We all played with our imaginations as children. Pretending to go on adventures, or actually going on adventures against our parents chagrin, was what made up our most precious childhood memories. Whether it was spending long summer days playing with friends or staying inside with your siblings playing the latest revolutionary video game, That is what Lost in Play is about. Making adventures and memories as a child.

You play as a brother and sister, Gal and Toto, who wake up on a bright summer day and decide to get lost in their own imaginations. The first few chapters have you going from their reality to actual reality to give you this idea of what's going on. The game is full of a lot of puzzles and figuring out what items go where. This can be both fun and frustrating at the same time. I wasn't a fan of most of the puzzles, but the screen increases in numbers as you look for objects and figure out what needs to go where.

The first screen is a perfect way to introduce this. It's just a single screen, and you learn to click on objects that are standing out. The characters will interact with it or talk to the person. A bubble will pop up with the item the character wants, or your player character will pop a bubble up explaining in one single picture what they need to do. There is a generous hint system that shows a single picture of what to do next or helps you get started with a puzzle. I love this, and it doesn't punish the player at all; however, some of the hints were not helpful.

As you progress through the game, you get to chapters with many screens and many things to interact with. Once you find your first object, you can usually build momentum and realize who needs what and where. The puzzles are the worst part of the game. Extremely hard slider puzzles; some games are won purely on chance, which is frustrating. Sometimes rules aren't explained well enough. A particular puzzle with lasers and having to slide animals around to deflect gets very frustrating as it's a sliding puzzle. The worst one in the game is the final puzzle, in which you have to trap a jumping frog on a grid. It's done by pure chance, and no walkthrough will help you. There are also some puzzles with symbols, and it seems impossible to figure out what they represent or how to interpret them.

The puzzles aren't very common, but they do hamper some of the experience. I really loved seeing all of the detail poured into this game's animation. It feels like a high-quality cartoon. Every interaction is a new animation. One particular point where this stood out was Gal or Toto picking up the same type of object numerous times. Instead of the same pick-up animation, each one was unique. They didn't have to do that. It makes the entire game feel alive and soulful. The story itself isn't anything complex or deep, and there's no voice acting. Characters speak in a simple fashion, which adds to the charm of the game. The visuals are bright and colorful, and every screen and moment feels special. They don't make many games like this. 

Outside of the puzzle issues, there was just a small annoyance with touch controls on mobile. Tapping the screen can sometimes cause you to interact with the same object or character, but it was nothing serious. Every area felt unique and different, and I couldn't put the game down until the end. You can probably finish this in 2-3 hours, but it's so much fun and constantly feels fresh and new. Lost in Play is a rare adventure game that I actually might remember and talk about later with people. This game proves that every little detail can make a difference.

I think what kept this game from being entertaining was its bare bones story told through the action and speech bubbles. There's no written text, which can work like it has for Amanita Design. It became obvious to me that Amanita Design are masters at creating a believable, lived in world when playing this game. For Lost in Play, the world didn't feel like it existed outside of your interaction. Not a lot of exciting animation to make the 2d world feel dynamic. In Machinarium, Botanicala, and Creaks, every inch of the screen is adorned with incredible art and animation that keeps you interested. Movement is what keeps the mind engaged.

This game's strengths lie in its mini games, that are surprisingly plentiful and usually fun. I wasn't counting but there are at least 9 mini games. The standouts being the checkers puzzle, the card betting game, and the storybook puzzle. In the checkers puzzle you have to maneuver your 4 checkers to capture the ai's 1. Surprisingly difficult. In the card betting you each start with the same number of chips to bet and are trying to get 30 or more points faster than your opponents and trying not to risk too many chips since you each earn back the same amount after every round of betting ends. The storybook puzzle isn't that complicated but its presentation is beautiful and satisfying, where you flip through three periods of time of past, present, and future where a knight tries to save the king in the castle using a small assortment of items. You use the past and present to influence the future.

The point and click gameplay was nothing you haven't seen before but less interesting since most solutions were obvious. Not many item combinations either.

The best animation in Lost in Play happened in its cutscenes. Pretty impressive for such a small team. I wish this game had more of an identity since its style is heavily inspired by Gravity Falls and doesn't really create a world of its own.