Mina and Michi are a double act operating on a double-edged sword. On the one side, you have two besties solving puzzles in unison; the other, levelling up your motor skills by playing both simultaneously.
It’s effectively a two-player for one person, or, if you’re feeling intimate, you can saddle up next to a fellow human bean and share a controller in a one-player as both are controlled using the left and right sides or the conventional way and use two controllers.
Mina and Michi is the latest release from Eastasiasoft, and in true form, it’s a pick-up and play affair focusing on instant gameplay rather than any irrelevant story arcs. All you need to know is they’re best friends, and my favourite season is Autumn.
Mina And Michi (PS4 Review)
In truth, you’ll work out that they’re BFFs, and the only reason I mention seasons is you get to choose your favourite at the beginning to style up the playing grounds.
Though it’s a low-key retro style, I instantly loved it. The characters are borderline chibi mixed with a bit of pixel art. Neither are my cup of tea, but here it was cute and pleasant on the eye. Don’t tell the fake alpha friends I have at the fake MMA gym I don’t attend. They’d ridicule me, as would my supermodel girlfriend.
But really, it’s cute, as is the chirpy music, but it does get a little monotonous (the tunes, not the game). In short, Mini and Michi looks straight out of 16-bit heaven, and minus the rather innovative split controls, it plays like a retro title too.
Get Ready For The…Switch
There’s no story to the game; the goal is to move from one screen to the next, collecting numerous keys, gems and solving puzzles. The type of puzzles in this top-down adventure involves sliding blocks onto switches to unlock paths.
For the most part, the puzzles are relatively easy, but if you’re not thinking straight, it can be pretty easy to push a block up against a wall, and with no pull function, you either have to kill yourself or leave the area and come back.
Each time you enter a new screen, everything except the keys you’ve collected will respawn. Gems will reappear, hidden in bushes, and enemies will be back to terrorise you.
The latter is an exaggeration as they only target Mina as Michi doesn’t take damage. After a few screens, you will unlock some attacks; Mina’s is ranged, and Michi does a whirlwind melee thing. But once you realise that Michi is essentially invincible, you tend to use the left controls (Mina) solely for getting to a safe point.
Multi-Tasking
As mentioned in the news piece for Mina and Michi, playing two characters simultaneously could pose a nightmare, but it genuinely works well. Naturally, you will make the odd mistake and control the wrong character. Still, you quickly learn a system by sending both characters on independent paths, often in a symmetrical layout at first, making it easier to control.
When fighting a boss, it’s a little more difficult as you have to use both at the same time. However, that little grey area means you put Mina to one side (occasionally sniping from a distance), and Michi, the immortal tank.
A note on immortality, there are upgradeable health points, though these relate to Mina. Irrespective of the hearts she earns, she can still be one-hit, but again, if you use Michi as her bodyguard, it’s perfectly manageable. There are no checkpoints, but autosave is enabled.
For the most part, Mina and Michi is a lot of fun, but it can get frustrating early on not having a pull function. Both characters can push blocks (once they have the ability), but without pulling – i.e. to correct your mistake, you have to force a death or leave the area and repeat. There was a lot of wandering around, too – nothing major, but it wasn’t always clear where to go without a map.
Mina And Michi Review Summary
A fun retro adventure where you can have a co-op with a friend or with yourself. The controls are surprisingly good, and ignoring the odd mistake, feel pretty natural. It’s a shame that you end up relying on Michi most of the time, but all in all, it’s one of the better two-player experiences I’ve had on my own where I didn’t have to alternate controllers.
