Time to review a game about sliding pictures pieces around to solve puzzles and explore a beautifully crafted world. Developed by Jason Roberts, let’s take a quick look at Gorogoa.

Gorogoa is my favorite kind of game. That is to say, simple in concept while complex and imaginative in execution. In its simplest form, Gorogoa is a tile sliding puzzle game. Just move up to four blocks around the screen and click on everything to move forward.

Focusing on a creatively told non-linear story about a boy trying to stop a dragon from destroying his city, it’s absurdist nature only makes the mind bending puzzles feel more at home in this strangely beautiful package.

Now obviously the game is a treat to look at. The art style and animation have this storybook appearance that’s wholly unique and really helps this game stand out amongst its peers, but the real joy is in the gameplay. 

Solving these puzzles is mind bending and forces the player to use abstract methods of manipulating the environment in tandem with sliding around the blocks to create some incredibly fun and satisfying puzzles. 

Even better, the game maintains that critical balance of challenge and confusion without becoming frustrating by frequently preventing players from backtracking by closing off certain areas that have already been solved. This is crucial, since many pieces of the environment layer over one another and having too many irrelevant red herrings would have become really annoying, really fast.

However, as great as it is, there are some flaws to Gorogoa worth mentioning. On the more minor side, some of the puzzles can feel like they play themselves. Just click on everything that can be clicked until something new happens. This problem isn’t too frequent, but for a game this short, it’s worth mentioning. Which brings me to the other issue, which is game length. 

As fun as it is, Gorogoa only takes about an hour and a half to complete and that’s only if you get really stuck on a certain puzzle like I did. While I understand this game took a lot of effort to create and I do feel the game is more than worth the price, I can’t help but feel it was over too quickly and even the ending to the story felt a bit rushed. It’s nothing too jarring, but something potential players should be aware of going in.

Still, when my biggest complaint about a game is that I wanted more of it, they’ve definitely done something right. Jason Roberts has created a wonderful experience with breathtaking visuals and well-designed creative puzzles, I can’t recommend Gorogoa enough, which is why I’m giving it an 8.5 out of 10.

And that about wraps it up. If you want to see this game in action, I did a full let’s play of the game last week. It’s my first time trying out a playthrough, so I’d really appreciate some feedback. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the review, if you did, please consider subscribing for more. And until next time, have a mighty nifty day today!