Carto
Release Date: October 27, 2020
Adventure, puzzle elements, 2D, indie games, exploration games, PS Plus Premium, PS Plus Extra, cozy game, singleplayer
OpenCritic
Carto is an exploration-oriented adventure game with puzzle elements, in which we explore a world composed of various biomes, encountering a number of characters and special events along the way. Sunhead Games studio is responsible for the game.
Videos and Screens
[1:20] Carto launch trailer
[1:00] Carto trailer #1
NintendoWorldReport: 9.5 / 10 by Neal Ronaghan
It's a tightly packed shot of brilliance that manages the balancing act of spending just the right amount of time in an area and on an idea. I was left satisfied but still wanting more at the end of the adventure. The blend of soothing puzzle gameplay and optimistic story makes Carto both a top-shelf Switch indie and a welcome respite for this year.
Push Square: 7 / 10 by Stephen Tailby
A real strength of Carto is its cast of NPCs, written with real warmth and charm. The world they inhabit is also surprisingly well fleshed out, even though you can breeze through it in six or seven hours. This is a puzzle game, but it also tells a sweet, worthwhile tale about tradition and companionship. Combined with lovely visuals and chilled out music, this is a refreshing, relaxing game that's worth marking on your map.
Worth Playing: 8.5 / 10 by Cody Medellin
Carto is a feel-good kind of game. Most of the puzzles feel clever, and the brisk pace means that the concept never lingers for too long. The story is very good with a cast of friendly characters and nary a conflict. It's the kind of game that you want to play at least once and feel good about once you reach the end credits.
Carto Description
Carto is a fairytale game in which a little girl travels the world by manoeuvring the tiles. The game was created by Sunhead Games studio, and its release is the responsibility of Humble Games, known from such titles as Forager, TemTem or Void Bastards.
Plot
In the game we play Carto, a girl who is looking for a way home and has a unique ability to move the tiles of the terrain so that she can get to places that are not normally accessible. During our journey we travel through various biomes that differ not only in appearance, but in the characters and culture that inhabit them. And so ahead of us is a journey through forests, deserts, meadows, swamps and so on.
Carto also encounters a number of NPCs on his way; most of them need help, in return for which they share a clue as to where to go further to get home.
Mechanics
Carto is a two-dimensional adventure game observed from top-down view, which is full of puzzle elements related to the unique power of the heroine. It consists in the fact that at any time we can enter the screen with a map of the terrain divided into square tiles; often on one tile there are different biomes adjacent to each other, like on the chips from the famous Carcassonne board game. Being on the map screen, we can freely rotate and move the tile on which the heroine is placed, transporting her to another part of the world. The only requirement is that the biomes marked on it must match the place we see: the forest must be in contact with the forest, water with water, etc. At the beginning these puzzles are simple, the more you get into it, the more complicated combinations await us.
Technical aspects
The game is distinguished by its fairy-tale and unique graphic design combining the style known from contemporary illustrations addressed to younger audiences, as well as the aesthetics typical of Tove Jannson, which you can mainly associate with its cult series about the adventures of the Moomins.
Carto Summary
Platforms:
PC / Windows
Switch
PlayStation 4
Xbox One
Developer: Sunhead Games
Publisher: Humble Games
Age restrictions: none
Carto System Requirements
PC / Windows
Minimum: Dual Core 2.0 GHz, 4 GB RAM, graphic card 768 MB GeForce 9600 GS / 1 GB Radeon HD 5670 or better, 2 GB HDD, Windows 7 SP1
World-Shifting Puzzle Exploration Game, Carto, Gets a Release Date for the Switch
Use a unique tile-shifting mechanic to explore the beautifully hand-drawn world of Carto when it releases on the Switch this October.
video games
Matt Buckley
September 11, 2020