- iOS, Android
According to the wayback machine, it’s been over eight months since we’ve posted a review here at Stately Play. Despite this, I still try to convince myself that, somehow, we’re relevant [hahahahahahahahahahahaha -ed.]. It took our German friends at TiNYTOUCHTALES to put an end to our torpor. Last week the developers of such mobile classics as Card Crawl and Card Thief released their latest time waster and it’s a doozy. In fact, Maze Machina might be their best game yet.
Like their previous games, Maze Machina is a classic mobile time waster, capable of interesting, thoughtful play in short bursts. Also like their previous titles, while each run-through only takes a few minutes [or much less if you’re anything like our author -ed.], you will most likely find yourself hitting that Restart button over and over until you realize it’s 2am. Even then, you’ll probably hit the Restart button at least one or two more times.
The premise: You’re a mouse trapped in a diabolical maze under the watchful, malevolent eyes of a skeletal automaton. All you have to do is get through 15 levels of the maze and you escape (and send your tormentor to a self-inflicted mechanical grave). Simple! Except it’s not. It’s the opposite of simple.
Each maze consists of 16 squares and a number of steamwork enemies blocking your path. This is where most developers would have compiled and shipped, but TiNYTOUCHTALES doesn’t work that way. Instead, they add a layer of complexity and strategy in the form of symbols that randomly appear on each of the maze’s tiles. There are 20 different symbols in all and mastering their use while restricting how the automaton enemies use them is the key to finding the way out.
There are simple symbols like the sword or bow that allow you to attack automatons in range, but then there are tricky ones like masks that allow you to switch items with your enemies or teleport across the board. The trick is that, as you move, everything moves with you in the same direction unless blocked or somehow locked down either by the action they’re about to perform or by some effect you’ve managed to thrust upon them. It takes a few sessions to completely wrap your head around how all the symbols function (and, even after dozens of missions I’m still a little fuzzy on how some symbols interact often causing me to end up in a spot I wasn’t expecting).
Even with all the complexity, anyone could figure out how to escape each level given enough time. Thus, they added Stamina which depletes every single move you make only increasing when food is offered every 3rd level. Run out of stamina and you die. Screw up and allow an automaton to affect you with its tile symbol and you die. Accidently blow up the key that you need to collect on each level before you can escape and you die. It’s pretty great.
If you can’t tell, I’m kind of in love with Maze Machina. Not only is the gameplay nearly perfect, but the art design by longtime TiNYTOUCHTALES collaborator, Max Fiedler, is stunning. Everything about it oozes charm and polish that will make you question how the hell they’re selling it for only $2.
Go out and pick it up. Now. This is the kind of gaming that made us fall in love with mobile as a platform and the kind of game that doesn’t show up in the App Store all that often anymore. Let’s make sure TiNYTOUCHTALES can keep developing gems like this for years to come.
Nice! Picked this up a couple days ago, have yet to play it. Looking forward to giving it a try.
Thanks for the review, now purchased!
I did find it confusing at first, doing the 20 levels to “get” all of the equipment before actually beginning the game. I was wondering “how the heck do I know what my stamina is?” and things like that.
Then I kind of figured that this is what they meant by what they said after the tutorial, so I would just wait it out.
Of course, now that I have done all that and am competing in the game, it’s great! Though I don’t understand what Daily is compared to Challenge in the main menu.
Daily mode is a single board per day, which you get one shot at. Pretty standard stuff.
Challenge mode is a mini-tournament mode based on what’s in Pocket Run Pool, but extending that concept to add a ranking scheme to it. Each challenge has the same board, but you can start as many challenges as you want (I think). If I understand the dev’s explanation on Twitter, each challenge ends when time runs out or ten people have attempted it. Your overall rank then goes up or down based on where you placed in that challenge. It’s really cool.
Challenge mode is basically the PRO mode.
It’s exactly as @geigerm explained.
It’s basically a permanent async tournament with ELO ratings that mitigates luck factor in normal mode (sub 160 top scores in normal mode are too luck dependent ).
Daily is just a one shot daily Maze.
I could be wrong, but this might be the first of their games that has cloud saves. Every other game has bade me replay the tutorial when installing on new devices.
Woo! #2 for the Daily
I was #13, died in Room 10.
Congrats!
I’ve finally sat down and given this game some time. Tried my first daily and somehow didn’t even make it out of the first room…whoops!