This is an excellent puzzle game by British indie dev Stephen Lavelle of Increpare Games Ltd. It launched back in 2016, but we only just found out about it this week! Oops. Such is the massive array of video games available you can totally miss one.
Available on PC and Linux, it’s a single-player puzzle game with a fork and many sausage rolls. A brilliant game and concept, it’s a tough old time of it but very rewarding if you’re willing to persevere.
Much Difficulty Indeed in Stephen’s Sausage Roll
The game functions around increasingly large Sokoban grid style stages where you must manoeuvre sausages over specific grill tiles. This cooks them up a notch and allows you to progress, but you must be careful not to BURN the specific meat-based item.
You’re armed with a fork and have to shove the meat around… it’s probably best you watch this early on opening puzzle Twisty Farm to get the idea.
Everything starts off simple enough but, bloody heck, do things get difficult! Stephen’s Sausage Roll is noted for its difficulty, flagged up by other devs such as the man responsible for nightmare fuel Getting Over It (2019).
It isn’t a game anyone can enjoy, as if you don’t think things through properly you’ll be going nowhere fast and getting frustrated.
We recommend you stick with the game, persevere, as there’s a lot of gameplay time here—that’s why the price tag is £25, perhaps much higher than you’d expect.
Despite its difficulty, this is a modern classic puzzle game waiting to be explored. Stephen’s Sausage Roll just demands you unlock that brilliance, which some gamers won’t dig at all.
But even watching the game in action, you’d be forgiven for thinking it looks like a waste of time.
The entertainment comes from working out these abstract sausage-based rolling requirements, completing stages, and marvelling at your problem solving skills.
Just be prepared to be frustrated, flummoxed, and much more. All to the tune of a bleepy, bloopy, relaxing score to go along with the sausages and maddening puzzles.
An odd game, then, and a premise that on surface level may appear ridiculous.
However, the critical acclaim it’s received highlights just how good it is. Destructoid gave it 10/10, The Guardian 5/5, and Eurogamer flagged up that the game’s brilliant lies in its intricate difficulties. How you must revel in feeling stuck, before working out the solution in baffling fashion.
That’s what it’s all about. Difficult as HELL, but like getting a lovely bowl of ice cream to enjoy whilst you BURN in agony as demons torture you. Lovely stuff!
