Big2Small

Player notes

About this game

Big2Small is a puzzle adventure by Matthew D. Steele for the original Game Boy and Game Boy Color. It follows Elle the elephant, Gisele the goat, and Melanie the mouse through forests, farmland, sewers, and other compact puzzle areas. Each animal is trying to reach a preferred food, but the path is built around obstacles that no single character can handle alone. Progress comes from moving the group into useful positions and switching control at the right time.

The three animals differ in size and ability. Large characters can interact with parts of the environment that stop the mouse, while the mouse can use narrow passages that the others cannot enter. Rivers, shrubs, giant pipes, mouse holes, and traps divide each stage into small routing problems. Use the arrow keys to move the active animal, X to perform the main action or confirm a choice, Z to cancel or return, and Enter to pause. The current puzzle can be reconsidered without needing fast reactions, so deliberate movement is usually safer than experimenting randomly.

A useful first step is to identify every location that only one animal can reach. Move that specialist into position before using another character to change the route. When a puzzle contains a narrow tunnel, check whether the mouse must enter before a larger animal blocks an approach. Likewise, avoid sending a character to its goal too early if its body or ability is still needed to help someone else. The puzzle is solved by the group, not by the first animal that finds food.

The full game contains 40 puzzles and gradually introduces new combinations rather than relying on a single repeated trick. If a route fails, reconstruct the intended order from the fixed obstacles: which character can cross, which can activate or bypass the obstruction, and where the others must wait. Save states are useful before a multi-step solution, but most levels are compact enough to replay quickly. Big2Small rewards planning the whole sequence before committing the final few moves.