The casual puzzle space is sometimes a nice warm and comforting blanket of chill vibes and generally mild mental challenges. While you could argue that they’re more ideally suited to mobile device play, since that makes them available anytime and anywhere, the portability of the Switch makes it a very convenient alternative. In the case of Lots Of Things I’d say the name is appropriate, as rather than staying more focused on a specific style of puzzles like hidden objects, or some sort of matching, it is more willing to dabble in multiple types, and pulls it off with reasonably good production values as well.

Bucking a trend that has been emerging in the casual puzzle space, Lots Of Things isn’t trying to throw in any story-driven beats or other connective tissue of some kind. You came for puzzles and that’s what you’re getting, and just to sweeten the deal you’ll be working in a number of different styles, helping to keep the experience from being quite so monotonous. Whether it’s hidden objects, matching pairs, finding differences, as well as some others, I appreciate the effort it takes to implement such a variety and make them function reasonably well.

A criticism that isn’t terribly surprising is that by putting an effort into diversifying the types of puzzles, the level of production quality can vary among them. Then, in the case of something like the hidden object puzzles specifically, it would also be fair to point out that some other options in the eShop show a bit more polish and variety in how they’ve implemented them. I’d also argue that their Arrangement puzzle type was a bit perplexing at first, but then almost too simple once I understood how it worked, making it the least satisfying type I played.

At the end of the day, what you have here is a jack-of-all-trades style casual puzzler, trying to give you as much variety as possible with a pretty consistent overall presentation and experience. While it may not get everything firing on all cylinders, in general there’s plenty here to enjoy and get some mild brain cell stimulation from. If you’re looking for something reasonably satisfying to burn some hours with casually, it’s a pretty fine option.