Sunday, May 19, 2024
Not every game has to be an epic 100 hour smash and bash shoot em up. Here's some casual puzzle games that are easy to get into and won't take too much of your time to complete.
The Last Campfire
Created by Hello Games, who also made No Man's Sky. The Last Campfire is a story about a little Ember who became separated from the others during their journey, and found themselves in a strange place full of fellow Embers who have lost their spark. Your goal is to solve the puzzles and eventually light the Last Campfire.
This game works well as a casual puzzler. The visuals are absolutely beautiful. Little Ember is the narrator, and she has the sweet voice of a British schoolgirl. However, the puzzles are not that challenging, and recycle some puzzles I've seen in other games. There's some from real life too, like the sliding number puzzle and Laser Maze.
The Last Campfire is $14.99 on Steam. 6.5 hours of game play. Is it worth the money? Yes, I would say so, especially if you like low-stress visually appealing puzzle games. Age-appropriate for 7 and up.
Bulb Boy
Bulb Boy is a horror game, but not a scary horror game. It's the tale of a little boy who finds his home has been taken over by an evil presence. Grandpa has disappeared and there are monsters everywhere.
It's surreal, funny, and gross. There's drool, snot, farts, blobs (or snakes) of poop, rotting disembodied arms, hair and mismatched teeth, demon turkeys that you have to entice into the oven, all in a monochromatic palette of mostly green or red. The animation is perfect for the subject matter, because after all, this is a horror game about a little boy with a light bulb for a head. It doesn't take itself seriously.
Your first puzzle is to yank Grandpa's teeth out of his mouth and put them in water, then turn off the TV, which conveniently teaches you the game mechanics - wave the mouse around until a hand or grabby hand appears, then click. Puzzles can be solved by picking up objects and applying them to the problem. Building your game with an interactive background with active clickable fields can make the puzzles too easy, but in this case they're still pretty difficult. The perfect game if you're 8 years old, or an 8 year old in an adult's body. Bulbware, 2015, 5.8 hours of game play.
Mini Motorways
Dinosaur Polo Club, 2021. Mini Motorways is a transportation game - specifically, a traffic flow game. Your goal is to make sure that everybody can get to their destination in a certain amount of time.
It starts out slow at first, and then as the population increases, more people and businesses move in. You'll get roads, traffic lights, roundabouts, highways and bridges. A variety of maps are available. The more people get to their destination, the higher of a score you will achieve.
Daily and weekly challenges are also available. The game look is very clean and minimalist, and the music is meditative.
Another game that's good to buy when it's on sale. Available on Steam for $9.99.
Tiny Bubbles
Deceptively simple looking puzzle game consisting of colored bubbles. Match three of the same color together to pop the bubbles. This is a game of strategy and timing. If your bubble mass gets too big, the crabs come in to pop the bubbles. Some puzzles have a fish that comes in to introduce more bubbles. The game is all about planning out the combinations of colors you've been given to maximize the bubbles popped. Your goal is to pop all the bubbles within a certain number of moves. This puzzle game is not as relaxed - some of the bubbles require careful timing to combine colors so that they pop together. $9.99 on Steam from Pine Street Codeworks LLC.
