Fun, yet flawed. – Tomb of the Mask Review

A fun and thrilling game. Fast paced, creative, but something new. Its disposable style of gameplay is the main reason people don't despise its design, and to be fair, it was a good call in terms of mechanics. The issues begin with clarity. Random color levels can been orange, so you spot blue hazards easily, red, or even as far as a darker blue that shifts to nearly the same light blue on hazards. Some are constantly bright colors, some flash to bright and back, and most of the sprites aren't as standout as most retro titles. For a game that wants you to think fast, you have to spend an awful amount of time stopping and double checking the game's lack of legibility. Second complaint is the rng. Trying to stay positive, 99% of the time you're fine, but every once in a while you're tossed something the forcibly eats almost all your time, then followed by more time eating bits. See bulletin 3 for why you can't win, and why you just feel like you saw "game over" in an abstract form. Thirdly, controls are trash. More difficulty = more speed needed = more mistakes made. Swipe with no button options means you can swipe up and go right, or even swipe up and go down. Double tap can trigger and waste shields (or shield fails to activate readily) because it's cramming 5 controls into one input, and fails to read tap vs swipe. This is further accented by the fact that, strangely, many rng pieces have hazards you have zero reason to run into, except if your controls just failed you. Not a bad title, but man, these 3 points make trying to excel in skill and advancement has a finite wall. The further you push, the harder these flaws stand out, and that's a real shame.
Review by YCCCM7 on Tomb of the Mask.