When playing through video games, it can be important to keep your emotions in check. It’s normal to get nervous when playing a horror game, but if you don’t break through the fear you’ll never make it to the end. It’s easy to get angry at multiplayer games, and if you can no longer see the joy and excitement in what you’re playing then it’s probably time to put the controller down. Sometimes a game is just tragic, and you’ll need to cope with some sadness in a story to see it through. MONOWAVE takes it one step further though, by creating a puzzle platformer all about emotions.
You play as the adorable Mono is this gorgeous line drawn world. This newly born guardian spirit is in charge of protecting the four emotions, and your job is made much harder when the emotion shards are spread across the land. Now it’s up to you to collect them, while surviving all the animals with messed up mental states who might try and stop you. It’s a set up that’s mainly there to give a reason to all the coloured creatures you’ll encounter, and does the job perfectly.
When Mono is emotionless they’re a pretty basic platforming protagonist, with the ability to move, jump, and not a lot more than that. By touching various plants of the four colour coded emotions though you’ll absorb that emotion and gain new skills. You can use these to solve problems and reach new places, which is immediately engaging.
Joyous yellow makes you happy, and able to jump for joy much higher than normal. Nervous green makes you more cautious, and because of this you can carefully walk across spikes. Red anger fills you with rage, and you can bounce up walls with the sheer power of this fiery emotion. Finally there’s blue sadness, which is just so overwhelming that it turns you into a soggy mess that can slide through tight spaces. The emotions and their powers are really thematically appealing, and it doesn’t take long to remember and enjoy their uses.
Emotions can affect more than just you though, and this is where the puzzle part of the game comes in. When a crocodile is angry it’ll try and bite you causing damage, but when it’s happy it’ll help launch you to higher platforms. Angry lizards can shoot fireballs to burn down thorny walls, but sad ones launch water that puts out fires. There are so many different interactions you can have with enemies because of this, and by singing a little tune you can pass your emotion to a nearby creature and progress accordingly.
In the two worlds I was able to play for this preview, the puzzles already began to evolve to pretty tricky levels. There were areas where emotion was wiped from you when you stepped inside, and this could only be removed by singing to butterflies nearby. Some stages featured plenty of back and forth emotion changing, and lots of trial and error to progress on my part. I even got to take on some boss fights, which involved filling bosses with emotions to help balance them out. These were even rewarded with new skills for specific emotions, which I’m excited to see all of in the full game.
The structure of MONOWAVE in particular impressed me, with its short stages never feeling overwhelming. For those looking for more of a challenge though each stage also features a trio of collectibles in tough to reach places, which unlock cool new outfits for Mono. I even discovered a couple of secret levels via hidden exits, which amped up the difficulty to pretty ridiculous levels. One which featured swimming through a maze of spikes was rather hellish, but if you want your dexterity tested as well as your brain then you’ll appreciate these optional offerings.
I’m not too proud to admit that there were a handful of occasions where MONOWAVE stumped me, and I was thankful for the lovely hint system. At any time you can push a button for a hint, and a floating icon will move over to wherever you need to go next to find the solution. This works perfectly when you need a nudge in the right direction, or if you’re truly out of ideas you can just keep pressing it and follow the exact path to beat a level. It’s a great accessibility feature that gets rid of frustration entirely, and it’ll certainly come in handy in later stages I’m sure.
I must admit that after decades of playing puzzle platformers, I wasn’t expecting to be left quite so impressed by MONOWAVE. The first two worlds were just packed full of charm and creativity though, and really left me wanting more. I know I’ll be overcome with emotion when the game releases in full this year, and hopefully plenty of others will feel the joy alongside me.
MONOWAVE is coming to PC via Steam in 2026.