Maze Burrow is a Sokoban-inspired puzzle game, released in March of 2020 by Thomas "Kimimaru" Deeb on Steam and other online platforms. It stars an echidna that, one day, finds its burrow converted into a deadly maze by a group of hostile moles. To escape, it must solve puzzles involving pushable and pullable blocks, switches, ice, and more, eventually culminating in a showdown with the moles themselves.
The game is available to purchase here
.
Maze Burrow contains examples of:
- Block Puzzle: The game is one long series of increasingly-complex ones.
- Bonus Dungeon: After completing the game, each world will have one more level open up.
- Dishing Out Dirt: This is the main method of attack used by the moles.
- Frictionless Ice: Blocks pushed onto ice, along with the echidna itself, will continue to slide until they hit a wall.
- Gimmick Level:
- 7-5 (Factory) has you pushing around linked boxes to indirectly push down switches.
- 7-B (Rock Barrage) plays out more like a Bullet Hell game than the usual puzzle-solving action.
- Helpful Mook: Some moles in the game's boss levels are of the Accidentally Assisting variety, with their dirt balls being redirected to kill the other moles in the level.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: By using pipe blocks to redirect the dirt balls the moles shoot, the echidna can cause them to be hit and killed by their own projectiles. This is the only means it has of defeating the moles.
- Level in Boss Clothing: The boss levels play out similarly to normal levels, but are the only ones to feature moles as obstacles.
- Minimalist Cast: Just the echidna and the moles.
- Mucking in the Mud: Blocks that are stuck in mud can only be pulled, not pushed.
- No Name Given: Neither the echidna nor any of the moles has a name.
- One-Hit-Point Wonder: This goes for every creature in the game. Although the echidna is merely stunned by some moles' projectiles, it'll be instantly killed by others. Equally, though, all moles will instantly die if hit by a dirt ball — either their own, or another's.
- Unwinnable by Design: Some of the later puzzles are deliberately made unwinnable if the player makes a certain mistake.
