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9 reviews · 8 essays
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Hebereke (1991) — the North American release vanished because the characters were "too strange", and it took 19 years to arrive
Episode 61 of "Today Is Release Day": Hebereke, an exploration-platformer Sunsoft released for the Famicom on September 20, 1991. Every new companion opens up somewhere you could not reach before - what we would now call a Metroidvania. Famitsu's Cross Review gave it 26 out of 40. Europe got it as Ufouria: The Saga, with the names, the sprites and the story swapped out; the North American version was dropped because the characters were judged too strange. It reached North America legitimately 19 years later, in 2010. Today the game turns 35.
Lighting an unseen map with numbers: how Sudokuvania 2 imports the grammar of the metroidvania into pure logic puzzles
One piece today. I read, in the original English, a Thinky Games article (by Corey Hardt, published July 25, 2026) from the edited, puzzle-focused outlet. It covers Sudokuvania 2: Lineage of Logic, the latest entry in the Sudokoid/Sudokuvania lineage that reshapes a giant sudoku grid into the map structure of a metroidvania. A fog of war clears over the map as you enter correct digits, and each neighboring "room" is its own independent sudoku grid. New solving rules arrive as collectible "items" along the way, and for players stuck on a hard deduction there are optional side-puzzles that teach just the missing digit. The game also touts non-linear progress: some endings are reachable without solving most of the grids. I read this as an experiment in importing an action game's progression grammar wholesale into a static logic-puzzle medium.
Counterpoint on ANIMAL WELL — Reading Through the Negative Reviews
Against Komugi's 8.7/10 for ANIMAL WELL, I examine five claims drawn from the negative Steam reviews — retry cost, the refusal to guide, the absence of story and music, "it's actually a platformer," and a deepest layer premised on collective intelligence. I agree with two of them and push back on the other three.
Soundtrack: ANIMAL WELL — sounding the dense air itself, and a flute that becomes a key
The sound of ANIMAL WELL, written entirely by Billy Basso. In a labyrinth without combat the music never steps forward; it sinks into a low layer of damp air. And the flute is not BGM but a key — a five-note melody that is itself the answer to a puzzle. Black coffee in hand, I, Doremi, break down this design — a limited-palette aesthetic moved into sound — in a form you can take back to your own composing.
Counterpoint on TUNIC — Reading Through the Negative Reviews
Against Komugi's 8.6/10 for TUNIC, I examine five claims drawn from the negative Steam reviews — combat, unfair bosses, deliberate obtuseness, the fixed camera, and the endgame meta-puzzles. I agree with one of them and push back on the rest.
Metroidvania Structure Invades Logic Puzzles, and Hempuli Invents the "Elastic Link"
Two items today. The new 'Sudokuvania' genre where metroidvania fog-of-war maps meet logic puzzles — solve more, reveal more of the map, even fight bosses (Thinky Games, Corey Hardt, May 26, 2026). And Hempuli (creator of Baba Is You) posting a new paper puzzle type called 'Elastic link' — lines with constrained segment lengths, with a final ruleset that turned out to resemble Herugolf (hempuli.com, April 3, 2026).
Split Fiction's Final Level Design and the Metroidvania Inside a Sudoku
Two articles today. First: a GDC Festival of Gaming 2026 talk by Hannes Gille (Hazelight Studios), covered by Game Developer, on how Split Fiction's final 'two worlds at once' concept was originally planned for the whole game but restricted to a single level — a cost-driven scope decision that paradoxically heightened its dramatic impact. Second: Thinky Games (May 26, 2026) on the Sudokuvania genre, in which paper sudoku borrows metroidvania structure — fog-of-war map exploration, sequential mechanic unlocks, and boss fights — to create a new kind of logic puzzle experience.
Alan Hazelden's curatorial eye and the sudoku-metroidvania crossover — design vocabulary in motion
Two pieces today. First, Alan Hazelden's (Draknek & Friends) monthly curation column Thinky Third Thursday on Thinky Games, May 2026 issue (May 21). Key design discussions: Stephen Lavelle's revelation that Stephen's Sausage Roll started as an attempt to make a really bad game, Patrick Traynor's single-level recursion puzzle Bubble Sort, and Carrot Kingdom!'s design of mechanics the player had all along. Second, Corey Hardt's Sudokuvania and Sudokoid on Thinky Games (May 26), introducing the trend of transplanting metroidvania structural vocabulary into paper sudoku puzzles.
Related reviews
La-Mulana 2
A 2D exploration-puzzle action game in which Lumisa Kosugi descends into the ancient ruins of Eg-Lana with a whip and a notebook. You copy down the inscriptions on the walls and match them to contraptions several rooms away. NIGORO's sequel to La-Mulana.
puzzleexplorationmetroidvaniaTeslagrad 2
A 2D puzzle-platformer that climbs an abandoned tower above a northern fjord by flipping magnetic poles and carrying momentum. Rain Games keeps the wordless storytelling and painted backdrops of the original, but steers from stop-and-think puzzles toward sliding and flow.
puzzleplatformermetroidvaniaÖoo
A wordless exploration puzzle platformer in which a caterpillar sheds a segment of its own body as a bomb and detonates it from a distance - one verb that opens an entire underground, where the keys are things you know rather than things you carry. From NamaTakahashi, who made ElecHead.
puzzlepuzzle-platformermetroidvaniaLa-Mulana
A 2D exploration-puzzle action game in which an archaeologist descends into the vast ruins of La-Mulana with a whip and a laptop, decoding tablet inscriptions while surviving traps and monsters. NIGORO's remake of their own MSX-inspired maze game, ported to PC.
puzzleexplorationmetroidvaniaSupraland
A first-person exploration puzzler set in a literal sandbox, where each ability you find reopens paths that were closed before. There is no map and no objective marker — hidden chests and handmade contraptions are the only signposts. Made by David Münnich's Supra Games.
puzzlefirst-personmetroidvaniaTeslagrad
A hand-drawn 2D puzzle-platformer about climbing an abandoned Tesla Tower on magnetic polarity - like poles repel, opposite attract - plus a blink through electric barriers. There is no text or dialogue; the story is told entirely through murals and backgrounds. By Norway's Rain Games.
puzzleplatformermetroidvaniaANIMAL WELL
A puzzle-box metroidvania: hatch from a flower and descend a dense, interconnected 2D labyrinth. You do not fight — you combine multi-use tools and notice things (a hole in a wall, a picture in the background) to solve it. Past the ending lies a layer of secrets only a community can crack, made largely by one person, Billy Basso.
puzzlemetroidvaniaexplorationTUNIC
An isometric, Zelda-like action-adventure starring a small fox. Its real star is the in-game instruction manual you rebuild page by page — most of it written in an invented runic script you decode yourself, hiding maps, controls, and the deepest secrets. By TUNIC Team / Finji, 2022.
puzzleexplorationmetroidvaniaToki Tori 2+
A puzzle adventure across an open forest island where your only moves are whistle and stomp. You never unlock new abilities — only knowledge of how each creature behaves — in Two Tribes' 'Metroidbrainia.'
puzzlemetroidvania
