Minesweeper Genius Review

Minesweeper Genius, if it wasn’t already apparent from the title, draws inspiration from the classic game of years gone by. I don’t know about you, but I plugged quite a chunk of time into Minesweeper throughout my younger years; be it at school or at home. It was as basic as a puzzle game can get, but oh-so addictive. Minesweeper Genius stays inline with the core concept, but brings with it a few neat twists to spice things up a bit. The end result makes for a worthy addition that, although fairly straightforward, is pretty hard to pass on by.

There’s a story present, for whatever reason, but you can indeed enjoy this in its entirety without paying it much attention. The game throws you into the role of Aristotle, a proclaimed genius that’s attempting to escape alien experiments. Now, in order to do that, Aristotle must work his way through a collection of progressively difficult levels. Booting up the game takes you to a clean menu interface. Here, you can enjoy the campaign, tweak a couple of settings, or setup a custom match. The latter is very easy to get to grips with.

Custom levels allow you to adjust the height and width of you grid, as well as enabling you to cater how many moves and bombs you have within. You’re also free to toy around with the special blocks (more on that shortly) that you can add in. So far, so simple. The game’s campaign is where the meat of the matter rests, however. The campaign is split into several alphabetical sections; ranging A through to M, with each section housing a number of levels to take to. There’s also a few advanced sections that branch off from the main sections.

Starting out, everything is locked down. You’ll need to successfully complete each section, level by level, in order to access the next. Should you want to try out the advanced levels of any given section, you’ll need to earn three starts on each and every level in the main section first. Stars are awarded based on how many times you die. So, if you complete a level without any deaths, you’ll be rewarded three starts. If, on the other hand, you die, you’ll lose a star. If you die three times, you’ll indeed need to restart the level that you died on.

There’s a kicker here. If you wipe out and restart a level, it will be randomly generated upon your return. This ensures that you cant look at a cheeky guide, or, learn from your mistakes and simply retrace your footsteps to then take another route. The crux of play is simple by structure. You’ll guide Aristotle through these levels, section by section, until you hit the end game. Sounds easy, right? Wrong. Minesweeper Genius is surprisingly challenging once you get further into the experience at hand. That being said, it has quite a solid difficulty curve.

The game does a good job at feeding you into the basics, and thanks to how simple its controls are, it’s very accessible. The game’s levels take place on tiled grids, in which a specific number of bombs are hidden underneath the tiles. Should you step on a tile that has a bomb hidden underneath it, you’ll die. Movement is achieved through the use of the D-Pad. Much like the classic, you’re free to place a select amount of flags down on tiles of your choice, if for anything, to keep track of where you believe the bombs are hidden.

The grids do change size in both height and width, starting out small, and eventually growing out as progression is made. Running the height and width of each grid rests two rows of numbered bulbs. The numbered bulbs the run the width of the grid tells you how many bombs are present within each column, whereas the bulbs that run the height of the grid, informs you as to how many bombs are present in each row. Using some observation and perception, you’ll soon summarize exactly where the bombs are on each and every grid.

Once you’ve sussed their placements out, you can either make a dash for the exit portal, or place flags down beforehand to ensure that you don’t lose your footing. There’s one golden rule to be mindful of. Aristotle can not backtrack, and he can only move in four directions; up, down, left, and right. That, however, is every bit as helpful as it is impeding. You see, when you move Aristotle, the tile that he has stepped from will glow white, allowing you to keep track of which tiles you have charted, and eventually, each grid begins to clear up.

The game always tends to give you some help to begin with, which if you follow the thread, you’ll soon form an idea as to where safety and danger rests. For example, should you start on a grid that’s four-by-four, one number on the bulb will typically tell you that there are four bombs on a single row. Once you place your flags on each of that row’s tiles, you can then look at the other numbered bulbs and begin to make heads and tails of it all. Granted, That’s a basic example, but it gives you an idea as to what you can expect from the game.

Once you get further in, the game starts throwing some basic, yet very effective mechanics your way. Soon, you’ll come across numbered radial indicators. These helpful additions take up a tile, but also relay to you how many bombs sit in their immediate vicinity. This, alongside the bulbs, comes in very handy later on when you’re tasked with the much bigger grids. Then, there’s the game’s few interactive tiles that are introduced quite early on. These all function in a similar fashion, but do indeed do a good job at spicing things up for you.

These tiles, once stepped on, will trigger specific events; such as throwing Aristotle a few tiles over, or, swapping out rows and columns with other rows and columns. When these are interacted with, the bulbs that run the height and width of the grids will alter accordingly, ensuring that you’re always kept in the loop. That pretty much sums up the game’s foundation. It’s a short yet fun puzzler. Nothing more, and nothing less. If you’re here for achievements, you’re in for a tough ride. The game houses some devious ones.

Take, for instance, beating a tougher level without allowing Aristotle to fall asleep – which he’ll do after a few seconds of inactivity, or, perfectly placing your flags on an advanced level. There’s some easy ones, mind, including a few that are tied to how many times you die. I do have some gripes with the game. Whilst it’s a very clean experience as far as its visuals go, it would have been nice to see more variety. Instead, you’re tethered to a samey-samey presentation throughout, complete with a soundtrack that doesn’t really hit the right notes.

Conclusion

Whilst it would have benefited from some variation as far as its visual design is concerned, it’s easy to like Minesweeper Genius for its relatively straightforward and challenging structure. The game takes the classic Minesweeper formula and introduces some simple yet effective mechanics, which goes hand in glove with its randomly generated content. The end result makes for an experience that’s both fun and gratifying throughout.

This game was tested and reviewed on Xbox One. All of the opinions and insights here are subject to that version.