As a lil' gator trying to persuade his busy big sis into playing with him, our titular protagonist has his work cut out trying to prove that his kickass game is fun and that his big sis is missing out by being all busy with adult stuff. The best way to do that is OF COURSE to play the game that he's set up with his friends with all sorts of wicked adventures all spread out throughout the island. His cool friends have built cardboard enemy cutouts and pots all over the island that are ripe for the breaking and seems like there's also a bunch of potential pals all over with their own short quests to do! Finishing their quests will potentially also give you cool new weapons and gear which, as we all know, MORE gear equals MORE fun! There's also this mysterious monkey who appears in the most unexpected spots to give you these bracelets that let you climb higher and higher! To get to more spots to break more stuff! What fun!
The gameplay loop is essentially exploring every nook and cranny of the island to finish small one-off quests but also to gather the core party to build up a base on the center to get the sister to play with the Lil Gator. While being simple, the game is short enough where it does not wear its welcome out though by the very end of it I was most definitely ready for it to be done. You start off with a melee attack, a slide with your "shield" and two items though these expand as you finish quests for people scattered all over and adds a little bit of flavor as you swing your paintbrush wearing a beret and sporting a massive easel shield that you use to slide down mountains. The bracelets that you get fro the monkey that you can find give you stamina that you use to climb up sheer cliffs though you could pretty much finish the game on a single one considering I had barely any difficulty scaling anything but the highest points on the map.
While the gameplay is simple, what makes this game so enjoyable for me is the MASSIVE dose of charm, earnestness and pure joy injected directly into everything. It reminds me of my own time as a kid being a little scamp, making imaginary games with my friends and making my own fun with the areas around my house. Our troupe of daring ne'er-do-wells would play out all sorts of adventures on various fantasy lands and this taps directly into my nostalgia for that time. The presentation adds so much with its goofy yet lovely character models, a pretty well rendered and pretty landscape and some soothing music that lilts through most of your time.
I'm not sure if A Short Hike was an inspiration for this game but it is extremely similar to that in a lot of ways but definitely does its own thing that's clearly more inspired by Zelda. The game brings a TON of charm and heart into a fairly simple exploration based game in a small island making it far more than the sum of its parts and I thoroughly recommend this for anyone looking for a short jaunt through one's childhood adventures.
The gameplay loop is essentially exploring every nook and cranny of the island to finish small one-off quests but also to gather the core party to build up a base on the center to get the sister to play with the Lil Gator. While being simple, the game is short enough where it does not wear its welcome out though by the very end of it I was most definitely ready for it to be done. You start off with a melee attack, a slide with your "shield" and two items though these expand as you finish quests for people scattered all over and adds a little bit of flavor as you swing your paintbrush wearing a beret and sporting a massive easel shield that you use to slide down mountains. The bracelets that you get fro the monkey that you can find give you stamina that you use to climb up sheer cliffs though you could pretty much finish the game on a single one considering I had barely any difficulty scaling anything but the highest points on the map.
While the gameplay is simple, what makes this game so enjoyable for me is the MASSIVE dose of charm, earnestness and pure joy injected directly into everything. It reminds me of my own time as a kid being a little scamp, making imaginary games with my friends and making my own fun with the areas around my house. Our troupe of daring ne'er-do-wells would play out all sorts of adventures on various fantasy lands and this taps directly into my nostalgia for that time. The presentation adds so much with its goofy yet lovely character models, a pretty well rendered and pretty landscape and some soothing music that lilts through most of your time.
I'm not sure if A Short Hike was an inspiration for this game but it is extremely similar to that in a lot of ways but definitely does its own thing that's clearly more inspired by Zelda. The game brings a TON of charm and heart into a fairly simple exploration based game in a small island making it far more than the sum of its parts and I thoroughly recommend this for anyone looking for a short jaunt through one's childhood adventures.