In Arranger: A Role-Puzzling Adventure, you’ll slide across a classic fantasy world and meet lots of strange characters in stranger locations, all using a unique bump-combat and slide-puzzle inspired movement scheme. Arranger is out now and included with a Netflix subscription on mobile.
The game follows Jemma as she navigates a grid-based world. Unlike the world’s other inhabitants, she moves by shifting the entire row or column with each step, taking any objects in that line along with her. She can even pop out on the other side of a grid if you push her to the edge. If this sounds confusing, watch it in action and you’ll understand it instantly.
The game has no inventory management or leveling up. Instead, everything is laid out on the screen and you must use Jemma’s unique movement to arrange everything correctly. Jemma’s journey will take her to beachy ocean towns, dank dungeons, desert mines, and mysterious forests, each with their own puzzles to solve.
The art is from David Hellman, who you might know from Braid or the Zelda-inspired graphic novel Second Quest. Hellman’s work is lush and painterly as well as bright and cartoonish. It’s a great fit for a game that seems to take the warmth and surrealism of Link’s Awakening as a primary inspiration. Arranger is the debut game of studio Furniture & Mattress, which includes Ethereal developer Nicolás Recabarren and JETT: The Far Shore writer Nick Suttner.
Arranger has gotten some early buzz across its reviews. Kenneth Shepard wrote for Kotaku that, “There were times when I was playing through Arranger where it didn’t feel hyperbolic to call it a ‘perfect’ video game.” Jordan Biordi gave it an 8.5 out of 10 for CG Magazine and asserted that, “Arranger: A Role-Puzzling Adventure made sliding-block puzzles fun and interesting. That in and of itself is the highest praise I could give it.” It currently has a 76 rating on GameSpot sister site Metacritic.
Arranger is also out on PC, PS5, and Nintendo Switch for $20, with a 10% launch discount.
