20 More, Somehow Even Smaller, Mazes Review

Twenty New Tiny Puzzles From a Beloved One-Person Studio

20 More, Somehow Even Smaller, Mazes is the direct sequel to solo developer FLEB's 20 Small Mazes, a free browser-flash-game-flavored puzzle collection that built a small but devoted following on Steam. As the title promises, it delivers exactly twenty more maze puzzles, each one a self-contained little idea rather than a variation on a single mechanic — one screen might be a literal maze to navigate, another a lateral-thinking trick that only looks like a maze, and the game deliberately lets you tackle its puzzles in almost any order, so a stubborn one can be set aside and returned to later. Clean, minimalist visuals, a gentle ambient wave soundtrack, and FLEB's distinctive dry, personal sense of humor carry the whole experience, which most players finish in well under two hours. It's entirely free, positioning it less as a commercial product and more as the latest entry in an ongoing body of small, handcrafted puzzle work that its audience has come to look forward to.

A Near-Universally Positive Launch, Capped Only by Sample Size

20 More, Somehow Even Smaller, Mazes launched to 414 reviews, 413 of them positive — a rate that would clear the bar for Steam's highest "Overwhelmingly Positive" tier if the platform didn't also require a minimum review count to award that label, leaving it instead at "Very Positive." Ninety of the hundred most recent reviews sampled are in English, an unusually strong majority that makes this snapshot a confident read on the launch reception. This is about as clean a reception as a review pool gets: reviewers are near-unanimous in their affection for both the game and its developer, and the small handful of more measured reviews still land solidly positive rather than critical.

Clever, Varied Puzzles Wrapped in FLEB's Signature Charm

The praise across this pool is remarkably consistent in what it credits: the sheer variety and cleverness packed into twenty tiny puzzles. One reviewer, comparing it directly to the original, writes that it "reuses the unique concept established in the previous game of this series... and builds upon it to create yet another enjoyable game," specifically praising that "every maze is a new and fun experience, featuring clever twists and solutions," and calling out the freedom to solve puzzles in almost any order as "a very good feature." Another reviewer, shortening the title to "20MSESM for brevity," describes it as "Exactly What is Says on the Tin: another beautiful, brain-tickling indie puzzle game from FLEB, creator of beautiful, brain-tickling indie puzzle games," and praises a difficulty curve that "bounces from breezy to brutal and back again" without ever overstaying its welcome across its hour-or-two runtime. FLEB's personal voice comes up again and again as a defining strength rather than a footnote — reviewers reference "his heart, humor, and hijinks," describe the game as reflecting "your children's input and real life tie-ins," and frame the whole thing less as a transaction and more as a gift from a developer whose work they've followed across prior releases like Strange Jigsaws and the original 20 Small Mazes. Several reviewers specifically call out the game's ending as a satisfying, unexpected payoff worth pushing through for, and the accessibility options — full captions, separate volume sliders per audio type, controller support without simultaneous button presses, and puzzles designed not to require color recognition — are built in as standard rather than an afterthought.

A Handful of Minor Notes: Difficulty, Length, and a Wish for a Tip Jar

Criticism in this pool is scarce and notably gentle even at its most pointed. The most specific complaint, raised independently by more than one reviewer, is that this sequel leans harder into difficulty than the original — one writes "I do like the original better though, the puzzles there seemed more 'relaxed,'" awarding the game a still-solid 7 out of 10 while noting it can take longer than expected if a particular puzzle resists solving. Another reviewer singles out a specific "matchstick puzzle" as the one weak spot in an otherwise uniformly enjoyable set, saying it was the only maze that didn't land for them. By far the most common non-praise comment in the entire pool isn't really a criticism of the game at all: multiple reviewers say their only issue is that FLEB doesn't have a donation or tip button, with one writing plainly, "I'd gladly 'buy you a coffee,' if this meant more and better games in the future." Beyond that, the game's short length comes up as a mild point of contention only in the sense that several reviewers wish it were longer, which in context reads as a testament to how much goodwill the format has built rather than a genuine mark against it.

Verdict

20 More, Somehow Even Smaller, Mazes is a small, generous, and consistently clever puzzle collection that delivers exactly what its predecessor promised and then quietly improves on it — twenty distinct, well-designed ideas wrapped in clean presentation, thoughtful accessibility options, and a genuine authorial voice that its audience has clearly grown attached to. Its few criticisms are minor and largely a matter of taste: a sharper difficulty curve than the original, one puzzle that lands less well than the rest, and a runtime measured in a single sitting rather than many. At a price of exactly nothing, and with 413 of 414 early reviewers recommending it, this is an easy, low-risk pickup for anyone who enjoys lateral-thinking puzzle games, and a must-play for anyone who already loved 20 Small Mazes — set aside an hour, and don't skip the ending.