Afil games publishes no-frills puzzle games, like Sokobalien. Honeyland is no exception. In this ,your goal is to get your bear to its Honey. You do this by playing cards with direction arrow and a number. The bear moves in the direction of the arrow, relative to how it is facing. The number corresponds to the number of spaces the bear moves. The goal is to play the cards in the right order to get the honey, and that is it. Later on, special cards, like jumps, are introduced, biut the idea is the same. Play the right cards in the right order to get the honey.

There are thirty increasingly tough levels, and nothing else. Still, Honeyland is not a bad game. It is only five dollars, after all. You could much worse for the money. I give this a Recommended with a seven back end score. I could continue and ramble on to meet word count, but after a recent disaster of a review, I’m going to play its safe for awhile.

Overall: Honeyland is a no-frills puzzler that delivers a decent puzzle game, and nothing else.

Verdict: Recommended

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I have encountered the Sokoban puzzle plenty of times before, like Cubicban or Super Glow Puzzle. For those who aren’t aware, Sokoban puzzles are those block pushing puzzles you’ve seen around. Sokobalien is a farm animal pushing puzzle. You are big-headed alien and have to push cows and other farms animals like pigs and chickens into a ufo’s tractor beam. It’s pretty standard stuff you’ve seen a thousand times before, until you get to level 16, and they introduce disappearing floors controlled by buttons you have to leave cows on to materialize. Then the game becomes a lot harder and vastly more interesting. I could only get to level 22 before I was stumped, and the guide was completely wrong it is directions so i got stuck. I was disappointed really.

In the end, I just scratched the surface of Sokobalien though, there are 100 puzzles in total and lots I did not experience, but for what I did experience, this is one of the better Sokoban puzzle experiences I’ve found on the eShop. The reason being, they attempted to move the genre forward a little with the floors mechanic. In addition to the puzzles, there are different hats you can buy with the coins you get winning levels. You can change the background at will to one of five different color schemes. Pointless, but it is nice that it was added. Sokobalien will get a Recommended with an eight back-end score. Must Play? Not really, these games rarely are due to their ubiquity, but if you want a Sokoban puzzle game with a twist, check this out anyway.

Overall: Sokobalien is a Sokoban/block pushing puzzle game that dares move things forward, nice!

Verdict: Recommended

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Game received for free from the publisher!

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Mimi the Cat: Mimi’s Scratcher is a puzzle game where you guide Mimi to her scratching post, usually floating the air and requiring a box or two to get there. There are jumps, specials boxes and box stacking(by pushing one into the other). The issue with the game is it was designed by amateurs. The Puzzles simply are not that difficult, and at points in the thirty puzzles, actually get easier not harder. Let me explain:

In the above puzzle in Mimi the Cat, I’m pushing the box down a narrow hallway. How will I push the box to the right at the end? Via the space at the left end. Mimi can only jump on the box when it cannot be pushed. So push it to the end, jump on, jump to the left space. Then I push the box to the right end and jump on to the end of the level.

Then there are the jumping puzzles in Mimi the Cat, like the above, where you don’t even have to push boxes around in most of them. In that one, just walk and jump. With these puzzles, they had an idea, but couldn’t follow through with them and then discard the idea completely. The puzzles overall do get trickier, yes, but nothing you can’t work out with your eyes. And if you do make a mistake, press the B button to reset.

Mimi the Cat is a disappointing game, much like Afil’s other recent game, Storyblocks: The King though for entirely different reasons. In that game, they didn’t modify the controls for the Switch. Here the controls are fine, just the game was “Baby’s first puzzler,” something like I’d create if I had to create a puzzle game. It reminds me of Shivering Stone, which was made in RPGMaker. If you want an easy puzzle game for a few minutes of fun, get this. Otherwise, there are far better puzzle games on the Switch. This will get a Your Mileage May Vary verdict with a six back-end score.

Overall: Mimi the Cat: Mimi’s Scratcher is a puzzle game made by amateurs. The puzzles just aren’t well thought out.

Verdict: YMMV

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Game received for free from the publisher.

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Storyblocks: The King should have been an easy recommend on the Switch. It is a nice and relaxing puzzle game that is not particularly taxing. You have a starting block and multiple end blocks. You make a path to one of the end blocks using all of the provided blocks. The hook is that there is a story about young man leaving his home village for adventure. You can either continue the story by linking to a sign block, or end the story with a book block and start over. I got a few endings and enjoyed the idea immensely. I found other, similar games. like Dolemenjord more brain taxing that Storyblocks: The King is. This is fine. So far, so good.

What knocks Storyblocks: The King down to a Your Mileage May Vary are the controls. Simply put, placing blocks on the Switch is a nightmare. The controls were designed for a mouse(there is a Steam version). You can only use the stick and the blocks do not snap into place. This makes placing blocks far harder than it should be as you cannot connect blocks unless they have a green outline. Getting the green outline is often more trouble than it should be. The developers should have reworked the controls so that you can use the D-pad and the blocks snap into place. As it is, you are spending more time fighting the controls than enjoying the game and story. Also the menu button at the top does not work.

I wanted to like Storyblocks: The King. I wanted to recommend it. However, with the controls being what they are, I simply have no interest in experiencing more of it and getting all the ending. This is disappointing. This game will get a YMMV verdict with a six back-end score.

Overall: If you don’t mind fighting the controls, you might enjoy Storyblocks: The King.

Verdict: YMMV

eShop Page

Game received for free from the publisher!

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