Molecats

Genre: Puzzle

Players: 1

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Review:

Molecats is a family-friendly Puzzle game where players interact indirectly with half-mole, half-cat creatures in caves and try to guide them towards an exit while collecting mushrooms. This game was released on Xbox One and Nintendo Switch in 2019.

The presentation here is interesting, with somewhat clumsily-designed 2D characters walking through what seems to be a 2D maze, but is actually 3D, giving each of the caves a level of depth to their look, despite their design being otherwise simple. It’s a nice little touch, though nothing truly extraordinary. These mostly simple visuals are paired with an unusual soundtrack that combines acoustic guitar with what seems like oddly-dubbed vocals, resulting in something that definitely makes this game stand out, even though it’s nothing I would point to as truly remarkable. Overall, I’d say the audiovisual presentation here does a good job accentuating the odd nature of its central characters.

As unique and interesting as the visuals and music are, I’m afraid I can’t say the same for the gameplay, which is slowly-paced and only allows players to indirectly interact with its characters, and then only in a limited fashion. Players can spin some (not all) rooms of the cave at 90-degree angles, they can direct all of the awakened molecats to run, they can speed up the gameplay, and make a few other interactions, but that’s about it. There’s nothing inherently wrong or broken about it, but it’s simply not very engaging. You’re basically spinning a room, waiting, maybe spinning another room, waiting, perhaps making the molecats run past a door or switch, waiting some more… waiting waiting waiting…

Molecats does support touchscreen controls, but outside of freely moving the camera around, I found these controls to be unreliable enough that I preferred sticking to the traditional gamepad controls, which worked well enough.

In the end, while Molecats has a charming presentation, the gameplay is so simple and slow-paced that it’s hard for me to give this game a full-hearted recommendation. If you’re looking for something simple and somewhat slow-paced, you may enjoy this game, but there are far better Puzzle Game experiences to be had on the Nintendo Switch.

tl;dr – Molecats is a family-friendly Puzzle game where you guide creatures through caves to an exit by spinning rooms around. While this game has a decent and interesting presentation, the gameplay is slow-paced and gives the player only a limited ability to interact with the creatures or their environment. Not a terrible Puzzle game, but you have better options on the Nintendo Switch.

Grade: C-

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