So I finally got around to buying Monument Valley and playing through it (and the extra level pack, “Forgotten Shores”) and I have to say I’m really enamoured with it. I’ve always loved weird perspective-distorting images (I had a book of Escher engravings as a kid that I studied obsessively) and I found the game itself totally charming. Also, why has nobody had this idea before? It’s genius. Actually, perhaps somebody has had this idea before. In which case, why haven’t I heard of them?

For those not in the know: Monument valley is a game for mobile devices where you navigate Ida, the princess, through Escher-like impossible constructions and beautiful architecture. It’s available for iOS and Android and costs 4 dollars. This is the game’s website.

At first I was a little apprehensive about spending $4 on a game that, by all appearances, was pretty short. It is definitely short — the original game is 10 levels long and only took me about an hour to beat — but it’s totally worth 4 dollars (6 if you get the extra in-app purchase for 8 more levels.)

Also, while 4 dollars is about 4 times the usual accepted app price, I think that is kind of ridiculous when you get down to it. Is this well-crafted experience worth less than the price of 1 lb of ground beef? I think I would rather play this game than eat a pound of ground beef. The game would probably last longer than the ground beef would.

But anyway, there’s probably not much I can say about mobile app pricing that hasn’t already been said. I would recommend that everyone play Monument Valley. The real reason I made this post is to post these screenshots that I took.

Wow.

The game isn’t 100% perfect — a few times I was thrown out of the experience because I couldn’t see where the switch was that I needed to press, or something. But I’m really just mentioning this because I can’t think of anything worse with the game, and this is feeling more like a review than I intended initially. Should I give it a score? Man, I don’t know. I award it a 9.23.

9.23