Ukko & Guará: Stellarbound

A fun character-swapping puzzle game where the environment itself changes based on which cute character you are currently playing. Each character has unique mechanics/skills that must be used to help the other get to the end. Ukko is strong and can build bridges but trees don't grow in the cold snow. Guará can plant the seeds but needs help moving the wood. This simple splitting of abilities leads you to swap between the two friends rapidly but every swap feels like the right move... even when it isn't. I only have one real issue with the game. It is that Ukko seems to be doing most of the work. Whenever Guará plants a tree, Ukko has to chop it down, move the logs and build a bridge. This imbalance of work leads to you spending longer playing as Ukko than Guará. It's not that I want Ukko to do less but that I want Guará to do more. Because if Guará does more then I get more levels. In the end, more levels is all I really want. There are many fun environmental interactions and cool unique mechanics used to solve a puzzle. I want more levels where these mechanics interact with each other more. Rebound the star off the cubes into a portal down a river for Ukko to catch but now…

Runs without change on Steam Deck. Only movies do not load, no big deal. No cloud save but if you only play on SD, no problem. Great cute little puzzle game. Not too long but it's not too hard either. I got it very cheap on sale and I do not regret it.

Nice puzzle game with 30 levels. It's short. I've beaten it in 1h. The rest of my playtime is artificially extended with a few grindy achievements. But it's a solid puzzle game, with cute graphics. There are a few cases in which launching the start felt a bit pixel-perfect, but those were the exceptions. There's a timer on the puzzles (ie, if you control one of the characters for too long, the timer on the other character will decrease until it dies of heat/cold), which I think shouldn't be there, but to be fair it's pretty forgiving. Only in one of the last stages that I think it was too tight, but other than that it's ok. Still, knowing that it is there holds me from stopping and appreciating the puzzle, rather than just trying stuff before the time runs out. Another con I have to mention is when you return to the menu, you have to watch the whole animation (feels like 5 secs). It's not an issue most of the time, but if you're trying to find a specific level, especially for the grindy achievements I mentioned, then it becomes painful. Also, the scrolling on the levels is not very responsive.

Nice pocket sized puzzle game, with cute characters.