This is an ongoing list where I attempt to do the following: Play, Complete, and Rank every video game in the known universe in order to finally answer the age old question "What is the greatest game of all time?" For previous entries find the links on the attached spreadsheet.

How did I do?

Well this game wasn’t on the agenda, now was it? It turns out that I own hundreds of games that can easily be beaten in just a handful of hours, and all I have to do is dig them out. Now to be clear, I did not spin this game on the big wheel of games, as much as I want all my decisions of games to come from the unforeseen hand of chance and luck, I always NEED to have one portable game in the works at all time, because there are so many instances in my life where that is the only game that I will even have access to play. Which is a crazy realization, but it’s true. 5 or so years ago, I was strictly in the camp that all of my game playing would be done on the big screen, with the big audio that comes along with it. Even when I first purchased the switch, I liked the fact that it was portable, but to me, portable meant like road trips or playing the game on vacations, like I took my Gameboy or Gamegear when I was a child. I got the Switch simply for the games it offered, and the first few years I played it exclusively on the TV. Even when I split time playing Mario Odyssey with my wife, we just loaded different saves on the TV, and it never even occurred to me that the person playing could play it handheld while the other person uses the TV. That isn’t to say, it didn’t occur to me, because I didn’t know the Switch was portable, but rather, it didn’t occur to me, because video games belong up on the big screen. Then that all changed with becoming a parent.

I’ve told this or similar stories a million times, and this isn’t a blog about being a parent, so I don’t need to retell the stories here. I found “Down in Bermuda” on sale, but I knew nearly nothing about it. One of my kids started it up first, on a whim, and when the first puzzle popped up, I realized that this is maybe not a game he is ready for. That night, while waiting for him to fall asleep, I fired it up on my own to see if it was something I could help him play. See, I’ve technically spun “Dishonored” and “FF6” as the games I am supposed to be playing, but both systems I have the games for (X360 and the PS1 Version) are not something I can play portable in their room. Some nights I am able to pass the time, sitting in their dark room, just looking at the news. However, in this instance I needed something else to take my mind off the depressing state of the world. Enter “Down in Bermuda.”

What is this game, and did I need to spend two paragraphs explaining why I played this game? Well obviously ‘NO’ to that second question. Down in Bermuda, is a very tactile puzzle game, at least that is how I am choosing to describe it. The game starts by playing you a cutscene of a plane flying into a storm and crash landing on a tropical island. 30 years have passed since that landing, and presumably ‘you’ show up. However, you aren’t playing either the downed pilot or a character itself, but rather a god-like figure. You are looking down at the whole island, and overseeing this pilot as he wants to try and get home. The reason, I would call this came tactile, is that a lot of the puzzles involve you physically pushing buttons or flipping levers, rotating wheels, or finding hidden objects. In fact outside the very first puzzle (which is a sliding block puzzle), you are given nearly 0 instructions about what you need to do next. In reality you are scouring the island for things to interact with or clues to solve puzzles with.

On each Island there is a set number of orbs you need to collect before you can travel to the next world, so you at least have an indication of how many puzzles you might be on the lookout for, but there are not extra orbs available that might allow you to skip puzzles that you can’t figure out. Despite having completed the game, I find it hard to describe a task you might do in order to find an orb that allows you to open up the next world. For instance in one level you might find a column that has four buttons on all sides of it. By pushing all 4 buttons you open it up and reveal that there are color input areas that allow you to select a string of four colors. Somewhere on the map there are clues that will tell you what order to set the string, and should you then follow that, an Orb will appear and allow you to start progressing to the next level. Descriptions don’t do it justice, it makes it seem too obtuse, but the islands you are viewing are smaller then you might initially envision in your mind, and I never found the answers hard to parse out, because you are bound to spot something as you rotate the camera, and scan the island.

