Mikulogi Mobile App – The Newest in Cute Puzzle Solving Games! (Review)
Hello everyone, Tanudama here! We at VocaSphere were excited to hear about the newest Vocaloid-centered mobile app “Mikulogi”… and so most of us decided to invest in playing it! I’d like to present you with a full overview of the game, with help from our lovely editor (who is way better at this game than me, annoyingly enough).
The app does cost money to download initially, but after that there are no in-game purchases. Until March 31st 2020 there is also a 50%-off commemorative sale, making it ¥120 instead of ¥240.
Right, let’s begin!
The music is rather pleasant when you enter the game, and if you check the “credits” button on the start page, you’ll see that it was created by the producer SuketchP (すけっちP) and it’s called “Last Summer Memories”. The game only uses a fragment of the full song, so I’d definitely recommend listening to the original if you can. There are brief instructions to help you, but I found them pretty confusing, and was raging for a full 10 or so minutes before I figured out how the game works. You can check the instructions by clicking on the small [?] icon in the top right corner.
In the first box, it says that you need to fill in the grid using the hints (numbers) above each column and to the left of each row. I didn’t realise that when there is a gap between the numbers (e.g. “1 1”), it doesn’t mean eleven, it means there needs to be at least one “X” (blank) space between the first coloured box (1) and the second one (1), making “1 [space(s)] 1”.
The aim is to fill in the correct boxes without making any mistakes. As our lovely editor said, “it’s kinda like sudoku”.
By clicking on the cog icon, you get the game settings:
As you can imagine, the top button allows you to make the background music louder or quieter, or turn it off all together. The second one allows you to do the same with the sound effects. The “operation” buttons change the way you play, so if you click the button with the hand, you’re able to slide-select lines of blocks to colour. The grid button to the left of it means that you can choose individual squares more precisely, to avoid choosing the wrong ones. And lastly you can turn the vibrations on or off. By clicking on the “Miku Navi” banner, you’ll be redirected to your app store, where you can download the Miku Navi app – an app which has the lastest news from all of Crypton Future Media’s Vocaloid projects!
Beginning to play
When you enter the game, you’ll see this screen. The first four buttons show the four difficulties: level one has puzzles with images made up of 25 squares altogether, level 2 has 100 per puzzle, and level 3 has 225 (I’ll get onto explaining the joys of the “special levels” later). Level 1 and 2 have 25 stages each, while level 3 has a whopping 100 stages to clear. Even as I write this, I look at all of those future levels in dismay.
As you can see below, there are numbers on the screen, which indicate how many squares need to be coloured. Make sure that you keep both horizontal and vertical lines in mind, since the puzzles can only be completed in one way (from what I’m aware).
Use the pen tool to colour squares (marks made with this tool can’t be erased), and use the grey “X” tool next to it to plot “X” marks around the puzzle where you think there definitely can’t be a coloured square. This second tool is really handy because it helps you narrow down where the coloured boxes will be. If you’re stuck, you can press the orange hints button on the bottom which fills in some squares for you (you can use this button up to 3 times per puzzle). However, if you use any hints, you won’t be able to get all three stars on that stage.
If you complete a row or column successfully, the row/column will be locked in, and you can’t change it. Blank “X” marks are also filled in automatically once you colour the boxes correctly. If you make a mistake, it will be marked with a dark pink “X” mark. Your own plotted “X” marks can be removed by tapping them after they’ve been plotted, if you think you put it in the wrong place.
If you make a mistake, you can click on the cog in the top right hand corner, and press “all reset” to start from scratch.
Once the puzzle is finished, you see a fully coloured rendition of what you made:
You can also share your achievement via social media (the round turquoise icon), and then convey your incredulity of “HOW this is supposed to be a bottle??” to your friends:
…Or you can just press the pink arrow button to return to the stage selection page. Once you’ve completed a puzzle, you get an illustration in the “gallery” section:
Special levels
Okay so now comes the most interesting part! Clicking on the “Special” level button will bring you to a page with 4 grey squares (stages). Clicking on one of these will bring you to… more stages WITHIN the stage.
Complete all the sub-stages to get the final pixel image!
I’ll say that if you like doing puzzle games, this sort of app is definitely up your alley. The music can get a bit tedious after a while, especially since you can’t change it, and the overall concept of the game makes it pretty repetitive since you’re doing the same thing continuously. But despite this, it’s a nice app to have when you need to kill a bit of time, and it even works with no internet, so you can play it anywhere (although without internet, you can’t use the “share your achievements on social media” feature).
It’s sad that they don’t give credit to the artists who created each illustration, but it’s also not terribly expensive, so if you’ve got a bit of money spare, I’d definitely suggest giving it a try!
That’s everything about the app “Mikulogi”! If you play it, I hope that you won’t get quite as angry as I do everytime I mess up! The game is now available on both Android and iOS supported devices, so check the bottom of the article for links to go and buy them!
Thanks for reading!
~Tanudama
** UPDATE ON SEPTEMBER 7 2020 **
It’s actually been announced that a version of Mikulogi for the Nintendo Switch will be coming soon! And in preparation, the team are recruiting people to sumbit entries for a song contest.
>> Find out more here!
** UPDATE ON OCTOBER 27 2020 **
Merchandise for Mikulogi has now been revealed, and is available for reservation now!
>> Find out all about the merch here!
Links
You can download Mikulogi on iOS or Android now!
Official release announcement on the piapro blog
Crypton Future Media
