposure. The movement options are basic and sluggish. Every emotion that Mono incorporates gives him a new option, but these are also very minor, like a slightly higher jump when Mono is joyful or melting to squeeze through cracks when sorrowful.

They’ll do the job, but it honestly just wasn’t very interesting to play around with them. There are some small upgrades, but they come way too long after in the game, as they are entirely on the rails of game progression. 

Now, exciting movement wouldn’t be a necessity in a puzzle platformer, but the puzzles themselves also aren’t very interesting. Your mileage may vary, but to me most of them are just very basic and somewhat brain-dead.

The maps seem big and sprawling at first, but each stage isn’t actually an interconnected space; rather, it’s just a handful of environmental puzzles put somewhat close to one another.

It’s just not that good as a puzzle platformer, you know?

The most exciting thing I did in each individual stage was grab some collectable tokens, but they didn't do anything either. They’re used as currency to buy some very, very minor aesthetic accessories for mono and that’s about it.

Before long I just stopped collecting them because there was no point, and playing through the levels had me bored. I didn’t want to spend more time than I had to.

TL;DR

• Generally boring gameplay below the surface.
• Basic movement that quickly becomes bland.
• Easy and uninteresting puzzles.

Final Score: 5/10

I didn’t hate it. It’s not actually bad. But no game should be just plain boring.

MONOWAVE isn’t a bad game thrown together haphazardly with a bunch of bugs, but there’s just nothing below the surface-level gameplay and the (admittedly very neat) aesthetic. Isn’t it a tragedy when you can tell someone was made with care and it still whiffs?

I am still fumbling for anything else to say, and I think that just about sums up MONOWAVE. I wish that I liked it, but this is just the most “Meh. It’s a’ight, I guess.” state of mind a game has ever put me in and there’s just no escaping it. I hope that Studio BBB will put this level of care and polish on something more interesting next time they give it a shot.

Thank you for checking out our MONOWAVE Switch review, thank you to Phoenixx for providing the review code and thank you to our Patreon Backers for their ongoing support:

• Andrew Caluzzi (Inca Studios / Camped Out)
• Bel Cubitt
• Bobby Jack
• Jack Caven
• Nintendo Maniacs
• RedHero