Sometimes for genres that are more on the chill side, throwing in a little cuteness can help be a recipe for success. Puzzlers have certainly shown that developers are savvy to this, as we have more cat-oriented games out there than you can shake a stick at, and a fair number of them are from that genre. The latest to add to the cute crowd is Stick to the Plan, which is at least quite a bit more challenging than you may expect, but allows its presentation to try to help you keep your frustration level down.

In the game you’ll take control of an adorable little dog, and your only goal is to make your way to each of the stages’ exits without losing your favorite stick. What gets tricky is that the stick is pretty long though, and with plenty of obstacles around you’ll need to pretty carefully plot how to weave your way to the end successfully. Aside from the presentation, one of the things I appreciate the most about the game is how well its early levels help to teach you each of the key strategies you’ll need to be successful. Certainly learning to turn early is invaluable, but the strategies that involve dropping the stick to get at it from a better position, or even location, are what become vital to your success.

Even being a huge dog lover, and really liking the fact that the challenge here is fairly high without necessarily being cruel, I’d say not everything is quite perfect. It did take me a bit to figure out which tile types were ones the stick would clear and which weren’t. This left me stuck for a bit a few times, simply letting some spots blend in with the rest as ones my stick would bump into, so that time lost felt unnecessary and that something better could have been done to make such a thing visually more clear by default. I’d also note that the challenging and excellent Kine, an older puzzler that’s been on the eShop for quite some time, actually offers a bit more variety than this with some additional wrinkles so not everything feels quite as repetitive. Regardless, this is a game that oozes charm, and will make you think while not necessarily just making you feel stupid the whole time.