Soft Game Reviews

Genre: Puzzle

Platform: PC, Switch, Playstation

Concept: The main character becomes a royal guardian. This includes harvesting lots of veggies and making lots of friends along the way.

Length: Short-Medium

Impression: Cute graphics. Has different playstyles, although it's a bit tricky to tell the difference. Low-stakes, you can't really lose. The story is episodic. A cute game to relax to.

For when you just want to escape into a cute bunny land.

Review: A Short Hike

Genre: Exploration

Platform: PC

Concept: A young bird named Claire is vacationing on an island. She's waiting on a phone call but there's no reception so she has to climb one of the local peaks.

Length: Short

Impression: Interesting graphical style. It's sort of a pixely 3D, very satisfying to look at (the camera can be rotated).

Soothing music and sound effects. The island itself offers collectibles to find and NPCs to talk to, along with nice views, making exploration feel worthwhile.

Made me want to go for a walk in the woods.

Review: A Snake's Tale

Genre: Puzzle

Platform: PC

Concept: Guide your snake to the goal, guide other snakes out of the way to allow passage.

Length: Short (though the final puzzles are challenging)

Impression:Plenty of snek, very satisfying sound effects. Music is also very snek. Snake animation is simple yet feels smooth.

Simple to grasp, features an undo button.

Review: Campfire Cooking

Genre: Puzzle

Platform: PC

Concept: You're on a camping trip and have to cook food without burning it

Length: Short-Medium

Impression: Graphics are easy on the eyes, once a set of stages is unlocked they can be played in any order, gradual introduction of new mechanics keep things fresh.

The game teaches you mechanics through the puzzles themselves, unlocking new a new set of stages doesn't require clearing every puzzle, but the number does increase as you unlock further sets.

Review: Hidden Paws

Genre: Hidden Object Game

Platform: PC

Concept: It's winter and you're looking for cats on a series of snowy islands.

Length: Short

Impression: Figuring out how to navigate the map is confusing at first. It does get easier but there still are moments where homing in on a particular spot can feel tricky.

You have to rotate the camera a lot in this game, so it may cause motion sickness. It has a FOV slider which can maybe help the issue for some.

The winter scenes are cute and islands featured in later stages are bigger. It can take quite a while to find all the cats. Features a visual hint system for when you're stuck. Cats also meow when you're close to them.

Review: Puzzle Puppers

Genre: Puzzle

Platform: PC

Concept: The puppers are hungry. Lead them to their food bowls.

Length: Short

Impression: Cute graphics. The mechanics are simple to grasp but still make for interesting puzzles.

Mistakes can easily be undone by moving the dogs backwards. Some levels make active use of the undo mechanic as a part of the puzzle.

The soundtrack is classical music, but if that isn't your thing it can easily be muted.