Grindstone

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Grindstone is a very good puzzle game with an excellent hook, plenty of items to unlock, unique graphical style, works perfectly with a mouse and your progress is saved mid run. However, like many games that started life on Apple Arcade, it stretches the content it has very thin with the intention of keeping you subscribed, something that is no longer needed with a one time purchase on steam. I lost count how many worlds/puzzles there are but the store mentions more than 250 puzzles. That might sound like a standard number for many puzzle games but here, each puzzle can take a long time, especially if you’re trying to get all the chests and crowns. This is best illustrated with the final boss for each world. There is one that is recycled and used so many times, a lot of the game is recycling old content to create ‘new puzzles’. There are some new gimmicks once in a while, but they don’t feel enough. Really though, that’s the only issue I have with the game. I still put 44 hours in it, got all the achievements and got 100% on most worlds. I did end up skipping the caves after the third one, you get a cave with each world, a cave has 10 puzzles that give more loot for crafting. The achievements are generally okay, you just need to know of them ahead of time so you can work your way towards them. A lot comes naturally. The normal price of around €17 is debatable, you certainly get the hours if you complete all or most puzzles but a lot of it is recycled. I’m happy with having paid around €3 for it on steam. I still recommend the game when you play it in short bursts and when it’s on sale. I started playing the game in March and am finally done with it in November.

I played a ton of this on the Svitch and just recently grabbed it for the Deck. It is a perfect puzzle game- extremely accessible but with a great deal of depth as it is constantly layering on new mechanics to manipulate, lots of variety in modes (a fun sort of story mode contextualizing the slaying around a manual labor occupation, endless modes, challenges, dailies, weeklies, etc.), customization via abilities and cosmetics that also have various uses and stats tied to them, as well as a town that gradually opens up more and more functionality and characters. The art is super charming and the music is pleasant. Really can't praise this enough. Do it for little Harry.

First played this when it was on apple arcade and it hooked me. Eventually I stopped using apple arcade, but when I found this game on steam I knew I had to get it. It's basically candy crush puzzle brain rot. But I like the art style and the puzzle method. It's a good puzzle game to do when you don't want to think or want to half pay attention to a movie. It's a good time.

Addictive gameplay with excellent presentation.

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