Bonfire Peaks

Genre: Puzzle

Players: 1

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Review:

(Note: This game is included in the Draknek and Friends Puzzle Bundle (5 Games), along with Sokobond, A Good Snowman is Hard to Build, Cosmic Express, and A Monster’s Expedition. It is also in Draknek & Friends Puzzle Bundle (6 Games), along with all of the above mentioned games, as well as 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.)

Bonfire Peaks is a family-friendly character-based Puzzle game released on PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and Nintendo Switch in 2021. Bonfire Peaks has players moving their characters through various puzzles where they must get a crate of their belongings to a fire to burn it. Because symbolism, I guess.

The presentation of Bonfire Peaks uses a boxy “voxel” style of visuals reminiscent of games like The Touryst, and while these have some charm to them and even a fair amount of detail in the backgrounds, this charm is dulled somewhat by the distracting filter placed over the gameplay that makes it feel like staring at the game through a mesh. This is backed by a subdued soundtrack that I found to be pretty forgettable.

As far as the gameplay goes, this is a perfectly acceptable box-moving Puzzle game, but there’s not really much to it beyond the unique way your character can and cannot move – he can walk backwards or forwards with a box, and turn with it, but not walk sideways. He can pick up a box on even ground with him, but not one beneath or above his level. He can carry a stack of boxes, but cannot separate them except by alternate means like grabbing boxes off the top while on another level or using a box to knock down the stack. All in all, it’s not bad, but there’s very little here that’s compelling.

I should also address the value present here. On the one hand, the game contains over 200 puzzles. On the other hand, its $20 price tag seems steep given the simplicity of the puzzles here.

Overall, if you like character-based Puzzle games, Bonfire Peaks will probably seem decent enough, but aside from the art style there’s not much here to set it apart, and the price tag is a bit on the high side. Given the number of great games like this on the Nintendo Switch, Bonfire Peaks is a game probably only worth a look for diehard fans of the genre.

tl;dr – Bonfire Peaks is a family-friendly character-driven Puzzle game about setting fire to your belongings. It’s a decent entry in the genre, but nothing special, and certainly nothing that makes it worth the $20 price.

Grade: C

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