Minesweeper Genius – Review

Developed by Mother Gaia Studio and published by Blowfish Studios, Minesweeper Genius places us in the shoes of Aristotle. A poor janitor kidnapped by aliens to be run through a maze which contains only one exit and a ton of deadly mines. With fields that look like they have escaped from a sudoku playing book, you’ll have to determine which square is safe and which one will blow that tiny butt into smithereens. Want to find out if I survived the brain teasingly fun complexity of this puzzle game, or if my tiny janitor is searching for a good butt donation? Then let’s put on our thinking cap and get ready to dodge some explosive balloons because this is Minesweeper Genius!

What is Good?

• Deceptively easy: Don’t grow to overconfident, because you’ll surely come to regret it! I’ve had it happen to me numerous times where I thought “oh nice I’m on a roll here, I know how these designs are starting to work out” … Yeah, let’s just say I died 2 seconds later… Even if it looks straight forward? Use the flag system to flag the unknown squares that you know houses a bomb. And why? Because the levels change constantly depending on which field boost square you walk on. You might think you will be able to memorize them but trust me… You won’t… After a while everything starts to blend together and you’ll lose the perception of reality if you don’t use those flags! So, don’t let this game trick you! Use them!
• Endless replayability: Each island in the campaign mode consists of 10 levels. After you complete an island, you get an extra one with 5 more levels (later a bit more on these). Your islands start from the letter A, all the way to the M. That’s 130 premade levels, excluding the 5 advanced levels since these aren’t mandatory. But if those weren’t enough? Enter the custom mode. In this mode you can put in the number of tiles you want, how many bombs, how many power-ups and let the game generate your very own map seed. Every time it’ll come up with something new. Raising this game ‘s worth from wow to ‘ITS OVER 9000’. I absolutely love this feature as I can create them as challenging as I want!
• Advanced Levels: So, the advanced levels. These are basically the same levels as you completed on the respective island. Except, grander and more complex. These will stress your mind ‘till no end, just to get you to quit if it’s not working out as fast as you’d want it to be. You’ll have to take your time to finish these with 3 stars, as it’ll take everything that you’ve learned, and put it to maximum use. Restarting these is almost a given if you’re not paying attention and don’t take the time to count each and every tile.

Mixed Feelings

• Moderation required: After doing around 30 levels each sitting, I really was mentally exhausted for a bit. So, you’ll have to slow down your intake if you don’t want to fatigue yourself. I found it quite strange to be this sucked into the game, that it also drained me as it did. So, if you don’t want a headache? Please be sure to take a break now and again as it’ll surely bring you a major one if you’re not careful.
• Same old song: I love the game, but the song that is used… Oh god please change the tune now and again. It’s the same old boring drone, and after a long play session, it really gets so tiresome. Just a different tune or note would be appreciated! Just a small little gripe that rubs me in all the wrong places.
• Restart… Muh: Something you’ll be doing quite often, is restarting the level. But if you’re like me? You’ll be restarting the moment you lose just one star… And let this be a kind of tacky way into getting an easier level. You can literally just keep restarting until you luck into an obvious and easy maze. It would’ve been nice if you’d restart and you’d get a maze with the same kind of complexity in return. Ah well… I guess that’s why the custom mode is a thing, I guess… Still feels like pity, but beggars can’t be choosers!

What is Bad?

• Lack of story: This was such a missed opportunity! You play from the letter A to M, each containing 10 levels, and 5 advanced levels. So, in the content department, there is nothing wrong. But you know that you were kidnapped by Aliens, yet there is no reason the to rhyme. No backstory as to why the Aliens that captured you, keep increasing the difficulty. A little bit of in between dialogue after you defeated level 10, or level 5 from its advanced levels, would have fleshed out the game just that tad bit more. And, yes, I know this might be nitpicking, but at least some backstory wouldn’t have been bad at all! Because this defeats the entire purpose of having a campaign mode in the first place!

Minesweeper Genius – 72/100

Oh Aristotle, you cute little old man! You caused me some headaches… But I also did enjoy your company every step of the way. With solid gameplay and some nice complexity scaling, Minesweeper Genius will conquer your hearts and plant a flag right into your brain. For anyone who enjoyed the classic minesweeper, sudoku or picross, be sure to try this one out! Not only does it give you some amazing challenges, but you’ll also have endless replayability with its random map generator. I can already tell you that I’m not going to uninstall this one in quite a while as this really tickled that puzzle engineer inside my mind! So, to the developers, if you ever decide to make a follow-up? Might want to include some story this time around! Other then that, this is a really nice recommender for those who like a challenge! There you have it guys, my opinion on this cute little game! Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got some advanced levels to sweep up!