Down in Bermuda (Switch) Review

Apple Arcade has been a great source of interesting games that take advantage of the mobile touch screen. A little later, when the exclusivity deals end, we get to enjoy them on the Switch. Down in Bermuda is the latest arrival. It is made by Aussie studio Yak & co, also known for Agent A: A puzzle in disguise. I enjoyed solving Agent A’s puzzles, so let’s see if they still have what it takes when we get stuck in Bermuda.

You play Milton, a pilot who has been trapped in the Bermuda triangle. Many years have passed, and Milton is now an older man still trapped until now. With your help, Milton finally finds a way off his island prison, and if you can unravel the mysteries of the Bermuda islands, maybe you can get back home. Now there isn’t a super complicated story here (and nor does there need to be). Milton’s life pre-Bermuda is revealed through photographs found across the islands. Each island you travel to contains their own little story, as you help the inhabitants and find enough orbs to move on to the next island.

The game is a combination of hidden item searches and puzzle-solving. You are rotating and panning the screen, zooming in-and-out to find the many glowing orbs that power the gate to get to the next location. Some are easy to find, but to get them all, you’ll have to search every nook and cranny of the island to have any hope of moving on. Puzzles are environmental as you interact with mechanisms, sliding puzzles, rotating towers, and sometimes just pulling a bunch of levers and pushing buttons in the right order. Depending on how much you like, these kinds of puzzles will determine how much you’ll enjoy dealing with them here.

Starting on Apple Arcade, it’s only natural that the control scheme works best with a touch screen. But don’t worry, you’re not stuck playing solely in handheld mode; you can use a controller as well. You can either touch objects on the screen or move a cursor around. The button controls don’t feel good at all; it’s a game very much built around interacting as if you were moving real objects. Moving the cursor on these objects just doesn’t feel right.

The unfortunate thing is that the touch screen controls also don’t feel accurate enough; you’re often touching interactive points repeatedly to try and get it to register. It’s never bad enough that you can’t use the touch screen, and it’s not a game that relies on precision controls with split-second timing. When it is all working well, it’s a cool reminder of how touch controls work with puzzle games like this, although it shouldn’t be any surprise from Agent A’s developers.

Working your way across the islands will only take a few hours, depending on how you go with the puzzle and orb hunting. Down in Bermuda offers a relaxing time to just potter around Bermuda and find your way back home to the life you left behind. Being an Apple Arcade game first and Switch game second, it does make it a harder sell if you have access to Apple Arcade. Down in Bermuda is worth checking out if you enjoy interactive puzzles and a charming cel-shaded island item hunts.

Rating: 4/5