Hix: Puzzle Islands

HIX: Puzzle Islands is a surprisingly fun game. The fun puzzles strike a perfect balance between tricky and satisfying, with a truly relaxing ambience set amid a cute and well-designed world. It easily earns its E rating, as this is a title that can be enjoyed by everyone. HIX: Puzzle Islands is a surprisingly fun game. The fun puzzles strike a perfect balance between tricky and satisfying, with a truly relaxing ambience set amid a cute and well-designed world. It easily earns its E rating, as this is a title that can be enjoyed by everyone.

HIX: Puzzle Islands is joining an already substantial catalogue of puzzle games on the Nintendo Switch, it could sink without trace. But if you have a few pounds/dollars spare and want a puzzle game that isn’t overly challenging but also enjoyable, then pick up HIX: Puzzle Islands while you’re having your cup of coffee in the morning.

The developers have done everything they can with HIX, and what they've done is fine. This is a perfectly adequate, competent, enjoyable puzzler that, like the best of the genre, takes a simple concept and gets you thinking as you play. Not thinking too hard, since this is meant to be relaxing and calming, but thinking just enough to feel smart at figuring out the solutions. The execution is a little bland and 101, though, and that means, just like the $2 puzzle book, you're not going to remember having ever played it a year from now. As to whether that's worth the price of admission when there are so many other high-quality games being released on the Switch... well, that one depends on how much you enjoy time-wasting puzzle books, really.