Puzzles don’t have to be frustrating-if-satisfying endeavors. On occasion they can be therapeutic, great stress-relievers (ironic a suggestion that may sound). But most times, they are fascinating little microcosms of one’s own progression, if nothing else. Particularly in the case of puzzles built around sequences, or individual pieces or elements built up to reach some uniform or completed whole so to speak. At the moment of completion or success, to look back and reflect that this now cohesive solution was once an identity-deprived mess. A seemingly indecipherable jumble of bits and pieces wherein one insignificant, possibly unintentional, decision eventually paved the way to what was intended the whole time.
In many ways, the mundane necessity of everyday life chores -- cleaning, tidying up, making sure one’s surroundings don’t devolve into something resembling a landfill -- has all the hallmarks of puzzle-solving. Maybe not in complexity or process, but in that simple philosophy on starting at seemingly impossible and inescapable ground, but eventually, finding one’s way to that ideal goal and end-point. Is this perhaps why A Little to the Left fascinates me so? Or more likely, that one’s own obsessive habits pertaining to positioning, order and structure -- like any troublesome addiction -- have found a way to gnaw at me? God forbid I wouldn’t suggest developer Max Inferno have orchestrated anything unethical or egregious in this delightful little puzzle game of theirs.
But there’s something to be said about how well and how deep A Little to the Left taps into the everyday, more personal, need of not just routine, but of pattern recognition. Even when said patterns may not exist to begin with. That in itself is both a blessing and a curse for A Little to the Left. A game that relishes the opportunity to prey on one’s obsession with how objects can be placed, as opposed to how they should be. Across its seventy-plus individual vignettes, around half house more than one solution. Be this some specific visual clue, something in the detail of its textures; a reference to some other means of sequencing. It’s not just added incentive to replay particular puzzles of course, but on a general design level too, the game manages to be subtle enough for these details to go largely ignored. Only getting flagged up if you’re paying close-enough attention.
And for the most part, the game enjoys that added level of depth with the way these puzzles can be repeated and revisited. It’s just a shame that at times that implementation of other solutions tucked away to be discovered can be somewhat inconsistent. And not just in terms of pure complexity, but simply in the illusion of complexity. Not for the first time do you come to a puzzle game and find frustration that the solution is a lot easier than one suspected. Likely to spend long stretched trying to orchestrate some elaborate sequence based on color or size, when the solution was far more basic than you were offering credit to. A consolation to all this, is likely in the game’s latter half where A Little to the Left begins to properly expand on its premise. Not least in its closing segments where solutions feel more player-created for one’s self, rather than discovered.
So too, most important of all, the mechanics of the puzzles begin to encompass more physics-based and physics-restricted in how one goes about interacting with objects. One puzzle requiring you to hang tools according to a set layout of hooks, but each tool if not hung properly can collide with and even knock other objects off if you’re not careful. Another requiring you to move boxes and match up what may or may not be the desired pattern, but said boxes can only be moved if nothing else is stacked atop them. There are enough of these momentary tricks and mechanics to factor in, that it prevents A Little to the Left from feeling too similar or one-note in its pitch. Yes, the idea of organization and tidying up is central to most scenarios, but there's still an underlying joy in having that other secondary "rule" if you will reveal itself.
If there were any critical complaints to the game’s approach, it’s to be found in how the game communicates its own internal language to the player. How A Little to the Left can on occasion get too indulgent in its own aesthetic and intentions; pleasant to look at and work with they remain for large parts. For one, should you find yourself completely lost, an option to reveal a puzzle’s solution is available -- requiring you to erase a series of scribbles covering over a doodled equivalent of the puzzle in question. Revealing the answer, or at least one would hope but sadly, there are times the game’s attempt at explaining can be just as indecipherable as the puzzles themselves. A mild annoyance this may be though, A Little to the Left has more than enough charm and likability in its presentation, to quickly shoo away these brief inconveniences.
A combination of the bite-size, level-by-level structure its main progression is stylized as, but also owing to the bright, vibrant art-style that makes its litter of mundane, everyday objects feel more lively and attractive than they should be. Household utensils, gadgets, devices and materials all adorned with bright ounces of color. A visual equivalent to the soundtrack that too manages to be cheerful, supportive and optimistic enough, but not to the point where the moment it loops back to the start, it becomes too obnoxious or grating. And again, like in all puzzle games, the notion of having to hear the same looped recording until a solution’s found is a worrisome one. But an aspect that, fortunately, A Little to the Left manages to avoid.
Closing Comments:
In all its tricks, turns and trials to overcome, A Little to the Left succeeds on the basis of its charming and relatable premise on the obsessive nature of order and sequence. Messes to tidy up, objects to arrange and patterns to recognize, or perhaps be led astray in assuming there's one to even recognize. Max Inferno already establish a quaint and attractive presentation here, but it's thanks to the execution of its main puzzles -- with a few added mechanics and incentives to replay puzzles on top -- where A Little to the Left finds that added lift to help bolster its appeal. The game's key means of communication doesn't always work in its favor and that cozy, laid-back approach can be an occasional annoyance just as it can be a helpful support. Even so, a game that in many ways strikes right at the heart of puzzle game mentality and that desire to find order amid the chaos. Proof that A Little to the Left with all its color and upbeat vibrancy, more importantly, has the wit and the know-how to make its challenge something you'll take great pride in completing.
A Little to the Left
Reviewed on PC
- Released
- November 8, 2022
- Developer
- Max Inferno
- Publisher
- Max Inferno
- Genre(s)
- Puzzle , Point-and-click
- How Long To Beat
- 4 Hours