Morphie's Law (Nintendo Switch) Review

The best way to described Morphie's Law is that it is entirely reliant on a single gimmick that is designed to prevent anyone from ever getting good at the game. The morph technology allows for player-character limbs to expand or shrink, which does have the added effect of changing the handling or playability. Getting shot frequently in the legs causes them to become laughably small, and thus reducing overall movement speed and leaping ability. The shooter's legs will in turn gain the equivalent mass, making him or her run faster, while also making them a bigger target. These rules are applied to all body parts of every mannequin, creating a constant tug of war of stats and parameters that are fighting the player's reflexes and instincts.

It is one thing to create situations where users must adapt to survive, but when the changes occur at such a fast rate to a point where it is too disorienting to adjust it, makes victories and failures feel unearned. That is really one of the biggest issues with Morphie's Law, that its entire hook is fundamentally flawed. It is just too bewildering to be playing something where the mechanics are under constant change and, in a competitive setting, matches end up feeling confusing and underwhelming.

This is a kind of gimmicky online action release that seems like it should have been free to play. It certainly has the cheap and low quality veneer of such a release. Maybe the art team was not able to find more creative and interesting ways to decorate red and blue dummies. Nobody would be willing to spend money on a micro-transaction that's a simple texture change and relegating the special moves behind a pay-wall would have made Morphie's Law a pay-to-win game, which nobody wants. The amount of content included is pretty bare and is not enough to carry such a shallow title. It's like Umbrella Corp. without single-player survival mode. This is not even as interesting as something like Splatoon without its great single-player modes. The overall Morphie's Law experience is shallow and one note.

Style-wise, Morphie's Law is interesting in a sense that it is colourful and has a unique setting. However, it ultimately feels desperate and incoherent since there really is no congruence between the mechanics and flavour. With something like Splatoon, there was attention given to every aspect of how it was played and how it tied into the lore. Morphie's Law is just the random and nonsensical ramblings of a drunkard indie game developer who really wants to be like Goichi Suda. There is nothing in this that makes any sense at all and comes across as a bunch of 'lolrandom' gibberish with aggravating mechanics and overdone physics. "Let's have a bunch of Mexican puppets fight each other! But wait! Let's also have their limbs exchange mass as they fight! But wait! They also fart when they jump! But wait! Let's have giant dummies punch each others' heads off at the end of matches! But wait! Let's have the level swing back and forth! Isn't that nuts!?"... Playing Morphie's Law, it is hard to not imagine that this is how the design team came up with its ideas.