A couple of years ago, I fell in love with a little sokoban called Isles of Sea and Sky. I first played it at a Day of the Devs showcase in San Francisco, and had to get my hands on it immediately when it came out later that year. I finished it almost entirely on Steam Deck, which was almost the ideal platform to play it on, but I couldn’t help but wish it were on the much lighter-weight, user-friendlier Switch.
Well, now it (almost) is!
Yeah! October 8! That’s just a week away!
Man, I love Isles of Sea and Sky. It’s a sokoban, a block-pushing puzzle game, and a ridiculously smart one. It takes place across a chain of islands that open up to you fairly quickly, but which require you to solve these puzzles to gradually reveal all of their secrets. I love the way Isles of Sea and Sky interconnects its puzzles and islands in both geography and in theme, and the way it tells a story entirely wordlessly through those puzzles. It’s also got great music and adorable pixel art, and makes great use of bright colors to really make the world pop. And last year it got a “Mysterious Update” that added a bunch of new puzzles and block types!
Though I played the entirety of the game on Steam Deck and finished every single puzzle (I loved it that much!), I never quite got around to the Mysterious Update beyond the first few puzzles. I have wanted to go back and wrap it up ever since. Normally, I don’t really replay games like this in which I already know all the solutions, but I’m rather tempted to do it with Isles of Sea and Sky on the Switch just for the sake of playing the DLC on my favorite portable system. Sokobans like this are perfect in handheld, and Isles of Sea and Sky has a very old-school Game Boy Color feel to it that I think works great on a smaller screen like this.
You do you, play it wherever you want, but don’t sleep on Isles of Sea and Sky! I’m genuinely so happy this is finally happening!