Alekon (2021)

3.5/5 Alekon is basically an indie version of Pokemon Snap. This leads to both good and bad things about it. It takes place basically in a dream where you need to unlock creativity to unlock new areas, characters, and advance the story. There are multiple regions to explore with each having 4 "on rails" sections where you are basically on a rollercoaster ride through an environment trying to take pictures of these creatures. Once you've unlocked all 4 of the on rails sections, you are then given the option to be able to freely explore that region walking around and interacting with the creatures. After each of these runs, you are taken back to the over world or hub world area where any creatures you take pictures of can be found and interacted with, often giving you a side quest which ranges from various mini games to taking other pictures in the regions.

One of the big downsides of this game is the unfamiliarity with these characters. They mostly have names that sound kind of close to what kind of animal they may be, but you may get a quest that says "go talk to x to learn about y" where I often times would have to look up which characters x and y were.

There are a lot of sidequests here if you are aiming for 100% completion. I spent a little over 9 hours in the game and have 26/40 Steam achievements and felt I got everything out of the game I wanted. It's an enjoyable time and a cute little indie game that's worth picking up on sale if you enjoy Pokemon Snap and want some more of that relaxing game play!