the madness of Merge Mansion 

My Aunt passed away a few years ago, she had cancer and knew she wouldn't make it through it. She decided to spill all the family tea for me and I found out we had a disowned relative who came out as a Lesbian. I asked her side of the family about it and they all denied it... They even suggested my Aunt was crazy toward the end of her life but she wasn't. Everything else she told me was true. So... Yes... I do know about family secrets and what lengths are taken to keep them secret. 😂

I would love to see the game slowly turn into a horror game, just something that regularly appears as a regular app store game, and just slowly progresses into something else genuinely would sign a petition for that

i'd watch the FUCK out of a full-on merge mansion movie tbh

For some reason, there are a lot of games having ads that have the main character being cheated on by their spouse, having a positive pregnancy test and being thrown out into the rain.

The advertisements that bug me the most are the ones where the person playing the game is doing it wrong when the right answer is obvious. it makes you want to play by manipulating you.

The weirdest ads I've seen recently are the ones for those Project Makeover games--it's almost disturbing how gross and mean they are. Would definitely be interested in a video on those 👀

I have a cousin whose always been called Joseph but when he got married the invitations had his name as Samuel. Turns out we’ve always been using his middle name and I never knew it. It’s not really a family secret, but it’s still one of those moments where you question reality.

I have been WAITING for someone to make a video about these ads, how tf did they get THE Kathy Bates??? Is she just down to do anything at this point? Because that makes me love her more Also i hate match games but id totally watch an adult riverdale-esque show full of craziness that stars Kathy as a mysterious (possibly murderous) grandma

I think this is a really fun series, and I think I’d be smart to expand upon it. Most “non-gamer plays game” content involves a person (typically a woman) playing ELDEN RING or DOOM (2016), but explicitly going for more casual experiences and still providing a detailed and intelligent review is really cool, and could be really tailored to promoting indie stuff to support small creators! More mobile games would be cool, but so would PC games who rely on simple gameplay loops like some dating sims, Spiritfarer, and maybe even Papers Please-like games. I think you’d have a lot of fun!

doesn't anyone remember the ads for lilly's garden? like the one where her ex sleeps with her mother, the other where said mother dies, or when she discovers the ehm benefits of sitting on top of a washing machine. none of that had anything to do with the plot of the game but, like, it was wild. there was fanfiction for the version of the plot told through the ads specifically, i mean, your fave would never.

Imagine being so powerfully fucking incurious that you never notice the MANSION behind granny's house. It's a mansion, it's not like you could hide it behind the shed or some shit. Frankly, if Maddy never noticed in all these years then that shit is on her.

I've been playing this game for something like 2 years... the actual game plot is different than the ads for sure. Also, the subreddit has a lot of info on it. I enjoy playing it and a new area has been added, but the level cap is still only at 40. They've also currently added a cap to the inventory.

I used to hate the idea that mobile game ads promoted everything BUT the game, but now I've come around to them because, at least in the case of Merge Mansion, these ads are doing a great job at getting people curious enough to download and play their game. Also, the story lore for Merge Mansion is probably more elaborate than, say, Lily's Garden tried to be. I'm into it. Not so much the game because I'm more of a match-3 kind of mobile player, but I'm here for the story and Kathy Bates for sure.

my family doesnt have "family secrets" but my parents just DO NOT TALK about their own lives prior to the present so sometimes i just try to ask specific questions to figure stuff out and that's how i found out that my great grandpa cheated on his wife and that my grandmother is a bastard child and that his wife "adopted" her 😭😭 like i knew her she had a step mom but i thought it was that my great grandpa was divorced or smth and remarried. anyways that's why my grandma's step mom abandoned her and left to puerto rico without her

has anyone else been getting really weird game ads that are just... full of suffering? i keep getting ads for puzzle games and stuff like that that just show things like a child trying to rummage through the trash in the cold to find a jacket for their sick mother, but then a dog attacks the kid and steals the jacket, or there's a mother and a baby who were thrown out of their home and are now in an abandoned building and suffering because it's way too cold, and you're supposed to help them by solving a puzzle, but the "person" playing it in the ad loses and the characters start crying, or maybe there's some poor old guy in a house full of broken windows that let the cold wind inside, a puzzle in which you're trying to get some coins to fall into a tin can being held by a starving homeless woman and her child, that kind of thing. it's honestly a little disturbing. i guess they wanna raise the stakes, but at least to me that really isn't making any of those games seem appealing

My favorite ad is the one for a makeover game where the woman in it starts out covered head to toe in what looks like matted hair encrusted with shit and then ends up in borderline blackface after an unfortunate curling iron accident.

