White exploring the bustling halls of Brilliant Indie Treasures earlier in the year, I was lucky enough to be able to sit down and play an early access version of First Class Rescue, a brand new physics puzzler. Admittedly, what caught my interest initially was the art style, and as I am a sucker for cute fuzzy animal protagonists, I was interested to see where it all led.
First Class Rescue sees us take control of Bekka the Bokka, a squirrel working for the postal service who has recently been assigned to a small town called Pine Peaks. However, on her way there, a storm destroys a lot of the town and its roads, making her job as post-squirrel a lot more difficult than she was anticipating. So how do we get around town? By abusing the laws of physics of course!
Using items we can find laying around in the environment (as well as kindly donated to us by the townsfolk back in the hub world), Bekka can use a wide variety of items in order to climb mountains, bridge gaps, and elevate different surfaces to reach other heights. For example, you could angle a large log to start climbing, then place a gas bottle and a thin plank of wood to continue your climb. Easy enough, but as it turns out, you can only use each item once during each level, meaning you really need to think ahead about what items you’ll need and more importantly, and my favourite aspect of this, is it asks you to get really creative about the solutions to its puzzles.
There are also small upgrades we can grab to help Bekka on her way. These include upgrades to her backpack so she can carry more, and a very cute badge system that can influence your runs. I had one that essentially randomised your inventory at the start of each run, making it almost impossible to plan ahead and added a new element of challenge to the run.
With gorgeous art, fun puzzle mechanics that never felt too over-bearing and adorable hand-drawn art, First Class Rescue is a heck of a fun time, and I really look forward to its full release later in 2026!
First Class Rescue is due to release on PC later in 2026.