In the more casually-oriented puzzle space there’s quite a bit of variety, but not typically in the form of wholly original games. Where you see variation tends to be in which specific styles of puzzles are featured in any particular title, but then for pretty well everything within that subcategory the experiences tend to be very similar. One of the more over-represented types I’ve seen over the years on the Switch, and on other platforms as well, has been the classic box pusher. While there are absolutely varying levels of complexity and differences in how specific elements may have been implemented, as the name suggests the focus tends to be on moving boxes into the proper place to allow you to proceed. 

Knowledge Keeper may have its own distinctive theming and unique elements, but at its core it’s still in this general vein. To its credit, it does quite a bit more to distinguish itself, introducing portals, color switches, and some other elements as well to spice things up a bit. Early on, new concepts are presented without any explanation, but thankfully the level design is smart enough to give you the direction you need to sort out how these elements work. For the most part the stage designs end up making sense, though sometimes it can take a little trial and error to get the feel for what progression of color switches you’ll need to trigger to get you set up for success. 

Where I had some trouble with the game actually feels like one of the least sensible reasons I could imagine… and that’s the fact that moving the boxes to where they need to go, especially if you need to pull them, is more difficult than it ever should have been. Based on how pretty well every game of this type works, you’d assume that there’s a button mapped to allow you to let the game know you’re pushing or pulling the box… and you’d be wrong. It seems that instead the developer chose to have the boxes sort of stick to you when you’re in their proximity, but this is aggravatingly inconsistent, with you not being able to pull a box when you’d like to or having them keep moving with you when you’d prefer they stop. Granted, this could be very easily remedied with a patch, but it’s a baffling design decision and filled me with dread when approaching something I knew I’d need to pull to get into place.

That ends up leaving you with a better-than-average implementation of a box pusher, that admirably throws in a number of its own unique elements to dress things up, but then fails to stick the landing. Why this was the control implementation they went with, I have no idea, but it is what it is, and unfortunately that makes the score suffer a little. Considering I’m normally pretty critical of how unoriginal most games in this space are, it pains me to see one that gets many elements right, while getting one that’s so fundamental wrong. If you enjoy smart puzzlers, this isn’t a bad choice, just walk in understanding the control inconsistency can be infuriating, especially since it’s so unnecessary.