Mole Maiden Review
By Thom Stone on GameCritics.com
HIGH Charming. Nostalgic aesthetic, fresh mechanics.
LOW Rookie mistakes. Uninspired combat, stale boss fights.
WTF Did they really need to make that dude’s butt jiggle sound like that?
When I first saw the email from Tastie Games with “bossavania” in the subject line, I tilted my head in puzzlement and was curious to know what that meant exactly, so I took a look.
The press release included stills, accolades and a brief description of the new genre, stating “It combines the strategic, puzzle-like boss fights of games like Punch-Out!! with the freedom and exploration of a metroidvania.”
While there aren’t quite enough novel ideas to say that it truly did establish a new genre, the devs clearly put a lot of love into it, and I enjoyed many aspects of their work.
The premise is centered around a girl who belongs to an underground-dwelling society and must endure a rite of passage which involves collecting medals from four area captains. Along the way she’ll encounter a plethora of curious life forms in different biomes and a colorful cast of idiosyncratic NPCs with authentic humor.
Tonally, it seems cheery, but underneath the charming retro aesthetics and upbeat chiptune soundtrack lies a darker social commentary regarding the reason why her people are living underground — they don’t have much of a choice, if there ever was a choice, and this situation is explained by unearthing intriguing lore nuggets that help fill in the blanks.
Gameplay-wise, I found Mole Maiden to be engaging thanks to tight controls and a novel approach to platforming. While some abilities and powerups will be familiar to platforming fans, its drilling mechanic is the most unique, as it allows the player to reach new areas by digging, flying around and leaving bombs in their wake.
There’s a bit of a learning curve to controlling it effectively, but once the player gets the hang of it, drilling through a section of sand or rock and then launching into another is a blast, especially as the level design becomes more elaborate and offers more opportunities to reach a previously-inaccessible upgrade or rare item.
I also liked how the devs tied this drilling to health — attacking hostile NPCs loads the player’s drill with fuel, which they can then use to replenish their life. However, while this reward mechanic worked for me, Mole Maiden‘s combat, as a whole, lost its charm quickly.
While it’s possible there were some abilities or powerups I hadn’t yet unlocked, most of my time in combat amounted to little more than dodging and mashing the attack button — and for a self-proclaimed “bossavania,” the bosses of Mole Maiden feel gimmicky and ultimately underwhelming.
During my first boss fight, I was frustrated by the sluggish pace as I exchanged blows with the enormous butt-jiggling King B. who I defeated simply by getting behind him and wailing on his rear end over and over until he had a tantrum, and then I would get out of the away until he was finished — wash, rinse and repeat.
Maybe I’ve played too many soulslikes, but I found the movesets of every boss or miniboss that I faced so predictable and easy to telegraph that I barely felt any satisfaction when I won and progressed to the next area.
I was also disappointed to find that the devs structured things so that there was a linear order to what bosses and areas needed to be cleared before advancing — although that’s essentially consistent with traditional metroidvanias, games like Hollow Knight have shaken up the formula in that they adopted a more open approach so that there are multiple avenues to acquiring different powerups needed to advance.
Finally, there were a few glitches that weren’t gamebreaking, but did feel a bit amateurish. The most glaring oversight that I came across early on was the “thank you for playing” message from the developer which appeared mid-boss fight and caused me to die.
I assume it exists because a demo version would let the player try for a certain amount of time before it triggered the message, but I was playing the full version of the game. Or maybe they kept it in intentionally? Either way, they shot themselves in the foot, as a message shouldn’t pop up and cause the player to be defeated because their view is obstructed.
Other glitches were fairly commonplace, like various camera issues, and there was one recurring miniboss who would sometimes start sliding across the screen and get stuck attacking into a corner, making it cake for me to beat him.
Some glitches were just plain weird, like the occasional sound effect that would sometimes linger following a defeat. Most memorably, it happened with the first boss whose squishy butt-jiggling sound effect persisted even after the screen faded to black.
Maybe after the devs squash the bugs and make a few other changes I’ll want to come back and dig some more, but in its current state, Mole Maiden doesn’t feel like it’s quite ready to surface.
Rating: 6 out of 10
