Every so often a game comes along that looks unassuming and simple… and then you’ll find yourself several hours in thinking everything you knew about it was wrong, and that this game is a true gem. Toggle Tile is my latest experience of this phenomenon which I often find happens in the minimalist-looking puzzle genre. It’s why I trawl Steam for the strangest looking games and it is how I found Toggle Tile in Steam Next Fest last year.
Toggle Tile gives you one goal – turn all the tiles “on”. Each level is a 3×3 grid of titles and sketched on each tile is a 3×3 grid that represents those tiles again. The symbols placed on those tiles tell you what happens if you toggle that tile. It could be a square that shows it’ll toggle that tile on or off for example. This is how the game starts initially, and it feels like a stylish sequencing event as you’ll find tiles will toggle various other tiles on or off so you’ll have to crack the code.
Each chapter adds a new mechanic to consider. Arrows show where a tile will move and swap to. Circular arrows rotate tiles, and that means the orientation of that tile pattern will then change. Rotating a tile that was toggling one row on/off will mean it now toggles a different row and so now we’ve got logic and sequencing for each level. Padlocks lock specific tiles from being toggled but it also prevents you from accessing them to use them. Some levels are designed around catching you out and locking you out from completing a level. Clocks will toggle tiles for a few moves before resetting back. It just gets more complicated with more layers of things to consider and what started as a simple puzzler ends up being a fiendishly taxing challenge.
There are no hints in Toggle Tile, but the 100 levels are spread out over 9 chapters and a node-based minimap. That means upon completion of one level, you may open up several others to choose from. You can flick between them with ease and levels save each move too so you can park something partway through and return to it. Each level also comes with an online leaderboard showing the least amount of moves taken per level. I had genuine joy when I saw I was somewhere around the top, and then marvelled at how low some of the move counts were compared to my own! There are also 10 colour palettes to choose from too, so you can switch the style as you see fit.
Moving beyond the main campaign, there is an intuitive level editor. This is as simple as selecting the game mechanic and clicking it into the right tile and grid place. I hope others will take to level editing as the tools are simple and quick to get to grips with. Player levels are accessed in the main menu and you can also download levels through the Steam Workshop integration. The last cool feature to highlight is Toggle Tile’s 2-player PVP mode. This online battle mode uses a turn-based system with one player tasked to turn all the tiles on, and the other to turn them all off. It is surprisingly decent as a quick-fire mashup of naughts and crosses on steroids. Add on the jazz-funk soundtrack and you’ve got yourself a real all-rounder.
What impresses me most about Toggle Tile is that the game feels fresh, inventive, challenging, and eager to please. It takes its unique gameplay mechanic and rings every idea out of it in a way that keeps the player engaged and frazzled (in a good way). I can’t think of anything missing, broken, or problematic with the game design at all – everything just fits. Toggle Tile is an excellent puzzle game and will no doubt feature high on my Games of the Year list in 2025.
Review copy provided by the developer. Toggle Tile is out now.
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