when discussing sable, jacob geller proposed it as the perfect Mid-Sized Breath Of The Wild, a comfortably sprawling point between the massiveness of BOTW proper and the bite-sized single-setting take on many of its aspects in a short hike. lil gator game sits between a short hike and sable on this imaginary scale and as much as i appreciate all these games (especially sable) this may very well be my fave of them all!! its kind of incredibly how expressively each game's runtime informs its overall feel but lil gator game is the absolute perfect Exhaustingly Joyful Afternoon, it somehow doesnt feel like a micro-anything it just feels like a real time day spent in exhilarating childhood antics. even more then breath of the wild or a short hike it reminds me of other works that concern themselves with Imaginative Play: the lessons in empathy across age gaps from spike jonze's where the wild things are, the whisperingly quiet melancholy of what drives reality into fantasy from calvin and hobbes, and the quiet radicalism re: the emotional and spiritual necessity of imaginative play from bluey.

it is very humble and warm, mostly lacking the overt quirkiness that characterizes a lot of the modern flavor of Indie Game Twee (which is something im fond of, if not entirely enamored with) in favor of calmer colors, both literal and emotional. when these types of games fold into an emotional crescendo my response is usually nice enough (i am quite open to these things) but i swear this one even tho its not insistent at all just hit me with tons of Inexplicable Feelings out of nowhere.

i feel like someday i have to take a real hard crack at writing ab Imaginative Play and art about it, prob turn it into something political and spiritual. but at the heart of any such thesis no matter how many big words i lay on top will be a relatively simple texture, an almost mundane ecstasy, and this game perhaps more then any other work ive encountered is essentially nothing but that texture and that ecstasy in its most potent, concentrated form

it's a lot of work to make a game. there are lots of better things our work could be used for then the things we do now. we must re-learn how to imagine things being different

Reviewed on Mar 06, 2023


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