- Gameplay -
There are a total of 221 levels. You are granted infinite attempts to pass each stage, and once a level is completed you automatically advance to the next one. There is no way to selectively replay levels you have already beaten, but after you have finished the entire game you can choose to wipe your profile progress and start over again from level 1.
You can have 5 player profiles active at the same time, so if you have multiple family members who want to play they can each have their own save.
The game starts out with very basic and straightforward match-3 mechanics, but slowly adds in layers upon layers of complexity for a challenging and rewarding experience. Obstacles include move limits, time limits, hex tiles, wooden boxes, chains, colored tiles, boulders, stones, dirt, ore, butterflies, masks, holes, portals, ice blocks, lava tiles, lava boulders, walls, sacks, additional gem types, and conveyor belts. The combinations of these gimmicks alongside an array of non-rectangular board shapes create some really clever puzzles that will make even experienced players sweat.
Completing puzzles takes a mixture of luck, skill, and knowing when to spend your resources and when to save them. Also, sometimes you’ll need to really look at what the end goal of the puzzle is, and work smarter not harder. There are times when the order you destroy blocks in matters, and times when you only need to destroy a fraction of the obstacles in your path. If you are stuck, try approaching with a different strategy, or try restarting the puzzle and hoping for a different randomized gem layout. All of the puzzles are eventually beatable without spending any resources.
As you complete puzzles you will earn coins and stars, and occasionally you will come across marked “hard” levels that give double the coin reward. Coins can be spent to continue a level if you’ve run out of time or moves, and can also be used to buy standard powerups once you’ve unlocked them in the sidebar. Stars upgrade the buildings in your hub area, granting you one-time additional coin and powerup bonuses.
In this version, there are no microtransactions to buy more coins, which I approve of because you shouldn’t waste your real world money just to beat this game faster.
Most of the powerups you can purchase with coins are explosions of increasing radius size, but there is also a magnet that destroys all gems of one type. You can form free powerups on the game board by matching four or more gems, and the high-combo TNT bundles and barrels are more powerful than any of the bombs you can buy. Furthermore, certain levels have special powerups like random scattershot potions and full column or row removal.
Unlike some other match-3 games, you cannot click on or swap two neighboring powerups to combine them into a higher grade powerup.
Excitingly, the game is 100% colorblind friendly. Each gem has a unique shape and symbol in addition to its color, and the butterflies, while a little difficult to tell apart, do have different wing designs.
Some other things of note: the timer in the timed levels does not start until you make your first move, meaning you have a chance to study the board carefully before you begin, and the game will automatically suggest a move if you stay still too long (it may not be the best move available, though).
- Graphics -
Mundus is a windows port of an android game, and that shows through in both the simplistic UI design and in the colorful, cartoony graphics.
The levels are subdivided into four worlds, each with their own themed upgradable hub area and unique level background designs:
1) Tree Land is the starting planet. It draws on a combination of Nordic and indigenous North American imagery and buildings, which are then colonized into medieval and modern day Western architecture.
2) Flower Land is a cute Botanicula-esque world filled with plant-themed inventions and dwellings.
3) Robotics World is a Machinarium-inspired planet populated with industrial machines and imaginative metal creatures.
4) Inca Island starts out with historically themed elements, and then morphs into a hypothetical futuristic Incan city with dinosaurs and airplanes.
While the art certainly shows creativity, and there are some really fun animation loops (I especially like the various rocket ships), these world theme choices make me scratch my head. Half the worlds are surreal and playful anthropomorphism concepts, and the other half are quasi-appropriative of real native cultures. That rubbed me the wrong way, especially when you factor in the exoticism inherent in the plot macguffin and in having a shaman guide.
- Music -
I actually enjoyed the music at first, but after a few hours it starts to grate. A few more hours and it makes play almost intolerable. Eventually I turned the music off completely and just played with sound effects.
The problem is there are only a few short music tracks for the entire game – a couple of high energy South American vocal pieces, one that is atmospheric nature sounds, and one that is just random quiet whistling – and they continually cycle in an endless repeating loop that is more jarring than soothing.
Additionally, the music all sounds like it belongs on Inca Island. It would have been nice if they’d at least attempted to create unique tracks for the other worlds to enhance the atmosphere and sense of place.
- Conclusion -
Mundus truly excels at offering compelling and brainteasing match-3 puzzle challenges, and will provide over 25 hours of solid gameplay. The art, though, while cute and creative, at times borders on being culturally appropriative, and the soundtrack is not long enough or diverse enough for a game of this magnitude.
