Gorogoa

Gorogoa is a relaxing, intriguing puzzle game that is a must-have addition to anyone's game library. With unique art and unique gameplay, it's a fresh new take on the genre, and its quality reflects the fact that it took years to perfect.

The Switch’s eShop is starting to become saturated with bucket loads of high-quality content. This is great in one way, of course, but stumbling across hidden gems within it will get tougher as time goes on. Gorogoa is one such gem; a game quite unlike any other that deserves your attention. It is a little on the short side, but the creativity that has been put into its design, and the effect it will have on you during your time exploring its gorgeous world, is something that you’ll want to experience. If you’re looking for something new to try, this would be an excellent choice.

In the end that is probably how Gorogoa should be considered. It is a beautiful and thoroughly captivating short story. Puzzles, while not overly difficult, are thoughtfully constructed and fit together like clockwork. Robert’s plays with our perceptions and understands that the audience is capable of keeping up with the unfolding story. If you have a few hours please do pick this game up and lose yourself in Gorogoa, available now on Steam, GoG, iOS, and Nintendo Switch.

With smart puzzles and lovely art, Gorogoa is well worth grabbing for anyone who's a fan of puzzle games, even despite its short length.

The elegance of Gorogoa masks a formidable design achievement.

Gorogoa is a tremendously designed puzzle experience that rewards creative, out-of-the-box thinking. Though there were a few, rare moments where frustration blemished the ride, the game is so authentically unique, beautifully illustrated and wonderfully scored, that it’s impossible to not be enamoured by its potent, singular vision.

Manipulate works of art to twist reality.

More than anything, the feeling that dominated throughout was one of magic. Its impossible logic made so much sense, its undimensional structure somehow coherent, so long as you allow yourself to float between the solving and the unsolving. It is that suspended place, between confusion and understanding, reality and impossibility, that makes Gorogoa so bewitching and enticing.

Gorogoa crafts its inventive, sliding-tile puzzles and magical world with a graceful simplicity across a compact but fulfilling adventure. The excitement of solving each puzzle may be lost on a repeat playthrough, but its hand-drawn art and clever payoffs are no less satisfying to watch unfold again and again. Gorogoa manages to say so much without uttering a single word, endowing it with a mystery that invites a more attentive, thoughtful revisit — and one that I was more than happy to accept.

I wouldn’t say I disliked Gorogoa. It’s definitely an impressive piece of work. Considering it’s been designed and illustrated by just one man, Jason Roberts, it’s very clearly an amazing feat. It’s been a labour of love for several years, and the care and dedication put into it clearly shows. It takes someone quite extraordinary to see the world in such a way to connect images like Roberts does in Gorogoa, and for that alone I’m glad I’ve been privy to it. It’ll stick with me as a piece of art to admire, but not as a video game to enjoy.

Gorogoa’s main problem lies with its outdated linear approach. It’s a fantastic, distinctive looking game with a solid hook for progression through its puzzles, but it ironically doesn’t take a lot of risks. If you want a good hour or so to play a unique puzzle game, Gorogoa will fill that void, but just don’t expect it to do much more than that.

I appreciate short games built to execute specific, modest concepts. The world of indie games is filled with these kinds of focused experiences, and Gorogoa can certainly be described in this way. However, I simply did not connect with its vision; the narrative is too ambiguous to be engaging, and the simple puzzle mechanics stirred up no emotional response within me.