The Wizard of Bug looks like a recreation I’d’ve reviewed for the 3DS eShop in 2015. But, right here we’re in 2025, and this “stimulating brain-bending puzzle journey” is a brand new launch for the Swap. Whereas it begins off satisfying sufficient, it quickly places an excessive amount of emphasis on the brain-bending, on the expense of enjoyable.
There’s a plot to this recreation, pointless for a “Sokaban-style” puzzler. I assumed the story on its Nintendo web page sounded beginner, and in-game, it’s solely marginally higher. My recommendation could be simply to disregard it, besides that parts of it are onerous to miss. Display actual property is wasted with character portraits (Shirley and Ella) on both facet of the playfield. This isn’t a visible novel! But it surely does appear to wish to be a mix of journey, dungeon crawler, and RPG with puzzle wrappings. Your goal is to take away enemies from every room, however in such a sample to make sure that Shirley and/or Ella stay with one coronary heart left. It’d sound complicated (and it type of is), however with a controller in hand, you’ll finally come to grips with it.
The early puzzles struck a pleasant stability of entertaining whereas nonetheless making us assume. Sure, I performed this single-player recreation alongside my spouse to benefit from her having a head for puzzlers like this. Shirley and Ella function equally however have completely different mechanics. They aren’t simply palette swaps, and also you’ll must deal with every room with their particular person and restricted movesets in thoughts. One of the best puzzles have been in these levels the place you may change between the 2 of them. I want the swapping was higher taken benefit of early within the recreation.
It’s a easy puzzle recreation in idea, and I assumed Wizard of Bug might need some comparability with previous Sokoban titles that I’ve reviewed. However the issue takes a fast curve, and fairly early within the recreation, not lengthy after Ella is launched. I quickly realized that we have been now not having a lot enjoyable, however I stored making an attempt to plow via, complications and all. No turning down your mind to play this one.
I believe the builders will need to have had an inkling of this, as they’ve made some effort to make the sport much less irritating. There’s a measure of non-linearity, however it’s restricted and can rapidly vanish. Rewind talents appear to be a sound thought on paper, however we ended up utilizing them sparingly, because it usually made extra sense to easily begin a room over. Likewise, a touch system appears considerate, however in follow, not a lot. As soon as this peculiar tackle Sokoban clicked with us, we actually had no additional want to make use of it. In actual fact, once we did it, it simply made issues extra sophisticated. I don’t know if it’s only a case of dangerous translation, poor writing, or possibly a little bit of each.
Wizard of Bug is a goofy title for this Sokoban recreation with a twist. It loses a few of its early goodwill via pointless plot, an unbalanced issue curve, and lots of extra oddities. Locking content material behind beating the sport was additionally a large mistake. You possibly can try the demo for those who like. However this launch calls for fixed focus, and don’t be stunned if it actually struggles to maintain yours.
