Sometimes, you just need a relaxing puzzle game in your life. I didn’t think I did, but I absolutely did. Something with such a calm experience that lets the trash of the day waste away from your mind and perhaps your soul. Little indie game ‘Gecko Gods’, developed by Inresin, while not groundbreaking in the genre, is a heartfelt endeavour you can just tell.

The story is basic but charming. You are a lonely little Gecko doing your own little gecko-y things. Your world is rocked, though, when the Gecko Gods notice you and choose you to unleash their power.

No longer is your aim to just scurry around mundanely from rock to rock, but now you must scale walls, solve puzzles, man a boat to explore the archipelago you live in and unlock your true Gecko power.

Most of the story is told through still cutscenes with some very Banjo-Kazooie text boxes that scroll across the bottom of the screen. The story is very flippant and whimsical, but nothing superbly outside the box and particularly interesting; however, I can’t help but think this would be perfect for a younger age bracket.

Objectively, you must travel to multiple islands, solving different types of puzzles to burn sacred fires to please the Gecko Gods. These puzzles range from straight platforming terrain to wiring up systems to even sorting slide panels to create pictures.

None of these puzzles is particularly challenging, but that adds to the overall feel, I think they are going for. You even get to sail a little boat from island to island to explore. It’s all just a bit cosy.

Gameplay is actually quite intuitive. You actually feel like a lizard as you scurry up walls and across the roofs of caverns. You can hop and lunge at insects to eat and bizarre little enemy creatures.

You even have a latching mouth movement that can be used to pull levers. It’s very squirmy and wiggly in experience, and I loved it.

I was having such a good run gameplay-wise until it got a little glitchy. Unfortunately, right when I was on my last island, I died when I somehow ran through a volcanic mountainside. When I reloaded the save, thankfully, I was out, but for some reason, I was back on the original island without my boat.

Running back to the dock, it was not there waiting for me. I was gutted and had to start the whole story again. Painful when I was so close to the end. Before that, it was smooth sailing, though.

The charming and comfy feel carries so perfectly over to the graphics and sound design, too. In quaint pastel colours, each island is a hue of dusty yellows and oranges as you investigate a range of ruins.

It’s a pity they didn’t make each a more diverse biome, but I understand they wanted each island to fit into the god-like ruins theme. The music has the same relaxing ambience, too. The scenes are set with varying lo-fi music, an actual vibe when you are crawling around merrily.

Gecko Gods is an accumulation of everything relaxing. The lazy and satisfying game controls that perfectly mimic the life of the humble gecko, down to the calm music and sedated colour palettes. With some minor glitching issues, this is a sound adventure title once smoothed out.

Written by: Stacey