Solid puzzle game focused on relaxing vibes where you organize conveyor belts of donuts. It fits among games like Unpacking or A Little To The Left.

There are enough puzzles to last a good 8-ish hours, give or take. There were a few later puzzles I struggled with, but there is a logic to it, and once you learn how to deduct what goes where, you usually figure it out.

Most of the puzzles are easy though, I can count on one hand the puzzles I spent more than 15 minutes on, which generally I enjoy, as it means the game progresses fast and there are always new puzzles around the corner.

A cute little puzzle game that is all about those sugary treats. Divided into 12 chapters, a new mechanic is regularly introduced, explored, and puzzle after puzzle something new gets added, and just when it starts to slowly but surely feel a bit draggy, the next mechanic is already introduced. The clever puzzles are a great icing one the donut, while the charming presentation and dialogues are sugar sprinkles on top of it. As another blob of cream, the donut factories get more diffucult in a well balanced pacing, while everything is pretty smooth at the beginning, it gets much more challenging later on without ever getting too hard.

So why not throw a cherry on top as well? Well, somehow Freshly Frosted could use a bit more depth. And even though everything is really competently done, the game as a whole doesn't offer much new that we don't already know from similar titles. But that doesn't change the fact that Freshly Frosted is a treat for all puzzle-loving donut fans.

"You can't buy happiness, but you can buy doughnuts, and that's sort of the same thing."

Simple, sweet, and irresistible fun in a package perfectly suited for a dozen of your favorite offerings. Freshly Frosted is that puzzle game hardly anyone will go out of their way to talk about, but those who take on the order, and help sort the infinite loop of doughnut factories within our head are bound to be pleased. An oh so pleasant narration kickstarts every level as you come across the toughest of conundrums. Do I still play this game or leave my house to get a nice pastry? It's the little things in life that bring the most joy, and this game takes all the time it can to relax you into a void of pure relaxation and comfort. Now excuse me as I curiously wonder to myself what venue will be my next target for an order of their finest delicious baked doughnuts.

We hereby award: The Silver Seal of Merit

Freshly Frosted is a logic-based engineering puzzle game about building conveyor belts through various contraptions to deliver donuts to the right counters. Starting from simple A to B premises and quickly evolving to include multiple toppings, split paths, walls, and portals, Freshly Frosted keeps its puzzles delightful and approachable while easing the player into each of its mechanics. There are 12 chapters in the game, with 12 puzzles each. The first half of each chapter serves as an easier kickstart to understanding the intricacies of a new idea, which is then quickly expanded upon for much harder challenges. While I flew through many of the levels, several stumped me to my core, and developer QAG really got use out of every quirk present in their donut-making process. Even if you get stuck, the game doesn't allow you to be frustrated for long. You can skip a level at basically any time, and you aren't gated from moving to the next chapter if you haven't solved all the previous puzzles. Also, there's a great hint system which starts your conveyors, but doesn't hand you the solution or penalize the hint in the first place. While I wasn't expecting a story at all from Freshly Frosted, there's a light narrative element in the VO, a woman dreaming about an endless donut shop. This definitely added to the game's charismatic and cute aesthetic, but while I think the VO was well-done, it didn't add anything to the experience and could sometimes be annoying. Additionally, a handful of puzzles had solutions that seemed arbitrary, changing seemingly nothing, but getting different results. This is felt most in the "gates" chapter, which I struggled with often visualizing since you cannot edit the conveyors while the donuts are moving on them. Apart from this though, Freshly Frosted is a much appreciated pure puzzle game that is perfect for someone who doesn't want anything too hard or intimidating to relax with for a few hours.

No idea why this is one of the highest rated games of the year on OpenCritic. It's a fine puzzler with some very slick presentation and an emphasis on being all things 'chill'. I found it very satisfying to play... until the levels got too complex for my puny mind to handle. At that point, I lost the will to keep playing to be honest, and there's nothing really to convince the player to keep going anyway. But I admit that's more my own fault than the game's. I lack the patience in general to pay attention to puzzles once they get too hard. At that point, I usually break out a guide.

There's narration that's in keeping with the whole chilled vibe, but it had the opposite effect for me. The lady was far too twee and quirky for my tastes, and every time she opened her mouth and said some kooky bollocks, I started getting vexed. Her 'musings' start to get really strained towards the end, and it's clear that the writer is struggling to give her interesting and/or humorous things to say. My advice to anyone is - put the narrator on mute. She's incredibly irritating and a couple of packets of digested Pop Rocks away from manic pixie dream girl territory.

Kinda runs into the same problems as most puzzle games in that it is definitely fun, but it gets to the point of being too hard or complex for me to find any enjoyment from the experience. I was smart enough to stop this time around, and there fortunately doesn't really seem to be a negative to this. There's no story, so the only thing driving you forward is harder puzzles, so when they got too hard, dropping the game entirely felt natural. The narrator who speaks to you about donuts is very cringe though, and perhaps if it weren't so bad I may have been inspired to push through some of the more challenging puzzles. Sorry, I'm just not lonely enough to feel comforted by a pre-scripted voiceover. Why the fuck are the reviews so high for this anyway? 3/6