Please, Touch the Artwork

Genre: Puzzle

Players: 1

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Review:

Note: This game is included in Nakana Bundle #5, along with A Night at the Races, Cosmic Top Secret, Eqqo, and Infini. Additionally, this game is also in Nakana Bundle #6 (10 games), along with A Night at the Races, Cosmic Top Secret, Eqqo, Infini, Journey of the Broken Circle, Lydia, Mythic Ocean, Soul Searching, and Stilstand.

Please, Touch the Artwork is a family-friendly Puzzle game released in 2022 on PC, mobile devices, and Nintendo Switch. This game features three distinct types of puzzles, all packaged in a presentation designed to appear like a virtual art gallery displaying abstract arts, and specifically art in the De Stijl style of abstract art, more specifically the works of artists Piet Mondrian and Theo van Doesburg, who are generally credited with creating this particular style of art.

As such, it makes sense that most of this game’s visuals imitate that same art style, which is to say, bold lines and bright primary colors in simple grid-like shapes. These “artworks” that form the game’s puzzles are joined by simple cartoony characters representing the gallery’s security guard (who doubles as an amateur tour guide of sorts) and other patrons of the gallery, as well as your own cartoony arm interacting with the artworks if you’re using traditional gamepad controls instead of the touchscreen (both are available, and work just fine). Overall, these visuals strike a good balance between whimsical, accessible, and classy, and they’re backed by a light jazzy instrumental soundtrack that fits the look of the game wonderfully.

For the gameplay, the game is split into three sections, which can be played in any order: Style, Boogie Woogie, and New York City. Each of these sections offers a different sort of Puzzle gameplay, as well as a light sort of story to accompany your progression.

Style has players selecting parts of each canvas to add lines to match a second painting, and then selecting parts to add colors in a way that’s a little like Color Zen, keeping in mind how the placement will affect subsequent placements. Boogie Woogie has players sending dots into a series of pathways to reach a paired square, with more difficult puzzles featuring multiple pairings and really making players focus on order of operation. Finally, New York City has the paintings act as a maze of sorts with players tasked with collecting all dots on a path before proceeding. This third Puzzle type is the easiest of the three, with it focused more on an abstract sort of mood as the dot-collecting has you piecing together letters to form a stream-of-thought collage of words.

I suppose all three of the game’s puzzle styles are enjoyable in their own way, and they’re all heightened by the pleasant presentation. At $8 for 160 puzzles, this makes for an overall pretty satisfying Puzzle package, and if you’re a Puzzle game fan, I would say that Please, Touch the Artwork is well worth a look. However, if you’re an art lover, this is definitely a game you’ll want to pick up, particularly if you’re a fan of this style of abstract art – in that case, this game may very well be made for you.

tl;dr – Please, Touch the Artwork is a family-friendly Puzzle game where players solve puzzles in three distinct styles with a presentation inspired by abstract art and framed as an interactive art gallery. The puzzles here are decent, and the game’s $8 or 160 puzzles is a pretty good value, but the classy presentation elevates this game, making it a solid choice for Puzzle fans, and an especially good choice for art lovers.

Grade: B

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