Rita

I lost my grandmother a little over ten years ago & never said goodbye to her. Like Rita, she and I always did pen & paper activities such as Sudokus, word searches, and crosswords. She was always my biggest supporter with all my music & performances. I still miss her, but I will always hold onto these memories. I played this game less than a week before my yearly visit to see my other grandmother, who lives over a thousand miles away from me. She is currently 92 years old and my last living grandparent. This game reminded me that I should cherish every second I have with her on my trip because, for all I know, this might be the last time I see her. As I write this review behind tear-filled eyes: Thank you for such a beautiful and powerful game to help me to not only remember the moments I spent with my one grandmother, but also remind me about cherishing whatever limited time I might have left with my other grandmother.

A little chicklet named Rita is born from an egg, and this birth is apparently connected to the appearance of letters all over the world. Now, you set out to solve the mystery by collecting letters and solving word puzzles in newspapers. The main mechanic is introduced right away, with a couple of letters nearby and a small crossword puzzle where you cannot really make a mistake. A crossword consists of several rows and columns, each with a number and a clue, just like in a real crossword puzzle. However, the twist is that you cannot simply enter letters even if you already know the answer. You first need to find those letters in the environment. The letters are scattered around, and you collect them simply by walking into them. When letters are required for progression, you will see arrows pointing toward them, but there will also be many other letters that are not needed at the moment. You can still collect these because they will be useful later. There is no inventory limit, so you can pick up any letters you come across to save time. Once you have the correct letters to solve one of the puzzles, you will see a number on the newspaper indicating that something can be completed. Later, you will have more puzzles available at the same time, and to make things easier, letters will appear in different colors so you do not have to search for solutions across all of them. However, I suggest solving a puzzle as soon as you see the number one on the newspaper. The reason is that collecting more letters will make things more confusing, and the required solution might become harder to spot among a sea of letters that are not currently needed. What makes the game unique and fun is that each solution you find in crossword puzzles or other word games directly affects the game world. For example, entering the solution "lift" activates an elevator, while "waterfall" creates a water source for the sheep. Although a basic understanding of the language is necessary, you can interact with signs and characters that often contain one of the solution words written in capital letters. You can write these down somewhere because they will eventually become answers. If you are still stuck, you can lower the difficulty to easy, which reveals the words, meaning you only need to enter them into the puzzle. The colorful world is explored by walking and jumping, with new movement abilities unlocked through the first crossword puzzles. The camera is fixed, although you can hold and drag it for a short time. Once released, it always returns to the default view. There are several locations or maps, and you can travel between them to take care of unfinished tasks that you could not complete the first time. This progression is tied to Rita’s life. Although she starts as a chicklet, each new location also represents a jump forward in time. The second location already shows her as an old chicken. It also introduces new mechanics, as this same location allows you to switch between Rita and her grandson. He later becomes older and takes the spotlight in the third location. He also learns a gliding ability, which makes traversal a bit easier. Besides letters, you will also find newspaper pages containing new puzzles, collectible golden feathers hidden behind riddles that you need to solve, mini-games that reveal newspaper articles, and regular feathers that unlock bonus stages. These take place in separate environments and contain word search puzzles, rewarding you with valuable lessons. Bonus stages can include very tricky clues that might even be a mystery to an English speaker.