Game Review: Turn to Mine

By Al

Players: 1
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, XBox, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5

When I first saw preview images for the game Turn to Mine, my mind immediately went to Minesweeper. I mainly found myself thinking about the fact that, try as I might, I never understood how Minesweeper was meant to be played. Though Turn to Mine turned out to have nothing in common with that PC classic, it's still the puzzle game that we're going to be looking at today. It's set to arrive on all major consoles soon by way of publisher Sometimes You, and we're going to be checking out the Nintendo Switch in particular. This is going to be a somewhat quick one, so let's dive right in!

Turn to Mine actually does have something of a story within its Campaign Mode, but I don't know how much of it is worth mentioning. You take on the role of a mining apprentice, and the mining machines that you see in each of the levels are apparently operated by you and your boss. Your boss is a rather over-the-top villain type who seems to care very little about his duties as a miner. He does care about his own safety when he's in danger though, and he'll be sure to yell at you whenever you (read: he) messes up. Occasionally HIS boss will chime and put an end to his nonsense, but he'll be back on his bs within a stage or two. It's honestly not really worth mentioning beyond that, and I eventually found myself skipping the dialogue sequences in the second half of the game. They really are just a distraction to explain away the gameplay, and the writing itself is all over the place. Though I appreciate it whenever developers attempt to place a story into something like a puzzle game, I don't see why they bother when it's as slapped together as Turn to Mine's narrative is. I guess story doesn't really matter in a game like this, so let's move on to discussing what actually does. In case you don't get what I'm hinting at, we're going to discuss gameplay next.

At its core, Turn to Mine is a puzzle game with two level types in to play. The first sees you control your mining unit by clicking both it and its destination to get it to move, and the second has you influence a wandering unit's movements by flipping squares over until you corral them into the direction you want them to go. The meta is that the latter level type is that said mining unit is being controlled by that jerk of a boss I mentioned earlier, but that's not really important. No matter which type of level you get, your main goal is to collect every crystal on the screen. Enemy drones of all types, and broken tiles no mining unit can cross, will block your path. One hit means death, and you'll have to restart a level from the beginning if an enemy drone takes you out. Most drones are stationary, and can be taken out by flipping over the square they're on, but doing this requires energy that you usually get from the crystals you need to beat the levels themselves. This same square flipping mechanic is what you also use to guide the wandering units by blocking the areas you don't want them to go in. Not all of the enemy drones are stationary though, as some move around the screen in set patterns, and others can even fire projectiles at you. Timing, skill, and luck are often needed to clear out most levels, but the gameplay is surprisingly intuitive considering how wild the story is. The main Campaign has over 50 puzzles of increasing difficulty to try out, but there are also Challenge and Endless Modes that you can take on also. Endless Mode even has something of a seed creation code thing to it, meaning that there are countless variations you can potentially play through.

There really isn't much else to say about the game. Later levels throw all sorts of gameplay mixes at you, and you'll usually have to take control of both types of mining units within a single puzzle. It's these levels that I feel play the strangest, as the control scheme doesn't seem set up with them in mind. That's odd of course since they make up a sizable chunk of the game, but I found that I died in them far more often from fumbling around with the game's controls than anything else. Turn to Mine shines best when it’s focusing on one thing, and the cracks really show when it attempts something that breaks from the norm. It's not a hard game though, and you'll clear some levels in a matter of seconds. Many times I'd go into a level that was wall-to-wall nonsense, only to find that the solution was starting me right in the face. It's almost as if not a lot of thought was given in the puzzle designs, or if the random generator used in the Endless Mode was used to create all the other levels too. Nothing in Turn to Mine stands out as horribly bad, but I find it hard to say anything overly good about it either.

Even though I had fun with the game for the most part, I have to admit that its visuals and music didn't really add to the overall experience. The cutscene graphics consist of two characters yelling at each other in text, and the gameplay looks like Minesweeper on steroids. Everything is simple and plain, and the fact that you can take you cursor out of the field of play reflects the overall lack of polish. The music is rather generic, even though the game's eShop description mentions several names that worked on it. Then again they also referenced the character designer, so maybe that was just a way to give credit rather than to draw attention to particularly impressive presentation. I don't want to make it sound like the music was particularly horrendous, it just doesn't stand out much, and there are times where it doesn't even seem to match the game it's in.

At the end of the day, Turn to Mine is a rather simple puzzle game that you can beat in 2-4 hours depending on skill. Some levels fly by, and some feel randomly unfair, but you'll get through most of it if you just stick to it. There weren't many times where I truly felt stuck, and I guess there's something to be said about that. With that in mind, it's all rather forgettable, and I doubt I'll pick it up again after this review is finished. Normally I'd still give a game like this a soft recommendation at the very least, but its current $9.99 price tag feels a bit too high given the game that it's attached to. I know the Endless Mode technically offers far more gameplay than the limited Campaign and Challenge Modes do, but you can pick up puzzle games that are far better than this one for that same price point. This is a $4.99 game doubled for no reason that I can see, and I don't recommend getting it unless you can grab it on sale. Even then, it's best to set your expectations accordingly so you're not disappointed. See you in the next one.

Check Out Turn to Mine on Nintendo Switch:
https://www.nintendo.com/us/store/products/turn-to-mine-switch/

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Story: C
Gameplay: B
Graphics: C
Music/Sound: C
Value: C

Overall: C+

Pros:
+ A decent puzzle game that has far more variety than it lets on in the beginning.
+ The combination of the Campaign, Challenge Mode, and Endless Mode, mean that you'll be playing this one for a while.
+ There are times when the dialogue in the Story Mode is just so wild that it becomes entertaining.
+ Playing around with the Endless Mode is rather fun, even if it's not as fulfilling as the other two modes.

Cons:
- The actual narrative in the Campaign feels tacked on.
- Features rather generic music and visuals throughout.
- Level difficulty and design are all over the place.
- It's current $9.99 price tag feels quite high considering the amount of content the game offers, and its overall quality.

A copy of this game was provided to us free-of-charge by the publisher for the purpose of this review. This did not affect our review in any way.

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