While it may seem strange to create a game based solely on tidying up, A Little to the Left is nevertheless particularly enjoyable. You don't need to be a classification freak to appreciate this video game UFO: you can hate organizing your cupboards and love spending hours ordering virtual objects by size or color. A surprising and surprisingly relaxing puzzle game concept.
Restore order
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In A Little to the Left, the scenario is minimalist: you have to tidy up. Whether it's books in the library, jars in the kitchen or trinkets scattered in a drawer, we file, we sort, we stack… so that everything is perfectly ordered. The game is not burdened with an underlying story like in Unpacking. Each painting leads to the next, without the need to cover it with any justification. Simplicity is the key word here.
A minimalism which is also found in the graphics, with their “collage” effect and their pencil drawing. Far from being a fault, this aesthetic choice makes each element perfectly identifiable. The design and bright colors are pleasing to the eye, and help you grasp the concept of each puzzle quickly. Although its basic drag-and-drop gameplay would be better suited to a touchscreen, A Little to the Left remains completely accessible to the controller.
House for maniac
The levels are divided into five main categories which symbolize the places to be tidy: the office, the kitchen, the garage, the garden and a miscellaneous part, which allows for many fantasies. Several puzzles offer multiple solutions. Sometimes you have to classify objects by color, type, size or manage to fit them together in the best possible way. The game plays with symmetry, logic, shapes… often in a brilliant way.
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However, there is no need to panic, if a puzzle proves too difficult, there is still the possibility of asking for a clue or simply moving on to the next one. The “let it happen” option indeed offers the possibility of ignoring a puzzle without any limit on its use. Calm !
An eternal restart
Cats are not known to be fans of tidying up! This is why a big white cat will sometimes come and cause havoc in the paintings. The feline likes to paw at the perfectly aligned trinkets, even reducing the player's work to nothing. If he embodies chaos in a universe that wants to be perfectly ordered, this cat also reminds us that it is important to throw everything away sometimes.
Let completionists and obsessives rest assured: it is entirely possible to return to an old puzzle. Either because it had been passed, or to test all its resolution possibilities. With nearly a hundred joyfully addictive puzzles in its base version alone, A Little to the Left promises to keep the player busy for at least three or four hours. In addition, to extend the experience, the game also offers a new surprise puzzle to discover for free every day, as well as DLC.
Tested on Xbox series