Is This Seat Taken?

Genre: Puzzle

Players: 1

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Review:

Is This Seat Taken?, released in 2025 on PC and Nintendo Switch, is a family-friendly Puzzle game that tasks you with a straightforward goal – you must choose where to seat a group of people, represented by simple geometric shapes, so that everyone’s specific desires are satisfied.

These desires can be based on the location, such as riders in a taxi or bus wanting an aisle or window seat. They can also relate to other passengers, such as children wanting to be seated next to their parent, or popcorn thieves in a movie theater wanting to be next to someone with a popcorn bucket. Some people demand to be seated alone, not next to anyone. Then there are some people with negative traits that others don’t want to be near, such as smelly people who haven’t showered who will upset more sensitive people, or people playing loud music that will annoy those who want to be away from noise.

As you progress through the game, you’ll see more types of criteria for people and their seating whims, and might need to make some tricky arrangements to ensure everyone is satisfied. This sort of progression ensures that the game doesn’t get repetitive, while remaining accessible.

The actual mechanics of the game are simple enough, with players controlling a cursor with the gamepad or moving people directly using the touchscreen in handheld mode. I have no complaints about the controls here, but even if I did, the lack of a timer means that players are under no pressure to solve the game’s puzzles quickly – you can take as much time as you need to puzzle them out.

When it comes to the presentation, Is This Seat Taken is quaint in an adorable sort of way, using simple 2D visuals with only a few colors, but done in a style that’s really endearing, with the little shape-people reacting to your picking them up and moving them, and showing their happiness or disdain on their faces to indicate whether your seating choice for them has fulfilled their needs. This is joined by cute little text conversations between characters at the start of each puzzle, imbuing these shapes with endearing personality. And all of this is backed by generally upbeat acoustic music that gives the game a nice relaxed tone.

It’s hard to find much fault with Is This Seat Taken?. This is an enjoyable logic-based Puzzle game that’s highly accessible, with a pleasant presentation, and some overall solid puzzle design. It’s estimated to take about 5 hours to beat (though I see playthroughs of the game taking as little as 3), which is fine for its $10 price tag. I suppose it’s not especially ambitious or revolutionary in any way, but not everything needs to be. Honestly, if you’re a Puzzle game fan, I think this is absolutely a game you’ll want to pick up.

tl;dr – Is This Seat Taken? is a family-friendly logic-based Puzzle game that has you trying to assign seating to a group of people so that all their individual needs are satisfied. The gameplay here is straightforward and accessible but still enjoyable, with new quirks and complications added as you continue playing, and the quaint presentation is wonderfully appealing. This game doesn’t push any envelopes, but it also doesn’t have any significant flaws. If you’re a Puzzle game fan, you’ll definitely want to give this a try.

Grade: B+

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