It's kinda hard trying to articulate just how cool this game is. Like yeah, the puzzles are REALLY clever and it's got a neat art style, but that hardly scratches the surface of its brilliance. The core mechanic is deceptively simple: you've a got a 2x2 grid of squares and you move them around to make stuff happen. It's still decently challenging, and you're bound to get stumped from time to time (in a good way).

But I think what really makes Gorogoa tick is how it marries "gameplay" and "narrative" in a way I haven't really seen elsewhere. I'm not really sure how to describe it and I don't think "ludonarrative harmony" is the right term (it's similar, but not really the same thing), but it just works.

Anyways, I saw a bunch of nerds on Twitter the other day discoursing about whether video games count as "art". Probably should've dropped this in the QRTs and ended that debate for good.

Reviewed on Feb 10, 2024


Comments