Over the course of the Switch’s lifespan, there have absolutely been loads of puzzle games released. No doubt in part due to the very portable and casual-friendly nature of the system, the genre seems to be a fine fit. For certain flavors of puzzles there can absolutely be a sense of some fatigue though, so it’s always refreshing to see games that tackle things a bit differently. From its visuals, to the specifics of how its puzzles are often solved, Guayota takes a slightly more elevated angle of attack, and at least to a degree it’s successful.

There’s no doubt that the easiest elevated aspect of the game is its visuals. Rather than settling for simple pixel graphics or something of that kind, Guayota has invested in much more lush and interesting visuals that are not only 3D and well-textured, but also tend to feature interesting uses of lighting. This absolutely gives the game some visual flair, and in some of the temples the stages further feature direct use of the game’s lighting to enhance its puzzles.

One oddity, which I suppose could be considered a plus by some, is that while you’d start out in a well-lit version of stages, if you died (which isn’t too hard to do) the stage would switch to its darker version, which generally featured more simplified mechanics. As I said, I could see how some people could appreciate this pulling back of the difficulty, but I could also see where people could just prefer to get both versions independently, helping to beef up the appreciation for all puzzles, rather than perhaps just a portion of them.

The thing is, aside from this stage-switching, one of the game’s better features is how it doesn’t rest on its laurels, satisfied just to continue to give you variations on the same idea. Instead, on a general level as you move from one temple to another the nature of the challenges will at least vary. Perhaps this will help keep you engaged rather than settling into patterns, but variety can also be risky if people end up playing through styles they dislike or at least don’t prefer. In the end that leaves you with a puzzler that at least tries to keep things as fresh as possible as you go, but risks people getting bored or frustrated before moving onto the next thing.