It is not the fault of developer Thomas Waterzooi that I never picked up Please, Touch the Artwork. It sadly shared a name that was too similar to another project I worked on (Please, Don’t Touch Anything), so I never bothered to understand it till I read the reviews. An exploration in modern art and storytelling, the original was enjoyed but recognized as pretentious by our team, and with good reason.

It had substance, but the ideological subtly of a hammer against your skull. Mr. Waterzooi seems to have realized the disconnect his game created and, simultaneously, went in a totally different direction while doubling down on the ideology and fascination with art as a game for his second creation. The product, Please, Touch the Artwork 2, is such a wild departure that genuinely feels engaging and artistic in a polarizing, oppositional way.

This perfectly captures how I felt everytime I went on a field trip to any sort of museum.

You are now playing a skeletal entity who I can only dub The Artist, who has arisen from a grave and now finds itself traversing multiple paintings, helping the denizens within while also tracking some form of vagabond that is causing damage and mischief across these paintings. The Artist will be tasked by the subjects of the art to find multiple objects that have been strewn across the landscape, from beer bottles to matchsticks, and only by tracking them down can the story progress in one form or another. Everything is done wordlessly: messages are conveyed completely through iconography and non-verbal expletives, but most of your purview is limited to what you can glean through trial and error. All of this is in wild contrast to the original game, and I think it lands significantly better.

Mr. Waterzooi seems to have had a change of heart about what art to use within his games, as the construct of Please, Touch the Artwork 2 takes place almost entirely within the works of James Ensor. If you’re familiar with him, congratulations! You either majored in art history or at least have a broader palette than I do. If you hadn’t heard of him before this moment, know that he was a Belgian painter who primarily worked in oils to create surreal and expressionistic pieces, both on canvas and also in an audio medium. Ensor seems to have been the absolute perfect candidate to inspire the world of this game: a skeletal being slowly moving through peaceful, beachside areas and gradually descending into a nightmarish work of death and love is compelling. It also creates a perfect backdrop to hide a whole bunch of little, sometimes nearly-invisible items.

Wally, sadly, is nowhere to be found.

Please, Touch the Artwork 2 is a masterful port to the Switch, allowing players to use either touchscreen or button controls, though a combination of the two yields the best results. Most, not all, of the hidden objects can be found with a sharp eye, though there are a handful of instances where you need to zoom in to find even a ghost of an object. Each “room” you enter will have a clear light bulb that indicates whether there is still another hidden object to find or if the “room” is clear. You have unlimited hints if you’re stumped, so the idea is not to create a dastardly, difficult experience. You don’t have to use hints, but I have no shame in admitting that certain cats evaded my eyesight and forced me to get guidance in order to progress forward.

When you encounter moments where the paintings have been damaged, you have to engage in a “repair” minigame in which you tape over oddly-cut sections without overlapping the tape. This section is almost trivial because, while it occurs at least once a chapter, it’s almost shockingly easy to figure it out. Given that you cannot enter a fail state and it’s simply a matter of connecting dots, you can brute force your way through in a matter of moments, even if you’re terrible at geometry (like me!). The touchscreen of the Switch makes this go even faster, while also providing that wonderful, satisfactory idea of taping things up by hand. Little moments, but still enjoyable.

Yes, even in a surrealist art game, you can pet the dog. Welcome to Game Goals 2025.

While I do applaud the Switch port, it should be said that the fine details of Ensor’s art combined with Waterzooi’s sometimes devious positioning of objects means that those of us with weak eyesight will have a rough time on the compact screen. Docking to play on the television or possibly having a higher resolution model (OLED) should provide better viewing. Players enjoying the PC version (which is totally free) will have zero issues.If a Nintendo Switch 2 port ever becomes a possibility, I think it merits a second look as a result.

To be perfectly blunt, I enjoyed every second of this adventure. Please, Touch the Artwork 2 is so wonderfully weird and, at times, absurd that I got a good chuckle out of every leg of the adventure. Finding moustaches on different characters to appease a single entity. Getting a bunch of alcohol for a barfly who gets chased out by his wife. Accidentally killing a duck with emphysema. It’s all wild and weird, and the fact that The Artist is this modern, cartoonish character who also seems politely bewildered by everything around him just made the whole experience endearing and fun. I beat the game, handed it off to my daughter, and she promptly beat it as well, showcasing a short, enjoyable romp that can easily be replayed.

In spite of everything, I still managed to be a creep in a game where you’d think it wasn’t possible.

There’s not really a higher purpose to games as art, unless you’re dead set on sending a message that might overwhelm someone in terms of philosophy or political positioning. Sometimes art is just delightful, and evocative of the human condition in the most baser of ways: we are uncertain of death, we sometimes fear it, mock it, embrace it or simply live alongside it. Waterzooi has crafted a vessel of expression that I see and I adore because of what it is, not what it could be. There’s hints that there may be more chapters in the future, and I, for one, would be thrilled to see even more expansion into this realm. Please, Touch the Artwork 2 thrills me with a simple concept delivered with polish, poise and aplomb.

Please, Touch the Artwork 2 is available now on PC and Switch.

Reviewed on Switch.

A copy of Please, Touch the Artwork 2 was provided by the publisher.