Monument Valley. Are you playing this? You probably should be.
This mobile game from ustwo has been out for a while, but the description of it as a casual puzzler kept me expecting yet another underwhelming freemium click-and-wait game. I missed out on months and months I could be playing Princess Ida on her beautiful puzzle path!
In each level, players are tasked with helping Princess Ida through a strange and gorgeous world towards her goal. Over time, she’ll have friends to help her and obstacles to overcome. Ida’s paths have a dreamlike, Escher quality to them, creating such pretty scenes that iam8bit has art prints based on Monument Valley levels, but they also make perfect sense as gameplay.
There’s a light narrative, mostly revealed in short cutscenes. You play as Princess Ida on a journey of redemption, but to be honest, all I wanted was the game to hurry up with the talking parts so I could go solve more puzzles. New obstacles and unusual new helpers are added over time, and new level packs can be added for more game time.
Monument Valley is an unusual mobile game that works for a short play session or a longer one. I enjoyed solving a puzzle or two while waiting for the train, but the game is engaging enough that I also found myself playing for a much longer time, promising to put it away after just one more level.
The game is available for iOs and Android devices.