A Monster's Expedition on Switch is Sunday morning heaven

2 years 8 months ago

I do love coming back to good games. A Monster's Expedition is a wonderful game, and it's wonderful to revisit on the Switch. You have an idea in your head about games like this, which you might not play for many months at a time, and the second go round is always about filling in the gaps.

What I remember about A Monster's Expedition, for instance, is how nice it feels to push down trees: a funny, brisk little shove, a plonk, a thud. But I forgot how good it feels to roll them into place, the little thrum of the harp - or maybe it's piano keys, I'm forgetting already - when you step onto the new island. And the way the surrounding mist teases distant things, windmills, lighthouses, a giant diamond ring? And then rolls back, brain-fog cleared.

What I also remember is the comedy, which is consistently funny in a gentle kind of way, describing strange human objects from a monsters-eye view. And the way the game is purposefully slow, letting you dangle your legs in the water of any island's edge, grab a coffee from the odd machine, and reset your island - which is essential in any good Sokoban game (Sokoban is the old Japanese crate-pushing game that the classic Pokémon boulder puzzles were based on, and also what A Monster's Expedition, and others from developer Draknek, is based on too). But you forget the quickness of it.

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Author
Chris Tapsell

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