{"id":793,"date":"2023-08-15T23:30:59","date_gmt":"2023-08-15T23:30:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ballpeenhammer.com\/?p=793"},"modified":"2025-07-02T19:35:47","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T19:35:47","slug":"molecano-review-i-really-dig-this-hot-word-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.ballpeenhammer.com\/index.php\/2023\/08\/15\/molecano-review-i-really-dig-this-hot-word-game\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Molecano\u2019 Review \u2013 I Really Dig This Hot Word Game"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>What do you mean \u201cyou used up all of your allowable puns in that headline”? Developer Thomas Young gets to make two<\/em> whole games<\/em> full of dad jokes and I only get those two words? Sigh, fine. Let\u2019s talk about that developer\u2019s latest game, Molecano<\/em> (Free)<\/a>, and let\u2019s do it while leaving the groan-worthy word play at the door. Well, not all of the word play. Wouldn\u2019t be able to talk much about this game without discussing that. Oh no, I did it again. Alright, on to the body of the review before I get my bosses any more steamed than they already are.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m quietly a bit of a fan of Thomas Young. Somehow I didn\u2019t really play any of his games until they came to the Switch, but once I had my first taste I knew I had a new developer to follow. The Super Fowlst<\/em> games are tricky in all the right ways. The Dadish Quadrilogy<\/em> (IT\u2019S A WORD!) are rad, cute, and funny platformers that can get devilishly challenging, especially Daily Dadish<\/em>. This fellow makes some cheerful little action games that can make you want to yank your hair out. I guess that\u2019s his deal. But wait, what\u2019s this? His next game isn\u2019t an action game at all? It\u2019s a word game?<\/p>\n

\"\"In hindsight, we should have seen it coming. Those end of level gags in Dadish<\/em> demonstrate that this fellow is something of a wordsmith. So here we are with Molecano<\/em>. Good title. Simple, short, rolls off the tongue. Shows up well in a web search. Makes you want to ask what the deal is. What is<\/em> the deal with that? A mole and a volcano, presumably? Why would they be bedfellows? I must find out. No, I am not trying to stretch things out because a word game doesn\u2019t really have a ton to talk about. Maybe that\u2019s what you\u2019re<\/em> doing, and you\u2019re just projecting.<\/p>\n

Projects! Let me tell you about a project. Molecano<\/em> has over four hundred levels to play, and apparently more are on the way. I trust Thomas Young on that, he\u2019s never been one for idle promises. But even if he never added anything else, four hundred stages is a whole lot of stuff to do. On each of those stages, you\u2019re trying to get your cute mole (or whatever other character you\u2019ve selected) to the foods scattered about. The problem is a classic one we all know too well: the floor is lava. You\u2019ve got some letters down at the bottom of the screen, and they\u2019ll work as well as anything for platforms. But this is a picky volcano, friends. It won\u2019t allow platforms of nonsense. Those platforms have to be proper words. Spell them out, rotate as needed, and create some paths for our hungry hero.<\/p>\n

You only use a set amount of words to solve each stage, though. You also have to connect your words, and Scrabble<\/em> rules apply so you can\u2019t overlap carelessly. Sometimes there are bits blocking longer words, and you have to use at least three letters on each word. You might have to first pick up keys sometimes to unlock other areas of the stage. The interesting hook here is that you really have to consider how long each word is because it\u2019s not always a case where bigger is better. It really depends on the stage layout, where the foods and keys are, and how you want to reach all of that. That said, in the absence of any other factors, longer words are certainly more desirable. Those will earn you coins, and those coins can be exchanged to unlock new characters. Some will be familiar to fans of this developer\u2019s previous works.<\/p>\n

This is all wrapped in a very charming presentation, which is another hallmark of this developer. It\u2019s cute, colorful, and you\u2019d have to be a 1980s Saturday morning cartoon villain to hate how it looks and sounds. Even then, I think Skeletor goes for it. Shredder too. Mumm-Ra, probably not. He was always a bit of a curmudgeon. Cobra Commander yes, Serpentor who cares. Ridiculous<\/em> usurper. The point is that this game\u2019s mechanics aren\u2019t particularly unique but the package they\u2019re delivered in help the game stand out. Throw in the aforementioned bonkers amount of stages to clear, and it\u2019s easy to see why this is worth the fantastic price of\u2026 free<\/em>?<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

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