The Hunt For The Ultimate Puzzle! 

**VIDEO SPOILERS BELOW** N Step Steve (parts 1 & 2) Review: They did it, they got me to look past the graphics. Not like I actually care about graphics for longer than five minutes anyway. My point is, the gameplay is sick. Yeah it’s sokoban, and sure there’s a few levels that don’t innovate past basic sokoban, but by God is this a wonderful game. Once the twists started, they didn’t stop coming for several hours straight, and might I add that they were beautifully paced. This is how you do a lot with a little. Every thirty minutes or so, a new way to think about the game emerges. “Wait, I could’ve done this the whole time?” escapes your mouth as your brain levels up. Knowledge-based unlocks will never get old, and little more needs to be said. This game does a particularly good job at turning every edge case into its own mechanic to build levels around. How much was planned from the beginning, and how much was a stream of consciousness? I would love to know. Most of the individual puzzles were great, but the truly special puzzles were the ones that featured multiple solutions of increasing difficulty that you’d only be able to tackle at different phases in the game. A couple levels had *four* increasingly complex challenges, which completely blew my mind. Nothing is more delightful than revisiting an old puzzle with new information, and that felt like the entire second half of the game. The map and especially the cryptid tracker were instrumental to making the second half work so well. The map itself makes finding the next spot of progress seamless, and the added portals to skip over levels you’ve already solved are as refreshing as I had hoped. Pretty much all of the problems from 5 Step Steve were fixed or improved on, although the music was still worth muting. The only surviving displeasure from 5 Step Steve was that some levels didn’t have novel concepts, but instead focused on shuffling around a character or two. I’m not sure if I didn’t enjoy them in a vacuum, or only in comparison to the wonderful ideas-based puzzles that had a strong eureka moment. Either way, those puzzles were the most dull. Most puzzles were based on the eureka moment, however, which resulted in a ton of game changing plot twists. Every twist made sense, felt earned, and was genuinely shocking. It takes balls to hide so much of your game in plain sight, but when it works out, the payout is massive. Why the hell was this game free? Overall Rating: 9/10 (Excellent)

Paquerette was major proof that all you need to encourage collectors anxiety in a puzzler is a good tracker, this game doubles down on that stuff the cryptid hunting

There was actually a really cool hint about the last star because there was a sign that you read which said the dog watched the flags go by ang got excited when they saw a purple one. This is truly a great game and a great RU-vidr.

- About the criptid in the level editor: the developer acknowledged in the comments of the game that it could have been handled better. And also that he shouldn't have made that criptid count for the 100% completion of the game. - 9:30 In this room, you need 3 cats from below just to reach the criptid. It is actually possible to get the star (and continue the chain) if you enter the room with only 2 cats. That's why the wormhole in the room activates when you enter with 2 cats, and only give you one extra cat. The fact that you managed to enter the room with 2 cats before even finding the chain, means that the developer probably didn't intend for you to be able to bring 2 cats to this room, by using only 1 cat in the room below. (You proved that the chain can be finished without even starting it.) - 13:04 Farold Roberts and Atzlar are the protagonists of a series of games called "Cursed Travels" by Ferociter. Those are 2D platform games with puzzles mechanics, unique to each game.

We did it, we made Tyler see a chess battle advanced meme

I wasn't expecting to see professor Layton! He even gives a random puzzle like in the games 10:30

It's always unfortunate when the last thing you do in a game isn't as great as the rest was, but watching this game was really enjoyable, and a reminder that something doesn't need a pretty facade to be great

Believe me when I say our jaws dropped just as often, and as low each time as yours did, if not more. What this game excelled for me was that I never came close to thinking "God, this is gonna take a while" and then losing attention before the next interesting thing happens. It was an incredible experience, exceeding mere puzzle-solving to really take everything to the next multiple levels. And yeah, I agree. Why the hell is this game free?

icely and aliensrock are like two ships passing in the night, neither one acknowledging the other

From now on, everytime i see puzzle games with bad graphics, i immediately play it

Congrats on 100%! Welcome to the club~ There is 1 mechanic that you didnt seem to notice (and the game never hints at), being that whenever you Meta (aka ?????, aka take 2 teleporters at the same time) the game doesnt just send you to a random location, but instead exactly 5 rooms up, to the 3,3 position (top left). It's not necessary info by any stretch, but still a neat detail. Also, the level editor cryptid could certainly be better, but it's still neat that the three flags in the error room spell out 404, and sending you to coordinates 4(0)4 is also a neat touch.

