LogFAQs > #947423670

28. A Short Hike
Genre Adventure

Gameplay: 5
Rest of Game: 8
Engagement: 7
New to Me: 5
Playtime: 2

Total score: 27/40

Song selection: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jp1w67ROuyM

The best word to describe A Short Hike would be delightful. A Short Hike features you, a bird-person who wanders around the base of an island, meeting the other animals throughout the area as they enjoy a vacation, doing leisurely things like collecting shells, playing a variation on volleyball, or running a race. Your self-imposed task is to climb to the top of the island because you dont have any cell phone reception and want to call home. And so begins an adventure to explore every last bit of the island to discover a route and the needed tools to get to the summit.

The graphics are by far the weakest component of ASH. Although its a competently created world, very obviously made in the Unity engine, the artwork is excessively pixelated and the screen animation has ripples and suffers in framerate. Beyond that, though, theres very little to criticize of this game if you have no expectations going in, as I did when it was recommended as a game to try from the itch.io bundle. The musics charming. The peacefulness of the world is refreshing. The worst thing that can happen to you is you slip down a cliff a little bit and have to find a way back up. The writing maintains the lightheartedness. And eventually, as you perform enough tasks and collect enough golden feathers, youll have the stamina to climb or glide higher up the mountain, culminating in a final climb where youll get to finally talk to Mom at the top, in a surprisingly momentous resolution for a game about a character with basically no background.

Should you play it?: Its, like, 2 hours of fluffy feel-good entertainment.

Next: Oar Umpires...and I swear to god, I don't remember what this even means, but I thought it was freaking clever when I wrote it three weeks ago.

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Video Game Music Contest 14 champion: Idola Phantasy Star Saga - Endeavour