A Cosy Reimagining Of A Classic
Sometimes, we see the same types of puzzles appear in games again and again, and we rarely question where they come from.
There are the famous pipe connection puzzles, the rotating ring ones, and of course, the slide puzzles. This is where you have an image in a square frame, normally consisting of eight tiles and a blank space, making a grid of nine. Your goal is to move these jumbled tiles around to recreate the correct image. These puzzles have been around since the 19th century and exist in physical form as well as digital.
In Slide Stories: Neko and Friends, not only do you get a series of slide puzzles, but you get a little story to go with them. What could be better on a cold winter’s day?
Feline Friends
Slide Stories: Neko and Friends is a very cheap puzzle experience from publisher Silesia Games, who are the makers of Teeny Tiny Trains and have been behind the plethora of ‘Hidden Cat In…’ games. It’s good news for feline friends then: there are some cats in this one as well.
The game consists of three short stories and three different puzzle environments to solve. Each story has around seven puzzles and features, of course, Neko and friends. Neko is a cat, Bucky is a dog, and there are humans involved too. Don’t expect a huge narrative on show here exploring the deep dynamics of humans and pets living together. Instead, this is presented as a series of slightly animated comic book images accompanied by the sort of words of wisdom you might find on the front of a greeting card. I am not being critical of this choice, however, because it works perfectly within the context of the game.
Finding the Code in the Grid
When it comes to the gameplay, right from the start you can choose the difficulty level and how confident you feel about tackling the twenty odd puzzles in front of you. There are five levels of difficulty, ranging from “Relaxing” to “Pro.”, with the former running a 3×3 grid and eight tiles to play around with to get the image right. The Pro mode, on the other hand, features a 9×9 grid, which is a nightmare unless you have a brain like Stephen Hawking. The other difficulty levels lie somewhere in between these two extremes.
To recap, in case anyone has never encountered a puzzle like this before: the image is jumbled in a random way each time you play, and it’s up to you to restore the image to its correct alignment. You do this by moving the tiles around the grid, using the single blank space as your only friend. You’re either naturally good at this game – seeing the code like Neo in The Matrix – or you’re going to be moving tiles around aimlessly, hoping for a lucky break until they somehow fit together.
I played more in the latter style, but as I kept playing and moving onto new levels and new stories, I did start to see the code. I’d suspect that will be the case for many players.
Accessibility Options for the Aimless Mover
For those like me, there are a couple of accessibility options to make life a bit easier. The first is an option to restart the puzzle with a random shuffle, giving you a new arrangement to try. The other option is to overlay each tile with a number, allowing you to work out from left to right where they need to end up. This isn’t so important on the small grids like the 3×3, but I found it essential on the 9×9 grid. Some people out there might call this cheating and call me out for it, but you know what? I don’t care. I needed the help.
Slide Stories: Neko and Friends’ visuals are delightful, with each level creating a beautiful, slightly animated story scene. The art style is heavily influenced by Japanese anime, which works perfectly here. I loved the colour palette of each image, and the characters themselves – particularly the animals – are very cute. The humans look great as well.
Sound-wise, it’s all about the ambience, with very smooth lo-fi music playing all the way through. Having the right music for this kind of game is essential; anything too heavy or loud won’t work, and anything that loops noticeably gets annoying. The best background music is the kind you don’t even realise is playing, and this does its job perfectly.
A Budget-Friendly Choice for Slide Puzzle Enthusiasts
Whether Slide Stories: Neko and Friends is the game for you depends entirely on whether you like puzzles or not. Specifically, you need a love for slide puzzles, because if you hate them, you aren’t going to get much else out of this game. For me, this was a nice experience, and I liked the different levels of difficulty available. The art style is beautiful, and it is a cosy game that will last you a couple of hours at most.
For the price of a single Tube journey in London, you can’t go too wrong with Slide Stories: Neko and Friends.
Important Links
Sit Back, Relax, and Follow the Flow in Slide Stories: Neko and Friends on Xbox – https://www.thexboxhub.com/sit-back-relax-and-follow-the-flow-in-slide-stories-neko-and-friends-on-xbox/
Buy from the Xbox Store – https://www.xbox.com/en-gb/games/store/Slide-Stories-Neko-and-Friends/9NWWL8HVL7WR
