Cozy organizational influencers are exhausting. Their posts depict a fantasy world where people spend hours a day placing objects in drawers or labeling jars. Still, I can’t stop watching their videos whenever they pop up on my feeds. There’s something satisfying about putting things in the right place. Moreover, the acoustics are excellent. I especially love the little taps that objects make when you place them on a hard surface, and the sound of drawers closing. I do not know what it is; it’s just a pleasure for my brain.
That doesn’t mean I’m going to do what the influencers want me to do. Do I need several plastic containers for kitchen utensils? How about a dozen mason jars to hide my pantry? I’m not spending hundreds of dollars on Amazon or Temu. Satisfying, A little to the left, now on Xbox Game Pass, it takes the thrill of watching people stack pencils or sort tape on Instagram and puts it in your hands – albeit without forcing you to dedicate your life to it.
I checked out first A little to the left back at Summer Game Fest in 2022, where a very short demo was available to the media. Fortunately, it was extremely easy to get started with the demo because the concept and controls are so simple. Each level gives you a small organizational puzzle to solve, and when you’re done, you move on to the next. Each puzzle usually only takes a few minutes, although some can take longer if you want to explore multiple organizational solutions.
The game doesn’t give you much direction; rather, it relies on you looking at the objects in front of you and figuring out how best to sort them. (We’ve all done some organizing, right? We know what works.) The most basic puzzles involve sorting books by color or jars by size, though others can get more complicated. Some of the more frustrating puzzles involve arranging pieces of paper so that the lines on them connect, or trying to deduce a pattern that connects the objects on the screen. In a particularly difficult puzzle, you must organize your calendar by figuring out what the marked days have in common and filling in the rest.
Image: Max Inferno/Secret Mode via Polygon
Sometimes you even have to deal with your cat swatting at your workspace, pushing these items onto the floor and breaking them everything. Organizing that much may not be realistic, but a cat knocking over your stuff certainly is.
There are several organizational strategies that you should keep in mind and discover while playing A little to the left, which prevents the game from stagnating. The solutions for each level may seem obvious, but what works for you may not work for the game. There were a few times where I tried to stack something by size, only to find that the game wanted me to sort according to a pattern I hadn’t discovered. Those moments can be frustrating, but for the most part the game seems to fit what most people would do in similar situations. And if you get stuck, you can use a hint to reveal parts of the solution (or the whole solution if you get stuck). Real fixed). The game doesn’t give you more points than confirmation that you’ve completed levels, so you can skip puzzles or use the hints freely without being punished.
There’s not much more to it A little to the left‘S gameplay than that, and yet it doesn’t get too repetitive. It probably helps that each level is short and you can play for as long as you want, whether it’s just a few minutes or a few hours. This makes it an excellent Xbox Game Pass title, as you can now play on your phone during a break. There’s also a different quick level every day, which is a great addition that suits the more casual nature of the game, and will likely entice even more players to log in to their phones via the cloud.
Image: Max Inferno/Secret Mode via Polygon
However, the main draw of A little to the left is its aesthetic, as if an exhibition in an art gallery comes to life. Each level takes you super close to the objects you need to arrange, so there isn’t much in the way of environmental design aside from the different colored backgrounds. But each object is painted with colorful care, in a way that I can only describe as wonderfully vague. Combined with upbeat, soothing music and a great sound design that picks up the tapping of small objects, A little to the left really feels like Instagram aesthetic ASMR.
I’ve noticed that I’m on Instagram a lot less these days, and I’m not sure if it’s the constant ads for Threads or the commodification of comfort that makes me feel cynical (probably both). A little to the left doesn’t fully replicate that feeling, but it comes pretty close. It’s a simple game that captures how satisfying organizing can be, whether you like putting things in the right order or just love the little sounds. And it does all that without tempting you to spend too much money on Amazon, which is always a win.