Rita

An exceedingly cute little word puzzle adventure game.

I’ll be honest, there isn’t really much I can talk about here. Rita is a very short game, it took me about 3 hours to finish the story, and I enjoyed every little part of it.

The puzzles are cute and not too difficult, revolving around exploring the world and doing some light platforming to collect letters, and then fitting those letters into crosswords and various similar word puzzles, which has effects on the world, for instance, typing in “STAIRS” will make some stairs appear. Most of the puzzles are like this, but there are also a few more puzzle boxy rooms more based on word search than crossword that I really did deeply enjoy too.

About part way through the game though, I started to have an inkling about the heart and soul behind this game, the story being told in the various interstitials, memories, and newspaper articles, as well as the fact that while the game is named after Rita, for the majority of it, you play as Rita’s Grandchick (who is also the character you name.)

And by the last chapter, I realised that this game isn’t just someone’s little project, or their passion for word puzzles, it’s their own autobiography. Of course word puzzles and Scrabble games would have had such an impact on the characters in the game, because they were just as much a passion for Rita here too. That elevates this game from just a normal monday evening, to a genuinely heartwarming and adorable story. I really do love that about it, and I really do wish the developer and their family many more years of word games and puzzles.

Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2984850 £13.75 (Demo Available)