SiNKR 2 has gotten its hooks in me

As I've grown older in age, I've developed an appreciation for minimalist puzzle games. There's something so appealing about playing a title that cuts out all of the excesses of the triple-A market and hones in on the mechanics that carry the title. Being a medium based on player interaction, I love when games let their design and systems do the talking instead of drawn-out conversations with NPCs.

A few years back, I played throughSiNKR and walked away very impressed. It was a budget game that had a clean aesthetic, solid music, and mind-bending puzzles. The specific hook to its puzzle design was literally a hook. You had to carry circles to a goal by reeling in a hook that would grab them. It started off small, grew with complexity over a few levels, then switched up mechanics by introducing different mechanisms.

It was game design 101, but it contained moments of devious ingenuity that had me smashing my head against the wall for 10-15 minutes at a time. Thankfully, that minimalism created a calm atmosphere that never left me frustrated, just eager to best the puzzles at hand. It's well worth a look if you're into those types of titles.