Honestly after seeing all the ads for this game I was really hoping someone would talk about it. the MMCU seems amazing and I need to know everything

I'll admit, started playing Merge Mansion because of the ads. I've been hooked for months and play daily, I'm level 40 rn. There is pretty much no story line, The characters probably have MAYBE 20 lines each in the about 7 months that I've been playing. Still haven't gotten to the murder, but I think it's such a jump from where the game is at now, that was probably someone on the wiki just made up. It's a fun game if you like merge games, I still haven't paid a single cent into the game, if you wait a bit, they do give you enough currency to progress with no issues.

My parents and I were in the hospital talking to doctors about family history and my parents interrupted me and said “One of their cousins is bipolar, their great grandmother was bipolar, their great-uncle has schizophrenia, and another one of their cousins *unalived* himself three weeks ago.” And I’m just sitting there like “I have cousins?”

the grandma is simultaneously a spooky chaotic presence and a prankster roommate, imagine how tiring it must be to be maddie

😂 my first thought with the yellow yarn, knitted grandmas, and Maddie wearing yellow was oooooh…Grandma knitted Maddie…Maddie’s a yarn doll brought to life

The murder coverup plot is a meme someone probably added to the wikipedia entry as a joke. There's a lost media story about a forgotten farming game that involved hiding your wife's body from the cops after you murder her.

2 things to say: - Game Theory is known for getting theories wrong because they personally don't know a game as well as its fandom (ex: Hollow Knight + Kirby fandoms were not too happy with theories on their games) - Yeah I know virtually nothing about my extended family, just recently learned my grandpa on my dad's side used to be leader of the national guard's band (idk how it split up so idk how many people like that there are) and he played kazoo or something

I'm surprised you didn't mention that all of the knives in the shed can be merged to make a rake 😂

I haven't watched yet, but OH BOY when I saw the title I was like "FINALLY WHAT THE FUCK IS WITH MERGE MANSION" I am here for this video

I enjoyed Danny Gonzalez's dive into this but it was nice to see you get into the nitty gritty of the gameplay as well

You should try Disney's Twisted Wonderland, which is a game with Disney villains as cute anime boys. It's a dumb game, but kinda funny :D

I've been playing merge manor for nearly a month now without paying anything and I'm on level 17. It's fun to do in ten to fifteen minute chunks in the morning during breakfast or when I'm on the toilet lol. Getting certain items can be really confusing and time consuming but overall it's a fun lil tippy tappy game

If anyone is looking for a good hidden objects game Murder in the Alps is great. The graphics & voice acting is top notch, it has great music, some of the scenery is truly beautiful and you solve an Agatha Christie style murder, it has chapters and a story that makes sense. Only downside is you run out of energy fast but you can get it by watching ads (or paying) The hidden objects part makes sense, there also also other challenges you need to solve, it is a great mobile game.

You gotta give it to her, Kathy Bates seems to be having a hell of a time as Ursula.

i just wanna interview Kathy Bates and be like "okay but how did this even happen??" i have so many questions about her career and her hobbies and what she's currently watching on tv, but i NEED to know how this all happened.

i am still losing my mind over some of the like HUGE family secrets that even my mom never knew that my grandma dropped on me while we were having lunch

The review no one asked for but how did we live without... This is why I love this channel

I’m level 35, and had it downloaded since December 6, 2020. Haven’t spent any real money on it. It’s a good game to play on the toilet.

I had just uninstalled this game after playing daily for a little over 2 years, never paid a cent. The life gem count resets to 10 every 24 hours. The level I had reached (mid-thirties I think) became a boring slog because the to-do list only had one task that needed 2 really high level items so i spending all my time in the limited time events which did nothing to advance the game but were just cute and novel. I don't think you ever go inside the mansion you only clear the various outdoor areas like the pool, meditation garden, beach, pool etc.

