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‘Magic Mansion’ Review – Monochrome Monotony

TouchArcade Rating:

If your game is going to be based on an endless principle, it better have a good hook. I’m not thinking narrowly in terms of unlocks, but a fundamental design philosophy that encourages the player to keep chipping away at their high score. A compelling art style and a responsive control scheme help, as endless games are generally great in quick spurts, and not with long marathon sessions.

Nitrome is generally in a class of its own with this, particularly in the freemium circle. They somehow manage to mix up their art style with just about every release, and their approach to each game uniquely fits the mobile space. But with their latest offering of Magic Mansion (Free), a few of their typical pieces of the formula are askew.

magic-mansion-1Magic Mansion‘s intentions make themselves known almost immediately. Like many Nitrome games it brings back memories of a bygone 8-bit era, complete with detailed sprite work that looks like something straight out of a Nintendo project — albeit with its own look and feel.  Magic Mansion dials it a step further too with its monochromatic palette that looks a lot like a Game Boy game. It’s a little more pronounced of course, but if you didn’t grow up with a certain sense of nostalgia locked away in a special part of your brain, you probably won’t have any love for it. Nitrome knows the audience its going for and its commendable in that regard.

You can probably take one look at a screenshot and see that there’s no on-screen inputs, which would lead to the educated guess of “tap controls." Tapping is your only means of input as everything else is handled automatically, though you do have the chance to manipulate where you go as a result. For instance, jumping or bumping into an object will cause you to turn around, just in case you missed a coin pickup or need to avoid an incoming hazard. Beyond that you’ll climb ladders automatically and tap to dodge when you need to.

You’ll have a decent array of stuff to dodge too, because enemies show up with a variety of patterns (including low, mid, and high attacks), there are bullet timings to learn, and spikes to leap over. Blocks also exhibit an interesting wild card effect, where bumping one can reveal either a spike or a coin. It’s a muted risk-reward system in that I tend to avoid every block I can just in case, but when I’m on the verge of earning enough coins for an unlock, I go for it.  The jump timing takes some getting used to, make no mistake, but I found it to be pretty responsive after about an hour of training. Like most Nitrome games, it comes with practice.

magic-mansion-2The ad-supported model has the propensity to push it too far, but I think Nitrome manages to reign it in, and that includes Magic Mansion. If you’re having a really good run you can opt to continue on the spot for in-game currency (simply “coins," without any of the confusion involved with multiple types), or watch a video ad, which serves the same purpose. Dying is easy to do in Magic Mansion since all it takes is one hit, so it’s a little more frustrating than your average runner, but earning the 25 coins you need to get back into the action isn’t insurmountable at all.

Besides the power to buy coins you can pay $2.99 to get rid of ads entirely, and use coins to buy more characters. That’s really it — and like I was saying earlier, there isn’t really a hook involved in any way shape or form to keep people playing. I only kept going because of the visuals, sound effects, and the need to see more of the castle itself — which, while enjoyable enough, isn’t going to do it for most people outside of the most stalwart of retro fans.

At this point you’re better off just playing the incredibly similar yet superior Leap Day (Free). It has all of the same fixins like watching videos to continue and incremental rewards, but just about everything else is more enjoyable. With some tweaking Magic Mansion could get there, especially with its adorable designs, but it’s not there yet.

  • Magic Mansion

    Tap to jump and avoid traps while climbing the challenging levels of the Magic Mansion, in this retro pocket-sized platf…
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