[Disclaimer: I received a review key for Tents and Trees through Keymailer, a third-party website/company that connects publishers and developers with content creators. The game was given without promise or expectation of a positive review, only that the game be played and content be created through the playing of the game and the experience. Unless otherwise noted, all content in the following article is from my own playthrough of this game.]
System: Windows, Android, iOS, Nintendo Switch
Release Date: January 3, 2018 - March 14, 2023
Publisher: Frozax Games
Time Currently Spent: 13 Hours 51 Minutes
Tents and Trees is almost exactly what it looks like. If you look at the game screen and see something similar to Picross then you're three-quarters of the way there. You have a grid with numbers along two of the sides telling you how many marks (or tents in this case) you have in that row/column. But then the rules come into play, like you can't have tents touching each other and only one tent can be attached to one tree, making the game a bit more challenging. Kind of. The inclusion of all of these rules means that there are a lot more places where tents cannot be located so it means that you can block out those spaces resulting in fewer places to put tents. But this also means that there is only one place where each tent can be correctly placed.
I love this game, I really do. Probably because I love Picross as I spent 80+ hours playing Mario Picross on the SNES app on the Switch, forgetting most of the time about the rewind feature and just playing puzzles over when I ran the timer out. Here, there is a timer, but it only counts up. There is a hint feature that I have had mixed results with, but most of the time it is because I didn't realize that I could clear out a row, but there have been times when it tells me where I can place grass because it is the only place that grass could go based on where tents could possibly be placed. Because logic apparently. I just scratch my head and continue living with the shame of having used a hint.
I've mentioned it a few times on Twitter, but there are over 500 puzzles here, between the three difficulty levels, which doesn't even include the 18 daily puzzles. The caveat though is that there are only two days worth of puzzles stored at a time, so you will only have a maximum of 36 additional puzzles. In the main puzzle pack, the size of the puzzles max out at 14x14, but there have been several days where there are hard puzzles that go up to 18x18, which are really fun albeit extremely intimidating to try. These puzzles are playable on the small screen on the Switch OLED and I'm not straining my eyes as there doesn't seem to be any noticeable degradation in the graphics, but it probably would be a little easier to play on a larger screen.
Lastly, I want to touch on the music. THE MUSIC!! You start the game with access to only two songs and unlock a third after you've completed 150, of which I am currently 17 puzzles shy of. The music was composed by two people, Tim Beek and Lucio Soto, although I have only been able to find Tim Beek's music online, but not specifically any of the music that's in Tents and Trees. But even then, I couldn't tell you if either of the first two accessible songs was composed by Tim Beek or Lucio Soto. But both of the tracks are brilliant and their soundscapes fit the aesthetic of the game perfectly.
This is definitely one of those games that I will keep installed on the Switch until the day it finally craps out, and then I might start playing it on the Steam Deck unless the Switch 2 is backward compatible. I just can't say enough good things about Tents and Trees.
~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian
Instrumental
P.S. Also check out our first overview and review video for Tents and Trees (More on its creation in Monday's Monthly Update).
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