You're absolutely right, that's a perfect summary of the gameplay. And I liked the game. Like I said before, it's worth playing for the art style, but only if you can tolerate simplistic gameplay.I just felt that the levels were really, really, really basic. The biggest difference was basically the form of level obstacles. Then they sometimes threw some other things in that move according to the gravity that you are setting and might harm/squash you. Thats basically everything the game offered for me on a gameplay level in 2 sentences. The art on the other hand was lovely and the only reason I actually finished it.
I did not like Monaco at all, and I was anticipating it for 4 years or something. I am so bitter and salty about this game. Dont get me wrong, its a decent action game, but I think there is a reason why most of GAF and the world forgot about the game 1 week after its release. Its just not even close to being the game I imagined it to be after the insane hype and award nominations.
You know, I almost bought the game at release, I decided against it at the last moment because I wasn't sure that it would be a great single player game. I felt a lack of enthusiasm around it after release so I moved it to the "maybe" part of my wishlist. So it seems I was right to be cautious.
And thanks for edditing my Snapshot recommendation! I completely forgot of the recommendations on the first page!