Cosy, wholesome, zen. I don’t outright hate these terms when discussing video games but as discussed on The Computer Game Show trying to use those terms as a genre title feels, incorrect, possibly disingenuous.
Horror is a genre, not “scary”, the decision of what something feels like is up to its audience.
It may sound redundant but acting as if cosy is a genre is the equivalent to filing a game under “fun”.
I have definitely used these words to describe games in the past. I am a fan of having games that I can relax with, zone out a little and not feel pressured or even stressed.
A Little to the Left aims for a feeling of being cosy, simple and just nice. Organising varying objects into a tidy manner as a simple puzzle, while along the way introducing a long-haired white cat to add to the everyday wholesome feeling the game is aiming for, using this cat as a game mechanic to either mess with your tidying or as a theme to the puzzles.
I love cats, but I feel that, let’s just call them “cat people”, end up elevating a lot of things that include cats to a pedestal they do not deserve.
This again just added to a feeling which may make me sound miserable, of being told I should like something which had me push back against it.
I will decide whether the game is wholesome, not the game itself.
As far as the organising and puzzles, A Little to the Left fails to do either in a way that really landed with me.
In terms of organising, the feeling is enjoyable for a moment and quickly repetitive. These items other than feeling quite “everyday” don’t really do anything else but act as icons, there is no story within them unlike Unpacking - the game I would say really pushed this subgenre.
The puzzles again are repetitive, organise by size, organise in a colour gradient, make something symmetrical, there is really not much else to them other than this.
Once you understand the game’s language, what it decides is organised, you can solve each puzzle within seconds, maybe replaying for different solutions but quickly moving on.
Another issue with the puzzles themselves is the interactions of simply picking up and putting stuff down never feels precise enough and also doesn’t feel marked out enough to do quickly.
Many times I would have items in the right order but the game had me fiddle with the items until lined up perfectly and that in my eyes, doesn’t feel relaxed or cosy, it feels annoying and like busy work. I will also add here that one puzzle the game would not allow me to solve even though I had everything correct (I ended up using the hint and then guides to check) but because it wouldn’t progress I spent minutes fiddling for no gain.
Sadly repetition is the biggest flaw of A Little to the Left and the finale really ramps this to a stage where I found myself saying “I don’t care about this cat”.
Perhaps there is an argument that I should have played this game in shorter bursts and to a degree I agree with that assessment. However, this further enforces the final point I’d like to make about this game. It’s in the wrong format.
This title is on PC and all the modern consoles, and outside of the Switch and maybe the Steam Deck I don’t think this fits. It has “mobile game” written all over it and whilst I don’t intend that to be an insult it does make it feel wrong playing on a bigger screen.
Multiple stages with tiny puzzles and little in the way of connective thread throughout them just reminds me of the classic games on iOS such as Angry Birds, Cut the Rope or even Monument Valley although that feels more narratively driven.
A Little to the Left is a Little Disappointing.
Horror is a genre, not “scary”, the decision of what something feels like is up to its audience.
It may sound redundant but acting as if cosy is a genre is the equivalent to filing a game under “fun”.
I have definitely used these words to describe games in the past. I am a fan of having games that I can relax with, zone out a little and not feel pressured or even stressed.
A Little to the Left aims for a feeling of being cosy, simple and just nice. Organising varying objects into a tidy manner as a simple puzzle, while along the way introducing a long-haired white cat to add to the everyday wholesome feeling the game is aiming for, using this cat as a game mechanic to either mess with your tidying or as a theme to the puzzles.
I love cats, but I feel that, let’s just call them “cat people”, end up elevating a lot of things that include cats to a pedestal they do not deserve.
This again just added to a feeling which may make me sound miserable, of being told I should like something which had me push back against it.
I will decide whether the game is wholesome, not the game itself.
As far as the organising and puzzles, A Little to the Left fails to do either in a way that really landed with me.
In terms of organising, the feeling is enjoyable for a moment and quickly repetitive. These items other than feeling quite “everyday” don’t really do anything else but act as icons, there is no story within them unlike Unpacking - the game I would say really pushed this subgenre.
The puzzles again are repetitive, organise by size, organise in a colour gradient, make something symmetrical, there is really not much else to them other than this.
Once you understand the game’s language, what it decides is organised, you can solve each puzzle within seconds, maybe replaying for different solutions but quickly moving on.
Another issue with the puzzles themselves is the interactions of simply picking up and putting stuff down never feels precise enough and also doesn’t feel marked out enough to do quickly.
Many times I would have items in the right order but the game had me fiddle with the items until lined up perfectly and that in my eyes, doesn’t feel relaxed or cosy, it feels annoying and like busy work. I will also add here that one puzzle the game would not allow me to solve even though I had everything correct (I ended up using the hint and then guides to check) but because it wouldn’t progress I spent minutes fiddling for no gain.
Sadly repetition is the biggest flaw of A Little to the Left and the finale really ramps this to a stage where I found myself saying “I don’t care about this cat”.
Perhaps there is an argument that I should have played this game in shorter bursts and to a degree I agree with that assessment. However, this further enforces the final point I’d like to make about this game. It’s in the wrong format.
This title is on PC and all the modern consoles, and outside of the Switch and maybe the Steam Deck I don’t think this fits. It has “mobile game” written all over it and whilst I don’t intend that to be an insult it does make it feel wrong playing on a bigger screen.
Multiple stages with tiny puzzles and little in the way of connective thread throughout them just reminds me of the classic games on iOS such as Angry Birds, Cut the Rope or even Monument Valley although that feels more narratively driven.
A Little to the Left is a Little Disappointing.