Review | A Little to the Left

“Hey, you can even move things a little to the right! Who would have thought it?!”

For those who enjoy organising, tidying, and sorting in various ways throughout life, A Little to the Left is the equivalent of this – but in a well-thought-out video game format for you to cruise through at your leisure. The idea behind the creation of A Little to the Left provides players with multiple levels in which they must work out the method of organisation intended to complete the level successfully – some even have multiple solutions to discover. When considering the five main chapters, the Cupboards and Drawers DLC and the Archives, there is plenty of content for people to get engrossed in and this could greatly appeal to those who like a sense of order – such as myself. With its clever puzzle-solving, requiring common sense and out-of-the-box thinking, developer Max Inferno and publisher Secret Mode have created a game that gets your logical and creative brain working together. Here’s what I thought of the game overall.

Plenty of stamps – but where to put them?

Things I liked!

• Beautiful visuals | A cosy setting with a cute colour scheme made A Little to the Left such a delight to play from an aesthetically pleasing perspective. The art style is simplistic but provides enough detail to make elements such as objects and the environment stand out with incredible attention to detail with shading and contrast. I did feel the game truly showcased the pastel colour palette, making the game pretty but not too harsh on the eyes. Each level felt freshly designed, giving me time to take in the screen and its contents before even attempting to solve the puzzle which made me feel more content and connected to the soothing properties. Speaking from my point of view, whenever I tidy or make my surroundings cleaner, I get a sense of relief and calmness that hits me and that is why A Little to the Left is such a beautiful game as it replicates this to an outstanding level.

• Relaxing atmosphere | As soon as I loaded the game up, I knew the audio was going to be settling. In the main menu, there was a gorgeous harmony that gave me an instant feeling of contentedness, making me already assume this would continue through my gameplay. The melodies were out of this world and brought the imagery and atmosphere of A Little to the Left come to life. Without it, the game could have been completely different. I couldn’t imagine anything else working as successfully. The sound effects were subtle but added more depth to the interactive elements of moving and placing objects, with sound queues assisting with the placements, to let you know if you were on the right track. It did manage to calm me down when I was getting frustrated with myself and my mistakes, making the audio heavenly to listen to and admire.

• Level complexity and variety | Damn, my brain got a serious workout with some of these levels and I’m not complaining because I enjoyed almost every second I spent working out the solutions to these – just not every second as some got me questioning just how far from common sense I was by thinking way outside the box. The complexity was welcomed as I could complete some levels within a minute while others took me far longer than I ever would have anticipated, making me cherish the simpler ones. The developers have done an excellent job of evenly distributing and mixing up the easy with the challenging levels to give players both respite and moments of pure confusion which is just what I want from my puzzle games. The levels also contain different household items and tasks such as cleaning, straightening, following patterns, and arrangements which gave the game its variety. Hey, you can even move things a little to the right! Who would have thought it?!

• Alternative solutions | Although not every level has more than one solution, it was a breath of fresh air and an enjoyable challenge to come across those that did. In addition, it was relatively more rewarding when thinking of different ways I could solve the puzzle in front of me. To my surprise, some required extra thought than I originally assumed – and others far less – but I found myself overcomplicating some of the levels, making me laugh about just how much easier they were when I finally managed to work out exactly what I was missing. It certainly got my brain working and gave me an incredibly satisfied feeling when obtaining each star available. I still have one star which is causing me some trouble but I will endeavour to obtain this.

• Numerous levels | There is without a doubt a fantastic amount of content within A Little to the Left to get stuck into that should keep you occupied for a relatively fair amount of hours, depending on the use of hints and mindful creativity. With there being 75+ main levels, the Cupboards and Drawers DLC, and the sneaky Archives there will be a magnitude of content for everyone to arrange and organise whenever the mood takes them. This provided plenty of puzzling variety and thankful changes of not only level design but the pacing, which comes from the more complex and lengthy levels to split up intensity into more relaxed environments. It certainly kept me on my toes, making it rather difficult for me to put the game down for long periods, and these are my favourite types of games.

• Cat references | I know not everyone is a fan of our feline friends but I adore my cat and cats, which made A Little to the Left even more special to me. Throughout the levels one feline, in particular, shows up and likes to get involved in your gameplay – whether they want to cause chaos or require casual petting, they certainly make their presence known. Did this cute cat cause this massive mess of disorganisation? Are we just clearing up their mischievous mess? No one knows but I believe this kitty is just misunderstood and wants all the attention in the world. If they don’t get said attention, be prepared to find your entire house flipped on its head and in need of some major TLC.

That’s a lot of organisation and not even everything the game had to offer.

Neither good nor bad

• Overly informative hints | If you ever find yourself confused or stuck on a level, there is the option to get a ‘hint’ on each level to avoid skipping levels if possible. The reason I typed ‘hint’ is because I would say it more or less gives you the solution, which I think could have been toned down to give you an actual hint. I only used one actual hint in my playthrough but when getting the achievement for using ten hints, I realised just how hand-holding these were for those who didn’t even want to think of a solution. Although it was a useful tool for those who couldn’t work out the solution, this either needed to be made less informative or be named ‘solution’. I would prefer the prior but I doubt this will be looked at or changed.

• Daily tidy | One element which will get people returning to the game is the Daily Tidy mode which works as an accumulative mode that tasks players with completing a singular task, refreshing every 24 hours, adding to the game and its replayability. Although you don’t have to return daily to complete these tidies, the achievement list requires you to complete 7/14/30 consecutive daily tidies to complete the title, along with 110 daily tidies completed in total. I’m all about achievements and completing games where possible but having to come back to the game for a month straight for this I think became tedious and could have been made far more fun and interactive, with the repetition of levels I’ve already completed being what these involve. It’s something I aim to do but not something I look forward to – more like a chore that needs tending to.

That mirror looks oddly suspicious. Reflective thinking perhaps?

Things I disliked!

• Accessibility | A major disappointment was the astounding lack of accessibility options available in A Little to the Left. When it comes to the incredible range of colours in the game and questionable brightness, I was shocked to see no way to change the graphical settings in the options menu. Why add a light/dark mode to the main menu if you can’t apply this in the level selection? This seemed utterly pointless. People who struggle with colour blindness often have difficulties with red and green hues which may affect how they perceive the puzzles, letting the game down for those who can’t alter the colours to what they need. I highly recommend the developers consider adding this to their game to make it more user-friendly.

How long did I play the review before publishing? Around 10 Hours
How long to beat the story? Approximately 5-6 Hours
How many Achievements did I earn before publishing? 37/55 OR 725/1200G
How long to achieve 1000G | Approximately 10-12 Hours
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