Nintendo Switch Critic Reviews

The Gardens Between is a masterpiece of minimalist storytelling, weaving a wordless tale of friendship and time. By drawing upon a few, nearly-universal childhood events, it allows the player to fill in the story with their own emotions and memories, creating a shockingly moving, personal experience. Featuring a gorgeous, surrealist style and challenging but fair puzzles, this is a must-have title for anyone who enjoys puzzle games.

The Gardens Between is one of the bigger surprises I've played on Nintendo Switch. The title proved to be a smartly designed puzzler that anyone quickly can understand. Solutions are found by using logic in tandem with the rules of the world. The flow of time plays a major role in all of this and a keen eye can help you all the way through. The only error I can see here is that The Gardens Between ends on a weird note. This is something that could've been expanded upon, but the developers left us guessing. The complaint is rather minor in the grand scheme of it all as the experience is one that shouldn't be missed.

The Gardens Between is delightful, its soundtrack is beautiful and calming, its art style is pleasing, its characters are charming and expressive, and its story is touching and melancholic, and I found myself truly amazed by the consistently great level design. After initially thinking the time-warping mechanic would get dull after time, I was delighted to be proven wrong by The Voxel Agents, who kept reinventing themselves and providing clever new ways to solve puzzles to keep me on my toes, as well as having a perfect duration of the experience, and ending with a simple, beautiful, and touching moment I won’t forget for a long time.

As an experience, The Gardens Between is a journey that's well worth embarking on. Its puzzles are gratifying, and its world is gorgeous and filled with personality. Its price may be too step for those looking for a meatier experience, and veteran fans of the genre might wish for tougher puzzles, but those hankering for a small game with a big heart will find plenty to love in The Gardens Between.

A beautiful narrative-driven puzzle game which pays tribute to friendship in childhood and the importance of shared memories.

A nostalgic adventure that will leave you sighing wistfully more than growling at brain-teasing puzzles. [Nov 2018, p.85]

It may only take two to three hours to see everything The Gardens Between has to offer, but the warm and fuzzy feelings from start to finish ensure that your memories of playing it will live on.

Relaxing as it is taxing, The Gardens Between offers a poignant coalescence of charming visuals, a relaxing soundtrack and a bittersweet story. The simplicity of its control scheme hides an incredibly clever and frighteningly intricate puzzle formula that sees you rewinding and playing time like an omnipresent director. Its unique setup makes it one of the most unusual puzzlers on Nintendo Switch, and we can’t wait to see what Australian indie studio The Voxel Agents does next.

The Gardens Between is a great example of a puzzle game with the most simple of mechanics, showcasing how much can be stretched out of so little. Its light story of friendship is sweet (if not a bit too saccharine). It complements the core mechanic of controlling the passage of time, and well, the inevitability of how no matter how much you'd like time to stand still sometimes, it'll move along regardless.

The Voxel Agents have made a really touching game with The Gardens Between. Without any words you get a glimpse into a childhood friendship that may hit close to home, remembering friendships from your own childhood. If the narrative doesn’t interest you so much, there just so happens to be a fun puzzle game that allows you to mess with time in a non-catastrophic way.