Multi Maze 3D

Genre: Arcade

Players: 1

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Review:

WARNING: THIS GAME HEAVILY PUSHES MICROTRANSACTIONS

Multi Maze 3D is an Arcade-style game released in 2021 on mobile devices and then ported to Nintendo Switch in 2024. This game has players spinning around each level, using gravity to get balls to pass through a maze, going through multiplier gates to try to end each maze with as many balls as possible.

The presentation here is extremely simple, using basic 3D shapes for the balls and the levels they move through, with the 3D being so basic that one could easily mistake this game as being in 2D, something that makes it even more strange that this game takes up nearly a half a GB of memory. This is all backed by upbeat but highly repetitive music that gets annoying quickly.

As for the gameplay, the core mechanics here are decent, if a bit simple – just spin the maze left or right to tile the balls in the direction you want, and make smart choices about which combinations of gates will net you the biggest totals at the end. The game even makes it a point to gradually introduce new elements to keep things interesting.

Unfortunately, even with this steady addition of new elements, there’s never anything here especially engaging, with no real skill-based challenges and no puzzles beyond doing simple math – if you have 20 balls, is it better to pass them through a 5x gate or a -10 gate followed by a x20 gate, that sort of thing.

However, the basic gameplay is made worse by bonus abilities that the game strongly encourages you to use to boost your score, and of course naturally these can be bought using real money on the eShop. Gross.

I suppose there’s some enjoyment to be found in Multi Maze 3D, but it’s all so shallow and pointless, and the way the game wants you to fork over more money after buying it is pretty despicable given this game’s colorful and otherwise kid-friendly presentation. There are better simple Arcade games on Nintendo Switch, play one of those games instead.

tl;dr – Multi Maze 3D is an Arcade-style game where players spin around each level to try to get balls through a maze while using multiplier gates to increase their number as much as possible. This game isn’t without its charms, but it’s shallow as a puddle, and the way it pushes you to engage with its microtransactions is disgusting. Skip this one.

Grade: C-

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This game has been nominated for one or more of eShopperReviews 2024 Game Awards:

Winner:

The “Why is this taking so much space on my memory card!?” Award (436MB) – The runners-up this year at least attempt to make something visually-impressive, even if they fail miserably at it and take up way more space than the end result should justify. But Multi Maze 3D doesn’t even have that excuse. Its simple, untextured 3D geometric shapes in front of an empty void looks like the most bland, basic, generic mobile game imaginable. And for this Multi Maze 3D uses a nearly a half a GB of memory? What an absolute waste.

Runner-Up: Worst Monetization / Scam

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