The game does not give you any hints as to what you should be doing, except tapping on a picture in a random spot and seeing circles around the major objects you can interact with, but even then, the game does not tell you why it is significant. With all these complex ways of solving the puzzle, games usually tend to give you some type of hint that will help you move onto the next part of the sequence, and I spent many moments wishing that this game offered help like that.
Above all, they are thoughtful and contemplative, sewing together the gameplay mechanics with the moral and aesthetic ambitions of the game. The puzzles are nuanced, beautifully crafted, and varied. Then, you have to use a moving wheel from another panel to spin this staircase upside down, which can then be placed on top of another panel to act as a staircase for the boy to move to the next picture.
photo: Annapurna InteractiveĪ moment that stood out for me was when during the retrieval of the blue apple - the most difficult out of the five coloured fruits to collect - where the boy has to jump from picture to picture on a wall through finding symbols and images hidden in other locations that are connected when you put the pieces together.Įventually, you see that a book on a shelf has a picture of a room filled with pottery, and on one of them is a picture of a mountain, and through the mountains stands an ancient staircase. This is also another way that makes this game unique, where there are so many hidden secrets that you are overwhelmed with what you’re supposed to do. With each image, there is the possibility of another image hidden behind it, taking the gamer to another part of the world. The basic layout of the game is that it is divided into four square panels, where the images are interlinked, can be moveable, and has multiple layers to it. It fits perfectly with the gameplay as well. Roberts had hand-drawn everything that you see in the game in pencil - which is just unbelievable - and the work absolutely pays off. What first sets this game apart from other puzzle-solving mobile games, like The Room or the Monument Valley series, is the fact that it is far more aesthetically pleasing than the two. In the process, we learn more about this peculiar story, through the journey the boy makes to collect these objects, the scholars whose homes we play through, and the different portals that link the world together, although you’re never quite sure where the next will lead. The title is inspired by swashbuckling tales and cinematic adventure games of generations past, so if you're into old LucasArts games, for example, this may be one for you.Ĭheck out the game's Microsoft Store page here, and clock a trailer below.įinally, The Pedestrian asks you to rearrange and reconnect public signs in order to explore and advance through each engaging environment.If I was to recommend a mobile game that you can kick off the new year with, then I would direct your attention to Gorogoa - a game that has an enticing mixture of compelling storytelling, and intuitive game mechanics.ĭeveloped by Jason Roberts and published by Annapurna Interactive, this seven-year project tells the story of a young boy travelling through different cities and dimensions, collecting five different coloured fruits in a quest to encounter a mythical, divine creature. "Through adventurous exploration, narration and razor sharp combat, the player will discover a strange world and its inhabitants, including Olija, an enigmatic lady that Faraday finds himself bound to over time." "Armed with a legendary harpoon, he and other castaways try to leave this hostile country to return to their homelands," reads a blurb. Next, there's Olija: a game about Faraday's quest, a man shipwrecked then trapped in the mysterious country of Terraphage. It comes off as impeccably simple, yet satisfyingly complex.Ĭheck out a trailer below and see its Microsoft Store listing here.
The gameplay of Gorogoa is wholly original, comprised of lavishly illustrated panels that players arrange and combine in imaginative ways to solve puzzles. Let's go through them one by one: first up, it's Gorogoa, a puzzle game from Annapurna Interactive that sells itself as "an elegant evolution of the puzzle genre, told through a beautifully hand-drawn story designed and illustrated by Jason Roberts." Because Microsoft clearly didn't think that its Xbox Game Pass offering was decent enough already, the company has just added a surprise three more games to the service in the form of the gorgeous, hand-drawn puzzles of Gorogoa, the shipwrecked action-adventure of Olija and the 2.5D side-scrolling puzzle-platforming of The Pedestrian.
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