Tiny Robots: Portal Escape

The only thing worse than your grandpa getting kidnapped is having to solve 60 interdimensional puzzles to get him back, but at least you get to do it as an adorable, customizable robot with a jet engine for legs.

Tiny Robots: Portal Escape drops you into the shiny metal shoes of Telly, a big-hearted bot with a knack for solving puzzles and dodging evil robots. After watching Grandpa Chip get yoinked from his garage by some suspiciously smooth chrome thugs, you’re left with a broken lab, a walkie-talkie, and a whole mess of locked doors. Your only choice? Step through the nearest portal and start poking around.

Each level is a meticulously crafted 3D diorama begging to be rotated, zoomed in on, and fiddled with until a hidden crank or data disk falls out. It’s Escape Room: The Saturday Morning Special, complete with bear NPCs, cherry blossoms, and the occasional robot fishing trip. Mini-games break up the exploration with color-matching tubes and circuit hacks, and boss fights pepper in just enough danger to keep things spicy.

And while none of the customization options make you smarter, slapping a shark head on Telly somehow feels like it helps. Between unlocking characters, crafting artifacts on your cozy workbench, and collecting batteries like a caffeinated squirrel, there’s always something shiny pulling your focus.

Tiny Robots isn’t reinventing the escape-room genre, but it is having a heck of a time dressing it up in googly-eyed robots and slick sound design. It’s cute, clever, and just challenging enough to keep your gears turning.