Öoo is one of the smartest games I’ve played in a long time. Sure games like Return of the Obra Dinn or The Roottrees are Dead are much more puzzle oriented, and require deeper thinking; but I don’t mean smart like that.

Öoo genuinely delighted me with the way that you interact with the world, in true metroidbrainia fashion.

You come to a fork in the road. Of the two routes one is clearly blocked. You pass down the other, and along the way you’re forced to learn new ways of handling your limited move set. The branch comes to a dead-end.

You return to the original fork and it just clicks, that route that was clearly blocked? It isn’t. You just didn’t know you could do something that now you do.

Loved it.