3:12 That was put in for Icely Puzzles and you can NOT convince me otherwise

im sure others have mentioned it, but i would love to see n step steve added to the end card!

I can tell the dev has seen some obscure puzzle games The U he rescued was definitely from "Pushing U", I've seen the game from Icely's

This needs to be a part of the end art

Like you were saying at the end, if you do make a level in the editor, it WILL show up at 0,0 and will have the cryptid tracker on it.

This is my favorite series by far

thank you for playing this. it quickly became one of my favs when i played it and it’s always delightful to watch others go through it! even i don’t really like the editor puzzle though. your solution to how it could be improved sounds neat too. i THINK the hint, in addition to the sign, was supposed to be that each meta teleport moves you… 5? iirc? spaces up in the map, and there’s nowhere even close to 5 spaces below that on the map. but even then, 1) i’ve only seen one person noticed this, and 2) even if you did, i don’t think you’d arrive at the “oh, level editor” thought… i know i didn’t. had to look this last one up

Seeing Layton here was fantastic, especially the little puzzle that came with it. Maybe Tyler might play World of Steam when it comes out?

3:12, oh my god, it is him, the chess battle advanced himself

Mr puzzles reminds me of professor Layton, where he’d suddenly remember a puzzle when you pressed on random objects

3:13 it's sad that icely didn't play this game

Probably one of my favourite newer series from your channel. Props to the dev for making such an amazing puzzle game

This was such an amazing game, I played this through 100% like, a year ago. At least, I thought. When you started to do that double warp my cogs begin turning, "No way, there's more to this?" I thought I was playing the Part 2 but really it's just an extended Part 1. I sincerely thank you for playing this masterpiece of a series and also making me revisit it to finish it whole.

The game hint from the cryptid with the top hat and the lights out puzzle is from the Professor Layton series. I would also love to see you try out this series.

I can't even imagine how Tyler would play a Professor Layton game, but I know it would be hilarious.

Really a hidden gem of a channel

0:41 This cryptid is a reminder that he skipped several worlds in his IWL playthrough he didn't finish. 2:10 Every PuzzleScript character ever except it's just meat. Also, Steve Drowned. 3:11 *_CHESS BATTLE ADVANCED_* 9:20 I think this is the Chants of Sennaar protag. I think? I think. 13:25 U... of the Wii variety?

5:18 you delivered that line exactly like a jeopardy questionoid

10:56 Fun fact: The Bulb Cabal was a real thing, just google the Phoebus Cartel.

I like how the Flags in the Final Cryptid room was a 404 error code, just showing that it's an error to even get there

by far one of the best puzzle games I have ever seen if anything deserves to be added to the end card, its this

The nameless protagonist is the one game with languages

2:17 wow ben drowned that’s a throwback in a half

I didnt expect to see professor layton (mr. Puzzle and his picats) in this game

This series was amazing. I didn't care much about the game when it was just 5 steps and absolutely thought it was going to be a one off video. Glad you kept going, because it became one of my favorite series from the channel This week I was waiting daily for new videos ~and even got kind of bummed out when I saw it was a Portal Snake video, and I've been LOVING that one too~ Ofc I could've just played the games. I managed to finish most of Part 1, but got stuck pretty quickly on Part 2, so I just decided on waiting. Major props to the editors, the points you made before about wanting the editors to portrait your lines of thought during the videos were proved amazingly in this video, with the examples of what you were explaining being shown in real time. It made everything super easy to understand!

