Back to Stone

The game received "mixed or average" reviews, according to the review aggregation website Metacritic.^[6] Most critics considered the gameplay to be "simple" and "familiar",^[4][5] but the stone-pushing puzzles to be "unimaginative", unoriginal, and repetitive.^[8][7][11]

Some reviewers considered the graphics and design to be "charming and varied",^[4] easy to discern (in contrast to Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge),^[5][9][11] but many judged the presentation to be "drab", "grainy" and "muddy".^[5][12][11] The game's smooth framerate and special effects have received praise,^[8][13] as have the intricate boss battles.^[8][7][12]

Several reviewers have noted that controlling the character from the game's isometric 3D perspective was very difficult and "unintuitive" because of the rigidity of a directional pad and the difficulty in judging depth.^{[4][5][7][13][9][12][11]} Multiple critics have praised the game's length (estimated between 8 and 15 hours), which is considered good for a portable game.^{[4][5][7][13]} The translation's poor quality has also been criticized.^[8]

Back to Stone was heavily criticized almost unanimously for its lack of saving functionality, instead relying on a password-based system to track the player's progress, which was seen as a "cumbersome" flaw for a game on a handheld console, as well as "stupefying", "unforgivable" and "inexcusably archaic" when compared to other games released in this era.^{[5][8][7][9][12][11]}

• Official website (in French)
• Back to Stone at MobyGames