Animal Well really is a thing you need to experience with a controller in your hands and full focus because it is a living, breathing art piece that sucked me in. I bought this game 5 hours ago and I haven't put it down since. The way everything animated is like drinking cool water on a hot night. Refreshing.

Seeing the previews of this game, I thought "ok big youtuber videogamedunkey is firmly in his 30's and wants to expand beyond making shitposts and make money by becoming an indie publisher". I wasn't moved at all by any of the promotion for Animal Well. I am bored to DEATH of 2D platformers and this game only teased a pleasant art style which is not enough to make me care. Most 2D games all mostly play the same. I'm sleep.

Thing is I got 24.68 on my Steam Wallet, so why not give it a try.

It is a Metroidvania logic puzzler. There are no tutorials in Animal Well. You are left as to guess how you progress forward. It's not Baba is You go FUCK yourself hard. It is quite simple and natural gameplay that leads to bigger and bigger "ah-HA!" moments. The kind where you feel dumb and smart. Smumb. Darmbt. I felt like I was one of those things.

The gameplay mixed with the environments and ambient music just clicked with me hard. I was 45 minutes into the game after being cynical about the whole thing and my brain just snapped after a certain puzzle solution and I realized this game has a hidden power level of cleverness. It is so meticulously well thought out. It's not trying to reinvent the wheel. It just was catered for you to have a good time.

I recommend this game for everyone. I've been in a gaming slump where no new game releases has really excited me, but Animal Well is the game that pulled my brain out of that fog. Not saying it will do the same for you, but if you give it a shot, it just might.

It ain't as good as Hollow Knight, but this is right under that (so far) as a jaw dropping 2D game with content that keeps upping the ante in amazement.

Jamal Dunkey picked a banger to kick off his publishing venture.

Dunkey really wasn't exaggerating!

Animal Well is an absolute spectacle of an indie game, with unique gameplay elements and incredibly clever puzzles that push the limits of what a Metroidvania can expect from a player. I'm quite surprised that I was able to finish this game without a guide, but that just goes to show how effortlessly the mechanics are communicated!

And of course, the biggest stand-out is the GORGEOUS animation that I couldn't stop admiring from start to finish. If this game should be remembered for any one thing, it HAS to be the phenomenal art design.

"Completionist" Update:

THIS GAME IS SO DEEP AND COMPLEX THAT I CAN'T 100% IT! ONE OF THE PUZZLES REQUIRED 64 CORRECT INPUTS IN A FUCKING ROW!!! MY BRAIN HAS MELTED TO SLUDGE AND THERE IS NO END IN SIGHT!

The people over at GoodFeel looked at what Yuji Naka was doing with Balan Wonderworld and said hold my beer.

As Nintendo exclusives go this one definitely feels the most like a late era release for a system on it's way out the door. Visually it's really bland and surprisingly fuzzy and poorly optimized for a game made by one of Nintendo go to second party studios, besides the main visual motif of the levels being plays everything else feels very bland; even by Goodfeels standers with their last game this is the most "second party" made nintendo game I've seen since in a long time, There just isn't much heart here and you can 100% tell.
Gameplay wise it's very easy, like......really easy; as in it's a two button game only and the only time the gameplay changes is when Peach uses a costume which gives her the ability to do one whole new move (wow). Obviously this game was made with very little kids in mind but honestly I feel like even they would get bored with something like this. Hell even compared with Kirby games like Forgotten Lands or Planet Robobot still offer a greater challenge as the game goes on, for pretty much the beginning to the end the whole game feels like it's on autopilot; like it's only reason for existence is to babysit your 6 year old for 5 hours instead of being a normal parent and put your kid in front of Bluey or a Mr. Beast video (joking by the way fuck Mr. Beast).

I guess my overall problem with the game is how...completely unmemorable the whole experience was. I went out of my way to 100% the whole game and besides like 1 or 2 moments from the beginning and the end I've already pretty much forgotten almost every part of the game. And I don't like using the argument of "oh well it's a kids game made for very little kids; what did you expect?", because even if you made a game with it being very easy in mind you still need to make it a good game. Like a side before Kirby is a very pretty much made with kids in mind but those games are not only game games that both kids and adult can enjoy, and give kids a good challenge while also still being welcoming for smaller kids; but those games are also chock full of stuff for kids and adult to play besides the main game. Here I 100% the game and did everything in around 9 hours for a game that cost the same price as Kirby's Forgotten land, Luigi's Mansion 3, and Super Mario Wonder.

The nicest thing I can say about this game is that unlike Balan Wonderworld it's not a buggy broken mess and plays alright, it's just a shame the game itself is the definition of bland.

Astonishingly incredible. The idea of a puzzle-metroidvania is fucking genius. From the handful of experiences I’ve had with the genre, the combat has always been the worst part of the package. These games demonstrated engaging puzzles and encapsulating atmospheres, but dithered about with lacklustre combat; combat that is somehow presented as a third pillar of the game, as an equal to its atmospheric and puzzling counterparts. Neglecting this element to the extreme brings out the best part of metroidvanias (and is really, really fun to play). Becoming intimate with this huge web of puzzles, slowly unravelling it yourself, and reaching the bottom of the rabbit hole. It’s an incredible concept, yet is so simple and so naturally delivered that it's hard to conceive how new this game feels. As both a publisher and developer debut, this is an explosive bang, and hopefully a sign of great things to come for both.