SPOILER ON THE GAME TYLER MENTIONNED IN THE END The other game is probably tunic, a wonderful metroid brainia that I would suggest to every fans of the genra!

I love that the end card gets filled more and more. It was a great game and nice journey. A bit sad that its over. I would love to see Tyler play La Mulana but I think he would not enjoy it as much as we would while we watch him. "The temporal invasion" would also be nice but its an nightmare to stream/record this game because of the meta aspect. Just hope that we can get another banger with mindbending puzzles, or maybe even the bunny sequel/finish we are waiting for.

The one bad thing i could say about this game is that you really have to go through the same puzzles a hundred times when you are searching for specific stars, cause who in their right mind is actually going to memorize the map and which *intentional* bug you had to use to get there and how did you get 14 cats in in the first place and which teleporters have you used to get to the meta. That kinda pushed me into not even trying to finish the game anymore and just looking up the solution. Besides that it is surely one of the best puzzle games i have seen (for a pixel art browser game) and just watching you get through some of the rooms was really exciting aswell.

when i initially watched the first episode the game didn't interest me but after coming back to it i binged it, so many interesting twists!

N Step Steve game dev hopefully hears and listens to Tyler in the refining of his endgame puzzle. Awesome.

I love the editors completely relatable comments when Tyler mentions dead cats

10:27 PROFESSOR LAYTON REFERENCE?! AND THE PUZZLE AT 10:40 IS ALSO A PROFESSOR LAYTON REFERENCE?! WHOOOOO!

Such a shame the seriew ended . I enjoyed every second of it. I hope we have more games with this "puzzly" aspects

Was there a door that required all the cryptids? Did we see what's behind it?

Woah a HUMAN hand in a Aliensrock thumbnail, i have no idea why I am surprised

I love the background and editing as a whole for this video

Great video 👍🔝

Enough of the dog's journal signs had hints for secrets that by the time it brought up the level editor in a very conspicuous way, I knew right away that it would be involved somehow

This game is so strange and clever with such a simple mechanic...perfect puzzle game!

15:14 It's the girl from recursed! I love that game!

THE LAYTON REFERENCE AND HAVING A WHOLE PUZZLE IN THE GAME WAS SO CRAZY TO ME, ITS GREAT AHHH

I hope tyler plays all the games which the cryptids are from, especially tres undos

There was actually another way to find the cryptid (that I discovered before getting to the cryptid tracker): Every "double teleport" bring you exactly 5 screens up, so you could work backward by looking at which rooms on the map seem to be missing, and where there are those little 3/4 tile teleport holes, and work backward from there (count 5 screens down). Personally I thought it was a more interesting way to search for them than the tracker just straight up telling you where they are. This wouldn't have helped for the level editor cryptid either though, better hints to both of these info in the Thinky Puzzle Collective would have been appreciated... (with clear indications that those are important hints)

This game actually launched with no cryptid tracker, and you were expected to notice unhinted that multi-exit sends you up by 5 rooms, and from there you could look 5 rooms below each portal floating in the walls for a multi-exit setup. That was my and likely other early players' only major complaint to Ethan, so I'm glad to see it addressed.

We got a Professor Layton reference, let's go!! (Seriously, Professor Layton and the Last Specter (or the Specter's Call if you were in the UK) was my first ever puzzle game I played as a child.)

What sucks about the level editor cryptid is that the cryptid tracker hint is even worse in some versions. The CoolMathGames version gives you bonus levels, instead. While it is possible to get a cryptid warp in one of these levels, it's technically in room 1,1 (the bottom right of the 2x2 square that appears if you look at the map while playing a bonus level), not 0,0, as the cryptid tracker implies. At least the note mentions (in a VERY roundabout way) that you may just have bonus levels instead of the level editor, so I SUPPOSE you could make that connection, but it's still kind of a stretch.

