Gorogoa

I shudder to think how much planning this took

Why

• Genuinely creative, M.C. Escher-esque puzzles
• Intuitive without being hand-holdy
• 'Ah, that was it!' moments abound
• There's probably a story to piece together if you tear yourself away from puzzling

Why Not

• You strongly dislike puzzle games

Impressions

Gorogoa is a concentrated shot of puzzle design with a simple concept, brilliantly executed. Gameplay takes place in a 4-square grid and consists of clicking to move or focus within a square or dragging squares to a new position. Sounds simple, but exploring for ways to line squares up so they can interact or drag layers off to reveal more squares can be quite tricky. Despite the difficulty you can almost always progress by just clicking around trying stuff, but solutions are often signposted pretty clearly if you take your time looking for common elements between squares. The game also has a cool, distinctive art style and show-don't-tell story going on, which adds another dimension to enjoy. Finally figuring out the chain of actions needed to clear a particularly difficult puzzle feels great; I highly recommend this for anyone who enjoys puzzle games or even has a passing interest in them.