Developed by Digital Melody, and published by Forever Entertainment, Masky is now available on the Nintendo Switch.
Masky is a charming little game, that is incredibly simple in its premise and gameplay. You are a guest at a grand costume ball, and you move from side to side, inviting other guests to dance with you.
But the dancing is a balancing act. As you invite more dancers to join you, you begin to lean towards the side, requiring you to move against the grain – but not too far! If you fall over, it’s game over.
Dancers come in different shapes and sizes, with each adding different weight to the side they are on. As dancers join in, they gain a mask, but some of them have red masks, which cause special effects. These effects can’t be predicted, and vary from harmful to beneficial. They can knock off dancers from the line, making it easier to move from side to side. On the flip side, they can turn the screen upside down, making it difficult to judge which way to go. Getting another dancer stops the effect, thankfully.
Every 10 dancers that join the conga line causes doors to be available, through which you can travel and dance in another room.
The graphics are simple and delightful, consisting of simple line art showing the theme of the room, and the masks adding a bright contrast to the background. The music is charmingly haunting, and isn’t too intrusive. As you get better at balancing your dancers, you unlock more masks to start play with, adding a desire to play more to unlock each mask, and enjoy the music associated with them.
With coming to the Switch, a new aspect to the gameplay has been added. By opting into the ‘accelerometer’ option, you can use the switch itself to balance your dancers, turning it from side to side. This option is also available for the versus-mode, allowing players to turn the joy-con to move their dancers. When playing versus-mode, there has to be 4 players. If you only have one set of joy-cons, or just want to play with less than 4, the rest of the slots are taken up by bots. As such, if you’re opting to play multiplayer, I would recommend connecting the Switch to a larger screen, as it can be tough to see your balance bar in a quarter of a Switch screen.
A simple game that is both a fun distraction solo, and an interesting multiplayer, this charming game, with its simple play and design, is worth picking up.
