Little Problems: A Cozy Detective Game finds the satisfaction in solving life's minor hiccups

Rachel Watts, 29 September 2025

As I continue my quest to find the cosiest puzzle games for Autumn, I’ve found another contender. Since the release of Color Grey Game’s excellent detective saga, The Curse of the Golden Idol (followed by a sequel and a standalone series of cases), there has been a serious uptake in Golden Idol-likes. Many of these fill-in-the-blank mysteries - Murder at the Birch Tree Theatre, Crimson Seer, Unheard, to name a few - follow the game’s grisly themes or murder, mayhem, and michef, but the recently released Little Problems does away with all that. It’s by no means a difficult game, but instead favors low-consequence sleuthing and cosy vibes if you happen to be a little squeamish. 

Instead of grisly murders and bloody mysteries, its story follows a young woman and her life at college, hanging out with her friends, dealing with her studies, and the little problems she runs into throughout her daily life. It’s cute, light-hearted, and the perfect puzzle game to soothe your brain. It follows the same features as Golden Idol-likes, you’ll be clicking around the environment for words and then using them to fill the gaps in sentences. The completed paragraphs will then describe a series of events, and you’ll solve the mystery.

Little Problems feels like a season of your favourite slice-of-life anime. Our protagonist, Mary, is a cute girl who is simply trying her best, complete with adorable animals, cupcakes, cute boys, and boba tea. Sure, it's so sugar-coated you'll walk away with a mouthful of cavities, but I like how the genre's clever puzzle staples are still present, the only difference being there’s a cute twist.

Instead of deciphering hieroglyphs of an ancient language, you're trying to work out what the animals at your local vet clinic are trying to say through shapes and symbols. In another case, you're trying to unravel who needs what book at the local library (with an added cat cafe next door), and solving who knocked over the mug of lemonade. It was the dog! Aww. In one case, you’ll be deciphering the identities of people wearing masks - but don’t worry, it’s not a bloodthirsty cult but your friends at a Halloween festival!

Just like The Case of the Golden Idol, there are multiple parts of a case to solve, sectioned out into their own paragraphs, but in Little Problems, you only need to solve the ‘main' problem to progress. The others are totally optional, which is nice.

If it isn’t obvious by now, you’re not going to find any major brain busters here, and there are some little annoyances. It’s a little repetitive with character names, having to put them in again and again in each case, and some of the deductions aren’t communicated clearly, but these are both potholes inherent in any Golden Idol-like.

I’m not one for overly cutesy aesthetics, but I appreciate what Little Probelms is doing here. In a genre essentially birthed in blood, it’s nice that there's an alternative for those who would rather not have to deal with vengeance and malice over their evening cup of tea. It’s something that Duck Detective does too. It cleverly takes detective tropes and makes them much more approachable. The Miss Marple to True Detective. 

If you liked Golden Idol and are itching for more of these fill-in-the-blank puzzle games, then I would recommend Little Problems. It’s not going to majorly test your brain cells, but it’s an hour of a nice, approachable game about finding the satisfaction in resolving life's little hiccups.