Puzzle Puppers
Nintendo Switch

Developed By : Cardboard Keep
Published By : Cardboard Keep
Category : Puzzle / Strategy
Release Date : Feb 20, 2018

No matter what’s going on, stop what you’re doing right now. No I mean it, stop. We’ve uncovered the absolute, worst crisis this world could ever face. These poor adorable puppies are hungry, but they can’t reach their dishes! (See?? It’s serious!) I’d tell you it’s your job to guide them safely to their own dishes, but I mean…is there even a thought in your mind to do anything else but get these doggo’s to their food? Exactly. Puzzle Puppers for Nintendo Switch comes with 80 levels of starving pups to save. Some with only a single puppy to guide, others with up to four dogs. Each dog has it’s own bowl, which can easily be determined by matching the color of the puppy’s fur to the color of the bowl. The stages will have outer limits (aka don’t fall off the island) and numerous different obstacles to overcome to get them to their food.

There’s holes in the ground that act as tunnels/portals to other holes, but these might not always lead where you think they will so some guess-and-check work is needed. Belts that will lock in a dog’s movement over a short stretch. Of course, the dog’s themselves can become an obstacle too as you’re winding them all over, trying not to block the other dogs from their dishes.

In addition to the obstacles, the games other challenge comes from bonus hams. These are extra and not necessary to collect, but if you can collect them all on each level, it will reward you with bonus levels. The trick comes from the fact that they need to be collected while beating the level. So you can’t just guide a dog to the ham, unwind that same dog and re-guide it to it’s bowl of food. You’ll need to collect each ham AND reach the food bowl in order to complete this.

Puzzle Puppers may not be a simple puzzle game, but it’s a lot of fun. It’s challenging, with the game stepping the curve up naturally instead of going through a small plateau before a slap in the face. Above all else, the cutesy theme of furry Stretch Armstrong’s is what makes this game so enjoyable. For such a low price, this puzzle game is most certainly worth a play. So what are you waiting for? Why are you still reading? Go feed those doggos!

Playability

Handheld – Great (Preferred, touchscreen works for moving the pups)
Detatched Joy-Cons – Okay
Joy-Con Controller – Okay
Pro Controller – N/A
Docked – Okay