Sokocat - Islands

Sokocat - Islands is yet another of several hundred minimalist pathing puzzle games that's somehow here on Steam instead of locked onto the app stores where this kind of shallow game belongs. It's basically a ripoff of Sokoban but worse in almost all respects... and remember, this is a paid product. You can play Sokoban for free. It's basically an asset flip, most of the assets were stolen from Suriyun's cutesy/low poly asset packs, but the developer didn't credit Suriyun for doing most of the work that went into the game. Claiming the work of someone else as your own, as the developer here is doing, is unethical. It's plagiarism. Taking this shovelware seriously as if it was a genuine attempt to make a game, it doesn't meet basic minimum requirements that most PC gamers expect as standard. The game features lazy low-polygon "retro" assets, making this look like a barely functional 3D game from the 1990s. It's unclear why the developers weren't able to arrange high quality, high polygon count contemporary assets for the game, and also irrelevant... what matters is that this looks bad as a result of their decisions, a compromise PC gamers shouldn't have to put up with. The…

I enjoyed the game at the start but I have two issues with it. 1. There is no UNDO button so if you fail the level you have to play the whole level over again from the beginning. 2. Most of the Steam Achievements are based on completing 5 levels but because of #1 the later levels are really hard and require many trials, errors and replays... at least for me. I finally gave up after completing level 30. Add an UNDO option and I will gladly change this review to a thumbs up!

Nice sokobanish puzzles - some are really hard, as has been the case with the original many years ago, but feasible. The only shortcoming is a rather high energy cosumption. A possibility to undo one step would be nice. The ghost cat is also a good idea, but it requires some discipline to not give up too early as soon as you found out how to acitivate it: [spoiler] press H[/spoiler].

I'm not a fan of the isometric view (you can rotate the view but it's still not good), awkward controls in said view (up is NW instead of NE - unfortunately you can't change it) and the lack of undo, but the levels are quite good and it's what makes the game worthwhile. Oh, and the Linux version is broken, but Proton works fine.

Sokocat: Islands, developed and published by Rising Moon Games, is a serene and deceptively challenging puzzle game that takes inspiration from the classic Sokoban formula but reimagines it with a gentle, feline twist. Rather than dark warehouses or abstract grids, the game unfolds across a series of tranquil, sunlit islands where a small cat—your avatar—must methodically push crates into their designated spots to complete each level. On the surface, its concept appears simple and familiar, but beneath its calm presentation lies a series of intricate puzzles that demand patience, foresight, and logical precision. Sokocat: Islands is the kind of game that invites you to slow down, take a breath, and think several moves ahead, all while basking in a peaceful atmosphere that makes even the toughest challenges feel approachable. Visually, the game embraces minimalism, opting for bright, soothing tones and clear geometric layouts. Each island feels hand-crafted, with puzzle layouts that vary from compact micro-challenges to sprawling mazes where one wrong move can ruin your entire plan. The soft color palette, smooth textures, and subtle animations combine to create a meditative enviro…

A great sokoban game that can give a really good challenge in the later levels. The "Islands" in this game refers to the micro scale puzzles that are separated by level height and distance, requiring strategic use of platforms and rafts to traverse. This is quite a clever setup, as (in my opinion) the best sokoban puzzles are those in tight, restricted environments, giving the player enough logical space to reverse engineer the solution from the ending positions. A minor annoyance with this game is the inability to recall the last couple of moves. Because of the physics of this game, blocks can be pushed off the island to drop them to a lower level. Often, this is used to great effect by considering where is the best place to drop a block to accomplish the goals of the puzzle on a different level. The problem, however, is that sometimes you can accidentally push the block off when you don't intend to, or even push it off the puzzle map altogether and into the water, forcing a complete restart of the stage. At this point, the multi-puzzle nature of each stage works against itself, as you now have to redo all the previously accomplished puzzles in the same stage to get back to where…