hildabear

It's 2002, and the mail just delivered your August issue of CosmoGirl. You cut out your favorite idol poster, pop in your Britney Spears CD, and grab your hairbrush because somehow it became your favorite microphone. That's exactly where this game pulled me back to. I built THE perfect idol group. I trained them, cared about them, believed in them...and in the end, I failed them.

It's been 20 years since Sim City 4 taught me that builder games come with homework. So when I finally tried Tiny Terra Spaces, a cozy island builder, I expected the same stress. What I found instead was something I never saw coming, and it wasn't about building at all.

Gecko Gods is a cozy new puzzle-adventure game on Nintendo Switch about a tiny gecko who gets swept away from home and slowly awakens a forgotten world of gods. I sat down for what was supposed to be a quick look and ended up playing for five hours straight. Here's my honest take on the exploration, the puzzles, and why this might be your next summer obsession.