When the trailer for BraveCart first loaded, I was not hooked, here was this dystopian world with a shopping trolley as the star, but then the gameplay was revealed and that is what got me. While the idea of a sentient trolley might seem out there, seeing this puzzle game in motion, if this is out there then I want to be out there as well.

BraveCart is a puzzle game at its core, you simply need to guide your little trolley from the start of the stage to the end of it, simple. The challenge will be in the obstacles or challenges you need to complete first before you do. There is a story here, you are a trolley abandoned by someone and you’re not going to take that. In this country there exists a duopoly of two supermarkets Woolworths and Coles Omegamart and Alphabarn, and with your new purpose in life, you aim to rise up and create a revolution against them. Sure, that sounds a bit campy, but the fun of it is that its meant to be, because the gameplay is where the fun truly shines.

All you need to do is direct your trolley to the exit, much like block puzzles in Zelda games over the years and countless others, once you push in a direction, you keep going until you come to a stop. Then you can move again in another direction, making this a very simple game for anyone to learn. In fact when talking with Rick from Hojo Studio about the game, I saw kids walk up and start playing and after a few tutorial stages, they got it and were able to progress through the more challenging stages. What makes these challenging at first is just avoiding a trolley collector, but later on some of the stages will introduce barriers that rotate between open and close with each move, one-way barriers that can stop you from moving forward or even guards that will chase you down. The opening levels are set within a field of sorts, basically where you were abandoned, but the next location will be the parking lot of the shopping center and then inside the shopping center and beyond.

I mentioned before about challenges to the stages, there are a few that the team have already. The first challenge is just getting to the exit of the stage, easy I know, but the second is doing it in under a set number of moves. Each stage will have a target of how many moves you can use to make it to the exit, get there under that target and you get another star, if you don’t you just need to try again. Later stages will also have you collect other abandoned trollies that you will find about the place, which combined with the move counter and the obstacles, could see players really scratching their heads.

What was really great about the game, apart from its ease of play, was the level editor, which fully embraces the ease of use mechanic. All the stages that the team are working on were built using their level editor, and to prove how easy it was, Rick busted out his own mobile phone and showed it off. A few items selected and then dropped into place and then the map was ready to play, it was that simple.

Given my love of a good puzzle game, I am excited to get hands on with the full game. The hook for this one is simple, but how the stages increase in difficulty will be the real challenge, to easy and it might not hook me long term and too hard, it might go the other way. Right now, I have my trolley token ready, so I can take this out for a spin, I just need to wait a while.

Right now there is no release date for BraveCart, but the team are working hard on it. The game is aiming to release on PC, where you can wishlist it on Steam and mobile devices, along with the Nintendo Switch.