The Switch is just half a year old but indie publisher Ratalaika Games has already released a few games for the system, such as the cute but boring I and Me and the abysmal Vaccine. Their newest title, 36 Fragments of Midnight, is out now. And for an insanely low price, less than 3 dollars. Yet, somehow it managed not to be worth the price tag.

The game basically consists of controlling a little sugarcube-like thing throughout a procedurally generated map in order to collect 36 yellow shards. All your character does is move around and jump; twice if you need it. The jumping mechanic is quite glitchy, but the gameplay is mostly functional, if not extremely simplistic. Once you collect the last shard it’s game over, and back to the title screen. That wouldn’t be as bad if the game wasn’t so absurdly short. Do you want to know how long it took me to beat the game in my first attempt? Six minutes. It took me SIX MINUTES to beat the game in my bloody first attempt. The second time around? Five minutes. The differences were minimal as well. The maps might be procedurally generated, but the locations of the shards don’t vary that much.

Lack of variety is pretty much what 36 Fragments of Midnight is in a nutshell. There’s no variety in visuals (they are cute, but are repetitive), no variety in the sound department (there isn’t even a soundtrack, just wind noises), no extra modes, nothing. It’s always the same environment, the same shards, the same extremely simplistic sugarcube character, the same 5 minute long gameplay.

Honestly, there isn’t much else to say about 36 Fragments of Midnight. It’s a very bland, extremely short game. It took me longer to plan and write this review than it took me to beat that game twice. The game might be stupidly cheap, but that doesn’t mean you’ll get your money’s worth. If you want to get something cheap for the Switch, just stick with the Neo Geo arcade titles. They might cost twice as much, but you’ll get much better value than what this mediocre little title can offer.

Reviewed on Switch.
36 Fragments of Midnight available on PC.