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0 Adorable Adventures, developed by Wild Sheep Studio and published by PQube, is a story of courage, bravery, and smells. You control Boris, a little baby Boar that has to use his sense of smell to reunite his family after they were separated. It’s such a beautiful story and one I’ve been excited to play since seeing the trailers and TikTok videos everywhere.
Can you smell it?
We were fortunate enough to get an early key to find out just what makes this game tick, and sniff. So let’s find out just why Boris might be your favourite little quadruped
Gameplay
The core gameplay of Adorable Adventures revolves around exploration and your nose. Early into the game, you are tasked with finding aka sniffing out your mother who is stuck in a shed. With a press of the R1 button, you can start seeing her scent in the air. Simply follow that and you get to where you want. Now that sounds like it’s all too easy, and let me tell you, it isn’t all it seems. For once you get out into the wider areas, you will have multiple scents to contend with.
To be sable to progress through you have to find enough of the same scents, sometimes 3, sometimes more, and then you can ignore the smell allowing you to explore some more. Take that pesky mushroom scent that’s stopping you from finding your sibling. Just find enough mushrooms, and it becomes slightly easier. And find your siblings, you must. To get your mum out of the shed, you need 7 little boars to help knock down the door. And with your 6 siblings hiding out and having their own adventures, this can sometimes get a little tedious. Thankfully, the tedium is short-lived.
Whilst the main premise is very straight forward, the journey you will take is anything but. As you find more siblings, you open up bigger and more lush areas, but that isn’t all. These areas also give you other secrets to discover. Find the truffles for example, and this opens up a race for you to try and beat a set time for an achievement.
Boars Don’t Have Pockets
Now through all your adventures, there are a number of collectables to find, as well as secrets to discover. With a whole host of quests for you to find. One of my favourites are the picture quests. If you’re lucky enough to find a camera just laying around, combine that with little photo cards laying on the ground to make a puzzle. Match the pictures, for an achievement. Nice and straight forward you might think, but Adorable Adventures does just enough to keep you second guessing yourself.
Aside from that you have the completionist tasks. These can be found in your journals sticker page. These keep track of how many of each flower, mushroom etc, you have found, and once you’ve found a particular amount you unlock a little outfit upgrade. Whether that’s a flower that sits beautifully on top of Boris’ head, or a necklace made of mushrooms. Each give a little bit of cuteness to an already beautiful game.
Graphics and Audio
Adorable Adventures is beautiful, its a stunning game that gives a great sense of scale. With so many little touches, the game is so relaxing to explore. Sure there are the odd bug, and glitch, like in one instance, Boris was just there upside down. Thankfully, with the number of times you might end up stuck in a bush while trying to jump a gap, there’s an Unstick option in the menu. It resets you back to a close by place for you to continue your journey.
The audio in the game is just as cute, my favourite is the little drum beat that you get when you start running. Aside from that you let out cute little noises as you journey around, but if you find the harmonica… enjoy it.
The voice over of Max the Park Ranger is a great bit of narration, and bravo for including that in there. With a nice easy listening voice, it gives a real sense of calm about the whole game.
Longevity
Adorable Adventures isn’t a long game, I rolled credits in around 4 hours. What it is though is a completionist’s dream. With so much to do and complete for every achievement, I can easily see this game hitting the 8-10 hours. Even just exploring around is fun. Once you’ve completed all those bits and pieces though, I doubt you’ll come back. Honestly though, you’ll forever be changed by the gorgeous Boris and his siblings. Rock being my favourite.
Final Thoughts
So where does Adorable Adventures rank in my games I’ve played this year. I’ll be honest, right at the top. Its been a lovely change of pace, something calm and explorative. Something that leaves a smile on my face, something that draws me back to play more. With so many cute little moments that I think will stay with me, its a wonderful story that is simple perfection.
Adorable Adventures gets the Thumb Culture Platinum Award.
Disclaimer: A code was received in order to write this review.
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