As someone who can’t get enough of puzzle games and platformers, I was excited to check out Yerba Buena, an upcoming puzzle-platformer from Mad About Pandas and Focus Entertainment.
It promised a unique gameplay loop and art style, and to say the preview over-delivered would be an understatement. Here’s my first impressions of Yerba Buena, based on roughly 2 hours of gameplay on PC.
Groovy, baby
Yerba Buena is a puzzle-platformer set in 1970s San Francisco, with a lady named Barb as the star of the show. It’s colorful and vibrant, and feels exceptionally meta in places, with some characters seemingly being aware they’re in a video game.
After Barb’s friend Russell ends up getting taken hostage, she must race against the clock and glitch-laden game world to save him, using a mysterious tool called the Oscillator to warp reality and navigate obstacles.
The Oscillator essentially acts as a copy-paste system for moving objects. The strange gun-like item can copy the movement of an object in the overworld – a crane moving upwards, for example, or a car driving to the left – and then paste it onto an interactive object, causing it to follow the same movement pattern.
This allows Barb to move objects out of her way or to create ramps to reach objectives. It’s incredibly fun to play with and makes exploring the overworld a joy.
Any glitchy objects in the world – visually flickering, colorful items – can be moved and interacted with, meaning there are multiple solutions to puzzles and level sections. This made it exciting to experiment with different routes as I worked through the preview.
Amid the puzzle-platforming sections, there were intriguing narrative sections to dig into. While I only spent roughly two hours with the game, I still got a good feel for the game’s style of storytelling.
Barb has a close relationship with her friends and will go to great lengths to defend them, seemingly sometimes at her own peril. There’s a malicious glitch plague of sorts that’s decimating San Francisco, but the group of friends seems more annoyed by it than anything, viewing it as a normal part of their everyday life.
Uniquely engaging gameplay
I’m a huge Portal fan and couldn’t help but have this in mind when loading into Yerba Buena for the first time. Would it feel like a Portal clone?
Short answer, no. Don’t let the notion of shooting a reality-changing weapon lead you astray – despite having a style of puzzle that’ll appeal to fans of the legendary series, Yerba Buena stands up as its own unique title.
The Oscillator tutorial felt like an homage to Portal, largely thanks to the voice-over, but the demo offered gameplay that felt wholly unique. Each puzzle and platforming section felt meaningful for the story, too; Barb wasn’t just firing the Oscillator for the hell of it. There was a real purpose behind each moment.
I can see the gameplay getting much more challenging towards the end of Yerba Buena, too. The difficulty felt balanced and fair during the preview, but showed the potential for fiddly, intricate puzzles and demanding platforming sections.
Visually, I found Yerba Buena to be delightful, with lively yet stylized character models, jewel-toned color palettes, and a vibrant overworld.
I’ve mentioned that exploring the city felt rewarding in terms of gameplay already, but it felt great to explore just for the sake of seeing the city itself, too. The game is decently linear, meaning you can’t go completely off script and leg it round the city, but there are plenty of opportunities to explore or take alternate paths.
Performance-wise, Yerba Buena ran well and didn’t throw up any issues during my time with the preview. The interface was clean, and the controls were easy to get the hang of, resulting in a smooth overall user experience.
I can’t wait until May 26, 2026, rolls around. Yerba Buena is looking like it might be one of the best puzzle-platformers of the year, based on what I’ve seen so far, and it’s one to watch if you’re a fan of reality-bending games with a strong sense of style.
FAQs
According to the Steam page, Yerba Buena is due to release on May 26, 2026.
Yerba Buena was developed by Mad About Pandas and published by Focus Entertainment.
Yerba Buena is a puzzle-platformer with a strong narrative.
The best puzzle games include Portal, Portal 2, Thomas Was Alone, Baba Is You, and Blue Prince. There are plenty of other exceptional indie games to check out in the puzzle niche, too.
