In my opinion, the absolute best puzzle games are the ones that constantly reinvent concepts you thought you were familiar with. All I really have to say now is that Super Puzzled Cat does this constantly, along with keeping optional collectibles juuust out of reach, often requiring you to rethink how one item's mechanics interact with everything else's mechanics. The game sports a feature where you can save and reload your own checkpoints at any time, and while you'd think this would neuter all challenge, it really just breaks down the barrier of entry, allowing you to safely experiment with all kinds of strategies. It's also especially cool in the post-level replay that shows a cathartic explosion of ghosts from that one obstacle you attempted a hundred times.

The one thing I have to knock against this game is the button assignments for all your gadgets. It makes sense that they wouldn't stay consistent between stages, as what's available varies between puzzles, but it starts to hurt in some later stages where you have more than four gadgets to work through. New gadgets start to replace inactive/used ones, and it's hard to predict what button they'll be assigned to until it's too late (though the save/load feature mitigates this somewhat).

I'd probably think this game was the cat's meow for the puzzle-platforming alone, but Super Puzzled Cat also goes above and beyond with a lighthearted art style, a head-bopper of a soundtrack, and an offbeat sense of humor. You could buy a pair of binoculars that lets you see further into your current level, but if you're like me, you'll probably end up getting the item that gives you the ability to "nya" on command and spamming it everywhere. There's so much wholly unhelpful stuff to collect, but it's extremely fun to go for it anyways because it requires mastery of the game's mechanics. There is so much hidden stuff to find in this game, it's unreal. I reached the "ending" and it feels like I've barely scratched the surface of what's on offer, even after 25+ hours.

ADDENDUM: I spent another 25 hours with this game and the hole only kept going deeper. This is my GOTY for sure.