Squeakross: Home Squeak Home
An enjoyable, chill puzzle game that you can really sink your teeth into.
I enjoy decorating spaces. My friends get unasked for advice on how to jazz up their houses, my Animal Crossing island (still going strong after five years) has an impeccable entrance, and my own home is a work in progress but a well-designed one. I am exactly the type of person who will move all my furniture around, unaided, just to see if it fits the right vibe I'm going for. I don't have money but I do have an eye.
I'm also the type of person that needs a hobby unrelated to my work day. I spent years working in book publishing and the music business. I'm now in a television/movies type roll and I'm down yet another way of relaxing. However, I've never made a living off of video games or nonograms so my Switch 2 is filled to the brim with Picross-type puzzle games. Quietly hyper-focusing on numbers in squares gets my brain to shut up in a way that nothing else does. Sure, I've got a backlog of other video games screaming at me to please finish them (Hello sixth full play-through of Breath of the Wild), but the nature of my day job is such that I often only have ten or fifteen minutes between meetings. A quick jaunt into a puzzle is just what I need to switch gears.
Squeakross: Home Squeak Home leapt out at me during the Wholesome Direct this year. A game where not only do I get to solve picross puzzles but you get to decorate a little house with funky furniture? Yes, this is made for me. I'm not overly fond of rats but these cartoon creatures are just cute enough for me to overlook their rodent features. I solved a puzzle for a palm tree and my little pal was overjoyed to have it in their small home. I got stuck on a particularly hard puzzle and asked the rat to see if I'd made any mistakes. Besides a small cool-down period, there wasn't any punishment for asking for help. The chill soundtrack was repetitive but not annoying. I prefer to play with the D-pad over the joycon's sticks but both ways work fine.
Some of the graphics are a little polygonal and sharp for the game being available on the Switch 2. When I customized my rat her eyes would occasionally clip into her whiskers. The furniture was cute enough, though I hope they'll keep adding to the catalog. I was happily surprised to see that I could customize my menus in addition to my rat's house so the start up screen on my game now features a bunch of Pride stickers for June. I haven't beaten it yet but my experience on the Switch 2 has been great and should they release DLC or Squeakross 2, you'll see me be first in line to purchase it. Overall, Squeakross: Home Squeak Home is an enjoyable, chill puzzle game that you can really sink your teeth into.
Squeakross: Home Squeak Home is available on Steam and Nintendo Switch systems NOW. You can follow updates, patches, and bug fixes on developer Alblune's Bluesky account @alblune.bsky.social‬.
