Game: Millie
Genre: Puzzle, Application
System: Nintendo Switch (also on Steam)
Developer | Publisher: Forever Entertainment
Age Rating: US E | EU 3+
Price: USD $4.99 | UK £4.49 | EU €4,99
Release Date: February 15th 2018
Review code used with many thanks to Forever Entertainment
The Millipede that Wants to Fly
Millie is a millipede (cute, huh!) that wants to fly more than anything. She hears that the local flying school is allowing people to take courses to learn to fly and so she sets off on her adventure to achieve her dream. This puzzle game documents her many treacherous journeys on the way to flight school.
Mix of Classic Games
Millie merges two classic arcade games together to create the puzzles in the game: Pac-Man and Snake. Similar to Pac-Man, you rush around the levels trying to eat all of the blue and brown bubbles and collect pairs of shoes. To be able to go in the millipede hole and end the level, you have to eat a certain number of bubbles which are listed on the top right of the screen. Unlike Pac-Man, though, there are no baddies to avoid. There is a Snake-like twist, though. If you had one of those old Nokia cellphones, you know exactly the game that I am talking about but if you didn’t, you move a snake around the screen to eat different items and the snake grows as you eat. If the snake head hits any part of its body, it’s game over. The same thing happens in Millie: as you eat the bubbles, you grow new body segments and if you hit any part of your body, you lose.
Mission Impossible
At the risk of sounding arrogant… I am pretty decent at puzzle games, in my opinion, however, I found Millie to be almost downright impossible. There are no written instructions on how to play. I spent basically all of my power-ups in the beginning of the levels because I had no idea what they were or what they did, which meant that when I had finally figured out what most of them did, I no longer had them available. I have no clue how the levels are scored nor could I figure out how to increase the number of stars I received on each level because there is nothing that indicates any kind of goal. When it comes to the special dreaming levels, I am even more clueless about them and I could never figure out how to get any kind of stars on the level despite completing the games.
Besides the lack of instructions, the difficulty of the game itself is just as hard. The description on the eShop calls Millie “a joyful, casual puzzle game” but let me tell you, that is far from accurate. It is rage inducing, blood pressure rising, and the exact opposite of joyful. This game will definitely kill some time for you because you will probably end up spending three hours on a level trying to beat it. I am convinced that some of these levels are impossible to beat. There is an option to switch to “easy” level of difficulty but I did not notice any real changes in terms of the difficulty. The only thing that I did notice on the easy level is that it grays out the shoes and stars that you did earn on the level.
The Positives
For all of Millie‘s faults, it is seriously a cute game. The hand drawn pictures are adorable. The concept is super sweet as well, down to the collecting of shoes on the levels for Millie’s growing body. I also really like how you can use the stars that you have earned on the levels to purchase power-up bundles in the game’s store. There’s no need for real money to buy anything in the game!
Overall Thoughts
With how cute Millie is, I really wanted to like this game. The concept is super neat and it had the potential to be a great game. However, with the lack of any clear instructions and the extremely difficult levels, I did not receive anything joyful from this game. The game left me frustrated, confused, and discouraged.
Final Verdict: I’m Not Sure
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