Review Insights · App Store
Machinarium
Amanita Design s.r.o. · 985 ratings · ★ 4.4
4.4
★★★★★
985 ratings
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Top complaints - extracted from 25 negative reviews
Recurring phrases mined from 1-2★ reviews. The bigger the percentage, the more users have the same problem. Fix the top 2-3 in your version and you have product-market fit on day one.
1
"game"
15 negative reviews mention this · 60% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Not for kids. Why don't you just add "Muscaria" at the end of "your dev's name as well". I don't believe using the name "Amanita" is a good choice since young people are playing this game. You even have a mushroom symbol representing the classic psyched…" - Reinkejohn4
2
"controls"
8 negative reviews mention this · 32% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Why so hard. Art is absolutely wonderful but the puzzle answers made no sense. Controls are janky as heck. Looks blurry on my large iPad screen. Had a tutorial basically walk me through the entire thing" - Nomis_encore
3
"play"
8 negative reviews mention this · 32% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Not for kids. Why don't you just add "Muscaria" at the end of "your dev's name as well". I don't believe using the name "Amanita" is a good choice since young people are playing this game. You even have a mushroom symbol representing the classic psyched…" - Reinkejohn4
4
"frustrating"
7 negative reviews mention this · 28% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Tic tac toe game is unbeatable now. Can’t beat the 5 piece tic tac toe game no matter how many times I try. It just got so frustrating I deleted the game. What’s the point?" - Jer Ser
5
"puzzle"
5 negative reviews mention this · 20% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Why so hard. Art is absolutely wonderful but the puzzle answers made no sense. Controls are janky as heck. Looks blurry on my large iPad screen. Had a tutorial basically walk me through the entire thing" - Nomis_encore
6
"screen"
5 negative reviews mention this · 20% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Why so hard. Art is absolutely wonderful but the puzzle answers made no sense. Controls are janky as heck. Looks blurry on my large iPad screen. Had a tutorial basically walk me through the entire thing" - Nomis_encore
7
"impossible"
5 negative reviews mention this · 20% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Not user friendly. Thought this game would be like creeks but it definitely has issues. Board game in the bar is way too difficult and the elevator is impossible. Maybe your AI is learning it’s more fun to win and is just making things impossible. Sorry, w…" - 60th pick
8
"puzzles"
5 negative reviews mention this · 20% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Extremely frustrating. I loved Botanicula but I hate this one. Often the controls just plain don’t work and I have to try the same thing over and over again wondering if I’ve missed something. There is also a lot of just watching, either while the robot moves fro…" - Staypuffgamer
9
"something"
4 negative reviews mention this · 16% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Not for kids. Why don't you just add "Muscaria" at the end of "your dev's name as well". I don't believe using the name "Amanita" is a good choice since young people are playing this game. You even have a mushroom symbol representing the classic psyched…" - Reinkejohn4
10
"difficult"
4 negative reviews mention this · 16% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Not user friendly. Thought this game would be like creeks but it definitely has issues. Board game in the bar is way too difficult and the elevator is impossible. Maybe your AI is learning it’s more fun to win and is just making things impossible. Sorry, w…" - 60th pick
11
"problem"
4 negative reviews mention this · 16% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Extremely frustrating. I loved Botanicula but I hate this one. Often the controls just plain don’t work and I have to try the same thing over and over again wondering if I’ve missed something. There is also a lot of just watching, either while the robot moves fro…" - Staypuffgamer
12
"playing"
3 negative reviews mention this · 12% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Not for kids. Why don't you just add "Muscaria" at the end of "your dev's name as well". I don't believe using the name "Amanita" is a good choice since young people are playing this game. You even have a mushroom symbol representing the classic psyched…" - Reinkejohn4
📋 All 25 negative reviews
Every 1-2★ review we fetched. Use the copy button to grab them all for your own analysis (paste into ChatGPT/Claude with a prompt like "summarize core user problems, group by theme, ignore bugs, focus on missing features").
