Viewfinder is one of the most unique puzzle games out there right now. It feels like a Myst or a The Witness with its deep lore and beautifully-rendered world. It feels hopeful and lovely. It messes with your head like Echochrome. It feels gorgeous and real. The characters are charming, unique, and special. The puzzles are challenging and well done. Each set of levels is distinct; each plays with the favourite kind of puzzles of the scientist that lived in it. The whole thing feels lived in, worked in, and loved. Overall, I cannot be happier with Viewfinder than I am. This game is a complete experience and one that I was very sad to see end. I am absolutely blown away by the game’s physics, how polished it is, and how well everything works together. In all honesty, I don’t think two thumbs up is enough.
Overall, Maze Of Realities: Reflection Of Light is great. There is an okay story, beautiful backgrounds, and passible humanoid animations. The all-important puzzles are well done, fun to complete, and players can choose their difficulty when playing through. There are some incredibly silly things in the story because of the animation style, but nothing outside of what to expect with these types of hidden item puzzle games. If you’re here for anything else but the puzzles, you will be disappointed. That being said, the puzzles more than make up for everything else. As I said at the beginning of the review for Maze Of Realities: Reflection Of Light if you like this sort of game already, you’ll love this one too. It’s a fun puzzle game with a lot of pretty backgrounds. And that’s all I want from one of the hidden item adventures.
The A Little to the Left: Cupboards and Drawers DLC is AMAZING. If you love the original game, you’ll love this even more. It’s a wonderful addition to the game and feels like a DLC should. I thought I was in love with the base game, but this has brought the original puzzles to a new level that I couldn’t have predicted. The changes made to the puzzles feel good; they feel like they fit with the base game, and A Little to the Left: Cupboards and Drawers is just a seamless, wonderful addition to the original. I am so pleased with the DLC; it’s definitely worth the $6 USD price tag. I can’t recommend this enough!
Overall, Mimi the Cat – New Friends is cute, uplifting, adorable, lovingly rendered, and a fun Sokoban. I love this game, and I feel like anyone who likes Sokoban will also love it too. There is a lot of heart on display, and it’s a beautiful way to immortalize some fur friends that are no longer with you. I would say that Mimi the Cat – New Friends is about five levels and a glitch fix short of being two thumbs up from me.
I didn’t get too far into Logicats, but everything I played was unique and interesting though. While I personally don’t like Logicats, I still think it’s a very well-done game. If you think programming-style puzzles will appeal to you, I would try this little game. It’s probably one of the more polished indie puzzle games I’ve played in a bit.
Dordogne is as close to perfect as a game can be. There is a little jank, and a little weirdness in the UI, but the beauty and depth of the game make that absolutely forgivable. I don’t think I will be playing Dordogne again any time soon; I think I need to recover emotionally from the story. But I do want to try it again from the beginning and see what other hidden wonders might be around the corners of Dordogne.
Overall, I would have to say that Homestead Arcana is aggressively okay. It tries really hard to be fresh and different, and I appreciate that. However, the amount of empty space makes it feel unfinished. There was a bug that seemed to ruin my playthrough, and there were no NPCs to talk to give me a better sense of place. While I had a cat to chat with for the couple of hours I played and a shopkeeper showed up every morning, it was so lonely and vast that I felt how the world was falling apart. This could have been used to the game’s advantage, but it just fell flat instead of using that space to remind you of what you left behind to become a farmer at the very edges of the safe zone. I like Homestead Arcana; I feel like it has a lot of positive things about it. Unfortunately, I don’t think it is in great shape currently.
The Shape of Things is so cute, it’s super fun, and the smooth gameplay and the puzzles are well-considered. Minus the couple of things I had issues with, The Shape of Things was nearly perfect. I love it so much. In addition, the game is cute, fun, relaxing, and worth picking up if you love these kinds of adorable little puzzle games.
Humanity is amazing. There is a whole lot to do in the story mode, and there’s even more to do in the user-created levels and level maker. Minus a couple of small problems I had, this game was almost perfect. I love it deeply. I would recommend this game 100% if you love the genre!
