Developed and Published by Unimposing Walrus, Labyrinthatory is an educational game teaching you Maths, English, and other essential subjects in the shape of a game. It is a little like Stardew Valley, but focuses mainly on education, giving it great promise and making it enticing for young kids to get into and learn.

The game starts at the funeral of a great inventor, your father, who texts you from the grave asking you to go on a quest to find him, therefore starting your journey in the world of education. The gameplay in Labyrinthatory is definitely unique, and it’s filled with puzzles made of interesting shapes that drag you in to solve.

Controls in Labyrinthatory are smooth and easy when using a mouse and keyboard, with WASD used for movement, and a left mouse button click to interact with objects, get hints, or select different dialogue options, or you can use a gamepad.

Graphics in Labyrinthatory are unique, with bright colours and retro pixel art. Puzzles are presented in a variety of different shapes, and the scenery is colour-matched to give you a feel for the landscape. Dialogue is delivered in written format, but the sentence structure does not make the most sense.

Reading it is somewhat disruptive, making it hard to understand the character you’re speaking with, or “listening” to Roxanne’s inner thoughts after clicking on an object.

Sounds can be peaceful, with birds chirping and other environmental sounds bringing the game to life, like water flowing, or footsteps as you move over certain types of ground. Everything you touch gives off a satisfying sound, but this can all be undone by the dialogue. When a character “speaks,” it will repeat a single sound that repeats for each word in the sentence, almost like a neverending hiccup, providing an unpleasant sound experience.

In conclusion, Labyrinthatory is definitely a game for the ages, bringing education into retro gaming and providing kids with a fun way to learn, but the many sound and visual quirks can deeply diminish the game’s appeal, making it hard for some users to get a grasp on, and with some tasks being a little more challenging than originally implied, this game made me very confused, and at some points frustrated. It’s got potential, but as an educational game, it’s let down by hard-to-follow sentence structure.

Written by: TypicalCambieAU