Within the wake of the outstanding success of Steam’s demo-highlighting Subsequent Fests, Valve’s on-line retailer started ceaselessly including genre-specific “fests,” mini-sales on video games of a selected area of interest. This has now reached the purpose the place such gross sales are taking place each single week, and this week’s is…Field-Pushing Fest?!
It’s fantastically particular! Earlier fests have included Tower Protection Fest, Dinos vs. Robots Fest, and most not too long ago Metropolis Builder & Colony Sims Fest. So a box-pushing gross sales week suits proper in. It additionally highlights simply what number of video games there are on Steam, how unfathomably ludicrous its catalog is, {that a} grouping of video games so slender can nonetheless function a whole lot of affords.
“Field-pushing” is, in fact, the off-brand identify for Sokoban video games. The 1982 Japanese recreation’s identify has just about reached “Xerox” and “Hovercraft” territory as a genericized title, and to present you an concept of how ubiquitously it’s used, many of the video games on this sale are tagged on Steam with “Sokoban.” Heck, I’m going to show it by not capitalizing or italicizing it for the remainder of this text. Take that, the System.
The puzzling format—by which you have to push blocks round a degree to align them appropriately—is considerably infamous for its finickity nature, the place errors (like pushing a block right into a nook) are irreversible and require beginning a puzzle over. For a lot of, that is the enjoyment, whereas for others, it’s infuriating. You both love them otherwise you hate them. However haters, wait up! I all the time suppose I’m a hater too, after which I find yourself having fun with so many variations on the theme. I’ve pulled collectively a choice of some stone-cold classics of the style which might be included within the Field-Pushing Fest sale.
Isle of Sea and Sky – By far the most effective sokoban-themed video games in recent times, this beautiful islands-spanning journey is an element puzzle recreation, half Metroidvania, half RPG. It’s simply compellingly good, and at the moment half-price at $10.
Altered – Maybe extra deserving of “box-pushing” than “sokoban,” the great Altered is a always ingenious twist on the format, the place your primarily pushed block has an arm that may seize maintain of tiles and stretch out, letting you overhang ranges and make masterful manipulations. It’s a nightmare to explain, however good to play. And this week, it’ll solely value you $1.50!
Patrick’s Parabox – A preferred hit from 2022, Patrick’s Parabox took the sokoban context and utilized it to a recursive world of splendid headfuckery. It’s 40 p.c off, now $12.
A Monster’s Expedition – That is log-rolling moderately than box-pushing, however the ideas apply! It’s joyful and terribly tough. And this week, it’s solely $8. Draknek & Buddies, the collective behind the breakout puzzler, have since launched so many extra sokoban video games, all value your time. They embody Bonfire Peaks, Sokobond Specific, and A Good Snowman Is Onerous To Construct.
Unitied – A minimalist strategy to box-pushing, however with a lot smartness. Right here, you’re sliding multiple block at a time, usually of various sizes, every having to barter the others as they discover their houses. It’s implausible. Oh, and proper now it’s solely 49c!
Baba Is You – Absolutely the most effective sokoban-like ever made? Is that controversial? Hempuli Oy’s masterpiece entails utilizing slightly lamb-like creature, Baba, to push objects and phrases across the display, forming half phrase, half pictogram sentences that “program” the extent. “FLAG IS WIN” means reaching a flag allows you to win a degree. “FLAG IS BABA” makes you a flag, however you possibly can’t management flags, so that you lose. “FLAG IS YOU” means you’re now enjoying as the extent’s flag. And if any of that sounds difficult, you’ve skilled nothing but. Oddly, the sport itself isn’t discounted from its already very beneficiant $15 this week, but it surely is included in a bundle with A Monster’s Expedition and Stephen’s Sausage Roll, the place you may get all three box-pushing puzzlers for underneath $26.
Arranger – Probably the greatest video games of 2024, Arranger mixed block-shoving with RPG, and the outcomes are mindblowing. A always great recreation with a beautiful story, implausible puzzles, and the large twist that you just don’t transfer your character throughout the sport’s tiles, however the recreation’s tiles transfer underneath your character.
There’s gotta be one thing there you’ll get pleasure from. And if not, there are 490 different video games within the sale to choose from.
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