Monomals

My first reaction to Monomals was confusion, and I mean that as a compliment. You pick one of four animal DJs, Retro Rabbit, Funky Frog, Techno Tiger, or Rocky Rhino, cast a headphone cable into the ocean, and then you control the plug at the end of it. That plug is your character. You swim, dash, dodge spikes, manipulate gravity, and ride jetpack water streams through 28 obstacle-laden underwater stages, all to catch bizarre aquatic creatures called Monomals. Then you take those creatures back to the MonoMaker and use them as instruments to compose your own tracks. It is genuinely one of the strangest genre fusions on the Nintendo Switch, and it earns most of that strangeness. The platforming side is where the game shines brightest. Controls are tighter than the concept suggests, you have a dash for airborne boosts and combat, and each of the 28 stages layers in new gimmicks like gravity flips and bouncing surfaces that keep things from going stale. The difficulty curve is real; some spike sequences will send you back to a checkpoint more than once. Fortunately, checkpoints are generous, so frustration rarely tips into cruelty. Each stage ends in an Arena section built from three parts, two short challenges and a chase sequence, that acts as a boss substitute, and it works well. Collecting hidden tokens for cosmetic boat upgrades and coins to expand your MonoMaker sound library gives returning players plenty to hunt for, and optional time trials are legitimately brutal. The MonoMaker is the wilder half of the equation. Songs are layered from a drum beat, lead instrument, and bass line, with each caught Monomal unlocking new sound options like organ tones or trumpet variants. You can share creations online and compete in weekly charts. The ceiling for what you can build is surprisingly high, but the UI is rough enough that non-musicians will hit walls fast. Compositions are locked to 4/4 time, editing individual notes is fiddly, and there is no in-game reference sheet to remind you of the controls once the tutorial ends. The MonoMaker rewards patience and a musical ear; it will frustrate everyone else. Crucially, you can skip deep engagement with it entirely and just enjoy the action stages, the game does not force you to compose anything beyond a minimum. Visually, Monomals punches well above its indie budget. The animation work on the DJs, the enemy designs, and the level environments is genuinely polished, reviewers have compared the aesthetic energy to Sonic and Splatoon in the same breath, and it tracks. Each world carries its own musical genre theming, and the soundtrack actually adapts dynamically, slowing down when you pass through slime sections, which is a small touch that shows real care. A few stage backgrounds blur together after a while given how much time is spent underwater, but it rarely dulls the overall energy. Monomals is the right game for a specific kind of player: someone who enjoys a tight, gimmick-rich platformer and has at least a passing curiosity about making music. If you only want one half of that, the platforming alone holds up, and the MonoMaker can be treated as a bonus sandbox. If you want the full experience, budget time for the learning curve on both sides.

Alex · Scout Team

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