Developer: Wild Sheep Studio
Publisher: PQube
Platform: PC, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Switch 2
Tested on: Switch 2
Adorable Adventures – Review
We found it difficult to believe, but it really has been five years since we last played an educational video game. We were well overdue to get stuck in with another piece of edutainment then. Fortunately, Wild Sheep Studio and PQube had us covered with the Switch 2 version of Adorable Adventures. Arriving roughly half a year after the game made its debut on PC, PS5 and Xbox, Adorable Adventures’ gameplay seemingly sits somewhere between AWAY and Little Mouse’s Encyclopedia. Is it any fun? And did we learn anything?
Story
The hero of Adorable Adventures is a wild boar piglet named Boris (Boar-is. Get it? Because he is a boar). When we first meet him, he’s wandering the woods all by himself. We don’t get to see the preceding events, but the game’s narrator explains that a devastating forest fire separated Boris from his family. Not only that but his mother got trapped inside a small cabin. Fortunately, Boris isn’t an ordinary boar! Armed with a tremendous sense of smell and incredible intelligence for an animal that is only a couple of months old, Boris sets out to locate and reunite with his scattered siblings, using their combined strength to break down the cabin door and rescue their mother. Along the way, he’ll run into all sorts of plants, mushrooms, and even man-made objects scattered around his home.
Graphics
The open-world environment that Adorable Adventures is set in was inspired by the real-life Cévennes National Park in Southern France. It features diverse landscapes, including dense forests, open moors, mountains, waterfalls, and even the ash-covered aftermath of the forest fire that separated Boris from his family. Boris and his family boast authentic, endearing, and highly expressive animations, including ear-flicking and playful snout-twitching. Aesthetically, the game definitely does its title justice, though in terms of technical performance and execution, it’s a different story. We can’t outright compare the Switch 2 visuals to those of other platforms, but the version we played definitely comes across as rough. The game suffers from low draw distance and frequent pop-in, as well as a very unruly camera. Boars clipping through environments is common, and the game’s frame rate seemingly has a mind of its own, particularly during racing challenges.
Sound
Environmental ambience and sound effects take center stage in Adorable Adventures’ soundscape. The audio of your surroundings is deeply immersive, featuring the chirps of birds, the flow of water and distinct shifts between open fields, forests, and even caves. The noises made by Boris and his siblings further enhance the cute presentation, with squeaky noises when our hero bumps his nose into trees and the pitter-pattering of tiny footsteps. Music is subtle and adapts to the gameplay, with a fast-paced drum beat kicking in when you break into a stampede, and more whimsical tunes underscoring the cosy and peaceful atmosphere of the forest. One thing that didn’t land with us was the game’s narration. Adorable Adventures’ narrator is supposedly a park ranger, and he tells the story as if it were a fairy tale. We’d have preferred it had the narration been delivered in an Attenborough-like manner, as if this were a nature documentary.
Gameplay
The core gameplay loop of Adorable Adventures can be summed up in three words: follow your nose. Your overarching goal is clear: find your siblings and free your mother. To find the other piglets, you literally need to sniff them out by following colour-coded scent trails. The forest is filled with all sorts of overlapping aromas though, and Boris is prone to being distracted. In order to ignore a scent, you need to sniff out a specific quantity of an item, like a flower or a mushroom, to register it in your Scent-O-Meter, which allows you to toggle it to “ignored”, clearing the path towards your true objective. Alternatively, you can continue to sniff out a specific object in order to complete its entry in your logbook. In turn, you’ll learn real-world facts about it.
There is no combat in the game, nor are there any direct threats. The game prioritises creating a low-pressure, peaceful environment. The only way that really gets in the way of progressing through the game is environmental barriers that you need to break down to unlock new areas of the map. These are tied to the number of siblings you’ve found, as you need to cooperate with them to break through. There are also side activities, including time-trial truffle races, hoop jumping, planting flower patterns in gardens, and clearing litter into bins. Adorable Adventures’ gameplay definitely isn’t the deepest or the most challenging, but that doesn’t mean it is entirely frustration-free. During our time with the game, there were a couple of times when we got stuck in the environment. This is apparently something that is prevalent enough that the game has a built-in “unstuck” button that teleports you elsewhere. Another niggle is that the map lacks a legend, key, or even a player location marker, leading to confusion and the occasional unnecessary backtracking.
As a whole, though, Adorable Adventures is a laid-back, relaxing experience aimed at a younger crowd. More experienced gamers will probably find that the game doesn’t provide enough challenge to keep things interesting throughout the entire runtime. Speaking of runtime, Adorable Adventures is a very short game. We were able to complete it over the course of a single evening, clocking in at roughly four hours of play at a cosy, leisurely pace. There is little incentive to replay the game too. This is reflected in the game’s €19.99 price point, which is on the lower side. If you’re a parent looking for a budget-friendly and educational alternative to overpriced licensed games, then Adorable Adventures should probably be on your shopping list for Christmas.
Conclusion
We’re kind of on the fence about Adorable Adventures. We wouldn’t recommend the game to seasoned gamers, as the gameplay is shallow and the game definitely overstays its welcome, despite a relatively short runtime. For the game’s intended target audience, however, Adorable Adventures definitely hits its mark, despite a handful of rough edges.
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