Thinky Essentials: your favorites

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Poll Closing Date: Monday, 15 December 2025 00:00 (in 2 weeks)

https://thinkygames.com/lists/thinky-essentials/

This a great collection of puzzle games, and I've managed to play at least a few minutes of all of them.

Lots of games derived from Sokoban (in that they have grids and you move around in them and push things) but also a good deal of different genres represented:
detective VNs (Phoenix Wright)
Experimental story games (Her Story)
Cryptic, secrets-filled games (Fez, Tunic)
Turn-based strategy with low randomness (Desktop Dungeons, Dicey Dungeons)
Deduction games (Obra Dinn, Golden Idol)

Portal
Portal 2
DROD: Gunthro and the Epic Blunder
Toki Tori 2
Fez
Desktop Dungeons
The Talos Principle
Snakebird
Her Story
The Witness
Stephen's Sausage Roll
Recursed
Opus Magnum
Into the Breach
Return of the Obra Dinn
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy
Baba Is You
Dicey Dungeons
Outer Wilds
A Monster's Expedition
Myst (2021)
LOK
Tunic
Patrick's Parabox
The Case of the Golden Idol
Storyteller
Can of Wormholes
Chants of Sennaar
Lorelei and the Laser Eyes


adam t (dat), Tuesday, 25 November 2025 17:43 (yesterday)

ace attorney trilogy and golden idol are the all-timers here for me. voted the latter because it's more thinky. most of this list is great though. toki tori 2 is a wise deep cut, someone there knows their stuff

ciderpress, Tuesday, 25 November 2025 18:05 (yesterday)

feel like Phoenix Wright doesn't really belong here but it's definitely an all-timer for me and i vote with my heart

Slouching Towards Benylin (Noodle Vague), Tuesday, 25 November 2025 18:07 (yesterday)

I've played both Portals (only finished the original, though), Her Story, a short bit of The Witness, Obra Dinn, Phoenix Wright OG trilogy, Baba Is You (I was weirdly bad at this one), OG Myst but not the remake, The Case of the Golden Idol, the Storyteller demo, and Chants of Sennaar. I do intend to get Lorelei at some point.

I find I don't really love the Myst-like games, they just don't provide enough story and I lose the patience for the puzzles without a strong narrative to pull me along.

My heart is split between Phoenix Wright and Obra Dinn, with the Portals and Chants of Sennaar coming up behind. Tempted to vote Phoenix Wright for nostalgia reasons, but as pointed out it's not actually all that 'thinky' as a game.

emil.y, Tuesday, 25 November 2025 18:26 (yesterday)

I also don't love the Golden Idol games, tbh - the gameplay is absolutely great but I find something about their caricature-ish art style pretty gross and off-putting. It was there a little bit with the first one but dismissable, but I just couldn't shake it off with the second one.

emil.y, Tuesday, 25 November 2025 18:28 (yesterday)

Emily, the second Golden Idol game (occasionally) has better art! I'm finding it VERY taxing, though.

Baba is HARD, devilishly so in the later stages.

This is going to be down to Sennaar or Lorelei for me, and probably depends on where I land on docking points for game-breaking meta (Sennaar) or if my exhaustion at the game's end (Lorelei).

Talos and Witness were not for me. I tried picking up Breach twice, but just kind of ran out of steam and didn't get all that far.

Simile Deschanel (Leee), Tuesday, 25 November 2025 23:18 (yesterday)

I'm more into the logical side of things when it comes to puzzle games so I loved the witness and the talos principle, voting for the former as it was more varied and more creative. I want to play lorelei and I'm not above a thinky platformer so maybe fez too. portal is all time ofc.

ledge, Wednesday, 26 November 2025 10:54 (five hours ago)

the second Golden Idol game (occasionally) has better art!

It has more accomplished art - but that brings the grotesque elements to the fore, whereas the more pixelly art hid it somewhat. There's something about the caricaturish character design that just reminds me of racist newspaper ones: obviously not all caricature art is racist, but it still feels gross to me. This is totally a personal thing.

emil.y, Wednesday, 26 November 2025 14:44 (one hour ago)


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