WEEKLY-RELEASES · 2026-07-06
Last Week's Releases — 2026-06-29
2 picks from Steam (1 puzzle, 1 adjacent) — a quiet holiday week
This week
This edition covers puzzle releases from last week, Monday June 29 to Sunday July 5, 2026, on Steam and itch.io. I poured a strong drip and worked down the release calendar, but paid puzzle launches were scarce: the US July 4th holiday overlapped with the Steam and itch.io summer sales, and both makers and players seemed focused on the sale shelves.
Even so, two releases had a clear identity — the box-pushing Cat Squeeze and the retro-game-driven adventure UNDERGROUNDED. Rather than pad the list, I'll stick to these two.
This week's picks
Cat Squeeze
A hand-drawn Sokoban about guiding kitten Coco through box-pushing mazes. You push crates, slink into pipes, and pick the exact tile to pop out and detonate a wall — chaining "push" and "squeeze-out-then-explode" into one plan is the twist that nudges it past plain box-pushing. Tagged Sokoban, Logic and Puzzle on Steam, and Thinky Games files it as a Pure puzzler beside the likes of Patrick's Parabox. It launched with no user reviews yet, but six curators flag it, describing real spatial planning under the cute surface. A fine first pick if you like box-pushers or gentle Sokoban.
UNDERGROUNDED
A puzzle-adventure in which Scott drops a ring down a storm drain and descends a dungeon built from "America's past" — the golden age of cinema, the space race, the Old West stacked into layers. Beating retro-arcade minigames at cabinets reshapes the world around you, shifting platforms, doors and enemy behavior; using '80s arcade homages as the keys to progression is the fresh idea here. Published by Japan's room6 with Japanese subtitles, and covered by PC Gamer and Gematsu at launch. Pitched at players who want a story-rich crawl with light puzzles — an easy fit if you like retro pixel exploration.
My pick of the week
If you only try one this weekend, I'd point you at Cat Squeeze. Despite the hand-drawn cuteness, the box-pipe-blast positioning is said to demand real thinking — easy to dip into, but with room to settle in.
On my radar
The calendar fills back up soon. I'm watching D-topia on July 14 (Marumittu Games / Annapurna Interactive, a logic puzzle set in a city where AI optimizes happiness) and Database Detective: Minor Crimes Division on July 17 (an educational game where you write SQL to crack cases; its demo drew praise) — I'll cover them once release is confirmed.
Closing
On quiet weeks, the title tucked at the edge of the shelf can be the one you play longest. This time it's Cat Squeeze's box-pushing or UNDERGROUNDED's descent — both are easy to step into. A good week to slot one new game between the backlog you just stacked up on sale.
Sources
Store pages and coverage referenced in this article:
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