While the job of a reviewer is to go into some detail about games to adequately describe the experience, and help people make their choice on whether to pick it up, I’ll admit that at times there are games where I find doing that to be a challenge. While terrible games, or truly outstanding ones, typically demand more clarifications on what sunk or elevated them to those levels, well-made titles that simply do a great job can actually be tougher to elaborate on… especially when they’re indie titles that are a bit shorter in overall length. 

That’s sort of where I land on Mind Over Magnet, a clever and well-implemented puzzler that has its core hooks and sticks with them, with the result feeling fresh, challenging, and smart… but doesn’t have any particular characteristics to go on about outside of that. You’ll play as a small robot of limited base abilities, trying to make its way out of a factory. Once you encounter a friendly magnet, who offers to help you along your way, you’ll then have more options at your disposal as you try to make your way through increasingly-difficult puzzles… with a few other surprises in store along the way as well.

In terms of general mechanics, there should be plenty of elements familiar to puzzle fans. Borrowing concepts from box pushers and other general styles, you’ll be trying to flip switches, activate sensors, and work out what combination of actions will get you successfully to the exit. Early on this will at times require some leaps of faith, as you experiment to develop some general techniques and combine concepts you’ve already learned in earlier levels, and in general this makes for a decent challenge while almost always feeling intuitive. Throw in some incentive to then go back through the game once you’ve completed it the first time, and you have a smart puzzling challenge that should keep you occupied for maybe a handful of hours.