Video Game Review: Mokoko X

Developer/Publisher: NAISU

Genre: Puzzle

Reviewed For: Nintendo Switch

Also Available On: PC

Sometimes, a game riding the line of good taste results in something that is simply too lukewarm to be enjoyed. When you think of games like NEKOPARA, they bring a good amount of cuteness, humor and overall tone so that Switch owners don’t care/notice that hardcore pornographic scenes have been removed. Likewise, when you have a game like Fingun, you overlook the very mediocre shooting element because the pixel art is riding a Phil Foglio level of lewdness to make the game engaging for the eye and also a bit funny. Sadly, with a game like Mokoko X, there’s just too much tameness to keep players engaged for very long.

Mokoko X is a truly bizarre puzzle/arcade game in which you need to carve out pictures without being hit by enemy projectiles. So, if I may, imagine an A4 sized piece of paper that you need to cut into smaller sections. However, you can only do the cut in one solid glide: you need to connect from one end of the paper to the other, either from bottom to top, side to side or a combination of those. While trying to make this cut, there’ll be obstacles to dodge around (inanimate things that won’t hurt you) or bouncing objects that have some kind of story-related personality (that will hurt you). If you make the cut successfully, that part of the paper is eliminated and you’re that much closer to hitting the 75% necessary to clear the stage. If one of the bouncing things hits either the little ship you pilot or the line behind you, then your ship explodes, you suffer the loss of life (usually about five losses equals game over), and you need to try the cut again. It’s an incredibly straightforward idea that takes a lot of words to explain, but this is a written review and not a YouTube video, so you see my problem.

The reason I classify Mokoko X as bizarre is a twofold reason. For one, the storylines are actually pretty batshit. In each instance, you first take the “world” that you’re playing in as one of eight girls. The girls each have four stages, and the stages have a shared thematic that progressively get weirder. For example, one girl has a phobia of bugs, so each stage has a bug boss that is trying to smash into your ship. However, instead of just saying “Oh no, look out for that spider!” there’s this shockingly involved backstory for each one. Like one bug was genetically engineered in a lab and now it seeks out human females to ensnare them because it can’t date them. Or another bug is actually just a hallucination brought on by the phobia of bugs, which begs the question of what the hell is going on. Then there’s other things like toys that have come to life, demonically possessed headphones, and items that make little to no sense. It’s got enough weirdness that, if this were a different game, I’d be totally into it, but then the oddity level is hamstrung by the second element.

Mokoko X is openly paying homage to a style of game from the 80s where you needed patience and fast reflexes to carve away pieces of the picture in order to unlock this whole picture. Now, I’m talking about a kind of game from the 80s that was popular in Japan, so naturally I mean something a bit ecchi. Yet I think the developers of Mokoko X wanted to try and stay tasteful while still nodding towards the games of the past, so the result is incredibly middling. Like, the pictures and the characters are cute, I suppose, yet there’s nothing over-the-top that would classify them as really naughty. If you are the kind of person who gets a bit shocked or flushed because someone with large breasts might occasionally bend over to pick up something and flash some cleavage, then good news, this game will get your pulse going! If you’re someone who seems to understand that video games are an open field of possibilities and this barely approaches the PG-13 line, then you might be disappointed. After playing so many eyebrow raising titles on the Switch, Mokoko X barely registered as something a little blue. It’s light green, at best.

Still, the core idea is the gameplay, and Mokoko X can’t seem to find its rhythm in keeping a player engaged. If you’re playing on the high level of difficulty, you end up super frustrated from the very beginning with faster enemy AI and more obstacles to make the connective line harder to attain. Even the easier difficulty makes for a longer amount of invested time, yet the pressure is significantly lessened. The issue is, ultimately, that each world has the same approach. You get one boss that moves in a standard but hard to predict style, one that moves simply but has some kind of weapon (shooting webs, blasting out fire, etc) and a third boss that does a combination of the two. Fourth stage is a huge picture that asks you to face all three bosses and their henchmen at once, with the grand prize being unlocking the full picture of the girl of the world and moving onto the next

I am arguably a little better than most at this approach, since this game was present in Cluefinders 4th Grade Adventure, and I played the hell out of that as a kid (no sexy pictures, thank God). Here, you find out that Mokoko X does have a short forgiveness window where, if your line is long enough, you have milliseconds to complete the form before the shockwave of an enemy collision takes you out. This encourages players to be brazen if they can find the time and also to play it safe if possible. It’s a risk/reward model that tries to bully you into reacting by having a countdown timer when you’re not carving, but the timer is actually quite lenient and lets you line up your shot with plenty of wiggle room. As long as you’re patient and move well, you can get through easy mode from beginning to end without spending more than an hour.

And I suppose that’s the takeaway from Mokoko X. If you’re totally nostalgic for this form of game, then you’ll probably end up playing it a lot in order to recapture those feelings and ideas of your younger days. If, like me, you were busy with pinball and platformers in the 80s, then you have no connection to it and, instead, just see some cutely drawn but tame anime girls, a boppy but bland soundtrack, and some puzzles that are either stupidly hard or just time sinks. It’s not a bad game overall, but it’s not exciting, and I wish there had been something to really engage me by the end. If this is your bag, come and get it while it’s hot. If you’re rather on the fence, wait for a sale and pick it up for a fun afternoon of some of the craziest expositions for a puzzle game ever.