Game Review #406: Mochi Mochi Boy (Nintendo Switch)

Reviewer: Steven Green

Developer: Pixelteriyaki

Publisher: Ratalaika Games

Category: Puzzle

Release Date: 07.19.2019

Price (at time of review): $4.99

Buy Mochi Mochi Boy from the Nintendo Switch eShop here.

Puzzle Slimes

Mochi Mochi Boy is a puzzle game that oozes Game Boy charm. In the game you are trying to rescue your slime friends from the devil and in order to do this you will cover up each stage with your entire body. Yes, that is how saving people works. Play through this simple title and enjoy yourself as you complete an interesting take on the puzzle genre.

Devilish Problems

As is common in puzzle titles you don’t have a lot of story to work with, and sometimes it is quite nonsensical. This is also the case with Mochi Mochi Boy. As I mentioned, you are a yellow, snakelike character who is friends with some cute, bouncing slime buddies. Until one day these little friends are taken by the devil to his tower. You are covering each tile of each floor of his tower in order to progress to where you can regain your friends and get back to your life of serenity.

Simplicity Abounds

The gameplay for this title is super simple. You are presented a floor and have to cover it with your body. You cannot move over a space more than once as you cannot backtrack over your body, Thus, you have to find a way to cover the whole floor in one straight line. Twisting and turning your way around log obstacles and through various sized floors you just have the goal of covering the whole space with yellow.

Collectible Pals

There are also chests that pop up on each floor containing one of your slime friends. You have to grab those chests as you complete the level in order to get all of your friends back. This isn’t actually an additional mechanic, or anything that really adds to the title as you just have to touch the chest to open it and you have to do that to complete the floor as it is, but hey, you get a cute little slime sprite that pops up when you do grab the chest so it is worth it. These friends can be viewed in the gallery as you progress through the game.

If yellow isn’t really what you fancy to look at through all these levels you do have to ability to customize your character’s color. This is particularly important as the color you choose will be the one you have to be willing to stare at for quite some time, as the game is basically a weird take on a painting simulator where you are just covering the whole screen in your color of choice.

Easy Going

The game is a fairly easy puzzle game, as usually just taking rotations through the level gets you to completion, and each stage can be completed in multiple different ways. The easy difficulty ramps up as you continue through the story mode with the addition of more obstacles to pass around, and the ability to move from one side of the screen through to the other, but really if you are proficient at puzzle or strategy games this isn’t one that is going to make you go mad with frustration.

The length of the game is actually pretty decent as well. You have 130+ floors to get through in the story mode, and you also have a dungeon mode that randomly generates floor for you. Early floors can be completed very quickly, but some take some time, and the amount of content here is pretty good for a puzzle game at this price point.

Movement Mess

One downside I found to this title was the movement system. This is extra disappointing as that is literally all you do in this one, but the way they have this setup isn’t very user friendly. You can use either the joystick or directional pad, however when you move in a direction you only move one space. Holding in a direction doesn’t make you continue forward. This is fine in levels that are littered with objects as you have a lot of directional changes anyway, but the ability to hold it would have been nice for the levels that are very open and easy as you have to spam the directions over and over to get to completion.

Cool View

The aesthetic and art direction used scream something from the Game Boy era, as the game utilizes very basic sprite work. Bright coloration and easy to understand differentiation between squares make for something that has a childlike tone to it, and really adds to the simplicity throughout in this game.

In closing…

Mochi Mochi Boy is one of the easier puzzle games I have played through in my time, and the lack of a good movement system in a game where all you do is move is something I found off-putting. With all of that said, it is a fun little game that I can recommend to anyone who just wants something to play through of the puzzle variety. Not something that will cause a surge through the genre, but not something that is offensive by any means.