I met for the first time Arranger: A Puzzle-Filled Adventure at the Netflix booth during Summer Game Fest. Within moments of sitting in the demo, I was struck by how clear the game’s concept and purpose are. You play as a little girl named Jemma, who, as she moves through a tiled world of columns and rows, moves objects with her. Puzzles involving — if you’ll pardon the pun — organize objects will undoubtedly follow.
Arranger is an “Oh… Oh!” kind of puzzle game. It’s deceptively simple, with clear objectives no more complicated than “use the pressure switch to unlock the door.” But the game’s simple presentation belies cleverly designed puzzles that tested my spatial perception to its absolute limit, and I love each second.
That spark of recognition, that eureka moment, is a priceless burst of excitement that comes early and often.
At the start of the game, I was in an empty room with a pressure plate and a blocked door. Standing on the plate naturally unlocked the door, but when I moved away from the plate, it slammed shut on my face. I tried every possible way to organize (sorry, this is going to happen a lot) myself, thinking I could quickly jump off the plate and enter the open door before it closed—but to no avail. Frustrated, I went back the way I came thinking I had missed a key item from an NPC, and near the door… there were two potted plants.
Before entering this room, these potted plants were just a disposable decoration. As I left, I immediately understood their usefulness. Play Arranger It’s like the first time a baby discovers that the square block fits into the square hole. That’s not to say the game is too easy; it’s more like you can feel like you’re learning something new in real time. That spark of recognition, that eureka moment, is a priceless burst of excitement that comes early and often.
When I play, the clicking of the tiles as Jemma moves gets slower as I mumble “I think I get it” as I get closer to the objective. I know what needs to happen. To defeat this centipede boss, I have to shove its pointy tail into its eye, but every time the tail gets closer, the eye moves one tile away like in a game of Snake. But there are rocks in the boss arena, and I can trap the centipede around the rocks and…
As rewarding as these moments are, they also work in reverse. The game’s antagonist is an affliction called “static electricity.” Objects affected by it essentially act as barriers. Jemma can’t move them like she can other objects, so if they’re in her way, she has to find a way around them. Static electricity also spawns path-blocking monsters that can only be defeated by shoving a sword into its space. ArrangerThe puzzles involve moving a sword, Jemma, or mission-critical objects around “static” objects.
Fight in Arranger involves moving swords and pushing them towards enemies.
Image: Furniture and mattresses
In one puzzle, I had to put the pieces of a broken record back together, rotating the record and filling in each hole. It seemed easy enough. But when Jemma moves, all the moving objects on the same axis move with her. So when I pushed in the last piece, another piece on the opposite side popped out.
Many of the puzzles in the game start out this way, easy until the end, when the curveball comes out of nowhere. But believe it or not, those moments were also enjoyable. With the record puzzle, once I saw that coin appear, I started laughing. It was like putting your Crocs in “sport mode.” This puzzle was harder than expected, time to focus. (And don’t worry, there are settings that let you skip puzzles if they’re too hard, settings to make puzzles harder, and a multiplayer mode that also lets a friend move objects.)
Locked doors mean nothing to Jemma.
Image: Furniture and mattresses
However Arranger is a puzzle game, it effectively uses its mechanics to build an interesting world and tell a sweet story. Jemma’s movement ability makes her unique, and she sets out on an adventure to find others like her, using her powers to do good along the way. When Jemma reaches the end of a row or column, she teleports to the other end. She uses this feature to break out a teenager trapped in his locked room by strict parents by simply pushing him against the opposite wall. In another area, she saves a town whose residents have become moribund in their homes because they relied too much on communicating via blue mechanical birds.
Arranger is the video game equivalent of a book you’d take with you on a beach vacation, perfect for your Switch, Steam Deck, or tablet. It’s refreshingly short: I’m in the final area and have played for about four to five hours total. If you’re feeling adventurous, you can extend that playtime by completing the optional puzzles scattered throughout. I love this little game, unlike anything I’ve played recently.
To really convey how charming and seductive she is Arranger That is, let me leave you with a little story. It was 11pm on a weeknight. I decided to play a little Arranger before going to bed, no more than 30-45 minutes maximum. When I put my Switch down to check the time, it was 1:51am. Two o’clock had passed and I hadn’t even felt it. Besides, I didn’t care. No game had ever done that to me, not even the ones I loved, in recent or distant memory. I felt like a kid again. Arranger the chance to do this to you.
Arranger: A Puzzle-Filled Adventure is now available on Switch, PlayStation, PC, and mobile via Netflix.
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