Combining new elements into visual novels is a great way to invigorate a long journey, and Pixel Puzzle Makeout League does just that. Using pixel puzzles, you will be constantly engaged while seeking true love with your superhero companions.
Following the journey of Pixel Girl, a girl with the superpower to see the world as pixel puzzles, you’ll have a front seat to four different romances and a grand overarching mystery (which I got a taste of before and enjoyed immensely). How you choose to approach it is completely up to you. Modelled after different styles of real world puzzle games, each character offers their own wild adventure that takes place across several dates. Perhaps you want to date the mysterious puzzle piece, Piecea who always seems to add a touch of ‘what the heck is going on?’ Or you could date Sudoku, a prickly personality that seems to hint at a softer center when it comes to Pixel Girl? The glory of Pixel Puzzle Makeout League is that you will not be locked out of other paths as you work your way through the main story, like many traditional visual novels.
Pixel Puzzle Makeout League stands apart from the dating visual novel crowd by adding pixel puzzles – and to make the deal even sweeter, there are some bold sequences that continue to break that mold. I don’t want to spoil it for you, but when I played a certain character’s route, I was absolutely thrilled with the second date. It was freaking awesome. To put it in super not spoilery terms, the game caters each route to allow for a distinct experience that will flesh out the characters and really help you learn who you’re falling in love with and what’s important to them.
The pixel puzzle aspect is extremely appealing and keeps you engaged in the dates you’re on by prompting you with puzzles that are relevant to the conversation, or perhaps furthers the date by solving a problem. There’s even custom dialogue scripted into the puzzles to keep you in the moment. It’s a great way to turn a long, wordy date into something more light-hearted and fun; which is probably the best way to describe the game itself. Those who aren’t skilled in pixel puzzles (or prefer to just brute force the puzzle) have the option to cater their experience to their needs. You may want to turn on starting hints, auto-fill rows, or turn the timer off completely. But if you’re like me, you’ll never give in to stubbornness and eat each minute penalty you incur with a mistake.
The penalty knocks a minute off your timer, no matter what size puzzle you’re in – 15×15, 10×10, or 5×5. They each have their own time limit, though, ranging from 5 minutes to 15. Making a lot of mistakes on a 15-minute one may not spell a game over, but on a 5-minute one, a one-minute penalty is crippling. Scaling the 1-minute penalty up on the larger puzzles would have helped those who wanted that extra dash of challenge. I think this is one of two problems with the game.
The second issue I ran into was the lack of manual save. While the game does auto-save at every loading screen, a manual save would make the game much more digestible for people who may be tight on time. Some segments have 2-3 pixel puzzles before a loading screen, and if you don’t finish them, you have to repeat the same puzzles. These segments aren’t long, but it can get annoying to know you have to shut down and return to do the same puzzles again. Again, it’s a small issue, but something I’ve grown accustomed to in visual novels (especially when exhausting all dialogue options).
If you find yourself at a loss upon completing all the routes, you can jump into the puzzle maze and solve a ton more puzzles. There is certainly no shortage. I found myself in the same conundrum as Pixel Girl by the end of it, looking around my house and wondering how many little squares it would take to fill up my kitchen. I can even hear the little bloop sound effect as I fill each square mentally. Don’t even get me started on how the soundtrack got stuck in my head. A lot.
Pixel Puzzle Makeout League delivers a memorable experience from its compelling puzzles to its grand themes. If you happen to pick it up ( and please do), I think you’ll fall in love with these characters like I did, following them on an amazing journey that will warm your heart and make you yearn for personified puzzle games.
Pixel Puzzle Makeout League will be made available today on the Nintendo Switch and Steam.
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