Much more accessible than previous games like Machinarium and the point-and-click adventures of yore, there are very few obstacles that can’t be surpassed by fiddling with them for a minute or two, giving something the right item, or simply clicking everything on the screen and watching what happens. “Puzzle” is perhaps too strong a term for what you’ll find in Botanicula. It confirmed for many at the time something most kids and Henry David Thoreau naturally knew: bugs are interesting little critters who inhabit a bizarre kingdom. Garden slugs slam together and teeter like battling sumos to an operatic aria, and panic-crazed ants scurry to avoid the thunderous pecks of a hungry pheasant seriously, check it out on Netflix. Rather than assigning a narrator to contextualize the action, the miniature insect dramas of “Microcosmos” play out to an amazing soundtrack that wordlessly frames the action and amplifies the natural sounds of the insect world, leaving the viewer adrift to interpret as they wish. It stuck in my mind for a long time afterward, setting itself apart as a different beast from your average nature program. When I was 11, my parents took me to a theater to see a French documentary about insects called “Microcosmos.” The film showcased exciting time lapse and gorgeous close-up shots, footage of the beauties and grotesqueries of an alien world lurking in the well-manicured gardens of suburbia.
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