Game: Lil Gator Game
Developer: MegaWobble
Publisher: Playtonic Games
Release date: 14th December 2022
Price: £16.75 or US $19.99
Filesize: 252 MB
Lil Gator Game is a late 2022 indie game developed by MegaWobble and published by Playtonic Games.
The story involves a gator who loves their big sister, playing adventure games during childhood but "millions" of years later, the big sister has adult responsibilities and the gator is struggling to get her to join in the fun again.
The gator is a young kid who wants nothing but fun and gets stressed out whenever there's grown up stuff involved such as studying materials, organising a restaurant or making your own hat, fortunately the NPCs twists their words after noticing the gator's initial response to make it sound more fun and encourage motivation. One interesting small attention to detail is that the young ones tend to have all of their words in lowercase whereas the grown-ups have proper casing (with a notable exception from the screenshot below).
The gameplay is a 3D adventure Breath of the Wild-lite experience. It's not super massive, the weapons do not have a durability system and there's no labyrinths dungeons to explore but both games share the stamina wheel mechanic mainly used for climbing and certain items to a lesser extent. There is no health/death so the player is fully invincible and all of the breakable assets are stationary and made out of cardboard to have that imaginative play feel for the gator's quest.
At the start you have to find a sword, a shield and a hat. The shield isn't used for defending at all but for shield sliding instead, it even includes the shield front flip if initiated from mid-air. The sword is a melee weapon used as a reliable way to break assets to earn currency which is junk. Junk is used to craft new items during the quest, there are a few identical ones with little differences, for example:
A dart gun and a shuriken, the former has an arc effect similar to a grenade launcher whereas the latter travels in a straight line, the ammo is unlimited so you can fire constantly to your heart's content.
A dart gun and a shuriken, the former has an arc effect similar to a grenade launcher whereas the latter travels in a straight line, the ammo is unlimited so you can fire constantly to your heart's content.
After clearing the small island, you get a text message from Tom who has a "construction" site for a small town/playground by the radio tower from the big island. From there, you have to clear three main quests, one from each major NPC (known as Jill, Avery and Martin). Jill specialises in nature, Avery focuses on building a restaurant with a group of theatrics buddies including a spaceman, a western cowgirl and a bat. Lastly there's Martin who is hanging out with older friends... trying to stay cool. These main quests involves clearing tasks from the major NPC's friends and eventually motivating them to go to the playground, this can include trying to catch a hercules beetle. being a court judge to expose a liar or taking down a UFO.
Unlocking buildings to improve your playground requires "NPC Visitors" as currency, this is earnt by clearing quests.
Quests are usually bitesize tasks that can be cleared in 1-5 minutes depending on the challenge. One slightly tough challenge for example was trying to find 5 ninjas themed targets thanks to a time limit but it did involve looking around the area as the targets were both high and low from the starting point and there were loads of bushes so try and cut those down first should make it easier.
Without spoiling the end game, there is an interesting sequence and a strong conclusion that sends an important message to the player(s).
After clearing the game, you're given a megaphone which is used to find any other NPCs that haven't had their problem(s) solved, this is an interesting way to find uncompleted tasks as with most modern games, you're given a map with loads of icons on screen to complete your todo list, the other item is the ability to text message Jill to help you find every breakable enemy/chest in the game as that is required along with the quests from the NPCs to unlock the second ending.
This game doesn't have a map and while it would have been nice, it does encourage more exploration.
In fact, some of the NPCs will give you clues to find certain locations, one key advantage on the lack of fast travel is that you'll find other junk and quests along the way to help you get closer to 100% completion.
Did you know this game has a mini trampoline as a sliding item? Using that to land right after jumping from a high place never gets old.
The music is light-hearted up beat music with a warm feel probably comparable to life sims games such as Animal Crossing and one part has an eerie tone that occurs when going inside a bat's home turf. The big island is notably dynamic as it changes the instruments based on the gator's current location.
Overall, the game is surprisingly enjoyable for nearly anyone, it's accessible for young ones to complete and older gamers would love its witty writing, the entertaining in-game mechanics if you ever wanted to speedrun it and the message at the end of the story. It's not a super long game to beat, for some.... it's at an acceptable length without overstaying its welcome.
Time to complete story ~4 hours
Time to complete everything ~6 hours.
Score: B+
Lil Gator Greatness:
Heartwarming/Charming tone with an important message.
No frustrating mechanics to rely on realism such as ammo/duratabilty and HP.
You can Naruto Dash
Cheeky references with semi-frequent nods to The Legend of Zelda.
Lil Gator Flops:
Not much to do after reaching second ending other than getting faster times on mini-time trials found in some locations, a New Game + would have been fun to see how fast you can beat the game with best gear.
The ragdoll demonstration was pretty dark as the NPC was almost being MTV's Jackass worthy, none of the characters can die but still.... I was "uhmmm" for a second thinking don't try that at home.
Key provided by Playtonic Friends from Pressengine online.
