What we played – island puzzles, organizational fun and hairpin turns

October 19th

Hello! Welcome back to our regular feature where we write a little about some of the games we’ve been playing over the last few days. We’ve moved this to a regular Saturday slot to give it a little more time to breathe – apologies if you were looking for this on Friday. This week we’re solving a few puzzles while on vacation at a cabin, returning to a game we’d forgotten about, and trying to find some grip on a sharp turn in the snow. What did you play?

Check out back editions of this column in our What We’ve Been Playing archive.

Isles of Sea and Sky, PC (Steam Deck)

I was on vacation last week and did almost nothing other than hole up in the cottage in the country where we were staying, reading a few books and playing video games. It was lovely, partly because it rained 80% of the time we were there, and there’s nothing better than playing a good game cozily under a warm blanket and drinking a steady stream of draft tea. The good game in question was the very good Isles of Sea and Sky, which came out earlier this year and asked the question, “What if The Witness was a game all about Sokoban puzzles and “Does it look a bit like Link’s Awakening?”

It’s exceedingly good and definitely worth tracking down if you’re looking for a clever puzzle game to mull over now that the nights are drawing in and the Game of the Year discussions are getting closer and closer. It keeps much of its story at arm’s length – your long-haired, loincloth-wearing hero just washes up on a beach one day, keeps seeing what I can only assume are beautiful ladies in the distance, but only gets menacing visions of evil snake demons other than him finally catches up with her. I’m only halfway through the game, so I’m assuming this is all leading up to a larger revelation, no doubt sealed behind this central island’s great door, which has four godlike guardians painted on it, whose powers I’m taking on have to before I can pass it.

But even if it seems a bit too ponderous on its own, the Sokoban-style block-pushing puzzles you have to solve to get these powers are just excellent little brain teasers. They start out simple enough, but then you come across blocks and obstacles with other game-changing properties, and soon you’re visiting islands where blocks can turn into torrents or explode if left on the lava for too long, or themselves turn into chubby golems that can redirect or break other blocks if they crash into them. There’s a surprising amount going on here, and when you peel back the layers of “Sea and Sky,” it feels grittier and more mysterious. I can’t stop thinking about it and I know I’ll be thinking about it for many more weeks.

-Katharine

A little to the left, Xbox Series X

Amazing how time flies, isn’t it? Last weekend I thought I’d revisit A ​​Little to the Left, a meditative puzzle game from Max Inferno and Secret Mode, and thought I’d better move on before I leave it for too long. You’re wondering when was the last time I played it. Well, February, it seems. Oops. Anyway, it’s only eight months – no time at all, really.

In my defense, I got a little distracted by other, more substantial games. “God of War Ragnarok” took forever, Alan Wake 2 unfortunately became pretty boring, “Resident Evil 4 Remake” is great and “Astro Bot” just had to be played immediately. And yes, I think I then got into a lot of other games like Space Marine 2, Diablo 4, Dragon’s Dogma 2 and Nobody Wants to Die. Well, I’m sorry, A Little to the Left, I should have come back to you sooner, but now I have. Get over it.

This little fake argument I’m having with myself really only serves to contrast the impeccable Zen vibe that A Little to the Left exudes. Yes, it’s a puzzle game where you have to organize or arrange objects “correctly” to unlock the next stage, but it’s a puzzle in the same way that cleaning up your desk is a chore. When you put everything in its right place, those “ahhhhh” hormones are released (I’m not a scientist, but I would say… dopamine?), and the same feeling occurs when you sort some papers or sort some glasses arranged in A Little To the left.

If you think this all sounds a little simple, think again. It’s not, but somehow it’s not frustrating. If you’re interested in checking out A Little to the Left, it’s available on everything, including Game Pass.

-Tom O

Rush Rally 3, Nintendo Switch

Driving home from a Dom Joly show at night and listening to Kavinsky (yes, I love the movie Drive) on my 1.2 in Eco mode, I was inspired to play some driving games. I’ve been getting busy with the Switch lately and came across Rush Rally 3 by Brownmonster.

Rush Rally gave me the slightly blocky nostalgia I didn’t know I felt from the Sega Rally arcade machine at my local climbing center. I say blocky because while it runs smoothly on high-end mobile phones, the Switch struggles on handheld devices. I had to dial back the graphics a bit (yes, you can tweak them on the Switch), and I think I love it even more for that reason. I’m bad at the game and still crash on almost every hairpin turn, but it’s a rewarding experience when I finally make it into a turn without hitting a stack of logs or going off a cliff.

Built by one person and priced at just £11.99 on Switch (currently reduced to just £3.19), I really can’t recommend it enough for anyone who just needs a quick hit of racing nostalgia.

-Will B (breaking things behind the scenes every day)