The block-sliding puzzle has long been a staple of puzzle gamers. From even the earliest days of video games, block-sliding or pushing puzzles have been a huge mainstay of the genre for one reason or another. Whether you’re spending your time in Chip’s Challenge or going for the OG warehouse stylings of Sokoban, there are plenty of options to choose from. If you felt like there just wasn’t enough of a magical tone to the proceedings, then the makers of SokoMage might have just the game for you, and with a name like that, you can be pretty sure what you’re getting yourself into.
What Is SokoMage?
If the name and preceding paragraph weren’t enough to clue you in, SokoMage is a block-pushing puzzle game about a wizard who appears to be trapped in a magical land made entirely of grass, crystals, and pushable blocks. Using your magic wand, you have to make your way through 30 different puzzles, pushing blocks into the right places and making bridges over holes so you can reach the rainbow crystal at the end.
At your disposal is your magical wand, pretty much the only tool you’ll ever need or get in SokoMage. This means that the gameplay at the start and the gameplay at the end are pretty much the same, and it’s all about the interesting level design choices made by the developers. So, it’s a very barebones puzzle experience, but that also means it’s incredibly simple to pick up and understand what is going on, even if that’s not likely to help you get through the harder puzzles.
Welcome to the Crystal(ish) Maze
So, if it’s all down to the puzzles, does SokoMage offer enough to keep players interested? It’s sort of hard to say. Personally, while playing the game, I didn’t feel like there was anything going on that I hadn’t seen before in many, maaaany other puzzle games. Having played more than a little Chip’s Challenge in my time, it really felt like I was just running a slightly less varied version of the same puzzles but without the right sort of pacing to keep me interested in trying again.
That’s not to say that the game doesn’t come up with some new stuff to throw at you. Several times the tile set changed, so that was nice, and a couple of new floor tiles that stop blocks midway through their path and sent them off in one of the four cardinal directions do crop up eventually. But realistically, these additions on their own are not enough to feed even 30 levels of puzzles, especially not when the pacing is liable to leave you feeling more frustrated than elated even early on.
A Series of Tubes (or Sprawling Mazes)
The biggest issue for SokoMage is simply that the puzzles aren’t that enthralling to solve and rapidly spiral into an annoying level of complexity without really evolving what it is that you’re actually doing. It’s all just the same single tool of pushing blocks and watching them slide across the entire screen. It means that most of the puzzles end up feeling the same, and it sort of limits the minute complexity that was available with the original Sokoban. Possibly, it’s the fact that the levels just get too large far too quickly, making even the earlier stages of the game feel like chores.
In the end, I ended up resenting having to restart the entire puzzle because of a single removed block going wrong near the end. Because of the number of screens you’re tracking and the nature of the grid-based puzzles you’re solving, it all blended together, and I had completely forgotten the earlier solutions of the puzzle that I needed. The fact that there are multiple different solutions to each puzzle is a nice touch, but even that isn’t particularly great when I feel my mind dribbling out of my earhole while I’m trying to solve the puzzles.
The Verdict
SokoMage is a puzzle game that might hold a bit of appeal to people who are into the classics, though there’s not much of a twist on Sokoban to make this anyone’s top pick. The simple and colourful graphics serve the game well, but they don’t do anything to make it stand out. With only 30 puzzles to complete, even with the larger room sizes, an expert could be easily done with this one in under an hour, and that’s being generous. At this point, I’m probably just going to stick to Chip’s Challenge.
Developer: Afil Games
Publisher: Afil Games
Platforms: PC, Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S
Release Date: 6th February 2023
Gaming Respawn’s copy of SokoMage was provided by the publisher.
