A short hike really formulated one of the most appealing type of games for me but unfortunately i dont think a lot of the wannabe games live up to it. Lil gator was one of the most highly praised out of the list but i kinda hated it /: maybe ill try frog detective and see if it scratches that itch

cool list, drax. I loved a short hike so it'd be nice to see if any of these could hit that same spot

@moschidae: Sorry to hear you didn't like Lil Gator Game, I found it quite comforting but ultimately most of my time was just spent sliding and gliding around. I do prefer A Short Hike at the end of the day though.

If you like dumb adventure games that don't try to take themselves seriously at all with silly mysteries, then yeah I'd definitely recommend the Frog Detective games. Not a ton of gameplay since most of game is just fetch quests and walking around, but the trilogy left me with a smile on my face and I was able to play the games via itch.io bundle downloads and Game Pass so I can't complain too much.

@curse: Thanks! Of the ones here that I played and liked, Lil Gator game and Alba are pretty chill times (though I did have some reservations for Alba back then thinking it was just a little too short, I'd probably be nicer rating it nowadays). I also played Haven Park a little while ago but found it pretty disappointing in comparison to A Short Hike. I did like the Frog Detective Trilogy as well, just keep in mind that it's not very gameplay oriented and as mentioned before, is more of a "dumb adventure game" with fetch quests.

I haven't played it but Tchia count?

@FallenGrace: Tchia was close to making the list, but I'm gonna keep it off for now because it has combat vs hostile enemies and none of the current games on this list (to my knowledge) do. Thanks for the suggestion nonetheless!

I wasn't sure lol.

I was going to do an island girl list which Tchia, Koa, Alba, and Summer in Mara were all going on but scrapped it.

Summer in Mara may fit? Not played that yet either 😅

@FallenGrace: Hmm, this came close to making the list too but I'll have to say no for Summer in Mara since it seems much more heavy on its farming mechanics and crafting (like Stardew) and doesn't seem to emphasize platforming at all. It at least feels a bit different from how quest-exploration heavy the rest of the entries on the list are, if that makes sense.