6-Sided Stories review

As the evenings draw in, the weather starts to turn and thoughts turn to cosy nights wrapped up in a fluffy dressing gown, along comes an indie game that suits the autumnal mood perfectly. 6-Sided Stories is a gentle puzzler charting the adventures of an adorable calico cat and his animal pals.

With 40 puzzles set throughout the changing seasons, it’s a jigsaw puzzle with a literal twist. Hand drawn pixel art is split into hexagons and you must flip and twist each part to match its neighbours, eventually creating a cohesive scene before moving on to the next, with each season telling its own short tale. Controls are simple, requiring only a single button to select your tile and a single joystick to flip it around on its axis.

Things will start simply with only a single possible move per piece but as the journey continues, tiles will grow smaller and more numerous, pieces can be rotated in different directions, along with a further option to invert the colour palette of each piece. There are no sharp edges here but more a gentle difficulty curve that never once got frustrating or even particularly challenging but that’s all part of the charm.

Should you wish to make things a little easier on yourself in 6-Sided Stories, there’s always the option to take a look at the completed picture for guidance, like flipping over the lid of a jigsaw puzzle to see where that patch of grass should go. The game will also give you a gentle nudge in the right direction by gently shaking an incorrect piece should you ponder over the image just a little too long.

My favourite aspect of the game had to be the lo-fi soundtrack. The chilled jazzy beats are the perfect accompaniment to a relaxing evening of flipping and gentle puzzling. These are all produced by independent artists that I had never previously heard of but have now become the subject of their own playlist. With the freedom to change tunes on the fly, there’s always a track to suit your mood.

My only real complaint has to be the brevity of the story. Coming in under three hours, I couldn’t fathom where the time had gone as the credits rolled. I’m sure that I only sat down for five minutes. There’s plenty of room for further puzzles and I will be sorely disappointed if we don’t get some more in the form of DLC further down the line.

A soothing game to snuggle down with, 6-Sided Stories is a perfect pairing to a warm hot chocolate, comfy slippers and the crackle of a log fire. Short but very, very sweet, take a couple of hours and relax in its soft embrace.