Just woke up and eating cereal, should be a good breakfast video

9:23 is that the tower of babel guy i forgot the name of the game lol

I think the last cryptid would’ve been better if it was like “one of my friends got lost in the level editor” or something like that

insane how long this game was but damn it was awesome

3:11 Chess Battle Advanced

21:55 Missed VSauce meme oppurtunity

Good lord, a ferociter reference? Gosh I love this game dev!

I really want you to play the Cursed Travels series. That’s what Farold Roberts and Atzlar are from. Fun puzzle platformers.

3:10 Icely Puzzles would approve.

steve is goin' in the end screen, yeah? he deserves his place there, that's for sure

23:00 was actually genius. I don’t think I would have ever gotten this

Thanks!

So, how do you feel after ending your year with this game Tyler?

Day 1179 of telling Tyler that he never finished his minecraft series and that he should finish it. Wow, the review of this game is finally out and I think it might make it into the outro screen some day

21:53 "Or is it?" 😂

dawg the music choice is on point

Steve is going through hell and is always just ^._.^

The Professor Layton reference, I love that

By any chance, was the puzzle game you were referring to with the meta Settings puzzle “Lock” from the Dreams editor? If so, it’s exciting to know you’ve played it; it’s one of my all-time favorites! I wish it got more attention.

Amazing content keep up the good work.

So many good games this last year, If they keep improving 2024 will be a great year for puzzle games

I cannot believe you didnt recognize the professor layton reference, definitely a recommended game if you like puzzles

PROFESSOR LAYTON!!! YOOOO!!!!!!!

Hope you play that cube time travel game again,it was fun to watch the first 2 eps

15:16 That's the player character from Recursed. You might like that one, maybe give it a look sometime.

Does anyone happen to know what “that other game” that Aliensrock is paraphrasing about is?

What clever puzzles!

To be fair you don't notice things sometimes. Like the game hinted a pink flag appears in the endless flag room, but you just completely ignored that hint and only through luck tried out to see if the room did anything.

Please, what was the game you were talking so positively about in the end? It kinda sucks that if I play it now the cool secret you mentioned will be spoiled but the curiosity's killing me

But what's in the rooms to the right and down at 22:12, and the room that's down at 23:50?

mr. puzzle was a reference to professor layton, a game you should absolutely play

Im curious if ive played the puzzle game you were talking about near the end of the video. Theres a puzzle in the game "tunic" that had a very similar puzzle, spoilers if you havent played it, where you have to hold a page of your manual open and exit out to the main menu to make an alternative save file appear with a solution to a puzzle. I think the game does that beautifully because even though i can tell someone the exact solution and you can theoretically solve this puzzle at any time, it still wont make sense unless you know what to look for, and its a very cool moment when you finally realize what the game is actually trying to tell you, regardless of when you end up finding it. If you havent played that game id highly recommended it (though it probably wouldnt make a good series on the channel, all things considered)

3:12 Icely moment

3:13 YEAH

More n-step steve? Yes please.

I thought my own way to innovate on that last lousy point (Spoilers ahead obviously, but this one is obtuse) . . . . . I would have added a bit of extra dialogue to the ending alluding to the fact that for some reason, there's 1 more seat, even after accounting for all the cats, including both steves this time. And even mentioning, "Weird, you did rescue us all, I dunno why there's another seat." If you rescued yourself or Baba, they gave the seat to one of those two. You because you helped Steve, Baba because BABA IS CUTE. Then the cat begins to talk about how they've heard of a Terraformer Accident that happened before. Which leads to that room. That room reveals the cats call it a "Terraformer". You know, what we and the dogs call **The Level Editor.**

3:12 ICELY

oh boy, its that time of day again.

Farold Roberts and Atzlar are from the Cursed Travels series of platformers

25:20 Tunic?

I know you said it would be a spoiler, but please tell us what the game is that you were referring to at the end? It sounds interesting.

What game was tyler talking about in level editor ?

Icely would be proud.