This is one of those games where I played furiously for about two days, got bored, and completely forgot it existed. (I'm not too good at waiting for things)

I dont know much about the game, but Kathy Bates is a national treasure

As someone who was playing Street Fighter V while attending a meeting for work today, the fact that you were playing this game while talking about it really speaks to me.

You mean Mattpat ignored stuff that didn't fit into whatever theory he came up that week?! I'm shocked!

I just love that just the ads by themselves have their own mythology and conspiracy theories. I'm so invested.

My mom plays this game all the time. And sometimes she asks me to read the story pieces for her since she doesn't know any English. Had no idea about the ads though!

I like that it is a slow matching game. Like with candy crush it's more fast paced or gets stuck filled like whatever is going on with merge dragons.

It's not just about the kids. These apps intentionally use psychological tactics to entice people with addictive or easily-frustrated personalities into spending money. I think it's a harmful reduction to brush it all aside as just bad for little kids, even as you previously mentioned yourself feeling the temptation to spend more to play more 😅

Lovely to give a shout out or credit Game theorist. It's more than they could ever do. Seen these advertisements and if I hadn't already played games like it I would be playing that one just to see wtf. I also had no idea they had live action ads.

The biggest issue is that the ENTIRE game depends on one stamina bar. So the to-do list and all of the events are dependent on the one stamina meter. I heard someone say "the game is fun for about a minute and a half" which sums it up perfectly.

I used to play a candy crush type Butler game where he’s renovating a mansion. I’d love to see a video on that one too! I feel it inspired Merge Mansion

God bless you for this, Swell. You take such a serious and thoughtful approach to the most unhinged internetness, and I appreciate you.

i havent watched this yet but i always get ads for this game on another f2p app i play and i am so happy you decided to do a video about this, there's another one called lilly's garden that is similarly cursed

I didn't realize that was Kathy Bates and thank you for doing this. I play a lot of June's Journey and have seen so many of these ads.

I would throw so much money at a full length movie version of this with Kathy Bates.

Omggg this is such a genius topic to tackle. These innocuous games with wild PG-13 to rated R ads are wildin’. Can you talk about Merge Fables and their weird adultery ads? There’s so many merge games with adult content ads

The game that's like King's Choice but a China setting? Love those ads, the mpreg shit is nuts

If you haven't checked them out; SaberSpark did a deep dive on the ads of these and Lily's Garden, as well.

I'm just happy that Kathy Bates had a good time. C:

Merge mansion ads kept haunting me and finally someone understands

I really enjoy Merge Mansion, though their events are usually so unbalanced that they can be frustrating. I tend to ignore mobile game advertisements at this point because they often copycat each other, regardless of the gameplay itself. So many games have the "get me ready for a date" prompt and have the player fail miserably, even in games where it has nothing to do with that. Switchcraft launched one of those ads recently. The ad type that ruffles me though is the "woman (often pregnant or has a kid) dumped by jerk boyfriend and then decides to head to a broken cabin in the middle of a blizzard"; the player is prompted to fix the cabin but fails, leaving the woman and/or child frozen. It's such a nonsensical thing for someone to do that I'm not sorry she ends up an ice block. I've started making a list of games that run this style of ad so that I don't play them out of principle.

I have seen so much of these ads and I am so glad someone talked about it. The ads are crazy and yet they are pretty good.

i’ve been playing merge mansion for about a month and we pretty much only renovate the outside of the mansion. the closest we get to inside is the garage. so the literal inside of the mansion isn’t really a part of the game and i’m sure it ever will be. there’s tons of areas where they say “unlocks at [certain level]” and then when you get to that level it doesn’t unlock. the game is very much still in development.

I work at Meadowbrook Hall, a historical mansion in Michigan that was built with the Dodge Car company fortune and honestly the secret passageway part of that little ad reminded me of it 😭 working in an old manor is really like these ads ngl

if you plan on doing more of these reviews id recommend finding a way to screen record the game so you can overlay that while talking. it would make these videos have a lot more production video! great job 👏

I'm a sucker for resource management games, so I've been playing Family Farm Adventure a lot. I like that I can play it in 5-20 minute sessions a few times a day. The Merge Mansion ads are wild and made me interested in trying it out. As far as ads go, there's a new one for The Oregon Trail on the Apple games store that is kind of funny.

