Monument Valley Is a New Super Mario Galaxy

Monument Valley is a pretty great iOS game that came out not too long ago. If you like impossible objects and M.C. Esher, this is the game for you.

Gameplay-wise, it’s pretty simple. It’s like a point-and-click adventure game, in that you simply tap on where you want Ida to go. If she can get there, she goes; if not, she won’t. You have to step on switches to alter the level architecture, avoid crows that block your path, and use a movable block tower to help you at times.

It reminds me a lot of Super Mario Galaxy in a couple of ways. The obvious one is that Ida can walk on walls and ceilings, just like Mario can in some levels. Some levels in Monument Valley require rotating the stage all 360°, again, like some Galaxy levels.

The other way it reminds me of SMG is that it’s not terribly difficult. With few exceptions, Galaxy is not that hard of a game for anyone who’s not a complete beginner to 3D platform games. It itches your brain in some novel ways, but once you learn its conventions, it’s not overly challenging.

Monument Valley is also fairly easy. The only time I felt stuck to any degree was in an early level where I didn’t realize I could tap and drag a piece of the building to open up a new path. Once I learned to recognize what is movable, it really flowed easily from there. Some parts felt more like a “click to continue cutscene” experience more than playing through a game.

It’s also pretty short. It only has ten levels, some with multiple screens. Combine that with the low difficulty level, and you’ve got a pretty short game. The reviewer at Polygon needed three hours to complete it; I didn't time it, but it took me about one hour, if that. I don’t feel bad about the $4 I spent on it because it’s beautifully designed and forges an interesting path. It leaves me wanting more, but fortunately, more is on the way.

Super Mario Galaxy left me wanting more too. With that one, it had nothing to do with length. It has 120 level variations to complete, and I did it as both Mario and Luigi (their controls are different, so it’s a somewhat different experience). It almost never upped the difficulty though, and I wanted a challenge. Super Mario Galaxy 2 fulfilled that wish, thankfully.

I don’t know if future installments of Monument Valley will be significantly harder. It seems like the game is more about the design and atmosphere than really being a challenge. And that’s fine! It’s OK for some games to be like that. I just hope the difficulty curve ramps up at some point in the future, even if it’s not the next release.

Apple Is One Rule Away From Ruling Console Gaming

Apple is very, very close to being able to just about kill off Ninendo and Sony's gaming console businesses and perhaps Microsoft's too if the media features of the Xbox One don't work as well as advertised. Only one very Apple-y rule will keep it from doing so.

Let's start with something that leaked a while ago (I'm going off the leak so I don't break the Apple Developer NDA). iOS 7 will support game controllers. Some legit images leaked out a while back, so you can see what they're planning. There are going to be three kinds of controllers. One cradles phone-sized iOS devices and has a limited button set: ABXY, two shoulders, a D-pad, and pause. The next cradles a phone-sized device and adds two analog sticks and two more shoulder buttons. The third kind is standalone (the diagram of which appears to have been inspired by the Wii Classic Controller), and it has the same, larger button set as the second one. The standalone controller image shows that up to four controllers can be used at once.

The implications for single-use handheld gaming devices are dire. The Nintendo DS and PlayStation Vita can provide a much wider variety of gaming options than touchscreen phones and tablets can thanks to having buttons. With these cradle controllers, now iOS devices can provide those experiences too on top of everything else they do. Well, they would if not for that rule I mentioned. But that's not all.

Thanks to AirPlay, you will be able to play a traditional controller-based game on iOS while sitting on your couch with the video on the TV. In fact, this setup is like the Wii U, only reversed. The Wii U has a smart box hooked up to the TV with a dumb tablet you hold in your hand:

Whereas Apple's setup has a smart tablet in your hand that connects to a dumb box hooked up to the TV:

The killer aspect for Apple is pricing. The Wii U, even after its upcoming discount, will go for $299, and it's the least expensive console of the new generation. A lot of people will already have iOS devices, or at least they can justify getting one because they can use it for far more than just games. A person who has an iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad can buy into Apple's living room gaming setup for a $99 AppleTV and whatever one controller costs. Even if it's $35 or $40 like a traditional console controller, the combined price still less than half of the Wii U.

There is an immense advantage to buying into this kind of gaming setup. The hardware on iOS devices gets revised about every year. You won't have to wait six to eight years for the Nintendo, Sony, or Microsoft to provide updated specs. Plus, the App Store model makes it far easier for games to get to you and opens up the door for a wealth of third party developers who might never get something on a Wii U, Xbox, or PlayStation due to their barriers. And, again, the console part of it would be "free" to someone already committed to buying iDevices every couple of years anyway for their multitude of non-gaming functions.

Now, the red flag. The fact that there are two different button sets is a bit worrisome for fragmentation reasons, but that's not it. It's that Apple has made a rule that says controllers must be optional. An iOS game must be designed for touch and motion first with the controller only being a bonus add-on.

I know why Apple did this. It's to maintain simplicity for the store. It's also to remove a potential support headache. Apple doesn't want people calling them up asking for refunds when they buy a game and they find out they have to buy a controller in order to play it. Having a game in the App Store that requires a controller just wouldn't do at all.

It also means that Apple won't kill off the other game console makers as quickly as it could have. Think about some traditional handheld or living room console titles, anywhere from Zelda to Smash Bros. to Madden to Halo. They require a boatload of buttons for a reason. Making a game that functions well both with the limitations of touch input and the freedom of buttons is going to be tough, and the categories of games that require controllers will still not be feasible to provide for iOS.

Apple should know this. It knows well the difference between touch input and bucket-o-buttons input. It's why it keeps iOS and OS X separate. Any gamer can tell you that this rule is a bad idea, and people inside Apple should be able to tell you that too.

As far as the living room goes, this strategy makes total sense for Apple. It can make a limited play for living room gaming while not disrupting its plans for the AppleTV. It doesn't have to turn the AppleTV into a full fledged gaming console on top of everything else; an iDevice, a controller, and AirPlay will cover that use case just fine. It can keep selling $99 hockey pucks to people who have no interest in gaming, which makes far more sense as a living room strategy than Microsoft's apparent gambit of wanting to sell $500 Xbox Ones to people who don't play games.

Between controller support and Sprite Kit in iOS 7 and Mavericks, Apple is making a real effort at competing in games this fall. This one rule that controllers must be optional keeps it from being able to take over everything. Between apps that run on either iPhones or iPads but not both and iBooks Author creations that only work on iPads, Apple already has things in its stores that don't work everywhere. I would have thought that a simple modal dialog box saying something like "This game requires a separate controller. Do you want to buy?" might be enough to allow them to have apps that require controllers, but the powers that be chose not to go that route.

As long as that rule exists, there still is room for dedicated gaming hardware. We'll see how long that rule lasts.