I still remember my time spent with A SHORT HIKE. A beautiful game, crafted with love and attention to detail. A game that radiates soft, tender vibes, with a vibrant color palette and superb soundscapes to bring it all together. A wholesome, cozy experience through and through and a fan favorite to be sure - a beloved indie darling. You will not find, it seems, a single person who would say a bad word about this title. And it shows, with the reception it got. People crave this kind of stuff. A game that makes you feel good, through and through. A game with which you can relax, unwind, smile, and let the good feelings flow into you. It was like a comfy blanket over your soul. And since I played it I got hooked on this particular genre, chasing the dragon of yet another cozy, gentle game to soothe my days.
It wasn't exactly hard to find those! The market isn't oversaturated with such games - yet! - but it took a proper turn to make those experiences more common. After all The Wholesome Games initiative took off well, becoming a big Steam curator with their platform, active Discord... The niche was growing, robust, and active. Games like TOEM or GARDEN GALAXY sprung up, with countless other titles aiming to provide a fun experience completely devoid of violence of any kind. Soft stuff. By now you have a rich selection of titles with such vibes in many different genres, from tile layers, and city builders to adventures and visual novels.
And so it is still a very refreshing experience to find a title that can bring something new, fresh, and fun to the table! VALLEY PEAKS is special. I might be jumping to conclusions here, but it is one of the best games I played this year. A strong contender for my Game of the Year - at least in some categories. For me, it does everything very well, every aspect of it is crafted to perfection and I want you to know about it, so let's dissect this froggy adventure to see what makes it so special.
Exploration is such a tough concept to execute well. It's way too easy to bloat the world with meaningless things, to spread everything over too big a map like too little butter on too big a piece of bread. Here that's not a problem at all, because the developers decided to give us what is recently being called a Micro Open World. The idea is to give you, the player, a proper sandbox to explore without barring any corner of the map via some artificial obstacles... While still keeping it small, contained, and filled with life and activities to keep you well-engaged and reward your curiosity.
The World of VALLEY PEAKS is fun to explore because it always respects your time. No matter where you go, there's always something hiding in every nook and cranny. I was delighted, every time, to see that my curiosity brought me, always and without a fault, a tiny reward. Be it one of the more common collectibles, like the mushrooms and scrap, to the more elusive juice boxes. This happy loop only meant that I was more than happy to keep exploring! Thanks to that I found multiple side activities, quests given by the friendly frogs, or secrets hidden behind some less obvious climbing challenges. Excellent stuff.
But all that wouldn't work if the key aspect of this whole endeavor wouldn't work - Mobility. And I am happy to report that the movement systems in this game are just stellar. The climbing, first and foremost, is easy, and intuitive and yet doesn't feel trivial. Your flexible froggy arms can stretch a solid bit, you can leap from your position to reach further, can even do a bit of a double jump when a ledge is nearby. You have a lot of Stamina, but can't hold onto a spot forever, so some decisiveness in motion is appreciated. But the game designers here fully anticipated that a player would like to have more options, and we are well-fed new mobility bits through rewards for completing the peaks we need to climb. Soon you will have your slightly sticky hands on a fast Sled to enjoy breakneck speeds when going downhill. Or a Glider, that will help you reach some roofs or tall rocks. And a Slow Motion Clock that allows you to realign yourself mid-air and execute additional jumps! All that goes together into a well-oiled mobility engine - responsive, tactile, and fluid.
The above elements are enough to make a very good, highly engaging game. If all you want is a short, well-paced 'platformer' of sorts, where you're given 11 mountains to climb with progressing level of challenge... Well. This is already a perfect game for you. The Peaks in question are well designed, each worthy of exploration and with 3 routes to take to complete, scaling in difficulty. But the game has more to offer still! There are time challenges for each mountain. There are minigames! And most important of all - there are Frogs. The characters populating this valley make it feel alive, inhabited, and active. They ride around on bikes, do donuts in their tractors, and relax by the lakes and rivers. They are well written too, with fun lines to share, building on the world that already feels so charming. Did I mention you can pet the giant geese? Or duck? I think they are geese but not too sure.
There's always an overarching story and you can either pay attention to it to learn who you are and why you're doing what you're doing. That is, setting up radio stations on each peak to connect the world, a legacy task from your missing father... Well, that's spoilers territory! But yes, there is a proper story in here, a touching one, which you can follow by talking to other frogs and collecting memories along your explorations.
I would be remiss to not mention how good the game looks and sounds. The art style is excellent, I applaud the direction with my whole heart. The soft, pastel colors stretch as far as you can see. Little windlines cross the screen, grasses sway under the breeze. When you reach the highest peaks a layer of clouds covers the land and as you fall or soar through the sky on your glider, you pass through them to reveal the landscape. Birds chirp in the air. Relaxing music sways and changes depending on your location. Everything feels so alive and tranquil like you're indeed in a magical valley surrounded by nature and daring climbers. It's a great world to sink into for long hours on end.
I could wax lyrical for a few more paragraphs. Tell you about the little ornaments you can collect for your watch. About so many side quests you can discover. Or how so many in-game items are interactable to squeeze a little bit of extra joy out of every little thing. I should mention that there's a whole upgrade system for rebuilding structures scattered across the valley to boost some of your capabilities, too.
In short, though, it's a complete package. A game that should satisfy every kind of hunger. You can finish the main story in about 3 to 4 hours if all you do is hyper-focus on the mountains and conquer them. But if you want to scratch that completionist itch, VALLEY PEAKS got you covered, with many items to find and collect like full-blown collectathons of yore. I cannot recommend it enough.
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