{"id":21290,"date":"2021-06-14T00:01:19","date_gmt":"2021-06-14T00:01:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/?p=21290"},"modified":"2021-05-28T01:06:41","modified_gmt":"2021-05-28T01:06:41","slug":"incredible-mandy-ps4-switch-pc-mobile","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/2021\/06\/14\/incredible-mandy-ps4-switch-pc-mobile\/","title":{"rendered":"Incredible Mandy (PS4, Switch, PC, Mobile)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>A brother and sister live in a fantasy world and must solve tricky dungeon puzzles based on their childhood fears.\u00a0 And I\u2019m assuming the sister\u2019s name is Mandy but I\u2019m not really sure as you play as the brother in this one. \u00a0Had I not read the press release before writing this review, I wouldn\u2019t have been able to glean so much information about the story, as it\u2019s not really presented in the game at all.\u00a0 Something about the boy losing his hand in an accident or something?\u00a0 I don\u2019t know.\u00a0 But what I do know is that you play as the boy who wears a metal glove which gives him the power to unsheathe swords of light that you can use to solve puzzles and defeat bosses in Zelda-like 3-D dungeons.\u00a0 It\u2019s available to download on some current consoles, PC, and mobile devices, but reviewed on PS4 here.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ll tackle eight 3-D dungeons that are very similar to ones found in Zelda games.\u00a0 They take about as long to beat, too.\u00a0 Each one has a different theme: Sky Castle, Forest, Lava, Cave, etc.\u00a0 Once you solve one and beat the boss, you\u2019ll go right to the next one.\u00a0 Your boy character moves around in 3-D space and can jump, crouch and crawl, roll, and dash.<\/p>\n

The boy\u2019s main ability is that he can summon a sword of light from his gloved right hand.\u00a0 You\u2019ll mostly use the sword to solve puzzles, like activating switches and stuff.\u00a0 But you can also stick the sword in the ground or wall.\u00a0 After that, you can summon another sword.\u00a0 You can swing the sword on the one already sticking into something, and it\u2019ll explode in a burst of light and acts like a bomb.\u00a0 But if you stick multiple swords into walls or floors and they are near each other, they\u2019ll connect with a line and you can hit one and make a chain reaction of light explosions.\u00a0 You can also summon a bow and arrow of light, but these are only used to hit light swords from far away.\u00a0 This is how you\u2019ll solve most of the puzzles in the game.<\/p>\n

Using your weapons of light requires magic from a meter, but you can refill it limitlessly by approaching a certain kind of butterfly jar which is scattered about the mazes.\u00a0 You also have a life meter but if you have the game set to \u2018casual\u2019 it\u2019s nearly impossible to die.\u00a0 But the game isn\u2019t about staying alive anyway, it\u2019s about solving puzzles.\u00a0 At some point in the dungeons, you\u2019ll come across a robot with stretchy arms who can pull objects toward you and other helpful things.\u00a0 So many of the puzzles involve how to get the robot from place to place.\u00a0 After you finish a dungeon you must face a boss.\u00a0 These are robotic creatures like a dragon or lizard, and they all have an orb inside that you must figure out how to hit.\u00a0 So the bosses are like puzzles, too, similar to Zelda ones.\u00a0 And for some reason, this game makes me think of ICO as well, although I like this game much more.\u00a0 Hidden in the dungeons you may find treasure chests that contain life extenders or even comics explaining the game\u2019s backstory.<\/p>\n

I had a few problems with the game, but luckily they\u2019re all minor ones.\u00a0 I wish the boy character were more nimble and fun to control like Link.\u00a0 I also think they could\u2019ve done a better job explaining some of your moves.\u00a0 I had no idea you could use swords like nails to hold things down or block sliding cubes.\u00a0 Goals aren\u2019t always clear, so I oftentimes had to consult a guide.\u00a0 The game is pretty light on combat, so you\u2019ll mostly be solving block and switch puzzles.\u00a0 I think they could\u2019ve presented the story a little better, and while I usually don\u2019t mind bad graphics, I think they could\u2019ve been better here, too.\u00a0 Everything is very minimalistic and looks like it could\u2019ve been done on a PS2 or even a N64 (your character doesn\u2019t even have a face, which looks unsettling close up).\u00a0 The comics and animated cutscenes look more cartoonish, and I would\u2019ve liked to have seen the game adopt more of that style with cel shaded characters and whatnot.\u00a0 But otherwise, I really liked this game.\u00a0 I think Nintendo should hire the makers of Incredible Mandy to make Zelda dungeons for them.\u00a0 If you miss those kinds of dungeons that were lacking in Breath of the Wild, you may want to try this game.<\/p>\n

HOWEVER, there is one thing that did kind of ruin the game for me, but it\u2019s more of a personal preference thing.\u00a0 One of the levels has a lot of stealth gameplay, and I hate stealth gameplay and don\u2019t like how they handled it here.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Kid Factor:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Incredible Mandy is rated E-10 with an ESRB descriptor of Fantasy Violence.\u00a0 Even though you use a sword, you mostly do so to solve puzzles and hit switches.\u00a0 And even the enemies you defeat mostly look like robots and you just have to hit an orb in them.\u00a0 Reading skill is helpful for some of the text, and younger gamers may find the puzzles too difficult.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A brother and sister live in a fantasy world and must solve tricky dungeon puzzles based on their childhood fears.\u00a0 And I\u2019m assuming the sister\u2019s name is Mandy but I\u2019m not really sure as you play as the brother in this one. \u00a0Had I not read the press release before writing this review, I wouldn\u2019t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":21276,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-game-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21290","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21290"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21290\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21315,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21290\/revisions\/21315"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}