Tetrobot and Co. is a new indie release from Swing Swing Submarine which takes place inside the Tetrobots, an army of consumer-level household bots that have broken and require fixing.

Enter the Psychobot, a tiny little robo-helper who must repair the Tetrobots by venturing inside them and finding the three memory chips in each stage. This is achieved by solving clever puzzles using the unique logic of Psychobot’s movement and block- throwing abilities.

Presented on a 2D plane, the game often tasks you with grabbing a block, and throwing it into position to land on a switch, or to align with a another block. Blocks can only be thrown left or right, and will continue to move in a straight line once thrown, until it hits an object. This gameplay hook presents plenty of unique conundrums, the hardest of which you can come back to later due to the way the game handles progression.

Each Tetrobot you repair has several levels inside it, and finding one memory chip “completes” the level. If there’s a really hard puzzle you can’t quite figure out, chances are there’s an easier memory chip to get somewhere close, meaning you can continue with the game.

The puzzles in Tetrobot and Co. are real brain teasers. You can grab a block if you’re on the same horizontal plane as it is, and if Psychobot can see it. Positioning Psychobot so that he can grab the specific block needed to progress often forms the crux of a puzzle, causing you to think about your movement rather than about endless block puzzles. It is immensely satisfying to experience an “a-ha” moment, and Tetrobot & Co. certainly achieves this end.

However, it’s possible to mess up a puzzle so completely that it becomes unsolvable from that point on. Luckily, Swing Swing Submarine have included an “undo” button which pulls you back through time by one move, allowing you to go back to when things were in an easier position. This is an incredibly useful feature, but it does highlight how limited and rigid the game’s logic is. It could be argued that it’s a get-out-of-jail free card for the developers, but in reality it’s too useful for players to be too critical of.

New ideas are introduced with each Tetrobot you must repair. Things such as walls of water and cannons that can fire Psychobot through them are introduced in the second ‘bot, and this new regime of introducing mechanics continues well into the game.

There’s an immense satisfaction in arrving at the solution and fitting all the pieces together

Once you encounter a new type of block, it is entered into a handy database, which has an interface based on Facebook called Faceblox. The blocks each have “profile pages” which tell you more about them via their personal details (for example, most blocks state they listened to a song recently called “let’s stick together”, which denotes that two of these blocks will stick together). Anyone who doesn’t immediately figure this out will be confused and annoyed by it, but it adds a lot of personality to an already distinct game.

It would have been nice to see a tutorial that explains the way blocks move, and how Psychobot grabs them. The first few screens can be frustrating if you don’t know all this, and the mechanics are very specific in how they work, so figuring it all out can take some time. Once you have it all figured out though, you’ll want to solve these puzzles as the solutions often fall very cleverly into place.

The visuals consist of 2D hand drawn art, which animates nicely. For a few gestures, the little Psychobot is available to convey a lot, for example, the way his little head shakes when he can’t do an action.  Also of note is an easy going ambient music track which complements the slow-paced nature of the game.

Overall, a quirky and enjoyable little title. Tetrobot and Co offers well designed, multi-objective levels that you can easily come back to later, which is perfect for its mobile indie ambitions.  A laid-back attitude and an encouragement to take your time also helps the game immensely. If you’re looking for a puzzle game on mobile or PC that will offer a lot of play-time and challenge, that also rewards patience, then you’ll want to pick it up.