It seems as though everyone is trying their hand at making a Sokoban-style puzzler these days, albeit with varying degrees of success. For every idea that thrives, like the recent Sokolab, there are numerous disappointments and bang-average offerings such as SokoBunny and SokoMage.
The next contender entering the Sokoban arena is SokoPenguin from developers Vergiu Games, aiming to charm the masses with a block-pushing penguin. Is SokoPenguin the coolest and most enjoyable new puzzler on the block, or should it be left out in the cold and avoided?
SokoPenguin whisks us away to a snowy world where a cute little penguin is trying to navigate its way to the place it calls home – an igloo. Unfortunately there are crates blocking the path and so the penguin must push them aside in order to reach its objective. Soon enough, you’ll also need to slide electrified blocks into specific locations to power-up a drawbridge connecting the puzzle area to the igloo. That’s the core of what’s going on throughout the entire offering.
That alone isn’t going to cut it if SokoPenguin is going to hold your attention for the 100 levels it delivers. Tree stumps are one idea it has and these will allow safe passage across water tiles by pushing them into the holes. It also brings spiky blocks to the table that can destroy blocks as well as harm our flightless friend, adding a bit of risk that can lead to a level restart. Should you like danger, the introduction of bombs to blast stones and snowball throwing snowmen might have you on edge. Avoiding the snowballs actually leads to an interesting change of approach late on, however it’s perhaps too late to matter.
You see, SokoPenguin doesn’t really come up with enough interesting mechanics to keep the puzzling fresh. There are a handful of occasions where icy land sees everything slide around, providing a different dynamic, but the sheer ease in which these are overcome is underwhelming. The pacing is a little off too as there’s a large chunk of levels in the second half that don’t attempt to do anything new.
Even when it combines familiar mechanics together, the potential for creating complex puzzles is never met. There’s a real lack of difficulty, to the point where you’ll get no sense of achievement from figuring out the solutions. Wrapping up all 100 levels is likely to take under two hours, and that doesn’t feel long enough for such a high quantity of puzzles to tackle. Still, you’ll at least come away from it with a 2000 Gamerscore boost, which is quite nice for those who desire it.
A case could be made that SokoPenguin is better suited to a younger audience, who may find it slightly tough and more rewarding as a result. After all, the concept is easy to grasp for anyone to have a go at it and the cute pixel art aesthetic would certainly appease kids. Another factor that seems especially appropriate for young ’uns is being able to put various hats, unlocked through progress, on the penguin.
One simple feature it is missing is the ability to undo after making an erroneous move. Surely it’s unnecessary considering the puzzles are easy peasy? Well, yes, but it’s actually due to the over-sensitive movement of the penguin. I lost count of the amount of times I had to reset a level because I accidentally pushed a useful power block into a spike or manoeuvred a crate too far one way.
Overall, SokoPenguin is a cute puzzler that suffers due to an emphasis on quantity over quality. There are a whopping amount of Sokoban-style levels available for a pretty low price, but it runs out of steam too often and doesn’t maximise the potential with the mechanics it does introduce. Considering the relatively easy difficulty, it’s probably more fun for the youths to tackle, but achievement hunters will lap up the Gamerscore on offer here regardless.
If you like the whole Sokoban concept and don’t fancy much of a challenge, then maybe have a look at SokoPenguin. It’s alright, but there are much better games of this ilk on the market.
SokoPenguin: Slide & Conquer With The Cutest Block Puzzler – https://www.thexboxhub.com/sokopenguin-slide-conquer-with-the-cutest-block-puzzler/
Buy SokoPenguin from the Xbox Store – https://www.xbox.com/en-gb/games/store/sokopenguin/9nhg42q86lw1
