7 Video Games That Aren't About What You Think

People don't expect puzzle games to have any sort of depth or hidden meaning, and at first, Little Inferno seems like it's no different in this regard. It looks and plays like a basic puzzle game where you're tasked with burning items in an open fireplace, some of which will unlock special combos. Burning any item rewards you with coins, which can then be used to buy even more items to send up in flames.

A cursory glance at the game will probably lead you to believe that there's nothing else to it, and even for those who do sit down and play for a while, the act of consistently burning things - with little to no tangible reward - might actually seem a bit pointless. And, well... that's because it's supposed to seem pointless.

Little Inferno's repetitive cycle of 'burn item, unlock item, burn item' was designed as a satire of the wider games industry, and more specifically, the fact that it's littered with microtransaction-fuelled, time-wasting guff, games that force players through a dull grind, only to reward them with a boring skin, or some other useless cosmetic.

The devs have even acknowledged that they wanted to make "a satire of crappy games that knowingly waste your time for insulting, hollow rewards."

Another unexpected element of the game is that it stops being a puzzler in its final chunk, and turns into a side-scrolling adventure set in a frozen dystopia. Unlike the games it's mocking, Little Inferno actually has a satisfying end goal to work towards.