Kine (2019)

I will finish this review by making the words of the creator of the game my own: if you like music, challenges or rare and yellow robots, then Kîne is made for you. A pleasant surprise that shows that talent and effort, even the smallest of studies can achieve great things.

Overall, this is an intelligent, neatly packaged puzzler worth checking out.

An amazing experience from beginning to end, though there isn't enough content to justify the $19.99 launch price. Wait for a sale, then definitely pick it up, and you won't be sorry.

Kine is a wonderful puzzle game that will exercise your spacial awareness and charm you with its story. The characters are relatable and surprisingly nuanced, and the visuals are appealing. The music is excellent and integrated into the gameplay in inviting ways. While the game gets incredibly difficult, serious puzzle players are sure to enjoy the challenge. It helped that Roo, Quat, and Euler reminded me of so many old friends, and I found myself wanting the best for the funky boxes as they strived to make their way in the big city. Maybe you will too.

But the bad puzzles are so incredibly frustrating and feel so much more difficult than anything that came before them that they overshadow the entire game. It never feels good to solve a puzzle through sheer trial and error, and while every puzzle game has one or two duds there are just too many in Kine to allow for the good puzzles to feel worth it. It's a shame that such a beautiful aesthetic was wasted on this, because the game is not nearly as exciting as the jazz riffs that accompanies it.