The Monty Mole Collection

Genre: Compilation / Platformer

Players: 1

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Review:

The Monty Mole Collection, released in 2023 on Nintendo Switch, is a Compilation containing five games in the Monty Mole series released on multiple platforms from 1984 through 1987, with the most consistent platforms being to be ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64. This isn’t a comprehensive collection (it’s missing Monty is Innocent, Impossamole, and Monty: Revenge of the Mole), but for only $7, perhaps that’s understandable.

Here is what I thought of all of the games in this collection:

Game	Genre	# of Players	Score
Wanted! Monty Mole	Platformer	1	F
tl;dr Nonlinear level design with unclear goals, terrible hit detection, atrocious jumping physics, unforgiving gameplay, bad level design. I honestly cannot see how this game could have spawned a franchise.
Monty on the Run	Platformer	1	D-
tl;dr Take what I said about the first game and add marginally better physics and marginally more forgiving gameplay. However, it is still an absolutely miserable experience.
Auf Wiedersehen Monty	Platformer	1	D-
tl;dr Again, take what I said before and add a marginal improvement. But it’s still very, very bad.
Moley Christmas	Platformer	1	D-
tl;dr This game seems to think the previous games didn’t throw enough unfair challenges at the player and adds an energy meter that kills you within the span of seconds if you don’t… I don’t know, get more fuel or something. Again, this is terrible.
Sam Stoat: Safebreaker	Misc.	1	F
tl;dr I have no idea what’s going on here, and the game has no interest in explaining it to me. It looks like I’m trying to steal… something? Look, I don’t have to understand it to know it’s terrible.

In short… oof, that’s pretty terrible. Not a single game in this collection is one that seems like anything you would want to play for more than a few seconds before pushing it away and never wanting to touch it again.

I suppose I could go on to mention that these games include a rewind feature, save states, screen filters, and some games even offer multiple versions of the game to play (I tried them, they’re all different degrees of terrible).

However, in the end, I simply cannot see why anyone would want this collection. Not a single game here is worth playing, and these games are obscure enough that I doubt there are many players who have nostalgia for them. Perhaps a collector might find an interest in this bundle, but anyone who is actually interested in playing videogames should stay far away from this.

tl;dr – The Monty Mole Collection is a Compilation containing five games from the aforementioned series, and every last one of them is terrible. There are decent features and options here, but did you not see what I just wrote? All of the games here are bad. Move along.

Grade: F

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