Back in the mid-2000s, I remember scrapbooking being a pretty trendy and popular hobby.  And I don’t know, maybe it still is?  And now you can play a game about it with Instants.  Yeah they’ll make a game out of pretty much anything, won’t they?  In the game you’re tasked with placing family photos in sequential order in a scrapbook you can then decorate.  It’s available on Switch and PC, but reviewed on Switch here.

Each of the game’s levels is set up in chapters.  You’ll start each one off with a cat giving you an envelope with photos in it, plus a note from a fictional family member asking you to put these in a scrapbook.  Then you use a cursor to drag and drop photos into a book.  You must place the photos in order to pass the level.  They’ll give you clues via red and green arrows telling you which ones are out of order.  After a while it’ll start to look like those investigative conspiracy walls with photos and thumbtacks with string everywhere.  Each chapter will have more complicated photo puzzles for you to unravel, with multiple pages and notes on the backs of photos for instance.  When you finish putting them together, you can then decorate the album with stickers and colored tape before moving onto the next chapter.  Completing these will also earn you more decorations.

I think scrapbooking is a neat idea because you have photos you can hold in your hand instead of being digital on a phone.  It’s a different feeling, trust me.  But I could never get into scrapbooking myself, honestly.  And maybe that’s why I couldn’t get into the game either.  It was confusing to know where on the page you could put the photos in order, and the cursor and text was way too small.  I think the only people who would really like this game are the ones who enjoy scrapbooking in real life.  And even then I think doing it for real is probably more fun.

Kid Factor:

Nothing violent or objectionable here.  Reading skill is helpful for the text, though.  Instants is rated E for Everyone.

Tags: Game Reviews