Inbento

Genre: Puzzle

Players: 1

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Review:

(Note: This game is included in the Puzzle Bundle: Inbento + Golf Peaks bundle, along with Golf Peaks.)

Inbento is a family-friendly Puzzle game that has you placing items in a bento box to reproduce specific pictures. The challenge comes in the location, orientation, and order you place each piece, with pieces placed on top of other pieces calling for the new piece to push the old one down and, for all intents and purposes, out of the picture.

This game uses a simple, cartoony, and appealing design for its art style that works really well for the game – those who are familiar with the various sort of things often placed in bento boxes will be able to recognize the components being used here, while those who don’t partake in this sort of food will still find that they all work well as puzzle pieces as they are all easily distinguishable from each other, and it’s usually easy to figure out what you can do when the game throws a new puzzle element at you, even with the game’s minimalist style cutting down on-screen indicators to a bare minimum. And the game’s cutesy cat characters work well with the game’s overall appeal. This game also has a nice mellow soundtrack led by piano and xylophone that does a great job to back up this game’s chill, relaxed vibe.

As for the puzzles themselves, the game remains engaging and continues introducing new gameplay elements throughout, and while there’s nothing truly groundbreaking here, it’s all done very well, and I can’t really add much more to it beyond the description I stated in the opening paragraph (at least, not without spoiling the elements the game adds as you continue). I suppose I can say that the game makes it very easy to restart puzzles so you never feel too set back when you make a mistake. It plays well with both the controller and with the touchscreen. It also bears mention also that this game provides players with 100 puzzles to work through, which seems like a pretty fair amount for the game’s $5 price tag.

I don’t really have much more to say about Inbento. This is a quality Puzzle game that doesn’t really do much to break out of the box (ha), but within its box, it does what it does very well. The gameplay is well thought-out and varied, the presentation is appealing, and overall this game makes for an excellent addition to the collection of any Puzzle gamer.

tl;dr – Inbento is a Puzzle game that has players placing items in a bento box to recreate a photo of a finished layout. This game doesn’t do anything particularly extraordinary to push the genre forward, but what it does do it does very well, with well-designed puzzles and a great presentation. Puzzle fans will find this game well worth its low asking price.

Grade: B

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This game has been nominated for one or more of eShopperReviews 2020 Game Awards:

Runner-Up: Best Puzzle Game

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