The ones that weird me out the most but also I can't look away are the like pimple popper extreme ads Where they're like pulling worms out of someone, or chunks of something out of someones face. I get them on RU-vid all the time, almost makes me wish for hustle bro or man soap ads 😅

I love those live action ads, I legit watch them every time they come up. I wanna know! I just wanna know... And it's so well done, so dark, so weird but like I wanna mansion as well, full of all sorts of things, even misteries!

For some reason Kathy Bates playing the role of Grandma in Merge Mansion reminds me of Mario Lopez in "A Recipe for Seduction" as Colonel Sanders 😂 If anyone hasn't seen it they should. It's 15 minutes and it's wild!

I have no desire to play mobile games at all but those live action merge mansion ads are my favorite thing ever. I don't know if it's specifically Kathy bates' presence or because they're insanely well made but I can't skip them when they come up on RU-vid.

I just love that Kathy Bates is in these ads. Truly iconic.

My favorite mobile ad is the one with a baby floating I'm a basket asking you to save it and if you say no, the baby tells you "I hope you can live with yourself, asshole".

I’m so glad this is being discussed bc these ads drive me insane

I just feel like it's great cinematic material

I'd seen the animated ads but the Kathy Bates stuff was new to me, WOW also sidenote: please tell me you're planning on making a video on the 365 days sequel, I love your video on the first movie!!

I kept seeing ads for this game from playing a bunch of idle games and then I finally caved and downloaded a bunch of merge games too. Have you seen the ad where the police that arrests her passes her the key while driving away? The lore truly is wild. I find the advertising fun and that it gives the game a more distinct identity. The actual gameplay elements they show are pretty spot on minus a few changes in what needs to merge to make what. As far as the gameplay goes, I do find it fun. Especially as you mentioned the items that do have more of a story with them. I don’t love the energy mechanic, but I’m used to it enough. And there are items that give you more energy and gems so I find it doable to not pay to play. My biggest issue with the game (and why I’ve let it sit for so long now that my phone offloaded the app) is that there are too many items that autogenerate something else. I find it increasingly becomes an inventory management game and my board (and extra storage space) are pretty much completely full at all times. Granted, I could sell off items to make some more room, but my boards are pretty much full with just generator items which I have a much harder time justifying jettisoning. A lot of these mobile games have very similar game mechanics anyway so I kind of just stick with the ones who have aesthetics I like, be it theme or visuals, or sound design. My current go to mobile games are any of the AdVenture games by Hyper Hippo, Merge Mayor, BillionAir, Merge Inn, Cats & Soup, and probably my favorite game I downloaded based on title alone: It’s Literally Just Mowing.

I don't know if this counts as a family secret or not, but when I was about 16 or 17 I found out my dad had been previously married. No one in my family talked about it, so it was a little bit of a shock to me. I've never asked any follow up questions so I don't know who the woman was, how long they were married, or how soon my dad started seeing my mom after the marriage ended (if it had ended at that point). But my parents were married 34 years so I think things worked out for them.

I totally got these ads playing June's Journey too! I even started to collect screenshots of them at one point!

just have to add here that i love that eyeshadow color for your eyes! i also have light eyes and found that a pinky/red works nicely to bring the color out. xoxo

this is nowhere near the level of some of the family secrets I've heard about (certainly it's not even close to a whole ass MANSION in the backyard) but I remember when I was like 19 finding out that my aunt Peggy's name was actually Margaret and nobody deigned that to be important enough information to tell me until after I had gone almost 2 decades calling her by a nickname that apparently she didn't like anymore... dude, talk about bamboozled

I'm onboard for a Merge Mansion movie!

Happy to finally know what goes on in this weird game

WE DON'T TALK ABOUT GRANDMA NO NO NO. WE DON'T TALK ABOUT GRANDMAAAAA!!!

I have been soooo tempted to actually download this, thank you for filling my curiosity. I can peacefully move on without falling for another one of these dumb ads.

