A Short Hike is essentially everything I love about the open world genre distilled into a cute, short game. Just wandering around, talking with weird lil characters strewn across the map, finding stuff as you go. You can go straight to the goal, or you can explore all there is to see. There isn't much more than two hours worth of content here if you want to see and do it all, but it doesn't need more to bring across what it sets out to do.

It's cozy game perfection to me because there's a goal, there's a feeling of progression through the feathers, it's just exploring around until you make that 'short hike' and finish up the story. Said story doesn't have much to it, but it has a small beating heart at the center of it, showing how a game doesn't need much of your time to garner investment for a single resonant moment. A moment that I still remember much more than games that might have taken 10 or 50 hours to try and get the same emotional reaction from me.

As I said, a short hike made me realise that the reason I love open world games, even if it's sometimes a guilty pleasure, is because I like just wandering around a world and seeing what there is to see. Where a lot of open world games fail, is in showing some dang constraint over how big they make their world. If there's nothing left to see and all your exploration brings you to more of the same, that kills the wonder of it, sours the experience. If the characters in it have nothing to say besides give you another fetch quest, you get tired of it.

A short hike lasts as long as you want it to, and as long as it really needs to. It's masterfully crafted in the sense that the moment your sense of wonder starts to fade, the game is over and leaves a warm, fuzzy feeling behind. I can't recommend it enough.

If you are on the hunt for a wholesome, chilled and rewarding little adventure, you are right here.

You will embody the little flappy bird Claire on her journey up to Hawk Peak to grab some cellphone reception to receive an important phone call. Along your way you socialize, engage with the islanders and get sugarcoated by a delightful soundtrack.

The game feels just so well paced, as you decide, what activities you want to engage with, which path you choose and where to stop and simply enjoy the view. A Short Hike contains what the title promises on its cover: Animal Crossing-Cozyness with some dope-ass flying system, you improve with every step taken.

This game proves, it does not always have to be a mind-bending, epic meta-story. Sometimes a simplistic yet straight-forward adventure is enough, to put a smile on your face after a rainy day.