Games I Played in 2024: Pushmo

 

Console: 3DS

Developer: Intelligent Systems

Release Date: December 8th 2011

Pushmo, known perhaps more fittingly as Pullblox in PAL regions, is a puzzle game with platforming elements centered around solving puzzle box-like stages by pulling and pushing blocks. It's an eShop exclusive for the Nintendo 3DS, and the first of a quadrilogy. The Pushmo series is one of Nintendo's lesser-known first party franchises, as the entire series was comprised of eShop exclusives. It seemingly was designed to be a bang-for-your-buck type of game, as despite being simple and straightforward, Pushmo boasts 252 stages and even comes with a robust level creator.

In Pushmo, the player controls Mallo, an adorable, squishy looking red sumo wrestler who must rescue trapped children. The game is based around a single mechanic: pushing and pulling blocks. What counts as a "block" is a solid shape of the same color, so a block can theoretically be of any shape. Blocks can only be pushed forward and back, and up to three distances that are clearly indicated by colored floors: green for pulled once, yellow for two, red for three. While Mallo cannot pull blocks sideways, he can pull them forward or back from the side if they're already pulled one level and he has an extra length of floor to work with, which does help deepen the central mechanic a tad. As you progress, two gadgets are added to mix things up: a colored arrow that pulls out all matching blocks to the maximum depth when stepped on, and manhole pairs that act as color-coded teleporters. Late in the game, there's considerable strategy in knowing when to press the arrows and when to avoid them.

Mallo is a bit sluggish, being a sumo wrestler, and can't jump very high. However, his movement is given very clear limitations: the game, despite being 3D, uses a grid-based system to determine what is or isn't possible. Mallo can jump one square high and two squares long. He also cannot jump into a one square gap diagonally if there is a ceiling one square about him. Helpfully, when walking near a ledge, Mallo will automatically stop and teeter, preventing accidental falls. And even if you accidentally fall, there is a handy rewind button that lets you rewind gameplay up to around 30 to 45 seconds at any time. There's also a physical reset button in levels, should you wish to reset the level. There's also an optional skip option if you spend enough time on a puzzle unsuccessfully. Something a bit unique about Pushmo is that Mallo's platforming is sometimes required to solve a puzzle in ways that seem just a tiny bit outside the box. It's a clever little bit of game design that I appreciate.

That's really all Pushmo is: you're given a puzzle made of colorful shapes, and your task is to get to the goal, either a trapped child or a flag, that is typically at the top of the puzzle. There are two kinds of stages: Challenges and Murals. Functionally the same, the only difference is that Challenge levels are abstract shapes (pure puzzles, if you wish to see it that way) and Mural levels depict images, such as fruit, objects or animals. There are also some Nintendo Murals, which simply depict NES sprites. Murals are more fun than Challenges in my opinion, partly due to Challenges only being three colors for the most part, and always the same color: baby blue, pastel pink, and white. Had there been different color used, I think Challenges would've stood out more. As is, they're a bit dull.

Stages start out small and grow bigger and bigger as you progress. Difficulty ranges from 1 to 5 stars, but I found this somewhat unreliable due to the puzzle box nature of the stages: I found some 4 and 5 star stages very easy and the one that stumped me the longest was a 3 star stage. For this kind of puzzle, difficulty is purely subjective as it depends on whether or not the puzzle "clicks" for you, or you end up trying the same three things over and over again. The manholes and especially the arrows don't feel like they're quite used to their full potential, especially the idea that some arrows are useless by design. It doesn't help that the presence of these useless arrows is usually signposted by the presence of Papa Blox, the tutorial mentor character. The camera angle can also make depth perception a bit difficult on the bigger puzzles.

Indeed, Pushmo is very much what I like to call a "fiddly" puzzle game: it's the kind of game with puzzle solutions that have many steps and thus require the player to "fiddle" around until they figure out the solution. I'm not the biggest fan of this sort of puzzle, and I must admit that as the difficulty (slowly) grew, so did my annoyance. For multiple dozens of early stages, the game feels too easy. Then, there is a sweetspot where it's just enough of a brain-teaser that it's satisfying to solve without taking too long. And then, at least for me, stages became complex enough to become a frustrating chore to complete. I don't know if it's because the game somehow "un-clicked" in my brain, but I found myself taking entire hour-plus commutes to solve one puzzle, or even fail to solve one. Many of the puzzles grew too "fiddly" for my tastes, with a lot of trial and error, or walking back and forth, or getting to a new section of a puzzle and getting stuck only to realize I needed to pull something out 20 minutes ago.

As a result, while I did finish the main "campaign," if there's even such a thing in a game with so little story it's not worth mentioning besides it being cute in a barebones sort of way, I couldn't bring myself to finish the three bonus worlds that are unlocked after completing the first 198 stages. The game stopped being fun and I was starting to rely on walkthroughs just to get through one puzzle after three days of trying. I'd consider Pushmo more of a quantity over quality offering: the easy stages are completely unmemorable and are finished in a flash, while the hard stages are frustratingly memorable and take forever. That's not to say they're poorly designed, more that it's not the kind of puzzle I personally enjoy.

While I didn't mess with the Pushmo Studio at all, being able to create your own Pushmo is a fantastic extra feature that gives the game extra longevity. Furthermore, these can be shared not through the internet, but through QR Codes. While it may have been cumbersome back then, with the death of the 3DS online services happening next week at time of writing, this is actually a great way to future-proof the game. Sharing QR Codes online is easy, and scanning them is just as easy, and it's a timeless feature. If I were to create a Pushmo today, I could easily share it with a friend that has the game and they'd be able to play my Pushmo without issue.

Pushmo's music was composed by Shoh Murakami, potentially with the support of Masanobu Matsunaga. It's a simple and pleasant soundtrack, with 8-bit lead synths backed by a mix of 8-bit instruments and woodwinds. It's not very long diverse, as there's only four main songs: one for Challenges, one for Murals, one for Nintendo Murals, and one for the Pushmo Studio. Nevertheless, you're bound to spend enough time playing that, should you have the sound on, the main songs will grow very memorable. I think the Mural theme is the one I associate most with Pushmo.

PROS AND CONS

PROS

    • Lots of content for how expensive the game is

    • Murals are all very creatively designed

    • Pushmo Studio is a great feature that is even future-proofed

CONS

    • Quantity over quality: too many puzzles feel the same

    • Challenge levels are bland

    • Some unexplored potential with unnecessary gadgets

    • eShop exclusivity means it's impossible to purchase anymore

WORTH PLAYING?

For one reason or another, Pushmo lost me as it kept going and going until I fully dropped off. But that doesn't mean I think it's a bad game at all. In fact, my big qualm with the amount of puzzles is a positive should you prefer these sort of "fiddly" puzzles. As the first in a quadrilogy, Pushmo does a great job, overachieves even with a full creation suite. It's simple fun that shouldn't be seen as a game to complete, but something to fire up to solve a puzzle or two while playing as an adorable little squishy character.

Unfortunately, as an eShop exclusive on the 3DS, the entire Pushmo series is no longer purchasable. So unless Nintendo releases a Pushmo collection of sorts, there's no way to legally play this game. Still, if you get the chance and especially if "fiddly" puzzles are your thing, Pushmo is worth playing, even if not to completion.