If you’re a fan of games in the vein of old-school point-and-click adventures, the Switch absolutely has you covered. Ranging from super old-school in terms of their implementation to much more modern, you can find a little bit of everything. In terms of Life of Delta, I’d say the experience falls somewhere in the middle, absolutely including some newer elements like hotspot cycling to help you out, but also coming up a bit short in terms of context for some of its puzzles, and weirdness in how it deals with items at times.

Digging into the game’s strengths, there’s absolutely a cute story here, and I suppose as touching as you could expect in a world of robots. Pair that with a look that’s absolutely attractive, and there’s a fair amount of allure when you see screenshots, video footage, or are simply starting the game up for the first time. While I do have some issues with the way some puzzles are implemented, I will at least give credit to the developers for some of them being different and inventive, feeling a little more fresh than what you’d normally see in the genre space.

Moving on to the negatives, there’s just something weird about the way the controls are implemented, at least when you’re using a controller. You can sometimes use the hotspot cycling to quickly highlight what you’d like to interact with but when you have to use the pointer, driven by the analog stick, it can be a bit unwieldy when you need it to be more precise. Since there was no instruction on how to use items in your inventory I also had to review the game’s control guide a few times in the hope of finding help, never to find any. Finally I accidentally found that moving your cursor to the top of the screen worked, but this was an unnecessary frustration. Along those same lines there’s no context when you’re dropped into some puzzles, and the time wasted randomly trying to understand what you’re supposed to be doing or even what you’re meant to interact with in the first place is aggravating.

Taking everything in the result is very much a mixed bag, and I think your level of enjoyment will be dependent on how much you value the positives of the game’s look and story with its various downsides. There is an enjoyable, and sometimes even a challenging, adventure here if you’re determined to take it on. I just hope in future efforts the developers do a better job of taking the console control experience better into consideration and work in even simple contextual clues at key moments to help reduce confusion.