Not for kids
Why don't you just add "Muscaria" at the end of "your dev's name as well".
I don't believe using the name "Amanita" is a good choice since young people are playing this game. You even have a mushroom symbol representing the classic psychedelic "amanita muscaria" mushroom
I do not care what you "meant" the name to mean here. It points to something highly inappropriate for younger people
I don't believe using the name "Amanita" is a good choice since young people are playing this game. You even have a mushroom symbol representing the classic psychedelic "amanita muscaria" mushroom
I do not care what you "meant" the name to mean here. It points to something highly inappropriate for younger people
Controls are so bad
^
You lose functionality on phones
You can’t execute a critical function due to the items being stored at the very top of the screen where you trigger the phone’s notifications screen every time you try to access an item. When you are able to snag an item, you can’t give it to the robot if he’s at the bottom of the screen. Such a terrible oversight. Where was QA? This should not be listed as an iPhone supported app because it’s not.
Not user friendly
Thought this game would be like creeks but it definitely has issues. Board game in the bar is way too difficult and the elevator is impossible. Maybe your AI is learning it’s more fun to win and is just making things impossible. Sorry, won’t be trying anymore of these games.
Not for IPhone
Bad control. Gets stuck. Can’t play it.
When I pressed save the game it didn’t save and I have to start from scratch
When I pressed save the game it didn’t save and I have to start from scratch
Tic tac toe game is unbeatable now
Can’t beat the 5 piece tic tac toe game no matter how many times I try. It just got so frustrating I deleted the game. What’s the point?
Hopelessly bugged.
Impossible to solve the “band” problem on iOS. The person in the window won’t give the parts for the horn, so you solve the drum and the other horn and can’t go on. Tried 3 different ways, it’s just bugged. Wait til the fix to buy
Controls are impossible
I don’t understand how anyone successfully plaid this on their phones.
What the??
Got to stage 2. Freezes after 3rd rung of ladder. Cant move down, can’t stretch up, will not grab another rung. Crap.
Not designed for touch screen.
Frustrating to play on iPhone.
No no
Do not buy! As soon as you update your iPad it will not play.
I had it on my Mac and after updating my Mac this week the game I have been working on for weeks will not play.
I had it on my Mac and after updating my Mac this week the game I have been working on for weeks will not play.
Terrible controls, impossible without hints
Frustrating and not in a good way. Waste of money.
Why so hard
Art is absolutely wonderful but the puzzle answers made no sense. Controls are janky as heck. Looks blurry on my large iPad screen. Had a tutorial basically walk me through the entire thing
Not that good
The graphic are really nice but this game really goes no where
Hint System - crucial
The graphics and theme of the game are awesome. The issue is that you cannot play the game without the ‘hint’ system which to me defeats the entire point of playing this type of adventure game. Think back to the original text based hitchhikers guide to the galaxy , you had to look around, write down clues, be observant, and actually figure it out. This game is just about the mini hint system and following the instructions. One could never complete this game without the hint system.
Difficult controls, gameplay isn’t intuitive
Their are several places where the controls of the game are very specific in a not intuitive way- you must stand in position A, not position B to get an item to work when neither position is obviously more applicable. I’m currently stuck trying to get the elevator to go up BC the lever action area is under the full screen toggle bar on modern iPhones. This is just lazy programming. Okay but frustrating puzzle game overall.
Extremely frustrating
I loved Botanicula but I hate this one. Often the controls just plain don’t work and I have to try the same thing over and over again wondering if I’ve missed something. There is also a lot of just watching, either while the robot moves from place to place or the stories that play out in the speech bubbles. Not sure I’ll keep playing this one.
ETA: Appreciate a response from the developer. However the problem is mainly with controls, not the puzzles. For example, a red box switch that would not respond. Eventually it worked, but after dozens of tries. I do understand that you have to be within reach.
