Most puzzle games aren’t weird enough. Sure, ambitious new titles like Legend of Solgard look to shake up the match-three formula, however, a lot of puzzle games end up focusing solely on mechanics rather than world-building or narrative. While that’s all fine and dandy, it would be nice to see a new generation of puzzle games transgress the traditional boundaries of puzzle games and push the genre into new, uncharted waters.
Lucky for me, Felix the Reaper does exactly that. Developed by Kong Orange, Felix the Reaper is a “romantic comedy” puzzle game where death is the protagonist. Throughout the course of the game, players control Felix, essentially a grim reaper, on his various missions to bring death to humans. Since Felix is not a human, rather, a lowly employee at The Ministry of Death, he can only traverse earth in the shadows. In order to reach his targets, Felix must rotate the sun to manipulate the shadows and navigate each level.
Underneath the veneer of Felix the Reaper‘s inherently dark subject matter is a refreshing sense of levity. Felix is only on earth killing people because he’s looking to impress his love interest, a woman named Betty who works for the Ministry of Life. Lightening the mood even further, Felix moves around each stage by joyfully dancing, a skill not often attributed to an angel of death.
You can check out the new teaser trailer for Felix the Reaper below. The game will be available on PC, Mac, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4 sometime in 2019.