Far be it from me to yuck anyone else’s yum, but in general I’d like to think that people searching the eShop for new things to play, even when their interests are very narrowly-focused, would like to find something fresh and somehow new. When I say that I’m thinking in a way that’s more than skin deep though, where it’s more than some re-skinning or re-theming of some kind, and the game has added new features or flair to justify a new purchase. While on the development side I understand how smart it is to set up the means of reuse, so you can leverage existing code to create something new quickly, I also consider it poor form to just keep cranking the same thing out.

That makes a title like Neko Bento tough for me to give a fair shake to. Granted, this is a pretty simple concept for a puzzle game, something that’s been out there for quite a long time, even in many physical forms before ever being ported over to a digital space. You’ll need to take pieces that come in a variety of shapes and sizes and figure out how to fit them all into a box, never even having a single space to spare. Of course, the further you go the more odd shapes you’ll get, but you’ll also begin having some spots that are unusable, forcing you to plan around those as well, rather than being able to simply fill everything into a squared off space.

The problem for me is that I’ve not only seen this type of puzzle game before on the Switch, quite a lot of them in fact, but that I can almost 100% guarantee that this is merely a re-skin of at least 2 previous games I’ve played by the same developer. Both Fit My Cat and Fit My Zoo are functionally identical outside of their presentation, and in almost every way all 3 games simply feel like the same experience. In fact, I’d made the same observation in my review for Fit My Zoo when it came out, and yet again here we are. I suppose if you like this sort of game, have played none of the above, and you’d prefer the sushi theme this would be the one you’d want, but otherwise I feel conflicted recommending a game that’s simply not different from previous releases in any meaningful way.