ETA: Appreciate a response from the developer. However the problem is mainly with controls, not the puzzles. For example, a red box switch that would not respond. Eventually it worked, but after dozens of tries. I do understand that you have to be within reach.
5 in a row bug
I finally figured out how to win the puzzle five in a row, but whenever I win it doesn’t complete the puzzle by giving me five. if I can’t complete the puzzle what’s the point of the game.
Poor game controls
The art is awesome, the game controls are not so great with touch. Game is immensely frustrating due to buggy game controls utilizing the tough screen. I suspect with a game controller things would be different. Restarting, reinstalling, nothing changed. I am sure they will fix it, but for now a waist of money.
Curser problem
On ipad the cursor isn’t showing or displaying the white arrows in the furnace room so the robot can get its head released from the claw and land on the shelf.
Is there a fix for this cursor issue? It’s impossible to play the game if the cursor isn’t working and allowing you to direct the robot.
Please fix this.
Is there a fix for this cursor issue? It’s impossible to play the game if the cursor isn’t working and allowing you to direct the robot.
Please fix this.
Progress will NOT save
I love the gameplay but however IT WILL NOT SAVE MY PROGRESS! I have replayed puzzles over and over and saved it but then I try to play later and it puts me back and I’m forced to attempt the hard puzzles again. I finally give up after reattempting to save and then having to start over. I paid for this game yet I can’t play it! Very disappointed.
I have massive storage on my phone
It will show it saved in the slot but then later the slot will be empty again
I have massive storage on my phone
It will show it saved in the slot but then later the slot will be empty again
disappointing
i went into this game with high expectations after seeing so many rave reviews. i found it extremely difficult to figure out what is and isn’t clickable, making it unimaginably frustrating to use items (you have to be standing in exactly the right place and drag and drop to exactly the right place). the movement controls were extremely finicky and annoying; tapping in the same place twice wouldn’t result in my character moving in the same way both times. the puzzles weren’t very intuitive and some were way longer than others. i had to use a walkthrough multiple times just to figure out what to do with certain objects, only to realize i was meant to use them with something i didn’t think was clickable in the first place.
for a puzzle game, quite a few of the “puzzles” to progress were games to beat rather than puzzles, which isn’t what i look for in these types of games. gave up 3 puzzles from the end because i didn’t download this to play an surprise shootout in the 11th hour. the hint system was also irritating for this reason; I’d rather watch an ad to see a hint than play frogger every time I’m stuck.
for a puzzle game, quite a few of the “puzzles” to progress were games to beat rather than puzzles, which isn’t what i look for in these types of games. gave up 3 puzzles from the end because i didn’t download this to play an surprise shootout in the 11th hour. the hint system was also irritating for this reason; I’d rather watch an ad to see a hint than play frogger every time I’m stuck.
Too many logic puzzles
Machinarium is a mixed bag. On the plus side it’s a beautiful game with wonderfully drawn characters. The music is hit or miss; some of it is nicely done but some of it is just random noise.
The problem is the plot, such as it is, is just a device to move you from logic puzzle to logic puzzle. And there were way too many logic puzzles for this game to be enjoyable. Most are too difficult and non-intuitive. I was constantly having to go online guides to figure out what I was supposed to do next. Not an enjoyable experience.
I thought I was purchasing an adventure game in the spirit of the Monkey Island series. Instead I got something that felt like math class.
The problem is the plot, such as it is, is just a device to move you from logic puzzle to logic puzzle. And there were way too many logic puzzles for this game to be enjoyable. Most are too difficult and non-intuitive. I was constantly having to go online guides to figure out what I was supposed to do next. Not an enjoyable experience.
I thought I was purchasing an adventure game in the spirit of the Monkey Island series. Instead I got something that felt like math class.
Watch out...Deceptive
This game is nothing like the Room....the puzzles are like big fish....the robots are like watching cartoons. There is no real control. Do not buy this game!!
Sentiment summary
84%
Positive (4-5★)
4%
Neutral (3★)
11%
Negative (1-2★)