She Remembered Caterpillars is a fungipunk fantasy about love, loss, and holding on, told in the format of a colour-based puzzle game. A tale as the bond between parent and child, this lush and bewildering title will have players testing their wits against a variety of challenges, some devious, and others outright nefarious, but all beautiful and very, very strange.
Almost every move the game makes is perfect, yet a slight nit-pick I had was the diagonal movement design. On one hand I see the benefit as it allows the obstacles to stand out and show up easier placement wise. Yet I also found the Gammies to control slightly erratically, undercutting the game ever-so-slightly. By no means was this a deal breaker,...
It's impossible to not think about how the puzzle genre has been refined in the three years between the game's original release and the Nintendo Switch port.
Overall, while short, the compelling nature of She Remembered Caterpillars more than makes up for this shortcoming. It offers enough of a challenge to stump you into working to decipher the puzzles, while not punishing you for your attempts.
She Remembered Caterpillars is great puzzle game with a deep story and engaging, ambitious, and colourful obstacles to test you. Simply put, it is one of the best puzzle games in years.
It's a great shame then that these moments of enchanting brilliance are completely at odds with gameplay that quickly becomes off-puttingly frustrating. The addition of some sort of hint system would certainly broaden the appeal, but as it stands this is likely to appeal to only the most hardcore of puzzle fans. A game that masters the intricate balance...
