Game: The Shape of Things
Genre: Puzzles, Cute, Moving Parts
System: Steam (Windows)
Developer|Publisher: Hyper Three Studio | Maple Whispering Limited
Age Rating: US E+ | UK 3+
Price: UK £ 5.80| EU € 6,99 | USD $ 6.99
Release Date: May 26th, 2023
Review code used, with many thanks to Maple Whispering Limited.
The Shape of Things is a sweet little puzzle game with bright colors. Playing this game is reminiscent of playing with a Rubrics Cube, as players have to twist pieces to assemble items.
The Gameplay of The Shape of Things
The Shape of Things is played by interacting with sections of items, shifting, spinning, sliding, or twisting them to put the item back into order. Players get coins for each puzzle they finish, and coins are used to unlock new levels.
Each level contains themed items that go with the style of cartoonish backgrounds. Everything is colorful and filled with amazing little details at each level; everything looks amazing and magical.
Simple and Beautiful
This game is both incredibly simple and ingenious at the same time. While The Shape of Things has one of the most basic of premises, everything is put together and presented so well that it feels massively unique. The backgrounds, the details, and the cartoonish but beautiful look all work together to shape a smooth, pleasurable gaming experience.
It further proves that polish is one of the most important things in any game.
There are a ton of levels, each with an adorable theme. There is a Zelda-like theme that reminds me a lot of Wind Waker, with the little background filled with a sword in a stone and some fairytale-like kind of look. Just look at how cute this is:
The Shape of Things Isn’t Perfect
I had a couple of issues with The Shape of Things, but thankfully, they were all pretty small. A few of the puzzles required you to be extremely specific in lining up the pieces. Not all of the puzzles; enough that I definitely noticed and had to really work to get things perfectly lined up.
Another thing that kind of tripped me up was the menu. Here’s what it looks like:
I love the way it looks; I mean, the room is cute and filled with great details. However, it was really hard to see which items could be clicked on. I think a soft glow around items that were interactable would have saved this from being a little confusing at first. I sat there for a whole minute, looking around for the exit button and wiggling the mouse around just to see what all the buttons did.
Conclusion
The Shape of Things is so cute, it’s super fun, and the smooth gameplay and the puzzles are well-considered. Minus the couple of things I had issues with, The Shape of Things was nearly perfect. I love it so much.
In addition, the game is cute, fun, relaxing, and worth picking up if you love these kinds of adorable little puzzle games.
Final Verdict: I Like it a Lot
I love puzzle games and considering getting The Shape of Things, it sounds like it’s easy to pick up and doesn’t have a steep learning curve. The game look’s adorable, who doesn’t like cute, fun and relaxing games.