Thursday, September 20, 2012

Flash Game Mini Review: Mamono Sweeper


Like Minesweeper?  Like RPGs?  Well here's a combination!

...Sort of.

Mamono Sweeper is an interesting little game that I find myself coming back to again and again.  It takes the basic concept of Minesweeper and mixes things up just enough to make it feel new and different.

For one thing, it's the mines that are colorful, rather than the numbers.
The major difference between Minesweeper and Mamono Sweeper is that the "mines" in the latter are creatures of various strengths.  Rather than marking mines to avoid, you are looking to attack the creatures at your level and defeat them.  If you find a creature that is level 1, and you are level 1, you can safely click on the creature to defeat it.

If you attack a creature that is a higher level than you, you might still defeat it, but you lose some health.  Lose too much health and you die and lose the game.

Numbers on the board, instead of telling you how many mines are nearby, tell you the total value of all the creatures nearby.  So if there are two creatures nearby, but they are both level three, then the number will read 6, instead of simply 2.

As you defeat monsters, you gain experience, and once you have gained enough, you level up with a quick flash, and you can move on to attacking higher level creatures.

Once you have defeated every creature on the board, you win.

While the game could have been created with abstract mines, the different kinds of monsters makes the game feel more rewarding.  You start only being able to easily defeat blue slime monsters, and work your way up to green dragons.  Like an RPG, it makes you feel good each time you level up and can defeat new monsters.

Ultimately, Mamono Sweeper might not be an actual RPG, but it is entertaining enough to replace Minesweeper as a quick anytime game.  If you like Minesweeper, but think it gets old, this game will provide a new challenge.

Mamono Sweeper can be found here.  If you check the description, you can change the difficulty level and size of the board for a new challenge.

Or, if you can read Japanese, the creator's site is here.

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