Love You to Bits is cute, fun game full of unique puzzles to explore a love-filled, puzzling experience.
Love You to Bits is a game by Alike Studio, and they also happen to be the developer behind a somewhat similar and wonderful little game called All of You. So, if you liked that game, you’ll probably like this one too. However, if you haven’t played that splendid little thing then you should probably keep reading to learn a little more.
Love You to Bits is a puzzle game. Rather simple there. However, it’s a puzzle game that does quite a few things differently from your ordinary mobile puzzle game. Most puzzle games on mobile are all about repetitively doing the same type of puzzle repeatedly. Think of it like Sudoku or a puzzle game like the fairly recently released Apple Arcade game Jigsaw Puzzle. These games give you one type of puzzle and have you do that repeatedly because that’s as good a way as any to spend an afternoon with nothing else to do.
But Love You to Bits is not like this. It has a narrative, albeit a cutesy, unintrusive narrative, but one, nevertheless. And it has unique puzzles. Every level and there are twenty-eight levels in total, is wholly unique. For instance, you might get one level where you have a big monster thing in your way so you need to figure out a way to deal with that or another level might put you on a 2D tiny world for you to run around and solve small issues for the little people on that world.
Every level is effectively some kind of environmental puzzle that is solved by doing something that involves items or specific tasks. For instance, that aforementioned monster in your way has swallowed the thing you need. So, you go around the monster, find a hose pipe, stick it in them, and then turn the water on to force the item out the top. Simple! And that is also the only puzzle that is somewhat spoiled in this review, as it is rather necessary to explain the puzzles in a review and they can’t really be explained without spoiling them.
So, no more spoilers for the puzzles. Each puzzle must be solved differently, and they can get very tricky. They can take a long while to figure out at times, and they become progressively more difficult as the game goes on. However, they never stop being cute little things.
And that’s something else that Love You to Bits has going for it: the art style. It’s always great to watch the little character in his colorful environments, and every environment is suitably unique and created perfectly for that puzzle to be solved. In addition, many of the little puzzles have cute little characters who will react to you in some way or another. It’s a mellow, gorgeously rendered little thing that should keep you going for some time.
However, it must be noted that there is something to keep in mind with this game. You see because Love You to Bits is a game filled with unique levels, you can’t endlessly replay it. Many mobile puzzle games, like Bejeweled, have no endpoint. You keep playing forever because it’s not meant to be finished, it’s meant to be endlessly and pointlessly binged for as long as possible. Love You to Bits has an ending. It will finish. And as the levels are handcrafted, there won’t be more for you to replay, and replaying puzzles you already know the solution to is not fun.
So, Love You to Bits is a game to be played once! Which isn’t a big deal in the usual, more “hardcore” gaming space, but in terms of mobile games, it’s a little different. Another thing that differentiates it from other mobile games is that little narrative mentioned earlier. You see, the reason you’re doing these puzzles is because you’re in love.
You are Kosmo, a little man thing, and you are in love with Nova, a robot lady. All was going fine until it wasn’t. Your ship got blown up and Nova got hit the hardest. She literally exploded into various pieces and got sucked into a wormhole. Your duty, as the devoted Kosmo, is to find your girlfriend’s various pieces and put them back together. Hence the name: Love You to Bits.
The name is quite un-subtle about what the game is about, but that doesn’t stop it from being immensely adorable. It’s also great to see a game that puts you in the body of a lovesick character. That just doesn’t happen very often. There’s also a rather terrifying aspect to the way Kosmo conducts himself while trying to save the woman he loves. In that level where you fill the big creature with water, Kosmo just walks away once he has what he wants. He doesn’t care about that monster. It was in the way, and it was dealt with.
Love You to Bits is a great bit of fun in which you play someone who only occasionally acts like a serial killer while pursuing the one he loves. And he will do as many puzzles as necessary to save that person.