A short hike is a short, cozy, 3d platformer that has all the good vibes. It's like if Super Mario 64 and Animal Crossing went on a relaxing camping trip together!
You play as Claire, a young bird who is visiting her aunt for the summer. On the island where her aunt lives, there are a ton of other campers and kids that are also enjoying the summer. You'll run and fly around (you are a bird after all), helping them with little tasks and collecting gold feathers that will help you ultimately reach the summit of the mountain on this island.
You'll accomplish these tasks by using tools you find during your adventure (shovel, fishing pole, bucket, etc...) or just by simply chatting with them.
The game promotes a non-linear, "Play-your-own-way" style of gameplay by letting you do tasks in whatever order you like. I loved that I could explore where ever I wanted, however I wanted and do whatever I felt like doing at the moment. The only gatekeeping in the game were higher cliffs and ledges that were only accessible if you had enough gold feathers to do so, as they help you fly and climb higher. There were many times though that if I couldn't get up one way, thinking I needed more feathers, I could easily go another way via a small ledge or alcove and keep climbing around.
While getting to the top of the mountain may not take you much time (I did it in about an hour and a half) there are still a lot of other little side things to do like catching all the fish in your journal, watering all the sprouts with your bucket and digging all of the secret holes on island.
While the game is entirely enjoyable, there were a couple aspects of it that I would like to change.
First off, The game goes for the old school, crunchy, pixelated look that many games are going for these days. They want it to look very "N64" right? Which is fine, I have no problem with that. However, playing this on a Series X, the default pixel setting was very harsh on the eyes. Luckily in the options there is a setting to adjust this. You can go all the way from chunky monkey pixels all the way to super smooth. This is something I think they should let you choose right from the get go before you start a game. I did see online that some people didn't know there was an option to change it and were very happy when they found out they could!
I also wish I had full control of the camera in the game. I'm sure this wasn't implemented because the developer wanted the game to be accessible to as many gamers as possible and cameras in 3d platformers have always been problematic. However, there are times where I would've loved to be able to move it a bit more to the left or right just to get a better vantage point.
And finally, I would love a different menu UI as well. When you go into your menu to swap your current equipped tool, they've implemented a long horizontal bar with tons of icons which I don't think is the most effective way to present all of your items and tools. At times, it was a little annoying to deal with. On that note, a shortcut menu to swap your tools would also be great!
All in all, I really liked A Short Hike. There are fun characters, great controls, and silly events and races. The feeling of gliding from the summit of the mountain, all the way down to the beach is pretty amazing. This is an island I will definitely vacation on again!
You play as Claire, a young bird who is visiting her aunt for the summer. On the island where her aunt lives, there are a ton of other campers and kids that are also enjoying the summer. You'll run and fly around (you are a bird after all), helping them with little tasks and collecting gold feathers that will help you ultimately reach the summit of the mountain on this island.
You'll accomplish these tasks by using tools you find during your adventure (shovel, fishing pole, bucket, etc...) or just by simply chatting with them.
The game promotes a non-linear, "Play-your-own-way" style of gameplay by letting you do tasks in whatever order you like. I loved that I could explore where ever I wanted, however I wanted and do whatever I felt like doing at the moment. The only gatekeeping in the game were higher cliffs and ledges that were only accessible if you had enough gold feathers to do so, as they help you fly and climb higher. There were many times though that if I couldn't get up one way, thinking I needed more feathers, I could easily go another way via a small ledge or alcove and keep climbing around.
While getting to the top of the mountain may not take you much time (I did it in about an hour and a half) there are still a lot of other little side things to do like catching all the fish in your journal, watering all the sprouts with your bucket and digging all of the secret holes on island.
While the game is entirely enjoyable, there were a couple aspects of it that I would like to change.
First off, The game goes for the old school, crunchy, pixelated look that many games are going for these days. They want it to look very "N64" right? Which is fine, I have no problem with that. However, playing this on a Series X, the default pixel setting was very harsh on the eyes. Luckily in the options there is a setting to adjust this. You can go all the way from chunky monkey pixels all the way to super smooth. This is something I think they should let you choose right from the get go before you start a game. I did see online that some people didn't know there was an option to change it and were very happy when they found out they could!
I also wish I had full control of the camera in the game. I'm sure this wasn't implemented because the developer wanted the game to be accessible to as many gamers as possible and cameras in 3d platformers have always been problematic. However, there are times where I would've loved to be able to move it a bit more to the left or right just to get a better vantage point.
And finally, I would love a different menu UI as well. When you go into your menu to swap your current equipped tool, they've implemented a long horizontal bar with tons of icons which I don't think is the most effective way to present all of your items and tools. At times, it was a little annoying to deal with. On that note, a shortcut menu to swap your tools would also be great!
All in all, I really liked A Short Hike. There are fun characters, great controls, and silly events and races. The feeling of gliding from the summit of the mountain, all the way down to the beach is pretty amazing. This is an island I will definitely vacation on again!