Sokobond

Genre: Puzzle

Players: 1

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Review:

(Note: This game is included in the Draknek and Friends Puzzle Bundle, along with A Good Snowman is Hard to Build, Cosmic Express, and A Monster’s Expedition. It is also in Draknek & Friends Puzzle Bundle (5 Games), along with the above mentioned games as well as Bonfire Peaks. Additionally, this game is included in Draknek & Friends Puzzle Bundle (6 Games), along with all of the above mentioned games, as well as Bonfire Peaks and Patrick’s Parabox. However, none of those bundles are currently available, although one bundle that is still available is Draknek and Friends Puzzle Bundle (2024), which contains all of the games named above plus Sokobond Express.)

Sokobond is a family-friendly Puzzle game first released on PC in 2013 and ported to Nintendo Switch in 2021. This game has players trying to connect their block to all others on stage, with each block representing an atomic element, and the finished product of each level being a molecule. If you’re a dunce when it comes to chemistry, don’t worry – you don’t need to know anything about molecular formulas to play this game, and in fact Sokobond ends each level with a piece of trivia about the molecule you form.

Sokobond’s presentation is extremely simple – elements are represented by colored circles with smaller white circles orbiting them to indicate the number of bonds they can form, and the levels are represented by simple tiles. This is backed by a dreamy synthesized soundtrack that perfectly fits the relaxed nature of the game. In short, this is an extremely unimpressive presentation, but nevertheless one well-suited to the game.

As for the gameplay itself, this is an excellent example of taking a simple concept and fully exploring it with various creative twists. Players start out simply trying to work their way through the levels without their increasingly bloated molecule becoming stuck, but as the levels progress, the game adds new elements, like places where bonds can be severed after forming to re-form again, places where the layout of a molecule can be twisted into a different shape, places where bonds can be “doubled”, and so on. These levels are gradually unlocked as you complete levels, with levels collected into themes almost like a periodic table of sorts.

The traditional gamepad controls here work perfectly fine, but those who prefer do have the option of using touchscreen controls that are also sufficient. I actually think the gamepad controls are better here, but it’s nice that they included the option, regardless. In terms of value, Sokobond is decent, not great, offering 100 puzzles for $10

There’s not too much else to say about Sokobond – this is a fairly simple and straightforward Puzzle game, but nevertheless one that does a superb job exploring its concept, with plenty of variety to keep things interesting. This game isn’t revolutionary, and its presentation is functional, not flashy. But it succeeds brilliantly at what it aims to be, and Puzzle fans looking for a simple, elegant game to add to their collection should definitely give this one a consideration.

tl;dr – Sokobond is a family-friendly Puzzle Game where players push around blocks representing atomic elements with the goal of joining them all together to form a molecule. Don’t worry if your science is rusty, the gameplay here is simple and easy to pick up, but Sokobond does clever things with that simple and elegant concept. It’s nothing revolutionary, and the presentation is in no way impressive, but this game is nevertheless a superb Puzzle Game that fans of the genre should absolutely play.

Grade: B

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