Even with all of the games I’ve played on Switch this generation, I can still count on indie developers to surprise me on a regular basis. When people bemoan the lack of creativity or anything new in the gaming space, I’d argue they just aren’t looking in the right places. In the case of Lullabye of Life, perhaps it’s very colorful and somewhat unusual looking blob-like characters aren’t what they have in mind, but dismissing the game out of hand for its appearance is a mistake.

With its beginnings reminding me a bit of the classic game Spore, you’ll start out as a little blob whose only ability is to create the sound of a single note. Building from that foundation, over the course of the game you’ll slowly add new notes of your own, as well as enlisting the aid of other blobs, who’ll have their own notes as well. By moving around you’ll use those notes to solve open gates, move what look like small pebbles that can be used to hold down buttons, and awaken new allies. Since it’s a wordless game it’s critical that everything you do can be reasonably intuitive, and thankfully the developers have done an outstanding job of keeping things simple and pretty consistent to avoid much confusion as you progress.

In order to keep the game from being a bit one-dimensional like a box pusher or a simpler experience in that vein, what helps add to the charm is the use of simple musical notes that are tied to yourself and the other blobs who’ll join you. With each note signified by a symbol, you’ll need to execute sequences of matching notes in order to unlock or reveal things. As you continue to accumulate more and more allies, this can get a little more cumbersome as you work to choose the correct ones in order, but in general the controls don’t do anything to get in your way, which I was thankful for. Just to throw an added wrinkle into things there are sometimes additional rules on notes you’ll need to play first in order to trigger the ones you want, so even this action isn’t as simple as it may sound.

In general, while the game only lasts a handful of hours, I found the mix of simple but effective gameplay, odd and very colorful imagery, and soothing tones to be a real joy. Perhaps it could seem a bit too simple for people looking for a headier challenge, but while on paper it sounds easy, in practice the further you go the more you’ll need to pay attention, and at times make leaps of faith as new ideas and types of puzzle challenges are introduced. This was a wonderful surprise of an experience that consistently put a smile on my face, and it’s one of those dark horse indies that people shouldn’t dismiss or overlook, as there’s something pretty magical about it.