Short and sweet Moomin game focusing on everyone's favorite little fella, Snufkin. The Moomins aren't really a big thing in the Americas, in fact I was telling my coworkers about this game and part of my explanation had to also include what the Moomins even are lol, but this game does a great job of keeping the spirit of what Moominvalley entails. I know about the Moomins because a daycare center I worked at in Russia was decorated to hell and back with these funny fellas, and of course we had the DVD discs to show the kids, too. In Africa, Asia, and especially Europe, the Moomins, I would argue, are as common to see in child environments as Mickey Mouse. It was nice to see them get a video game that keeps so much in spirit with the series, while also still making an entertaining game!
The storyline focuses around following Snufkin while going through different canonical stories from the Moomins, and I was very pleasantly surprised to see they didn't try and squeaky-clean any of the morals, as a big part of Snufkin's character is going against authority, especially when it's causing harm over any good. A good portion of the gameplay in Melody of Moominvalley is about directly disobeying the police and purposefully breaking their silly laws. The villain straight-up is the police force, with no dilly-dallying around it. Your gameplay is mostly figuring out ways to destroy police property. It's fucking awesome, and I'm glad they didn't kinda half-ass it. You have some pretty good back-and-forths with Snufkin and Little My, and the friendship between Snufkin and Moomin is kept as being written as coming off a bit more like a romance as it sometimes does, but do you expect anything less from the openly-queer author?
Snufkin: Melody of Moominvalley is a gorgeous and fun time. My only complaint would be that it runs a bit poorly on the Switch, even when docked, and that it's easy to beat the entire game in less than 3 hours! But overall, the game is simple, calming, and beautiful, and what words could better describe the charm of Moominvalley.
TLDR; Be gay, do crime.
3.5/5
The storyline focuses around following Snufkin while going through different canonical stories from the Moomins, and I was very pleasantly surprised to see they didn't try and squeaky-clean any of the morals, as a big part of Snufkin's character is going against authority, especially when it's causing harm over any good. A good portion of the gameplay in Melody of Moominvalley is about directly disobeying the police and purposefully breaking their silly laws. The villain straight-up is the police force, with no dilly-dallying around it. Your gameplay is mostly figuring out ways to destroy police property. It's fucking awesome, and I'm glad they didn't kinda half-ass it. You have some pretty good back-and-forths with Snufkin and Little My, and the friendship between Snufkin and Moomin is kept as being written as coming off a bit more like a romance as it sometimes does, but do you expect anything less from the openly-queer author?
Snufkin: Melody of Moominvalley is a gorgeous and fun time. My only complaint would be that it runs a bit poorly on the Switch, even when docked, and that it's easy to beat the entire game in less than 3 hours! But overall, the game is simple, calming, and beautiful, and what words could better describe the charm of Moominvalley.
TLDR; Be gay, do crime.
3.5/5