As summer nears and games release, I thought it would be a good idea to finally play Alba: A Wildlife Adventure, both as an introduction to the approaching season and to just evade for a while playing a nice and short game. And while I expected it to be at least decent, I never could have expected it to be such a direct punch to the nostalgia.

While I didn't grow up in the same Mediterranean landscapes this game shows (this part of the country is... a bit less sunny, to say the least) I still experienced the sensations of wonder and fun while exploring the beautiful forests and seaside during what seemed like endless and perfect summers, being marveled at the mere sight of an animal, be it just a common cat or a rare bird, to even the unforgettable sight of watching a group of dolphins jumping across the sea while sitting on the sand and the sun sets. All of these feelings and sensations are the ones Alba: A Wildlife/Mediterranean Adventure strives to replicate, and in that department it absolutely shines like a summer sun.

The small location of Secarral feels so real that I'm beginning to question if it's even a fake town; the locales, woods and ruins are just so vibrant and filled with that indistinguishable personality of the Spanish coasts, as so are its people and, above all else, the fauna. While the premise itself focuses on stopping a businessman that wants to build a luxury hotel an and a mayor that is clearly part of the PP (if you know, you know), you'll spend your time on the island taking photos of the different animals as well as you help them and repair the now broken structures of the natural reserve, and you can see how the isle changes because of you for the better; it’s so cozy a blanket and a cup of hot chocolate would make it perfect, that is if it wasn’t 42 °C. There’s such a feeling of peace and pure innocence in every little detail and plotline that even saying yes or no here is fun, the smallest actions are what make the game what it is, which it is a stroll, and as such is a simple as one, for better… and worse.

Even tho my cognitive capabilities are questionable at best, if I’ve learned something through gaming this year, that would be how to do simplicity well. I’ve played a ton of very mechanically simple games, and for most of them that ended up being a huge strength, both when actively playing it, but specially narratively, and where Alba: A Wildlife Adventure trips along the route is that, while selling the idea of you being a small child exploring the world, it also undersells the potential the world itself could have had. ‘’Wildlife Walk’’ would be a better subtitle for the game, since pretty much all of your options are walking, taking photos and being able to press A at designated spots, and while you not having much interaction with the world itself isn’t that big of a deal (tho I would have preferred that the photos that you took could be actually saved or at least appear on the animal guide), the fact that the animals and inhabitants don’t really have routines, but rather just stand there or fly at their designated spots, really breaks the initial illusion of fidelity and realism the game was following. Of course I’m not saying that every single NPC, both human and animal, should have had a super complex AI with clear routines depending of the hour, absolutely not, but considering how the games takes place during a whole week, seeing everything at the exacts same places each time begins to take a toll on the feelings of wonder and uniqueness. There are still unique missions that present a specific animal or a brand-new locations that are really cool, but again, the fact everything besides what you interact with directly feels so static, combined with some strangely choppy and even glitchy animations on some birds and even humans and that, for a game that goes as far as not including fast travel for the sake of immersion (which I don’t mind at all and I’m not complaining), most of the signatures you need to get to stop the construction of the hotel just appear randomly at times instead of being added after talking to a NPC or at least them being present there, it all just screws a bit over what Secarral wanted to be, and by Friday, even if it was still entertaining, most of the child-like fun had vanished… and then Saturday happened.

The last moments of the game are a fantastic ending to the whole experience, one not without its flaws as I said, but at the end, it’s still a game that mainly wanted to be this love letter to both culture and nature, a celebration of everything that is beautiful and the efforts that should be mad to preserve it, both when there’s adversity… and when there’s peace. And in that final moments where it remind me of that, I just couldn’t stop thinking how much I enjoyed this little town and island, how funny and charismatic the characters where, and I realized that the dumb smile I had when I started lasted on my face till the very end.

Alba: A Wildlife Adventures has a younger audience in mind, and I really believe that much of the over-simplicity originates from them being a huge target, but it’s also a short, pretty time that I think almost everyone would enjoy. It’s imperfect, it’s lacking, it’s wonderful. For some I’ll hit harder, maybe even than me, but you won’t know for sure until you take a wild on the wild side… and try soME PAELLA LET’S GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-