Bring You Home is a Worthy Sequel to Love You to Bits
Love You To Bits was one of the cutest, funniest and most engaging puzzle adventures I have ever played on IOS and I just loved it. It was easily the most underappreciated game of 2016. I’ve been looking forward to a sequel but I didn’t know how anyone could top Love You to Bits’ premise; after all, what’s more interesting than tracking down the pieces of your robot girlfriend? Well, Alike Studio figured it out: Bring You Home is a game about rescuing your adorable dog-like pet from some mysterious kidnappers. How do you top a quest about rescuing the girl? With a story about a boy and his dog. And while I don’t think Bring You Home quite hits the emotional highs of Love You to Bits, it’s a beautiful, funny, engaging puzzle-quest that every Bits fan should pick up.
Each level provides you with panels to slide. Your goal is to get from the portal you entered from to the portal you exit from. Kind of like Time Bandits, really.
Like Love You to Bits, Bring You Home is an episodic puzzle game where each level is very different from the previous one. At the start of the stage, your character enters through a portal (usually on the left of the screen) and has to get to another portal (usually on the right of the screen). Your hero will generally wander into the level and encounter an obstacle of some kind (a fiery-breathing dragon or an exploding bomb or an angry raccoon, for example), at which point the game rewinds to your entrance and lets you restructure the level to avoid the obstacle. You restructure the level by sliding panels around to reorganize them (usually left and right) or to introduce new elements (usually up and down). It’s similar to Framed and Framed 2, just much cuter and funnier.
You have to line up these four characters to bounce on the heads from one portal to another (I think they stole that portal gun from Rick).
There are two places that I’d say Bring You Home actually surpasses Bits. First, Bring You Home may have my favorite puzzle from any game ever. It’s a scene where you find yourself in a movie and have to cross a bridge without angering a sinister idol hovering over you. I spent quite while on this puzzle until it finally clicked with me what the answer was. I immediately made every friend and coworker around me play through that particular stage too, and Bring You Home has plenty of similar puzzles throughout. The second place is the ending. The game has two endings, actually, and it lets you choose between them. They’re both beautiful, heartbreaking, and uplifting. Much like Bits, the end makes you rethink the game’s title and your entire mission. Most games are lucky to have one good ending, this one has two excellent ones.
You get a different monster depending on the slot machine. Even after I figured out what combination I needed, I spent quite a while exploring all the possible permutations.
THE BEST PARTS
The puzzles are smart and cute and really well executed. If you’re looking for a fun, bite-sized puzzle adventure, this is the game for you. Moreover, the cuteness of the game will win over even the most stoic gamer.
THE WORST PARTS
There were a couple of puzzles that frustrated me a bit but they are all fair and you’ll feel good win you solve them. As always, replayability is an issue in a game like this, but it’s definitely worth your $3.
OVERALL: BUY IT
If you liked Love You To Bits, then you must buy this game. Likewise, if you like cute puzzle adventures, then you should buy this without thinking twice. Even non gamers will love this title, but gamers will love the atmosphere, the in-jokes, and the excellent puzzles throughout.
