Pipe Push Paradise
Nintendo Switch

Developed By : Stage Clear Studios
Published By : Digerati
Category : Puzzle, Open World
Release Date : Dec 24, 2018

If you like plumbing, puzzles, and alliteration, then boy is there a game for you. Pipe Push Paradise on the Nintendo Switch brings you all of these things and more. You arrive on an island that is in desperate need of help, and it appears that you’re just the person destined to save it.

It appears, that the island is suffering from wide-swept plumbing issues, and your Uncle who is a resident, has been asleep for months. So what do they do? Call for medical aid for the man who’s been asleep for a really long time? Nope…they call you, his niece, in the hopes that plumbing runs in the family because they are all “very tired”.

Your adventure through the island is semi-guided. There is an overall general direction you need to follow, but the paths fork off in many directions, offering up tons of different pipe puzzles to solve. Now, whats pretty cool about Pipe Push Paradise is it takes a very old school and common puzzle game, and puts a new spin on it.

The concept is the same. There is a pipe that is spewing water, some pipe sections scattered about, and you’ll need to connect those sections to the spewing water so it can reach yet another pipe and get to where it’s intended. In old variations of this puzzle type, the pieces would be delivered to you Tetris style, and all you’d have to do is place them and maybe rotate the pieces.

Here, in Pipe Push Paradise the pipe sections are already laid out for you, all you have to do is get them into place. As the game title suggests, you do this by pushing. The other little twist that comes with the game, is sometimes the pipe’s aren’t facing in the right direction and you’ll need to end up flipping and spinning them. This is done by placing yourself on the inside of the L shape that is created, and pushing it outwards.

I really enjoy this game, and how they changed the genre of pipe puzzles. Having all the pieces out, with some needing to be flipped and spun really makes the game feel a lot more challenging than just placing and rotating pipe pieces. At the same time, presenting the puzzles in a world that is open and freely explored made me feel like I had more control and was more at ease playing the game. If I had issues solving a puzzle I could literally walk away from it and go off to find another.

If you enjoy puzzle games, and specifically pipe puzzles at that, this is most definitely a game for you. Having a character physically down on the game-ground pushing the pieces is a bit disorienting at first. I myself went from being excited to play, to confused at how I felt, back to excited when I started getting into the movement. So again, it might feel a bit off at first, but just ride it out because it’s worth it. Don’t wait, push your way into the eShop now and download your copy!