Monochrome Heights Review

Past wars have devastated the world in Monochrome Heights, and once again, it is being threatened by a dangerous enemy named Layla. You play as a robot named Happy, who has phased their way into the first zone of the tower. The PhaseBot who finds you is very surprised and asks if you are X945Z or Goldbot. You obviously aren't, so you aren't considered a threat and are welcomed to Layla's Tower. This helpful bot is PhaseBot Maple, or Maple for short. Maple asks for your assistance in dealing with this threat at the top of the tower. If you talk to the other bots you encounter, you are sure to get advice or tips to help you along your way.

You get to select Happy's responses from three options, so for my choice, I agreed to help Maple with their problem. She told me about the checkpoint consoles that you will need to interact with to set where you will respawn when you die. 

This is where you'll need to climb the tower, as you'll use Happy's phase power to change between black or white with the right shoulder button. When black, you can pass through white phase matter and stand on black, but when you phase to white, you can walk on the white platforms and fall through black. Be careful, if you are on a block of the other colour when you phase, you will die. Besides phasing, Happy can jump, slide, and look up and down with the right thumbstick. You can also hold down the top face button to respawn, which will be used a lot more than you expect.

 The characters and blocks you need to jump on are all black or white. The only colour here is the background behind you. They are all vibrant, creating a good contrast between you and the elements you will interact with. There are cute hand-drawn portraits that pop up in dialogue boxes. Even though the PhaseBots you encounter are basically the same, there are little touches to the pictures and things they say that give them their own personality. The characters are crisp-looking 8-bit sprites which mirror the numerous platforms and blocks you are jumping on as you make your way up the tower.

When you complete the level, you will see your best time for that stage, along with how many items you found out of all the ones hidden. This is helpful for when you want to go back and fully complete the stage, finding all the coins and the cherry that Basil, the PhaseBot, has hidden, as he will give you a special surprise when you find all the ones located in that zone.

It sucks when you miss a jump and fall all the way down, back to ascending on the black and white blocks again… it definitely tests your patience! Though if you fall way lower than the last checkpoint you saved progress at, kill your character, and you will start at that point and not have to make your way through the whole level again.

You don't have a limited number of lives to use; instead, Monochrome Heights keeps track of the number of times that you die. But yay, you can die as many times as it takes to get through the stage, or at least to the next checkpoint.

The controls seem simple enough, but some sections require you to jump, phase, jump, phase, constantly repeating… This can get very tricky, especially when you are programmed to phase every time after you jump. If you stay on autopilot, you screw it up and swap when you shouldn't, messing up your progress. Plus, as you get farther in the game, it feels like it takes a long time to find the next checkpoint. Mistiming one jump, or not jumping high enough before you swap colours can mean that you'll fall or die and stat back at the last checkpoint again.

When jumping up to a different coloured block above you, you have to hit the phase button at the highest point of the jump, or you will be killed. This is one of the hardest things to do. I swore so much, and I lost so many lives in these sections, it's embarrassing. Happy has a small jump and a higher one to use, and these areas test them out.

Some PhaseBots you meet are loyal to Layla, while others feel betrayed and are excited that someone is there to try and take her down. The expression on their face makes it clear who is glad you are there and which ones disapprove of your presence and want you gone. The ones who like you are very helpful and will try to assist you out whenever they can.

The music is high tempo and doesn't get annoying, which is good, because if you are like me, you will hear it over and over again! There is a cute sound effect when you jump and a magical-sounding one when you phase.

Monochrome Heights is an incredibly challenging game that I really like, but damn it makes me angry. There were a few times when I was messing up repeatedly, then I got flustered and kept screwing up. At these points, I just put the controller down and walked away and did something else. Then I went back to it with a clear head, overthinking it never helps! This is a game for people who want to be tested; if you hate games that make you frustrated, it may not be for you. One little section had me waste 43 lives to get past…