May Assassination #7 (Backlog / Snowball)

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One of the best puzzle games I've played in recent memory. What shines for me is the simplicity of it - every level consists of a 5x5 chess-like grid, and you receive anywhere from 1-5 pieces that need to be placed in order to power up or fuel up all your buildings on the map. And on this extremely basic premise, you have loads and loads of mechanical modifiers that ensure not only that each level is unique, but that each stretch of the game is unique as well.

Some stretches will have you dealing with spikes that come up and down on alternate turns, some will have you dealing with red crystals that prevent piece placement, and some will have you dealing with glitched patches that grow like a cancer, to name a few. The optional puzzles keep adding new mechanics, and the game is graceful enough to end before it becomes dull.

One of the things I loved about it is that, while some puzzles can be hard, there are just enough options that you can bruteforce the ones that stump you. Sure, it takes a bit of time and patience to do so, but it's better than getting stuck forever on a few levels like happened to me on Snakebird or Baba Is You.

All of that is wrapped in a game with a simplistic but confident art style that is charming and unique at the same time, some sound design that is arguably limited, but fits the atmosphere incredibly well, and some wordless environmental storytelling that works much better than it should.

How this game hasn't become a puzzling benchmark is beyond my understanding, but I hope my review at least help some people who are curious to finally give it a go!