I like the look of SUBNET. It’s complex and interesting. Some of the puzzles are great. Some are very, very not great. There is no hint system, which I dislike. My save file was nuked from space, which I dislike a lot. Despite it being interesting, I can’t fully recommend this game.
Chippy’s Escape, just like the original Seaberry Keep, is SO CUTE. I can’t get enough of these games. I love the Seaberry location, the characters, the style, the puzzles, the everything! I could recommend both Chippy’s Escape and Seaberry Keep to anyone with little kids that wants to play games with their kids.
I like Castle Renovator. There is a lot of potential in what is presented. However, considering that this game was released in late 2022 for the PlayStation and Xbox, you would think most of the jank would have been addressed before the devs decided to port this to Switch. There is something missing in Castle Renovator that is hard to pinpoint exactly. It’s the heart of whatever made House Flipper so fun to play. The comedy and weirdness that made Powerwash Simulator what it was, the smoothness of movement and the beauty of the graphics that just isn’t there in Castle Renovator. There were a lot of interesting ideas here. Little mini-games to unlock new furniture, interesting designs to make a home with, and a funny premise to tie it all together. Castle Renovator could have been a ton of fun; it has much to do, a small price tag, and okay graphics. I think it just needs some more playtesting and a little more love. I’m not saying fixing the jank is simple, but it would be worth it. Castle Renovator feels like someone put a lot into it; it just fell short of the mark a little. I look forward to returning to this title in a year or two. Hopefully, the devs will have read all the criticism and implemented some changes by then.
Unprompted is a weird game that can be a lot of fun to play with the right group of people. It’s unique, challenging, and can make for a good time. However, the way the prompts are judged by the system is inconsistent and sometimes incredibly picky. While many of the groups of images are easily guessable, there are several single-picture prompts that are just impossible to guess, even when you’ve been playing for a while. I like the concept of this game; Unprompted really is the most unique title I’ve played in years. However, it feels unfinished. I think this game needs a lot more love and a little bit more playtesting before it could actually be called a finished product.
Recollection is not bad. It has a good message, some of the mini-games are interesting, and the visuals are simplistic but neat. I liked the first playthrough much better than the second, and not because the subject matter was darker, either. I think it would have behoved the developers to have a bigger range of playtesters and a little more thought into the mini-games. But overall, it has a nice message and is an okay time.
I am absolutely delighted with Duplicado. I can’t think of a little game that is more beautifully rendered, more endearing or more replayable than this. Such a simple concept, but the developers have polished it to the point that it feels like a high-end game. I cannot overstate how much I love Duplicado, and I think just about anyone who loves puzzle games will find more than $3’s worth of enjoyment in the hours lost to this amazing little title.
Overall, this game is cute. It’s useful for anyone learning Kana. However, there are some things that I don’t love about it. Its lack of word-teaching moments and its weird hyperfocus on doing the puzzles in the least number of turns aren’t made up for entirely by its cute pixel art or Kana learning. I think one of the things that bothered me a lot is that the title of the game is written in Katakana on the cover rather than the Hiragana you are actually learning. I don’t really understand who this game is for, but it was a fun way to spend an afternoon.
JOIN tiles feels like it’s in Early Access or Beta testing and not a finished product. Overall, the idea is wonderful, but the execution is lacking. I really hope that the developer takes some time to add a little more love and time to this game to make it live up to its very pretty potential.
Do you like corgis and challenging puzzles? Do you want to clone a cute dog and solve those puzzles with those cute clones? If you answered yes to any of the above questions, then yes, you should get Corgi Cove. It’s sweet, it’s simple, it’s adorable, and it’s fun to play. Additionally, I had a lot of fun during my time with Corgi Cove. Any puzzle lover can enjoy this little title for a fairly cheap price. I give it a hearty two thumbs up, and I think you will too.
I was so disappointed in Small Town Detective. I wanted to love it, but it was so hard to get into and figure out. This game was a massive disappointment for me.
I was so sad when it ended. I remember watching the final cutscene come up and having this massive feeling of sadness overcome me. Was it already over? Really? I could have played a million more hours of Dawngrown and not been happy that it ended. It is too fun, too polished, too cute. Play this game. Just do it. If enough people play and love this game, maybe we’ll get some more content. Fingers crossed!