What we've been playing - island puzzles, organisational fun, and hairpin turns

19th October

Hello! Welcome back to our regular feature where we write a little bit about some of the games we've been playing over the past few days. We've moved this to a regular Saturday slot to give it a little more time to breathe - appologies if you came looking for it on Friday. This week, we tackle some puzzles while holidaying in a cabin, we go back to a game that had been forgotten about, and try to find some grip during a sharp turn on snow. What have you been playing?

Catch up with the older editions of this column in our What We've Been Playing archive.

Isles of Sea and Sky, PC (Steam Deck)

I was on holiday last week and did almost nothing except hole up in the countryside cabin we were staying in, read some books and play video games. It was glorious, partly because it was tipping it down with rain for 80% of the time we were there and there's nothing better than tucking into a good game while cosied up under a warm blanket with a steady stream of tea on tap. The good game in question was the very good Isles of Sea and Sky, which came out earlier in the year asking: 'what if The Witness was a game all about Sokoban puzzles and also looked a bit like Link's Awakening in the process?'

It's exceedingly good, and well worth tracking down if you're looking for a clever puzzle game to mull over now the nights are drawing in and game of the year discussions are drawing closer. It keeps a lot of its story at arm's length - your long-haired, loinclothed hero simply washes up on a beach one day, keeps seeing what I can only assume are beautiful ladies in the distance, but only receives ominous visions of evil snake demons when he finally catches up to them. I'm only part way through the game at the moment, so I'm assuming this is all building to some wider revelation that's no doubt sealed behind that central island's big door with four god-like guardians painted on it whose powers I must acquire before I can pass through it.

But even if it does lend heavily into being a bit too ponderous for its own good, the Sokoban-style block pushing puzzles you'll need to solve in order to obtain said powers are just excellent little brain teasers. They start off simple enough, but then you start encountering blocks and obstacles with other, game-changing properties, and before long you're visiting islands where blocks can transform into raging torrents, or explode when they stay on lava too long, or turn into roly-poly golems that can shunt or break other blocks when they crash into them. There's a surprising amount going on here, and it makes peeling back the layers of Sea and Sky feel moreish and mysterious. I can't stop thinking about it, and I know I'll be chipping away at this for many more weeks to come.

-Katharine

A Little to the Left, Xbox Series X

Amazing how time passes, isn't it? Last weekend I thought I'd jump back into A Little to the Left, the sort of meditative puzzle game from Max Inferno and Secret Mode, thinking I better carry on before I leave it too long. When was the last time I played it, you ask. Well, February, it seems. Oops. Anyway, it's only eight months - no time at all, really.

In my defence, I got a little distracted by other, meatier games. God of War Ragnarok took me ages, Alan Wake 2 sadly became a bit of a slog, Resident Evil 4 Remake is awesome, and Astro Bot just had to be played immediately. And, yeah, I guess I did then dabble with loads of other games, like Space Marine 2, Diablo 4, Dragon's Dogma 2, and Nobody Wants to Die. Fine, I'm sorry A Little to the Left, I should have returned to you sooner, but I have now. Get over it.

This little faux argument I'm having with myself is really only here to contrast the immaculate zen vibes that A Little to the Left gives off. Yes, it's a puzzle game where you must organise or arrange objects in the 'correct' way in order to unlock the next stage, but it's a puzzle in the same way tidying your desk is a chore. Putting everything in its rightful place releases those "Ahhhhh" hormones (I'm not a scientist, but I'm going to say… dopamine?), and the same feeling is found when you sort some papers or arrange some jars in A Little to the Left.

If you're thinking this all sounds a little simple, then think again. It's not, yet it's somehow not frustrating. If you fancy giving A Little to the Left a whirl, it's 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 film Drive) in my 1.2 set to eco mode, I got inspired to pick up a couple of driving games. I've been getting into the Switch again more recently and came across Rush Rally 3 from Brownmonster.

Rush Rally has given me that somewhat blocky nostalgia I didn't know I was craving from the Sega Rally arcade machine at my local climbing centre. I say blocky because, while on higher-end mobile phones it's smooth, the Switch in handheld struggles. I've had to pull back the graphics a bit (yes, you can tweak them on Switch), and I think I love it even more for this reason. I'm terrible at the game, and still crash on almost every hairpin, but it makes for a rewarding experience when I do eventually take a corner without hitting a pile of logs or driving off a cliff.

Built by one person, and costing just £11.99 on Switch (currently discounted to just £3.19 right now), I really can't recommend it enough for anyone who just needs a quick fix of racing nostalgia.

-Will B (breaking things behind the scenes, daily)