A Short Hike (2019)

Uma experiencia bem reflexiva e cativante. Um mapa que da vontade de explorar ate o ultimo canto.

Apresenta problemas bem chatos quanto a câmera. O jogo é MUITO curto, me pegou de surpresa quando acabei e fiquei procurando coisas para fazer. Mesmo as explorações e objetivos secundarios são muito rapidos...

No entanto, é um jogo que parece uma férias e um descanso de jogos muito abarrotados de coisa. É bem delicado e simples, me lembrao pq video games são tão mágicos.

This could've been the perfect chill game. It has fishing, exploring, flying, humor, sassy animal characters, and rewards wandering around picking things up off the ground.

But in this game that has numerous untracked sidequests, some of which are with characters who move around (I think, I can't even tell!), all you get is a compass. This game SO badly needs a map. A map, or standard mouse-controlled free-look camera controls, either one would vastly improve the experience. Instead, I found myself orbiting the island repeatedly, flying and jumping and climbing towards the camera, and trying to rediscover people I had items for. I didn't even bother with most of the achievements like I normally would, because most of them seem to involve knowing where you're going (faster than someone else does) and being able to find things again. Yes, I understand compass only is more realistic, but who cares about realism in a game like this?

That said, it is a lovely little game. The music is great, the pixelly look is chill and cute, flying and climbing are super fun, and the fishing is done really really well. If you're not fussed about completion, or you have a better in-game sense of direction than me, definitely pick this up. I played for almost four hours and "beat" it somewhere at the halfway point, and the only completion thing I got was completing the fish journal, and I was having a blast except when I got annoyed when I couldn't find something. (Shoutout to the kids playing stick ball on the beach, who I found once and then never saw again somehow.)

PROS

• Provides a charming and relaxing world to spend a couple of hours in
• Pleasant music and low-poly visual style
• Smooth and effortless controls
• Distills an impressive amount of modern action/adventure genre elements into a bite-size package

CONS

• Doesn't really stand on its own as a complete work -- this would've made a killer mini-game that served some sort of thematic purpose in a larger experience
• Player objectives lack creativity
• Fixed camera makes it difficult to orient yourself in the game world

This was a glorious breath of fresh air. I paid $25 for the itch.io Racial Justice bundle, where they raised money for the NAACP legal defense fund. This bundle included games with waived fees from many developers, clocking in at over 1,000 games total.

I had heard good things about A Short Hike, and Brandon Sheffield recommended it on the Insert Credit podcast. I was intrigued because he mentioned the game had good jumping. I had imagined it to be a simple adventure game, I did not realize that platforming mechanics were central to the gameplay.

At this point, I was intrigued by the mental image I had created of this game in my brain, so I gave it whirl. It ran well on my garbage dual-core laptop with no graphics card. I played with an 8bitdo SN30 Pro Plus and turned the pixel settings to "tiny and sharp". The menu screen features a dark background and a car. When you start the game, the dialogue informs you that you will be visiting your aunt in the country.

You wander out of the house. You are a bird. The movement is pleasing, its briskness feels calculated, in a good way. You learn you can jump and glide. The main plot develops immediately: You tell your aunt you are waiting on a call. She responds that the only way you will get reception is hiking to the highest peak on the island. Our objective is now set. Our character, Claire, seems to be stressed about something. She begins, controlled by us, to wander around the island and encounter all sorts of other animals, some bizarre, some happy, some doubtful, but all pleasant. The character is stressed but everything in the game serves to relax. In our traversal around the island, there are no real punishments for our behavior. There are some cliffs you can fall down but most likely you will find some treasure or a new animal to talk to, so the penalty feels minor.

The climbing and flight certainly compare to Breath of the Wild, but there, where these things felt dangerous and punishing, here they feel encouraging and rewarding. As you traverse the island, you collect golden feathers, which increase your climbing ability. There are little fetch quest type adventures that animals will send you on, which serve as enjoyable diversions.

While you are jaunting around the island, a calming and slightly upbeat soundtrack encourages you. At first, the music is playful and inspires exploration of the island. Closer to the peak, the music becomes a little more driving, analoging perfectly with your climb. None of it is ever intense or over-bearing. The game, music, and artstyle work well in tandem to instill a sense of calm. The only thing that exists is this day, this island. Explore at your own pace: you can race to the top of the mountain or just play around the island. If you are a collectathon type person you can scour for all the trinkets. The game caters to various playstyles and is certainly about the journey, not the destination.

The jumping and gliding are shockingly good for such a small 3d game. It feels really good and forgiving in exactly the way you need it to be. When I finally meandered my way up to the top (and meander is the right word… I never felt the need to finish the game perse…) it felt good to reflect upon the characters I had met and the exploration I had done. I completed my short hike after about two hours and had a charming time doing so.

I saw an article on this a couple weeks back and thought a Short Hike looked adorable. I’m at TCAF right now and the dev is here. I played a bit of the game and it’s definitely a must buy. It’s not out yet so I grabbed a copy of the soundtrack and an adorable pin. Looking forward to the release this summer.