In addition to the orbs, there are collectables that you can pick up along the way, in the place of triangle runes, and glowing stars. The glowing stars are sadly required, but you can find a handy map that shows you where each one is, but the triangle runes are completely optional and only unlock the credits/achievements if you are into those things. This is perhaps the biggest flaw about the game, even though I don’t think it is very major. On each island, one of the orbs is hidden behind a star switch that requires you to find all the glowing stars in the level. There are probably only 20-30 stars on a given level, but they are small and the game likes to hide them pretty well. Perhaps you need to turn the camera just right, to find it in a hollowed out log, or it might be hiding under a fish that you have to click in order to scare it away and reveal the star. This is where the game transitions from a puzzle game to a hidden object game, I am personally up for that, as its something low stakes that can keep my mind occupied, but not super invested so that should I need to get up and switch out a stuffed animal, or answer a kid’s nagging nighttime question, I can do so easily. Of course, when you have solved all the other puzzles on the island, and just need to find 3-4 stars hidden under objects you didn’t know you could alter by clicking on it, it can be a little annoying. Again, you can find a star-map on each island, that will allow you to see where each star is located, but it’s a weird feeling, because the star-map is an answer key the game gives you, without much effort, but you can tell the game also wants to encourage you not to use it, since there is an achievement if you can find all the stars without ever opening a star map.

Actually I lied, the biggest flaw in the game is that it lacks any music at all. There are maybe, all told, only about 3 minutes of music in the entire game. They play at special events or sections of the game, but most of the time the game is rather quiet. I would give it a pass, if it was trying to simulate the sounds you might hear on the island. However, I can’t recall hearing rushing waves, animal cries, or wind rushing past leaves, so it isn’t even giving you the ambience you might want while being on a tropical paradise. It makes playing the game on silent easier, because you don’t feel you are missing anything, but I would rather have music I eventually mute, rather then no music at all.

I wrapped up the game in probably 2-3 hours broken out over several smaller sessions. The story itself, if we can describe this game as having a story, is fairly generic. It is obviously about returning our pilot back home, but we really don’t get to know the pilot, that makes any of the moments resonate. It’s similar to “Old Man’s Journey” where you get little snippets of their life as the game goes on, but imagine less snippets and less emotion to anything you see. This game doesn’t really change at all, if the pilot is not part of the game. You could start the game at the same first puzzle, and move from island to island with no story beats, and I don’t think many people would notice a change.

Like with any puzzle game, the strength of the game is on its puzzles itself. There were very few puzzles that really stumped me, and none that I needed to take online to find answers to. The hardest puzzle itself, is an optional puzzle that just uncovers runes and you can skip it if you were just looking to check a game off your list. The puzzle in question, for those looking to compare puzzle notes, is about balancing a liquid amongst three different sized cups. When you turn a wheel in order to transfer water, it transfers all water that would fill said cup, so you have to keep shuffling water between the cups until you can get them all at the same level. Most of the puzzles, are about what I described earlier, pushing buttons that you find, or rotating pieces in order to complete a pipe maze puzzle, or to uncover a pattern that you then need to apply somewhere else.

Down in Bermuda, finds itself where a lot of indie games (at least ones that I play) usually find themselves, an enjoyable short game that won’t leave a big impression on me either way. You could say that this is a good puzzle and pattern recognition game for kids who love puzzles, but I don't think the game was made to be a kids game, and whether that is damning or not to you, I can't say. I probably could have introduced this to my son, but outside of pushing buttons and flipping letters, I don’t think my son would enjoy finding hidden stars, or looking for patterns in the environment to apply to a puzzle.

Overall the game just doesn’t do enough positive or negative to really stand out in the pack of other $1-5 indie games. Have I played worse games for this channel, of course. Will I play worse games again, of course, but this game is in the lower half of greatest games of all time, because while it has a charming look to it, nothing else that it does really moved the needle for me.

Is this the greatest game of all time?: No

Where does it rank: Down in Bermuda is... fine. My best comparison I can make is that it feels like, back in the day, when you had the TV on before the show you wanted to actually watch aired. Its fine background noise, you don't actively dislike it, and you might find something engaging that catches your eye. However, you turned on the TV to watch something else, so once that airs, you forgot everything that happened before. I have it ranked as the 93rd Greatest Video Gameout of 117 total games. It sits between "Dr. Mario" (92nd) and "Figment" (94th).

Anyone looking for it: here is the link to the list and more if you are interested in following along with me (this is not a self promotion).Here. I added links on the spreadsheet for quick navigation. Now if you missed a blog of a game you want to read about, you can get to it quickly, rather than having to scroll through my previous blogs wondering when it came up.

Thanks for listening