Tetris Effect (by the same developer as Lumines Arise) was a breakthrough puzzle game in the way it utterly transformed how we look at action puzzle games as audiovisual experiences. It was, essentially, an interactive music video with some of the coolest, most rhythmically vibrant music. The way it inspired…
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“If a little is good, more must be better.” That’s how the saying goes, right? That certainly seems to be the approach that the developers have taken with Hatsune Miku Logic Paint S+, in that they’ve taken the previous quality take on the Picross formula (itself an already big game),…
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The third in the now-trilogy that started with AI: The Somnium Files is the first that Kotaro Uchikoshi took a back seat to. He still had a supervisory role, but it’s one of Uchikoshi’s mentees, Kazuya Yamada, who gets the creative credit for this one. The good news is that…
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In a world that is as toxic, complex, and fundamentally unpleasant as the one we now live, whimsical, wholesome little things like Tempopo are the escapism we need. It’s a simple puzzle game in many ways, but the sweet, buoyant presentation, and the brilliant way it integrates music into the…
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What if you were playing a JRPG where the combat system was actually a puzzle? That’s the best way to think of Thistlemine. On the surface, it looks like a simple indie JRPG, but you’ll realise that there’s something different about this one by the time you’ve run into your…
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It has always surprised me that there have been relatively few spinoffs from the Story of Seasons (formerly Harvest Moon) property. This is a beloved series that stretches right back to the SNES, and it has a lot going for it – charming characters, cute animals, and a wholesome joy…
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At a very quick glance, Howl looks like an intriguing tactics game with a gorgeous, sombre art style. What it is more like is a turn-based Chu Chu Rocket… just not as charming, appealing, or worthwhile. The protagonist of Howl is a deaf prophet. Your goal is to help navigate…
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Puzzle Bobble is an amazing puzzle game. I use that tense specifically because it’s one of those concepts where the developers got it absolutely plumb right from the get-go, all the way back in 1996. Yes, that was a long time ago. But I’m right. Fire up a copy of…
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I love real-world escape room experiences. You’ve got an hour or so to sort out an extended puzzle, find your way through a couple of different challenges and, ultimately (and usually with the assistance of a group of friends), make your way out in time. Escape rooms prove that a…
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For the last five days, I’ve found myself quite hooked on a humble minigame collection, called, simply, Advent Calendar. The game does what the name on the box promises – each day you open one new “present” under the virtual tree, and each of those “presents” is a new minigame…
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