A Little to the Left is a generally pleasant, sometimes frustrating game that celebrates the art of keeping things organized. I previously reviewed the full game and found that I was one of the gamers more annoyed than relaxed, but generally enjoyed many of the tidying up-themed puzzles provided.
Now, developer Max Inferno and publisher Secret Mode have added around 30 brand-new puzzles with the release of the Cupboards & Drawers DLC. As the name suggests, the puzzles primarily focus on organizing objects in drawers or stacking or hanging them inside cupboards, although a few classic base-game levels focused on sorting objects or putting them in the proper order do appear. There’s even a couple secret drawers to find! Do these puzzles fix some of the issues I had with the base game? Well… yes and no.
I do think that, overall, the puzzles in Cupboards & Drawers are less frustrating than those in the original A Little to the Left. My big complaint with A Little to the Left is how arbitrary some of the solutions could be – organizing noodles by how curvy they are, for example, or sorting books by thickness or color. There were many times when I thought I had solved a puzzle only to be informed by the game “nope, actually, that’s not how you were supposed to do that”.
Cupboards & Drawers remedies this issue by focusing on fitting objects into clearly-defined slots or cubbies, with puzzles involving arranging silverware in a drawer, stacking cans of food in cabinets tall enough to hold them, or maximizing space underneath a bathroom sink. This was especially prevalent in puzzles where you hung things on hooks, because the items would actually fall down if you hung them too close to each other and they knocked into one another. While I would feel momentary disappointment each time I saw all my hard work quite literally come tumbling down, I think this was a great addition, because it explained why certain items couldn’t go on certain hooks rather than arbitrarily saying “no, they don’t go there”.
This made things a lot less arbitrary, as I could understand why solutions were the way they were. There were still a few frustrating moments, like one puzzle where I thought that pencil shavings should be thrown away only to realize most of the way through the level that there was actually a special drawer for them, but, overall, I didn’t get annoyed with nearly as many levels as I did in the base game. Puzzles that had multiple solutions also tended to have more solutions, meaning that more answers were considered acceptable for solving a level.
While the puzzles were generally less frustrating, and there was something quite satisfying about fitting items into perfectly shaped slots, I do think that ultimately Cupboards & Drawers did not do much to change up the formula from the main game. The levels were fun, but not particularly innovative. In general, if you liked A Little to the Left, and are jonesing for more, then this DLC will be perfect for you. If you didn’t like A Little to the Left, Cupboards & Drawers will probably not do much to change your mind.
Everything good about the base A Little to the Left is still present. The color palette is relaxing, with calming pastels everywhere. With a focus on objects you might find in the titular Cupboards & Drawers, there are plenty of very elegantly designed pieces of tableware and other items that are extremely pretty. I greatly enjoyed looking at these puzzles, and sometimes would take some time to simply look at each of the objects before starting to organize them. The music and sound effects are similarly chill – even if the puzzles in A Little to the Left are sometimes frustrating, the atmosphere of the game is consistently comfortable and relaxing.
Best of all, the adorable, fluffy cat (based on the developers’ own real-life pet!) is back – and much less prone to knocking your perfectly finished puzzles over, which I liked. There are a few cute little interludes where the cat is curled up in a drawer or on a shelf and all you are required to do is pet it…I loved these! They made a pleasant break from all the tidying. I would play an entire game of just petting this cute cat if such a thing existed.
Unfortunately, because so little is changed from the base game, that means the frustrating hint system is still very much present. What A Little to the Left calls a “hint” is pretty much an image that shows you how to complete the puzzle in its entirety. As with the base game, I found myself avoiding accessing hints even when I was extremely stuck, just because I did not want the entire solution handed to me. I get that hints are optional, especially with the “Let it Be” system letting you skip any unsolved level with no consequences, but it was still annoying. There are times when you just need a little push to solve a puzzle, and A Little to the Left never gives that to you, choosing to present the entire answer instead.
Overall, Cupboards & Drawers is a generally pleasant experience that is less frustrating and arbitrary than A Little to the Left itself, but sticks to the base game’s (successful) formula and does not do much in the way of innovation. With a $6 price tag for 30 new puzzles (several replayable due to having multiple solutions), it’s definitely a recommended grab for A Little to the Left fans that won’t set you back much financially. If you’re someone who didn’t enjoy A Little to the Left, you likely won’t find anything new in the DLC to change your mind. Cupboards & Drawers continues to offer solid, generally relaxing puzzles that take the art of tidying up and, as Mary Poppins once said, add that “spoonful of sugar” that turns a chore into a game!
Kate played A Little to the Left: Cupboards & Drawers on PC with a review code.