I’m in level 21 and I haven’t completed the tin can or made it into the mansion yet, but it is addicting

The weirdest ad I've seen is the one on TikTok where the Titanic is racing down a slide in a Sim City style setting to fly into the harbor and hit an iceberg.

Knives, Arson, Kathy Bates… that sounds like an amazing Saturday night

if you're looking for more mobile games there's one I think is called Small Town Crimes, something like that. It has an actual plot and it's not pay to play. The vibes are like if nancy drew met phoenix wright

From your description, this game reminds me a whole lot of What Remains of Edith Finch. It’s got the same “lady inherits an old house with family secrets” type deal. It’s really good and I really recommend it, even to non gamer girls. It doesn’t need a lot of experience or a beefy computer to play

I never saw the Cathy Bates ads.... AND now I want to!

I was on the other side of the family secret. I've always knew all the tea about the family since I was really young because I was somewhat concerned by it (basically my mother was abusive to me due to trauma and had to tell me about it to justify it and then the gates were open for people to tell me everything). So I've spent all my life knowing the secrets and being able to discuss it but my brother was the one who never knew anything. We went to family therapy at some point because I was struggling and that's where he found out about my mother's trauma because it got brought up. I honestly didn't know he wasn't aware about it because my parents were discussing it so freely with me I assumed he knew. I think my parents hid it from him because the both of them and myself are all neurodivergents and I suspect they thought my brother would not have the emotional maturity to handle it like we would due to our predispositions to hypersensitivity.

So happy to find someone talking about this because I want. to. know. the. story! without actually playing the game.

Have you seen the Lilly's Garden ads? My favorite was the one where her and her friends have a wine party at the Laundromat.

I’ve played this game since before these crazy ads and it’s interesting to watch it change. But also the first time I saw the pie ad I was so confused because that’s not like the game at all 🤣🤣🤣

i once saw a lily's garden ad where someone gives her a phone to play lily's garden and she has an existential crisis and glitched out but i cannot find it anywhere and i never saw it again

Another game with INSANE ads would be project makeover lol

I love the ads, I mean Kathy Bates is Epic. I'd love a movie 👏😂 The game is meh and could be quite a bit better. To be honest, the more game play and things a game rewards me the more likely I am to drop a couple of bucks here and there on it.

Hi amanda, love the chanel, Its not a "wait game" it called microtransactions, the developers create barriers in the game wich can easily be bipassed by expending real money, its scumy and it a plague in the videogame industry.

I absolutely despise waiting games, and that includes MM. But FOR SOME REASON I continue playing it, and I am currently on level 30… Having Kathy Bates certainly helped with hating the game less. I also surprisingly quite enjoy the seasonal events and item events, although the tin can event took waaaaaay too long and was annoying as hell by the end.

Lily's garden has a lot of cursed adverts too

I tried to get into Merge Mansion, but it really didn't stick with me? I can wholeheartedly recommend the game Love & Pies! It's fun, colorful and has a surprisingly diverse set of characters! There are so many people of color as well as people of the lgbtq community represented all while being child-friendly and engaging enough! EverMerge is also a good alternative if you're into fairytales (or MergeDragons... because dragons).

i got an ad for some game like this where you fix up a house. the story was a woman and her baby leaving an ab*sive husband and sitting in a cold room. the animation for the fighting between the woman and her husband was weird as hell and honestly super dark

I like your reaction. Would really love to see a review of love nikki dress up queen cause the advertisement is just stupid but the game is addictive for a dress-up game. Every video I have seen talking about it are positive and I have been playing it for 3+ years. Currently a v0 with 47% of the entire collection which is apparently an big accomplishment in and of itself. I will say they changed the characters names because I believe it to be the makeup of the fox bride called Yoco. One of the main characters was named Yoko (which is the name I love better than current name) so they changed Yoko into Bobo. I'm alright with the other name changes cause they suit the characters better, like Neva for the former assassin turned prince helper and Yvette for the prime Minister assistant who reminds you of a small timid animal.

Thank you for making this and scratching the itch of me not downloading this

I literally looked up from playing this game and saw this video on my recommended, i have to agree it is addicting