Developer: Estoty
Publisher: SayGames
Platform: iPhone/iPad/Android, Mac, PC, PS5
Tested on: PS5
My Little Universe – Review
My Little Universe, the casual mobile adventure game that was initially released on mobile in 2021 and was later ported to PC in 2023, has arrived on consoles! In the game, you take on the role of a terraformer, developing and discovering planets by investing resources in them and then utilising those resources to conquer them. My Little Universe has garnered numerous positive reviews, but let’s see how this mobile game fares when ported to consoles.
Story
My Little Universe lacks a substantial story. Since there is no dialogue, there is no narrative to track. The only story is the implied story of the player character itself. They are slowly grinding away across all the planets in the observable solar system. This story sees them create and harvest resources, fight monsters, and conquer planets. This is the leading and only real progression, as even area bosses respawn and thus can’t be used to track your progress.
Graphics
Originally a mobile game, the graphics of My Little Universe have not improved significantly even during its transition to bigger gaming platforms. The game has vibrantly colored, low-poly models, making everything stand out against the rest. Despite using only simple shapes, My Little Universe manages to incorporate a surprisingly large number of details into its items and resources. This made every resource feel distinct, as well as the items from which you have to harvest them, without making things feel cluttered.
Sound
Similarly to the graphics, My Little Universe features a simple yet polished sound design. Each planet has its theme, which feels distinctly different and helps differentiate it from the others. Additionally, both the mobs and your abilities have distinct noises, creating a dynamic sound design that enables you to maintain an overview of everything that is happening.
Gameplay
The core gameplay of My Little Universe is straightforward, but it has been expanded upon to add variety, which helps keep things from becoming boring. My Little Universe revolves around running around and harvesting numerous resources from various worlds to utilize them to further expand your reach via the world tiles to gain access to even more resources. These can also be used to upgrade your armor and equipment, as well as create additional portals.
Players have access to three pieces of equipment, each with their specialization: a sword for enemies and grain, an axe for trees, and a pickaxe for crystals and stones. They can all harvest every resource, but give you more pieces when used on their specialty resources. In each world, you can unlock new upgrades for these pieces of equipment, improving their damage and harvest output. As you progress, you’ll require more materials for each world to progress, and enemies will become more challenging to face. When harvesting, you can opt for successive quick attacks or choose more significant, area-of-effect attacks that require charging before you can use them. These quick attacks automatically swap your equipment to be the best for your target resource.
Besides upgrading your equipment and unlocking new tiles of the world, your resources can also be used to create portals. These portals require various amounts of different items that can be harvested on the current planet. Once finished, you can activate a portal using an item obtained from the final area of the planet. When you activate the portal, you unlock the next planet. However, during your playthrough, you may need resources that you haven’t found yet on your new planet. To address this, you always have a portal on every planet, allowing you to return to other planets. When selecting between planets, you can also see your completion percentage for each world.
Each world also has its unique theme, which presents itself in the enemies and design of the items. Besides the overworld, every world also features dungeons. These dungeons serve as a means for you to mine crystals and other resources that aren’t otherwise available on that planet, ensuring you have access to a mining spot with an improved drop rate. Another type of dungeon is a challenge run, where you fight against a large number of enemies for a substantial gold reward.
While gathering resources, beating enemies, and expanding planets, your player character accumulates levels. These levels give you access to Boosters, which are extra abilities that help tailor your playstyle to your preferences. You can earn up to ten Boosters, which disappear one by one when you die. Alternatively, when you want to switch up your playstyle, you can voluntarily discard a Booster to earn a new one.
With this focus on harvesting resources, they also respawn quickly, ensuring you don’t have to wait hours to mine a single node of crystals. Additionally, the time-consuming task of harvesting numerous items is mitigated by the fact that most resources appear as clusters of a few tiles, which can be efficiently harvested with a charged attack or two. With further exploration, you can also unlock merchants who will buy and sell the various resources in exchange for money. The game also helps you keep an overview by clearly indicating resources on the world maps.
Conclusion
Although initially a mobile game, My Little Universe is a delightful casual game. Despite its simple gameplay premise of gathering resources and spending them, the variety of these resources and the frequency with which they respawn prevent the endless grind from feeling dull and boring. You’re never stuck waiting for something to do. Due to the visual indicators, there’s no real need for a story to steer you in a particular direction, and combat is both exciting and relatively simple. My Little Universe is a joy to play when you come home from a long day at work and need some mindless fun.
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