When a puzzle game takes a theme and runs with it, you are often along for a superb ride. That’s exactly what Inbento does. The entire game revolves around an adult cat making bento lunches for their kitten who then grows up over time. Each world is a stage of that younger cats life as they become an adult themselves. It’s heart-warming and wholesome and sets you up for the fun to come.
Each level gives you a bento box with squares of different food in it. To the right of the screen you can find the arrangement of the food you need to aim for. Inbento starts out simple. You can swap food around in the box and make the pretty patterns. Then it becomes a food jigsaw with blocks of various shapes to rotate and slot in together. It works like a layer cake so you can overlay food blocks so that the last one in goes on top and takes the final shape. Then it starts to add other moves where you can only slide a few pieces of food, or cut some food out, rotate it and stick it in somewhere else. Every 9 or 18 levels, a new twist appears. It keeps the game incredibly fresh and compelling to play.
What keeps Inbento moreish is also how streamlined the puzzles are. You rarely have more than four moves available but as you can often rotate all of them around or place them anywhere in the bento box, it gives you enough rope to hang yourself with. It seems so simple early on, by world 10 I was scratching my head and slowing right down to get the correct bento layout. All the while the graphics are cute, the music slice of life twee and you are rewarded with little photo montages of the cats making bento boxes in their life.
With 127 puzzles, it’ll take you about 3-4 hours to complete depending on how you work each of the more trickier puzzles later on. You’ll speed through the first half of the game without a problem. It is my only tiny criticism that I think some may argue – the difficulty ramps up a little too late in the game. For me, I was too busy enjoying myself to notice.
Inbento is a wonderful breath of fresh air. Go at your own pace, enjoy the relaxed warm vibes and try not to get too hungry.
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