Pipe Push Paradise

Pipe Push Paradise is a pleasant, difficult, puzzler. It doesn't exactly thread a whole lot new ground compared to that one other game (see below) but does what it does well. To get it out of the way first, yes Pipe Push Paradise draws HEAVY inspiration from Stephen's Sausage Roll. When you first boot up the game the similarities are unmistakable; the movement noises of the protagonist, world layout, game flow are basically 1:1 of those in SSR. There's even a meta-puzzle at the very end that is basically a carbon copy of how SSR ended. It's obvious the creator holds reverence for SSR. Yet beyond that, there's a game that's genuinely well designed. Like SSR, you start in typical Sokoban fashion pushing blocks (pipes) with increasing mechanics added to the game, Also like SSR, the puzzles here start difficult and end even more difficult without any explicit tutorials. Yet most puzzles actually have interesting ideas attached to them that are not just doing more things, but having to think of lateral solutions in novel ways. There are admittedly a few puzzles that felt more like they required chaining of very specific steps but overall they were relatively rare in number. The art and story don't seek to accomplish much but provide a quirky backdrop, and suffice for a puzzler. You're a plumber following in the footsteps of your grandpa and that's most of it. It doesn't have much of an overarching theme that I could notice, but I sort of enjoyed the breezy summer island quality. The music is exclusively guitar music, and I've seen some reviewers say they found it distracting but for me I found myself as a whole appreciating the calm flamenco playing. I think as a puzzle game, it's still something that hews eerily close to SSR, though ultimately not to a detriment. SSR was a stellar game and received wide acclaim so if any game should have a spiritual spin-off it would be a good one to chose. Overall, I would rate PPP to be a solid puzzler that doesn't reach the crazy heights of exhilaration of some other puzzlers yet nonetheless is really enjoyable for being a little smaller in scale and still well thought out overall.