A Physics Puzzler That Struggles to Attract
All the way back in 2000, Sega’s Dreamcast console was on its last legs, despite the success of Sonic Adventure, terrible marketing deemed the console’s failure from the beginning. Despite this, various unrecognised gems released on the console, be it the graffitified world of Jet Set Radio, arcade mayhem of Crazy Taxi, or, the title with the most parallels to today’s review, Super Magnetic Neo. It’s definitely an unknown title – no other gamer I’ve spoken to knows of it – yet its magnet based gimmicks left my mind boggled at a young age.
Flash forward to 2025, and these nostalgic memories were triggered by a simple, yet adventurous in design game, Mind Over Magnet.
Uni’s Magnetic Journey
Aside from the witty pun to grip you in, the general premise goes as follows; you take control of an unknowing unicycle, aptly titled Uni, tasked with using the power of magnetism to progress through more than fifty single screen puzzles. Along the way, magnet companions you meet will aid you in unravelling these puzzles, and the overall plot using their unique abilities.
It’s a simple story, no doubt about that, however that’s not where Mind Over Magnet wants to excel… that would be the gameplay.
Attraction and Repulsion
So where to begin with this interesting foundation of mechanics, magnets? It can be viewed in three separate elements occupying stages; magnetic surfaces, used to gain vertical or horizontal momentum; drill bits, used to block segments of puzzles off or provide a temporary floor; and finally a variety of deadly obstacles, used in every way you’d expect to vaporise your entire being.
Each of these elements either works with you or against you (I’m sure you can deduce which is which) yet constantly differ in form of activation. Sometimes it’ll be a pulley that slowly returns to its origin, and other times it’ll be a button that must be held down, and that’s where these magnetic companions become key in gameplay.
These magnetic allies are driven by the power of friendship! Wait that’s not right… I mean the power of magnets, to drive home the core gameplay loop. You’re dumped into single room puzzles, filled with all the aforementioned elements, armed with a magnet named Magnus who will attach to magnetic forces when activated, and can be used to weigh switches down. Your only goal is to reach the vacuum pipe in each stage, often locked by a key or blocked through other designs.
The Wasted Potential of Throwing Magnets
The clear highlight of gameplay is using Magnus to attach either vertically or horizontally to magnetic fields, and the bizarre ways in which these interact with the corresponding level designs. Need to reach a higher level? Use Magnus! Need to gain some horizontal speed? Use Magnus!
Each element successfully harmonises to create a magnetic symphony of epic proportions… for the first few stages. Whilst new mechanics such as the drill bits and obstacles do come into play, Mind Over Magnet never seems to escape the often stagnatingly simple puzzles it sets out for itself, for the first half at least. Given the title runs for about five hours – if being generous – it’ll be a long while before you meet the other magnets to gain the one mechanic that excels Mind Over Magnet beyond similar titles.
This mechanic is none other than the ability to throw magnets.
It’s a simple thing to implement and introduce, often leaving me to wonder why it wasn’t done so earlier. By the time I arrived at this destination, I was so fed up with the same routine and construction of stages I went through, I had just been mindlessly powering through. Regardless, it’s only fair I critique this mechanic similarly to how I did the others, and in that regard… wow is it wonderful. Puzzles for the first two chapters range as far as “hold this button down whilst this pulley is active” or “use the magnetic force to rise up to a higher platform”, really simple stuff. This slight tweak to gameplay opens up the magnetic Pandora’s Box of level design options to opt for. Sadly it seems Mind Over Magnet is unable to escape the box of “tech demo” in regards to the gameplay, leaving much to be desired.
Missed Opportunities
On the topic of level design, how does such a crucial aspect operate in Mind Over Magnet and can it salvage the other flaws? As mentioned earlier, the single screen rooms act as small chunks of one overall challenge, each designed to test different sides of the same magnet, however it ultimately leads to a disconnect where these magnetic mechanics repel rather than attract, leaving no clear vision of the overall objective.
The previously mentioned issue of pacing returns in level design, with starting stages providing a hopeful challenge, yet later ones never exceed this skill ceiling, leaving a stagnating, disappointing difficulty. Mind Over Magnet certainly excels in creating fragments of fun, yet the overall level design didn’t introduce enough gripping gimmicks consistently to keep me engaged. The colourful cast often saves presentation and dialogue, yet the fundamental gameplay along with level design, suffer from complacency.
A Clever Idea That Lacks Consistent Depth
Mind Over Magnet sure is an attractive game. On one hand you have some fantastic, innovative gameplay involving the laws of physics in the form of puzzles, yet this is repelled, rather than attracted, by the consistent complacency in not introducing new gripping mechanics, until a point where it’s too late.
Important Links
Mark Brown’s Game Maker’s Toolkit Releases Mind Over Magnet on Xbox, PlayStation and Switch – https://www.thexboxhub.com/mark-browns-game-makers-toolkit-releases-mind-over-magnet-on-xbox-playstation-and-switch/
Buy Mind Over Magnet on Xbox – https://www.xbox.com/en-gb/games/store/mind-over-magnet/9n9hvjjbpnt1
